The Washington herald., 1921-06-19
By EDEN PHILPOTTS

evidently very deeply moved by his loss.
For the rest. It became q question how TO
pursue my inquiries TO the best advantage.
The local police bad no theory and no
clue: while thosA- chiefly interested in all the
dead men were In the same predicsment
Nobody could At the facts together and make
Q rational story out Of them: indeed. the very
material seemed doubtful. for the body Of
opinion separated the death Of the young
half-caste, soliy Lawson. from that Of the
others. and held Il only coincidence mat he
had lost his life at the same time
After his recital Mr.. slannins took me for
1t the scenes Of the incidents In his story.
Mile after mile Of sugar cane extended upon
every side Of US. Great tungies Of It fringed
the road with their dropping. polished stems.
tawny tangies Of dried leaves below and
bright green crowns above
Beside little, neat house surrounded BY .
hedge Of prickly pear. a big caiabash tree
grew. and its green. polished fruit hung from
Jagged. almost Ieaness boughs.
That's where poor Diggie's widow lives
said Staining, and we are now within a
mile of the scene Of the tragedy. Now you
can see the general outline Of the Pelican
Estates, sweeping In an arc to north and
south and ranging almost to the coral cliffs
near the Crane Hotel. II you won't come to
me- you might take quarters there to be on
the scene OF your work.
But knowing not where that work would
be. determined for the present 70 remain in
a. M ,fr
clearing on the scene Of his brothers death
and visiting the stately home Of the last Of
the Barbados Slannings, i returned TO town
and presently took a couple OF rooms in a
secluded square not very far from the Club.
Ny object was to work unknown. as far as
possible, and in this ambition Amos Staining
assisted me. My business was not specified
though I soon found that most people were
aware OF IT. I wanted. Of course. to learn
much that the dead mans brother could tell
me, and since the matter stin remained a
nine days wonder. all men were glad enough
TO talk about it. and the conversation in the
Club smoking room often drifted round to IL
had been elected a temporary member OF
this institution. and spent a few days almost
entirely within its walls. found Amos Sian
ming immensely popular; indeed, even more
90 than Henry had been: for while men spoke
Of the brother with respect, and deplored his
sudden end, Il seemed that he had not
awakened enthusiasm Indeed, :he rest of
mankind saw him with different eyes from
his twin A Creole lawyer at the Club knew
both well, and gave me a friendly but indie
pendent description OF them.
Henry Staining was a man OF affairs"
he said. He had ambition. and little liked
to be contradicted. But few ever contra
dicted him. for be was q very sane man. a
sound democrat. and knew the trend OF con-
temporary thought You can form no com
plete opinion Of him through his brother.
He had none Of the sanguine spirit and nat
uraI cheerfulness that marks Amos. He was.
in fact OF a melancholy cast OF mind-even
morbid sometimes
Have you any theory OF events7" asked,
for the sake Of conversation, and the other
answered that he had none.
Had Henry been faced with any great
and crushing disappointment" he said . or
had he found himself up against some stroke
Of fate beyond the power Of his money. or
i
have destroyed himself His brother of
course. says that under no conceivable cir
cumstances would he have done such a
thing; others, however, agree with me so far.
But this is no suicide. obviously. He was de-
nberstely shot from some distance-hfteen
to twenty yards, the doctors say. Besides
no circumstances exist TO my knowledge
h.A -,
pness-
So he spoke and revealed that he was not
familiar with the fact that the dead man had
proposed marriage and been rejected. In
deed, 30 I found It invariably among the
numerous men who had something 10 say
about the matter. Nearly all could furnish
some items Of information. or some expert
enoes throwing light on character. Al
helped to complete the picture Of Henry
SlsnninG; but none. from his brother to ths
bliiard-marker at the Club. could give q
complete portrait and perceived the picture
might never be completed unless Duvesn
himself proved equal to that task.
Almost my nrst visit was to Lady War
render. and her description OF the murdered
man differed slightly from the rest She said
he was Of q religious temperament. but un-
orthodox and not devoted TO any particular
form Of faith.
Did you know that he desired to marry
Miss warrenderf
Il had no idea d IT. Sometimes ehared
him and his brother about finding wives and
not letting the famous Barbados slanuIngs
die out with them; but Henry always said
that Amos was the marrying man. May
would have kept his proposal a secret a. he