Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-06-07
AND HERE 1T CONTINUES
My Cousins Letter

&
my Dear Roger-As 4 promised
am sending you a chit to tell you the
result Of our inquiry into the Ramsay
mystery. OF course, you will under
stand that this is strictly for your own
eye and mustn't be talked about.
"well, I wanted to leave no stone
unturned to get at the bottom Of the
affair, so we got up a pukka detective
from London--a man named Bolton,
said to be a first class fellow at the
job. He spent a solid week in the
island and seems to have poked his nose
into pretty nearly every house and
spoken to pretty nearly every inhabitant
from the laird down. Taking tip from
your tale, he posed as cattle dealer
(which is precisely what he looks like),
/. and, of course, he never let on that he
knew of your existence-or mine, either.
1.-THE result of his inquiries is,
firstly, nothing proved against anybody
and no evidence of anything fishy going
on In the place. This last point con
firms my own experience, for, as told
you, haven't yet been able to asso-
ciate this particular island with any
of the suspicious ongoings which un-
doubtedly are happening.
'Secondly, your friend O'Brien turns
out to be gentleman with a failing
for liquor who was sent up by his rela-
tions in Ireland about six months ago
to live under Doctor Rendalls charge,
there being no pubs in Ransay-and
many in the island he came from. |
find that it is by no means unusual to
send thirsty souls to publess isles, and
beyond the fact that O'Brien came up
very convenient for this war and is
pretty free with his tongue on the sub
ject of England's sins and shortcom-
ings, there is really nothing positive
against the man. However, we are
running no risks, and as we are God
and Destiny rolled into one in these
islands, we gave Mr.. O'Brien his
,marching orders, and by this time he
has presumably either secured a drink
at last or his friends have shut him
up in some teetotal paradise little FUR
ther from the scene of war.
"Bolton's s opinion is that O'Brien was
without doubt the man who fired at
you. looking to the type of gentleman
he is, and the fact that you ran into
him Immediately afterward, and espe-
cially the fact that he actually does
possess an old rook rife. He thinks he
may have done it out of sheer Irish
deviltry, you offering so convenient a
target, just as they pot landlords in his
own happy country. A man can hardly
have drunk as heavily as he must have
done without upsetting his brain bit,
and this theory seems to me not at all
Z unlikely.
"Bolton thinks It hardly conceivable
that OBJ. can have mad any deliberate
idea of getting rid of you, since 1t Is
certain that he wasn't the man in oil
skins YOU met the night you landed
or. rather, dropped. He can't have
been because he doesn't know a word of
German. We ought to have thought
Of that clue ourselves. Bolton was on
to It at once and points out that II
nuts out of court the whole inhabitants
Of the island except Miss Kendall, who
\ has a pretty good schoolgirls knowledge
of German, and her father, who has
been abroad lot and knows bit OF the
language. And apart from all other
considerations the man in oilskins cam I
have been either of them owing to their
height. Miss r. is too short and Mr.. X
too tall.
"Assuming therefore that you
weren't a bit light headed or anything
Of that kind (Which, / am bound tc
say. Bolton thinks quite a likely ex
planation), the man you met must have
landed from a submarine and gone away
again In her. Bolton feels positive or
this point and I must say l agree with
him.
.The only remaining difficulty Is tn
attack on the shore. Here Bolton take
exactly the same line as ! did when
questioned you. He thinks that as yol
didn't actually see anybody. and a.
what you think you saw and heard ar
no vague and indefinite and so dithcul
n at into any known method of murder
one can't really draw any conclusions
and he quotes various cases he ha'
known Of people who fancied they wer'
struck or seized or fired at in the dark
4 when actually there was some other ex
planation.
.sBy the way, as to the old gentle
man with tinted spectacles who askec
Tor a match, Bolton made inquiries o
! number OF people about the old mel
3n tie island, and he even took tn
trouble to interview them all. None hav
tinted spectacles and all deny havin
npoken with you. am afraid that thi
discovery made him bit skeptical abou
earoe of the other incidents. However
IL went into the whole thing very care
fplly indeed and think we can all fee
eatisfied that with the departure of Mr.
O'Brien the possibility Of the troubl
sxithin the island has been eliminated
III course the Lord only knows VIII
4, NAV mot land in the place by night
md they may quite possibly hav
eo,,ared one or two of the natives
sbow a light, or to keep their eyes shut
o. help them in one way or another
But that's rather a different story.
II am sorry have nothing better {
lafisfy your dramatic soul, but hang II
I fellow who flies from the middle Q
ia North Sea in a, balloon and the
6rops through fog and hits an islam
few miles square, and afterward get
<istaken for spy, and shot at an
. 7nsl)x arrested, oughtn't 70 complain, !