The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-02-19
CHAPTER III.
Flat Up AGAINST IL.

A day later Mr.. Snyder sat in his
office reading a typewriter manu-
script. It appeared to be of a humorous
nature, for as he read chuckles es-
capped him. Finishing the last sheet,
he threw back his head and laughed
heartily.
The manuscript had not been intend
ed by it's author for a humorous effort.
What Mr.. Snyder had been reading
was the first of Elliott Cakes reports
from the Excelsior. 1t was as follows:
Il am sorry to be unable to report
any real progress. / have formed sew
eral theories, which l will put forward
later, but up to the present l cannot
say that 1 am hopeful.
Directly I arrived here I sought out
Mrs. Pickett, explained who | was, and
requested her to furnish me with any
further information which might be
of service to me.
"She is a strange, silent woman, who
impressed me as having very little
intelligence. Your suggestion that l
should avail myself of her assistance
in %unraveling this mystery seems more
curious than ever now that l have
seen her.
"She is a Woodworking woman, who
certainly conducts this boarding house
with remarkable efficiency, but l
should not credit her with brains. She
never speaks except when spoken to,
and ever then is curt to the point of
unintelligibility.
However, I managed to extract
from her a good deal of information,
which may or may not prove useful.
1.-THE whole affair seems to me at
the moment of writing quite inexpli-
cable. Assuming that this Captain Gun
ner was murdered, there appears to
have been no motive for the crime
whatsoever.
Il have made careful inquiries
about him, and find that he was a man
Of ffty-fve; had spent nearly forty
years of his life at sea, the last dozen
in command of his own ship; was of
somewhat o%verbearing and tyrannous
disposition, though with a fund of
rough humor; had travelled all over
the world: and had been an inmate of
the Excelsior for about ten months.
HE had a small annuity, and no
other money at all, which dispOses of
none as the motive of the crime.
I'm my character of James Burton,
a retired ships chandler, l have mixed
with the other ~boarders, and have
heard all they have to say about the
affair.
II gather that the deceased was by
no meal popular. He appears to have
had a bitter tongue, and was not spar
ing in its use, and l have not met one
man who seems to regret his death.
"On the other hand, I have heard
nothing which would suggest that he
had any active and violent enemy. He
vas simply the unpopular boarder-
there is always n in every boarding
house-but nothing more.
"I have seen a good deal of the man
who shared his room. He, too, is a
sea-captain, by name Muller. He is a
big, silent German, and it is not easy
to get him TO talk on any subject.
"As regards the death of Captain
Gunner, he can tell me nothing. 1t
seems that on the night of the tragedy
he was away at Brooklyn with some
friends. All l have got from him is
some information as to Captain Gun
ner's habits, which leads nowhere. The
dead man seldom drank except at
night, when ne would take some whis- I
ky. His head was not strong, and a j
of the spirit was enough to make I
him semi-intoxicated, when he would
be hilarious and often insulting. {
81 gather that Muller found him a {
difficult roommate, but he is one of
those placid Germans who can put up
with anything. He and Gunner were s
in the habit of playing checkers to- I
every night in their room, and {
Gunner had a harmonica which he
frequently. 1
apparently, he was playing it very
o before he died, which is signif- i
cant, as seeming to dispose of the idea /
of suicide. I
But if Captain Gunner did not kill l
uiLuSeil. Il CduuOl DIT pIeSeut lDldSiHS L
who did kill him, or why he was killed,
OF how. 8
"As I say, / have one or two theo- [
but they are in a very nebulous [
The most plausible is that on f
of his visits to India-I have as '
,ertained that he made several voy-
lges there-Captain Gunner may in S
;ome way have fallen foul of the ua-
ives. l
"Kipling's story The Mark of the I
Beast is suggestive. Is it not possible
hat Captain Gunner, a rough, over /