Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1918-05-09


noiselessly into his companions
throat. But he did not seek to conceal
the body.
HE reasoned that Wingarde and
the Indian had been seen. Therefore
he left the latter lying by the stones
to be found and to show by his body's
condition that he had died of apparent
snake-bite. 1t might even be supposed
that the two men, Wingarde and his
guide, had stumbled across a venom
GUS serpent, and the Indian being bit
ten and Wingarde excited, the scien-
tist had started for help, become
turned around in the darkness through
the shock of the occurrence, and 80
ran directly off the lip of the cliff.
And his belief was plausible, /
think, or he had no reason to believe
that any ono would have reason to
suspect him. In fact, he had planned
to make it appear that he could not
possibly have had any connection with
the affair. In pursuance of that plan
he took from the Indians body the
price of his betrayal Of the professor
and left him where he lay.
But here again the fortuitous fate,
which at times seems to pursue the
guilty, played him false. He took not
all of the price of Judas, but part.
The hole in the dead mans pocket be-
trayed him.
1.-TWO of the bills slipped partly
through it, and he missed them in his
hurry and the darkness, and perhaps
in part because of the reaction from
his deed. So he took part and left the
others to point to the fact OF third
party's presence, and so induce a
search for himself
HE came back to the hotel and
was seen about it. Doubtless he con-
cealed his booty in some spot he be-
lieved perfectly safe. 1t lies there
now shut away from searching eyes.
Himself, he went down and was seen
and spoken to by others, SO that when
the discovery was made it would ap-
near that he had been about the hotel
at the time. Perhaps he even told
so of them that he had been in his
rooms during the earlier evening.
Thus he hoped to build up fictitious
alibi to account for his time.
"And he might have succeeded
had it not been for the watchful stars.
But the stars, gentlemen, said SO
plainly that foul murder had been
committed that they inspired me to
search for the one who had killed, and
his motive. Save for the stars, DR..
Osborne's diagnosis of snake-bite
would have been accepted, and the
mystery of the idol and the jewel
might never have been cleared up.
Surely there was nothing to point
| to the true solution in the surface
seeming. But my calculations showed
the murder clearly. They, may add,
| even showed an astral picture of the
one who killed; and long years of
study have taught me, my friends,
! that the stars do not lie; that if error
| creeps in, it lies in their reading, and
must be charged, not to them, but to
| human failure to see and understand" ]"
| He paused, and we all sat silent. /
| think we were each picturing for him
self the scene as Dual had described
| it. AS he spoke it had seemed not any
theoretical structure, but an actual ac-
count of the thing as it had occurred.
Dayton sat brooding over its log
| ical phases. Osborne, scientific.
| trained in deductive diagnosis, wore
slight frown as he weighed its parts
| and sought to find some vital error.
Quite slowly he shook his head.
Heffy simply sat staring at Semi
as though he had met something he
found totally beyond his comprehen-
| sion. Laredo's face seemed to wear
something like a swarthy pallor to
| me, as he perched on the edge of his
bed, his feet drawn back beneath it,
his hands thrust down into his pock-
cts, his shoulders dropped from their
square breadth, his head slightly
| bowed.
At length he shrugged slightly, rose
and walked over to window which
gave on the grounds of the hotel. He
stood there with his back to the room.
looking out at the sunshine, and the
canon off beyond, and after a bit he
spoke:
There is no saying that your pic.
ture of the thing may not be what &C.
tually occurred, senor. But you have
asked that we who listen should point
out flaw in the case you built up, ii
we saw one, perhaps. All which you
say might YER well have occur.
"lf-an' mark me well now
senores-if that one who is supposed
to have waited-an' to have bribed
the Indian to act the decoy-an' who
slew-an' took the jewel an the image
had known of these things in ad
vance. But know that Wingarde
had but come two days ago to this
hotel from his trip. / knew him In
Mexico, senOres, yet even to me he
spoke not of what he had found. The
Senior Duals ingenious description
would presuppose a previous knowl
edge on the part of the one whom he
would accuse, in my estimation. An
hi