Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-05

You mean the crow that has been
the mouthpiece of Silver Sandals for
years"
"Yes, to both questions"
Funny we didn't see any sign of 1T
when we searched the house. But
then there wasn't a thing but the
clippings and the photograph" He
broke off quickly THAT feather you
found!"
Cotton nodded. From the crow.
am playing it here againt pawn
and the queen. It should be against
the ki1g!" he decided suddenly. His
hand changed the pieces. He snap
ped on the incandescents so that the
official could see the chessboard with
it's strange men, Here is the
crime The queen is Silver Sandals.
The pawn is the waiter who guided
us. He stayed behind to find the
crow. But you frightened him away.
He is the real George Nelson, waiter,
age twenty-seven!"
How do you know that?"
Because I'm blind. I've known it
from the first. That's why l wanted
you to locate him. 1 found out that
he was a waiter a minute after he
spoke to me. 1 touched his hand as
he walked beside me to the house of
Silver Sandals. He had the walters
thumb, peculiarly developed by carry
ing heavy plates of food. But I real
lied that a man in his condition
couldn't have been the waiter who
had helped the man to the table. 1
recognized him only as a pawn. That's
why l wanted to know if the man
the police had arrested was he When
it wasn't, l thought they had just
made one of their mistakes, until the
words of the crow told me that an
other had been drilled to so often say
the same thing that the mechanical
brain of the talking bird had picked
up the words"
But why should he have pretended
to be a guide?" the district attorney
demanded. why should he be in
rags, if he was a good enough serv-
ing man to have had a position on
Bracken's yacht?"
Why is my secretary sleeping, up
stairs?" asked the blind man quietly
"Hypnotism
Yes. Superinduced by heavy
drinking. He was gotten drunk so
that his papers could be stolen. But
he was too valuable a subject to let
go. There was further use for him,
He was kept under the influence of
Silver Sandals because the waiter
would naturally be the first person
suspected by the police. And this
occupation so well known in the
neighborhood that even the boys on
the streets knew it was intended to
be the blind to throw the police off
the track - until my secretary be-
came a better one. Oh, it was care
fully planned; every step, every
move"
But I don't get it," Puzzlement
brought slang in place of the officials
usual careful diction. The whole
thing shows so many evidences of
careful and elaborate planning. vet
the results make useless mess of un-
necessary trouble"
For instance?"
The slashed wrists. Why, that
alone almost precludes the possibility
of murder, except for the marks of
violence on the body. But there are
SO many easier and quicker ways of
the same result. And
thlnk OF the evidence that must be
lett behind when the police locate
the place where the murder was done.
The blood and the marks on the body
showed that the man must have strug-
gled fearfully."
The struggling was all done before
the wrists were slashed. There is no
doubt that he was drugged first"
But. great Scott, man! If they
could drug him, why couldn't they
poison him in the first place."
And the natural next question. >"
put in the blind man seriously: "Whv
dldnt they leave him where he was
murdered, instead of actually court
ing alscoVery by bringing him to a
public restaurant?"
II don't understand any of itr" Tho
confession came almost in the tone of
a curse. The silver-steel framel
Think of the cold -bloodedness. of fix-
ing that to a dead body"
"Colton's fingers touched the dime
on his chessboard. THAT has already
taken its place" he said. MEANING. :,
ne added that l have already solved
that part of the problem. The brace
was lot put on the dead body.
But it was there"
dead" ''' DO
You mean that the murderers
forced the man who was to be killed
to adjust it himself?" The district
attorney could not keep the horror
from his voice.
without coercion. He put in on will
ingly." ' VIII
why why -" Tho in+ar
rogations came as gasps from the Of
fetal.
Certainly. Common sense and the
evidence we have tell us that. The
peath notices, the photograph, the
oottle or wine served at the table, the
papyrus notes written by himself. the
strange words of the ventriIon,Iist
woman = she was a ventrilodIIist
despite the assertions of a thousand
persons that she had been deaf and
dumb for quarter of a century. Even
the method of getting him to the din
lngroom points to but one thing"
The method of getting him to the
restaurant" That part of the blind
mans statement made the district at
torney forget everything else. That
last sentence brought back to his
mind the fact that no one seemed
able to tell how the strange couple
had gotten to the diningroom where
they had been met by the waiter. "Do
you know how they got to the dining
room?" he asked.
Through the private diningroom
that was built especially for the ac-
commodation of Philip ]. Bracken
when he is in town, and which con-
meets with his private suite by means
sHz-z.l.g