The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-09-06

satiOnal at my first impetuous view of
it. He made a brief notation now
and thSn on a tab of paper of the dry
details gave him of the Ludington
affair. I had brought the folder with
me, the dossier in which the credit
department was supposed to store
up everything concerning a client and
keep it up to date. AS / closed 1t he
asked the question:
THAT is all you have?"
Except the newspaper clippings re-
ferring to the death of Mr.. Luding-
ton," I replied.
The newspaper story was simple
and plain. It was only because the
circumstances were out of the ordi-
nary and the decedent an apparently
successful business man, that the pub
lie prints had given any space to the
death Of the exchange trader.
1t was a chill March evening when
he had been found dead, lying against
a building. There was no evidence
whatever that he had been assailed.
The contents of his pockets were i'm
disturbed. There were no marks of
violence on his body. He carried no
life insurance, but an autopsy was
held by the coroner. The inquest
developed nothing new. According to
two expert physicians Royal Luding-
ton had died from heart failure. He
had been ailing and depressed for
some time preceding his demise.
hn eli h NJ Of
suicide.
The police, tracing the movements
of the decedent previous to his death,
testified at the inquest that Luding-
ton had been one of small party Of
friends who had met at the home of
Abel Vandamann. The latter was an
apparently reputable business man Of
the city of some wealth and social
standing. The occasion Of the social
function was the grouping up of a
number of business men to whom
Vandamann wished to present a stock
selling scheme to float copper mine
in Northern Michigan. A pleasant
evening had passed, a few cigars,
not too much wine, and the guests
had departed in pleasant humor and
seemingly all in the best Of health.
Two of the guests had walked some
distance with Ludington, and had
babe him good night about a square
and a half from the spot where his
body was later discovered.
Mrs. Ludington had testified that
she knew her husband to have had
business dealings for long time pre-
vious to his death with Mr.. Wanda
mann. The latter she understood had
loaned her husband money. This was
not a new phase of the character of
Vandamann. His business was that
of a high interest rate note shaver,
but he had been always shrewd
enough to conceal his usurious trans
actions under the guise of expenses,
commissions and the like.
This was the story told by the
newspaper clippings handed to Resi-
Illus Marvel. Pasted to it was a
briefer item dated two days later. 1t
had been preserved in the folder be-
cause it mentioned the name of Royal
Ludington. It covered a strange hap
pening. On the evening Of the funer-
al Of the dead trader, man had
been detected in leaving by the win
dow route the room Ludington for
merly occupied at his home. A watch
man had trapped him as the mid
night marauder dropped to the ground.
He was held until the police were
summoned and was sent to the near
est police station. Upon searching
him nothing whatever was found up
on him. He seemed to be some home
less tramp, he had taken nothing
from the room he had entered, and
when questioned declared with a fool
ish grin that he had been looking for
something to eat, struck a sleeping
chamber instead of pantry, and was
too honest to steal anything more
than bite of food.
The contention of the man was car
ried out in the main by circumstances.
The room he had entered had not
been at all disturbed. Upon the bu-
reau lay the traders purse with some
money and papers in it. This had
been opened, but nothing removed. A
suit of clothes in a closet had been
looked over, it seemed, but not even
the pockets had been searched.
The marauder, giving the name Of
Edward Briggs, had been brought be-
fore a police magistrate, charged with
vagrancy, and sent to the house Of
correction fer sixty dsy
noticed that my friend read and
re-read the little clipping telling all
this. l noticed him mark on the pad
the name-"Edward Briggs" I saw
also that he coSied the names Of the
two guests who had left the Wanda
mann home with the trader the night
of his death. Then he arose, and
could tell by the expression of his
eye that he was ready for work.
Further, I regarded him with the ad-
miration his ability always evoked
within me, for although 1 could not
guess how. was sure that out of
the bare skeleton fabric of an unpaid
note at bank, a weeping girl and two
newspaper clippings. Resilius Marvel
hod o1roadv 6iScovorod a diverpjno