The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-08-24

terribly Ill and like man OVerwelghted
by fate and circumstances.
But he did protest his innocence,
loudly and emphatically.
g | am the victim of the most dam
nable circumstances, Mr.. Mulligan"
he said; "but | swear to you that |
am incapable of such horrible deed"
6 always take it for granted, Mr..
Kelly" said Skin O. My Tooth blandly,
"that my client is innocent. If the
reverse is the case, prefer not to know
IT. But you have to appear before
the magistrate on Monday. | must
get a certain amount of evidence on
your behalf in order to obtain the
remand l want. So will you try and
tell me, as concisely and as clearly as
possible, what passed between you and
Mr.. Whadcoat the day before the
murder? | understand that there was
quarrel"
cold Whadcoat saw fit to accuse me
of certain defalcations in the firms
banking account, OF which | was totally
innocent" began Mr.. Edward Kelly
quietly, And as you know. my brother
and | are agents in England for M.
de kerhoets champagne. Whadcoat
was our cashier and bookkecper Twice
year we pay over into M. de Kerhoet's
bank In Paris the money derived from
the sale OF his wines, after deducting
our commission. In the meanwhile, we
have-jointly-the full control of the
money; that is to say, all checks paid
to the firm have to be endorsed by us
both, and checks drawn on the firm
must bear both our signatures.
1T was Just month before the
half-yearly settlement of accounts.
Whadcoat, it appears, went down to
the bank, got the passbook and can
celed checks, and discovered that some
$4,000, the whole of the credit balance
due next month to M. de Kerhoet, had
been drawn out of the bank, the
amounts not having been debited in
the books.
TO my intense amazement he
showed me these checks, and then and
there accused me of having forged my
brothers name and appropriated the
firms money to my own use. You
see, he knew OF certain unavowed
eXtravaganCes of mine which had often
landed me in financial difficulties more
or less serious, and which are the real
cause of my being forced to live in
Wood Cottage while my brother can
keep up fine establishment at Saltashe
a. n Due 'llc dCCushtlOu WAS pre-
posterous, and l was furious with
him. l looked at the checks. NV
signature certainly was perfectly imi-
tated, that of my brother perhaps a
little less so. They were bearer
checks, made out in a replica of old
Whadcoat's handwriting to II. de
Kerhoet,' and endorsed at the back
in a small, pointed, foreign hand.
"Old Whadcoat persisted in his
accusations, and very high words en-
sued between us. believe did
threaten to knock him down if he did
not shut up. Anyway, he told me
that he would go over the next after
noon to Saltashe Park to expose me
before my brother and NJ de Kerhoet,
who was staying there on a visit to
England for the shooting.
81 left him then, meaning to 20
myself that same evening to Saltashe
Park and see my brother about it;
but on my journey home certain curious
suspicious with regard to old Whadcoat
himself crept up in my mind, and then
and there | determined to try and see
him again and to talk the matter over
more dispassionately with him, in
what | thought would be in his own
interests. My intention was to make,
of course, my brother acquainted with
the whole matter at once, but to leave
NJ de Kerhoet out of the question
for the present; so wired to Whadcoat
in the morning tn mako tho ossiuna