Omaha daily bee., 1919-07-19
CHAPTER XIV.
Tell-Tale Evidence.

shoes before me:-the reason for
the entrance by the window instead
of by the front door will already
have occurred to any one reading
this. Entering by the door, the man
would almost certainly have been
heard by the sharp-eyed Martin in
his pantry just across the hall; he
might have met him face to face.
Then there was the problem of
the whisky had not attached
much importance to it; whisky will
sometimes vanish in very queer
ways in a household of eight or nine
persons; but it had seemed strange
that it should go in that way on
that evening. Martin had been
plainly quite dumfounded by the
fact 1t seemed to me now that
many a man-fresh, as this man in
all likelihood was, from a bloody
business, from the unclothing Of a
corpse, and with a desperate part
still to play-would turn to that de-
canter as to a friend. No doubt h"
had drink before sending for Mar
tin; after making that trick with
ease and success, he probably drank
more
But he had known when to stop.
The worst part of the enterprise was
before him, the busness-clearly OF
| such vital importance to him, for
whatever reason-of shutting HIM
self in Manderson's room and pre-
| Nf
dence of its having been occupied
| by Manderson; and this with the
risk-very slight. as no doubt he un-
derstood, but how unnerving !-of
the woman on the other side of the
half-open door awaking and some
how discovering him. True, if he
kept out of her limited field of
vision from the bed, she could only
see him by getting up and going
to the door. l found that to
person lying in her bed, which stood
with its head to the wall little
beyond the door, nothing was Wis
ible through the doorway but one
of the cubpoards by Manderson's
| bed head. Moreover, since this man
knew the ways of the household,
he would think it most likely that
Mrs. Manderson was asleep. Another
point with him, | guessed, might
have been the estrangement' be-
tween the husband and wife, which
they had tried to cloak by keeping
up. amonr other things, their usual
practice of sleeping in connected
rooms, but which was we'll known
to all who had anything to do
with them He would hope from
this that if Mrs. Manderson heard
/ him, she would take no notice of the
supposed presence of her husband.
SO. pursuing my hypothesis, !
followed the unknown up to the bed
room, and saw him setting about his
work. And it was with a catch in
my own breath that | thought of the
hideous shock with which he must
have heard the sound of all others
he was dreading most: the drowsy
voice from the adjoining room.
| What Mrs. Henderson actually
said, she was unable to recollect at
the inquest. She thinks she asked
her supposed husband whether he
had had a good run in the car. Ard
now what does the unknown do?
Here, l think, we come to SUI
premely significant point. Not only
does he-standing rigid there, as
picture him, before the dressing
table, listening to the sound of his
| own leaping heart-not only does
he answer the lady in the voice of
Manderson; he volunteers an explain
atory statement. He tells her that
he has, on a sudden inspiration, sent
Marlowe in the car to Southampton;
that he has sent him to bring back
some. important information from
man leaving for Paris by the steam
boat that morning. Why these de-
tails from a man who had long been
uncommunicative to his wife. and
that upon a point scarcely likely to
interest her? Why these details
about Marlowe?
Having taken my story so far. |
now put forward the following def
mite propositions: that between
time somewhere about 10, when the
car started, and time somewhere
about II, Manderson was shot
probably at considerable distance
from the house, as no shot was
| heard; that the body was brought
hack, left by the shed, and stripped
of its outer clothing, while the car
was left in hiding somewhere at
hand; that at some time round about
II o'clock man who was not Man
derson, wearing Manderson's shoes,
hat and jacket, entered the library
| by the garden window; that he had
| with him Manderson's black trous-
ers, waistcoat and motor coat, the
denture taken from Manderson's
mouth, and the weapon with which
he had been murdered; that he con-
cealed these, rang the bell for the
butler, and sat down at the tele-
phone with his hat on and his back
to the door; that he was occupied
with the telephone all the time Mar
tin was in the room: that on going
up to the bedroom floor he quietly
entered Marlowe's room and placed
the revolver with which the crime
had been committed-Marlowe's re
volver-in the case on the mantel-
piece from which it had been taken,
and that he then went tc Mander-
sons room, placed Manderson's
shoes outside the door, threw Man
derson's garments on a chair, placed
the denture in the bowl by the bed
side, and selected suit of Clothes
a pair of shoes and tie from those
in the bedroom.
Here will pause in my statement
of this mans proceedings to go into
a question for which the way is now
sufficiently prepared.
Who was the false Henderson?
Reviewing what was known to me,
4 ~. ha