The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1916-09-15

any one Of whom might be criminal.
To my apartments there were front
and a rear entrance from the stair
well. On these doors were heavy
bolts. as well as double locks. The
locks were all fastened with the keys
inside In the morning. and neither Of
the bolts was open. This took care Of
the doors.
There were three front and two rear
windows. As the house was without
fire escapes the only possible access
to these must have been from the roof
by way Of a rope let down.
But at that time Of year all Of these
windows were closed and fastened.
Three windows opened on the V
shaped court.
One Of these I had had cut when
got the bathroom arranged In what
had been a dark clothes closet. It
was too small for any human being to
crawl through. Moreover. fly screen
had been tackled In the window frame
itself and left there.
AS for the window opening into the
negroes room, no amount Of coaxing
rould persuade them to open 1t In win
ter.
This narrowed things down to my
own window, the only one In the fiat
open during the night. Aside from
the difficulty of getting to 1t from the
roof above, there was the fact that no
one could possibly have got through
the open upper half without stepping
or falling on my bed.
1t seemed that no person could have
got in or out of the apartment.
We gave 1t up.
On March my other collie was MISS
ing.
The negroes insisted that they had
not let him out l myself recalled
having seen him when l had gone to
before retiring had oversight and
was compelled to hurry to the office.
1t was not until night that learned
the fate Of my second dog. He had
been found dead at the bottom of the
V shaped court, directly under my
open window. The mark Of a cord I
found about his neck.
Two months passed by with no IN
usual occurrence. Then Aunt Dinah's
parrot was found drowned In one of
the kitchen tubs. 1t had been done on
the 9TH day Of May.
I had been working fearfully hard
during the winter and spring.
l decided to take long vacation.
went abroad. | was given the three
summer months.
Through the chance of missing my
steamer, did not get home till the Sd
Of September. soon had my hands
and my mind full of work.
Hardly had l been week In the
office when we were brought to deal
with a mystery that has never been
cleared up. An old man. generally re-
puted to be miser, living alone with
his wife in a house on the outskirts.
was found choked to death in his bed.
Suspicion would have fallen on the
old woman herself had not one Of the
windows been jimmied.
Night and day the best men in my
department worked on this case for
weeks. I myself have never worked
harder. There were several nights
when I broke oil my rules for early
sleep-some when I got 40 sleep at all.
Such was the case on the night Of
the 9th of September. when we had
thought we held a clew, which proved
to lead nowhere the very next day.
Tired out, went to bed the following
night Immediately after my dinner.
The next morning awoke from a
dream that some one was being MUIR
dered.
Though 1t was later than l usually
rose, seemed dead asleep, and it took
me a moment or two to locate the
screams and recognize the voice that
was uttering them. rushed to the
room Of the old negroes.
Old Aunt Dinah was sitting up in the
bed. rocking herself to and fro in an
ecstasy Of grief and terror.
The old negro was dead on the pill
low beside her.
A quick examination showed that he
had been throttled by some person with
strong fingers 1t was the only clew
we were ever to get to the murder.
There could be but two more horrors,
so far rs our household was concerned.
II the person or persons who were
committing these acts killed off old
Dinah and myself there would be no
one alive in the apartment
One more crime was, however, to fin
ish the dark list. 1t came month
after the old mans death.
My old nanny was killed-stabbed
through the heart-on the 2Sth day Of
October.
The dagger with which the stabbing
had been done In old Dinah's case gave
no clew. 1t had lain. with several 9TH
er rather grewsome curios, on the man.
tel Of my front room after serving as
evidence in the conviction Of q bad
Sicilian.
The murderer Of my aged servant
bad picked 1t up and used It,
The month after the death Of the old
man I got only half my accustomed
sleep had not been to bed on sched-
ule time I'm four weeks-until the very
night which proved fatal to the ne