The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-01-29

WI . W inns 1890
at the trial. This established a strong
motive for the murder having been
committed by Ellis.
Secondly, the bullet fred from the
fixed rifle by the foreman of the jury
was of plain lead, tipped with nickel.
The bullet that had killed Colonel
Garrett, while of the same caliber'
had a slightly thinner coating. This
fact, while not necessarily suspicious,
induced me to call in a friend, an ex-
pert in mechanics.
What would be the effect on the
flight of a thinner bullet?" l asked.
1T would not carry quite SO far, on
account of the smaller initial
tum," he answered.
Then / said, after explaining the
situation, IF the bullet fired by the
foreman fell at a certain fixed point,
a slightly lighter bullet"
Would have to be fred a little
nearer to fall at the same point" he
replied.
But that proves nothing" l said in
despair.
He smiled. Everything is capable
of proof he answered. Have you
the experts opinions given at the
trials?"
Well, we sent for the records. !
shall never forget how, with only a
week of life for Thornton, with the
girls pleading face ever before me.
and her confidence that almost I'M
nerved me, we debated the pros and
cons of ballistics.
In all that mass of detail 1t was
hard to set a finger upon the salient
point. 1t was not until the third day
that the expert hit on a fact which
was to change the entire situation.
The court experts, men hired by the
state, had traced the course of the
bullet with exactitude, from the mo
ment it left the rife until it hit Gar
rett. The rife had been, as l. said,
fixed; consequently it had been i'm
possible to sight it. 1t was fired at
point-blank range, but the rifle was
fixed at an upward slant Of nine de-
grees, which was the equivalent OF
500 yards sighting. The bullet had,
then, travelled at an upward slant OF
nine degrees until it reached the exact
center of the distance; then it had
described a fall of nine degrees as it
went on it's course, until it pierced
Garrett through the throat.
Replying to a question, the leading
expert had compared the flight of the
bullet to the rebound of a billiard ball
from the cushion.
THE angle of incidence is equal to
the angle of rebound" he had ex-
planned. THE angle at which a bull
let fired. or a stone thrown, rises. is
that at which it falls"
Hes wrong!" shouted my friend
excitedly. I'VE have him, Heard!
That law has been shown to be in
: correct"
y How"
: Because the billiard ball u n on g
level surface with an equal gravity
attraction everywhere. The falling
bullet, with a lessening momentum, Is
more strongly attracted by the eartf
than the rising bullet. Waltz"
: He covered a whole sheet with fig
ures. "A bullet rising at al angle o
nine degrees" he announced, will
fall at an angle or thirteen.
More steeply?"
"Perceptibly."
Then it was fired from a closel
range!"
He covered the back of the shee
It with further figuring. AT seven hun
o dred and tw%enty-seven yards" he an
d swered.
n We traced the yards out from the Il
r, Srary window. l remember the curl
Is Gus group of onlookers, and Eli
d among them, coldly skeptical. TIL
n. bee line took US past the edge of tn
1. wall of the buffers cabin and W
1t halted in an open space between tn,
% house and the trees.
n The bullet was fired from here,
announced the expert.
1t And the trail had led us nowhere
81 Nothing had been proved, nothing dis
10 proved. We stared at each other Il
r. bitter humiliation.
Ie Suddenly a light came to me. "Yo'
d haven't allowed for the different bn
lett" l shouted.
lie Whose make? How many grains?
lie He pulled a paper book from his pocl
Of ct and in a moment we were both ca
u culating.
lg Seven hundred and two yards, les
five inches" he said.
20 How we measured back those fey
le PAGES! / recollect the change in e
Of lis looks, the sneers. We halted q
lie the extreme angle of the rebuilt cabir
lie My friend measured the inches up tn
le wall. We saw a round hole in the mid
die of a brick outside the butler
r spare room,
ly saw Ellis Tomlinson hurry int
* the house, and, hardly yet understand
u ing what had occurred, l rushed afte
i'd him. He slammed the door and trie
r. to bolt it, but forced 1t open. l wa
ID Just too late. l heard a shot and
is fall: l saw the huddled body of tn
murderer half in. half out of the GA
to closet, and, behind it. the rifle on
lie tripod, with the muzzle pointin
le through the hole in the brick.
Ellis had planned too well. TIL
III scheme, to which the negro confessed
I'd had been almost perfect. but it ha
In not reckoned with q woman's faith.