Evening star., 1921-08-21

farm laborer had saved her. and the
curate had disappeared through the
copse.
This story was borne out by Joseph
Higgins. the farm laborer in question
He had arrived to find Miss Crayne
in state Of great alarm and agita-
ton. and he had walked with her as
far as the vicarage gate. He did not
however, actually see the curate.
On the strength of this statement
the police had applied for a warrant
and had subsequently arrested the
curate. Later he appeared before the
magistrates. had been remanded. and
finally committed for trial. bail being
allowed.
Blade protested his innocence alike
of the assault and the writing of the
letters; but two handwriting experts
had testified to the similarity Of the
with that of the curate. Furthermore,
they were all written upon "Olympic
Script" the paper that Blade used for
his sermons.
Malcolm Sage had just started a
new deal when the door opened and
Rogers showed in Robert Freynes.
ITS looking pretty ugly for
Blade" remarked Freynes. recogniz-
ing by the substitution of the briar
for the meerschaum that Malcolm
Sage was ready for conversation.
Tell me-"
IT'S those damned handwriting ex-
perts," growled Freynes. They're
the greatest anomaly Of our legal
system. The judge always warns the
jury of the danger of accepting their
evidence; yet each side continues to
produce them. It's an insult to in
telligence and justice"
ITO hang a man because his s. re-
sembles that of an duplicating docu-
ment," remarked Malcolm Sage. as he
placed red queen on black knave.
sis about as sensible as to imprison
him because he has the same accent
as footpad.''
'"Then there's Blades astonishing
apathy" continued Freynes. He
seems quite Indifferent to the gravity
of his, position. Refuses to say a
word. Any one might think he knew
the real culprit and was trying to
shield him." and he sucked moodily
at his pipe.
''The handwriting expert" continued
Malcolm Sage, imperturbably, "is too
concerned with the crossing of a st. the
dotting Of an t. or the tail of a g. to
give time and thought to the way in
which the writer uses. for instance. the
compound lenses Of verbs. Blade was
no more capable of writing those let
ters than our friend Murdy is Of trans
literating the Rosetta Stone.'
Freynes. gloomily. as with the blade of
a penknife he loosened the tobacco in
the bowl of his pipe. Can we prove
it?" he repeated and, swapping the knife
to. he replaced 1t in his pocket.
X *'* X
upLADEs sermons" Malcolm Sage
continued, land such letters of his
as you have been able to collect. show
that he adopted a very definite and pre-
else system Of punctuation. He fire.
quently uses the colon and the semi
colon. and always in the right place. In
a parenthetical clause preceded by the
conjunction and he uses a comma
after the and not before it. as most
and but he without exception uses a
semicolon. The word only he always
puts in its correct place. In short. he
is so academic as to savor somewhat of
the pomposity of the eighteenth century.
must be admitted that the handwriting
is very similar; but there all likeliness
to Blades sermons and correspondence
ends. Murdy has shown me. nearly all
the anonymous letters. and in the whole
series there is not one instance of the
colon or the semicolon being used. The
is of the vaguest, consist
ing largely of the dash, which, after all,
ia literary evasion.
I'm these letters the word but fire.
quently appears without any punc-
tuation mark before It.. At other times
it has a comma, a dash, or full stop
''Such phrases as II only you Knew,
7 should have loved to have been. diff
ferent than.' which appear in these let
ters. would have been absolutely i'm
possible. to man of Blades meticulous
literary temperament. The most Curl
Gus factor in the whole case is the way
in which the letters were delivered. One
was thrown into fly on to Miss
Crayne's lap. she tells US. when she and
her. father were driving home after din
ner at the Hall. Another was discovered
in the vicarage garden. A third was
through Miss Crayne,s bedroom
A few Of the earlier group
were posted in the neighboring town Of
some on days that Blade
was certainly not there"
That was going to be one; of my
strongest points," remarked Freynes.
.The letters always imply that
there Is some obstacle existing be-
tween the writer and the girl he de-
aireR. What possible object could