New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-05-17

With a Shrek Of Fear and Surprise
She Started Back.
it most concerned) guessed that a
provincial burglary sensation de-
scribcd in a newspaper paragraph had
any bearing upon the Mendcll trial.
Neither did anyone guess that it had
any interest for the great X. &.
whose name, ut the time when the
paragraph appeared, was in every.
body's mouth.
Yesterday the Mendell murder cas-,
had come to an end. but in Il sensa-
tional and utterly u~nlooked-for way.
Sir Gordon had obtained permission
to recall two witnesses-Miss Men
dell and her secretary. Miss Men
dell, the half. sister of the murdered
man, had been the principal witpess
against Lady Mendell. She had lived
in her h~alf-brother's house before his
marriage, and continued to do so af-
forwards; and though the whole of
his fortune would come to her in case
of Lady Mendells decease, people had
said that she was already rich enough
not to need it. AS for Miss Mendell's
secretary, he was az interesting
enough figure-a young man who had
started life brilliantly as Il clever
chemist. Failing health had reduced
him to extreme poverty. Miss Men
dell had befriended him; had taken
him as her chief assistant in philan-
thropic and other work. He owed
everything to her, and it was not sur
prising that such evidence as he had
given had been in praise Of his bene-
factress, in dispraise of young Lady
Mendell.
Nobody had expected b surprise
from that quarter; but 9 few ques.
tons from Sir Gordon Race. put to
Miss Mendell and her secretary, had
altered the whole aspect Uf the case.
All had seemed bewildering at first.
| What did it matter if young Hartley
Norman, the secretary, had looked up
for his employer some old cases where
Sir Gordon had been counsel for the
defense? What if there had been a
Miss POinsett concerned in one of
those cases? What if Norman, in his
days as a chemist, had been known
for his experiments in the invention
of explosives? What had that to do
with the Mendell poisoning affair;
and what if, among other valuable
antiques, the murdered a had had
in his collection an ancient Nureln-
berg watch? What if he had given it
to his sister, or what if she had
chosen to take it as a souvenir?
Soon, however. such questionings
had ceased among the audience. Or.
der had come out of chaos, and
though denying everything. Miss Men.
dell and Norman had been thrown
into such pale and trembling cOnfu'
sion by the weapon of unexpected
crOss-questionings that 1t was as If
they became their own and each 9th.
er's accusers.
Miss Mendell had sought to destroy
her sister-in-law's defender, lest the
woman she hated should be saved,
and the fortune she desired lost. The
secretary had helped her, not know.
ing her true design, but finding it out,
had weakened. The one mistake In
her calculations had been in trusting
him too fully. Terrible admissions were
made bearing upon the past as well as
the present. On the incident of the MUIR
emberg watch Sir Gordon Race, with
almost diabolic ingenuity, made the
poisoning case turn, and turn against
Miss Mendell. After the crOss-ques-
tioning Of the pair by Lady Mendell's
counsel, no jury on earth would have
convicted the younger woman, unless
the elder had first been made to stand
her trial for her brothers murder,
and been proved innocent.
Only one man in England could
have accomplished this change, the
world was saying, and perhaps a GER
tain American millionaire decided
that such a sOn-in-law might be al
most as acceptable as a duke. AT all
events, the engagement of Sir Gordon
Race to Miss Nora COllingwOOd, of
New York. was announced before the
trial of Miss Mendell for the crime
which had so nearly engulfed the in
nOcent. But Christopher Race vas
the first man allowed to offer his
congratulations; and his idea for a
wedding present caused him to search
the curiosity shops for a Nuremberg
watch of the early sixteenth century.
(END OF SECOND EPISODE).