Omaha daily bee., 1919-07-05
CHAPTER XIII.
Poking About.

Poking About.
There are moments in life as one
might think, when that which is
within US, busy about its secret at
fairs, let's escape into consciousness
some hint, OF fortunate thing or
dained. Who does not know what
1t is to feel at times a wave of un-
accountable persuasion that it is
about to 60 we'll with him?-not
the feverish confidence of men i'll
danger of a blow from fate, not the
persistent illusion of the optimist
but~a unsought conviction, spring
ing I'D like bird from the heather,
filat success is at hand in some
great or little thing The general
suddenly knows at dawn that the
day will bring him victory; the man
on the green suddenly knows that
he will put down the long putt. As
Trent mounted the stairway outside
the library door he seemed to rise
into certainty Of achievement.
A host of guesses and infer
ences swarmed apparently unsorted
through his mind; a few secret OBJ
servations that he had made, and
which he felt must have significance,
still stood unrelated to any plausible
theory OF the crime; yet as he went
lid he seemed to know indubltably
that light was going to appear.
The bedrooms lay on either side
OF broad carpeted passage, lighted
by a tall end-window. 1t went the
length of the house until it ran at
right angles into narrower pas
sage, out of which the servants
rooms opened. Martins room was
the exceptions: it opened out of a
small landing halfway to the upper
floor. As Trent passed it, he
glanced within. A little square room
clean and commonplace. In going
up the rest of the stairway he
stepped with elaborate precaution
against noise, hugging the wall
closely and placing each foot with
care; but 4 series of very audible
creaks marked his passage.
He knew that Manderson's room
was the first on the right hand when
the bedroom floor was reached, and
he went toit at once. He tried the
latch and dock, which worked nor
mally, and examined the wards OF
the key. Then, he turned to the
room.
1t was a small apartment, strang-
ly bare. The plutocrats toilet ap-
pointments were of the simplest. All
remained just as it had been on the
morning Of the ghastly discovery in
the grounds. The sheets and blank
ats of the unmade bed lay tumbled
ever a narrow wooden bedstead, and
tie sun shone brightly through the
window upon them. 1t cleaned, too,
upon the gold parts of the delicate
work of dentistry that lay in water
q, a shallow bowl of glass placed
on a small, plain table by the bed
side. On this also stood wrought
iron candlestick. Some clothing lay
untidily over one of thef two rush
bottomed chairs. Various objects on
the top of a chest of drawers, which
had been used as a dressing table,
lay in such disorder as hurried
man might make--toilet articles, a
book of flies, an empty pocketbook
with burst strap, pocket compass
and other trifles. Trent looked
them over with a questioning eye.
He noted also that the occupant of
the room had neither washed nor
shaved. With his finger he turned
over the dental plate in the bowl,
and frowned again at its incompre-
hensible presence.
The emptiness and disarray of
the little room, flooded by the sun
beams, were producing in Trent a
sense of gruesomness. His fancy
called up a picture of haggard
man dressing himself in careful 81
lence by the first light of dawn,
glancing constantly at the inner
door behind which his wife slept, his
eyes full of some terror.
Trent shivered, and to fix his
-nind again on actualities opened
two tall cupboards in the wall on
either side of the bed. They con-
tanned clothing, a large choice of
which had evidently been one Of
the very few conditions of comfort
for the men who had slept there.
In the matter of shoes, also, Man
derson had allowed himself the ad-
vantage of wealth. An extra ordi-
nary number of these, treed and
carefully kept, was ranged on two
long low shelves against the wall.
Trent, himself an amateur of good
shoe leather, now turned to them,
and glanced over the collection
with>an appreciative eye. It was to
be seen that Manderson had been
inclined to pride himself on a rather
small and we'll formed foot. The
shoes were of a distinctive shape,
narrow and round-toed, beautifully
made; all were evidently from the
same last.
Suddenly his eyes narrowed
themselves over a pair of patent
leather shoes on the upper shelf.
These were the shoes of which
. the inspector had already described
the position to him; the shoes worn
by Manderson the night before his
death. They were a wel1-worn pair,
he saw at once; he saw, too, that
they had been very recently polished.
Something about the uppers of these
lhoes had seized his attention. He
bcnt lower and frowned over them,
comparing what he saw with the ap-
searance Of the neighboring shoes.
Then he took them up and examined
ihe line Of juncture of the uppers
With the soles.
As he did this, Trent began un-
consciously to whistle family, and
With great precision, an air which
Inspector Murch, if he had been
resent, would have recognized
Most men who have the habit Of