The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-02-23

l = cried the Colonel 'FWhy on earth | should two men write a letter in such | a fashion 9"
 obviously the business was a bad
 one, and one of the men who dis
 trusted the other was determined that,
 whatever was done, each should have
 an equal hand in it. Now, of the two
 men, it is clear that the one who
 wrote the at and tto' was the ring | leader"
 How do you get at that?" | tWe might deduce itsfrom the mere | character of the one hand as com
 pared with the other. But we have | more assured reasons than that for supposing it If you examine this scrap with attention you will come | to the conclusion that the man with | the stronger hand wrote all his words first, leaving blanks for the other to i'll up. These blanks were not al- ways sufficient and you can see that the second man had a squeeze to fit his quarter in between the at and the to-, showing that the latter were already written The man who wrote
 man who planned the affair.
 'ExcellentI'' cried EMr Acton
 But very superficial said Holmes.
 'We come now, however, to a point which is of importance You may not be aware that the deductions of mans age from his writing is one which has. been brought to consider able accuracy by experts. In normal cases one can place man in his true decade with tolerable confidence. say normal cases, because ill-health and physical weakness reproduce the signs of old age, even when the invalid IS a youth. In this case, look ing at the bold, strong hand of the one and the rather broken-backed retains it's 1egibiHty although the t's
 have begun to lose their crossing, we can say that the one was a young
 man and the other was advanced in hniT
 pitt
 Excellent" cried MT. Acton again.
 There is further point, however Whlcn IS subtler and of greater in terest. There is something in com mon between these hands. They be- long to men who are blood-rela tives IL may be most obvious to you in the creek es, but to me there are many small points which indicate the same IhinS- have no doubt at all that ia1nliy nannerism can be traced in these two specimens of writing. I am only, of course, giving you tbel leading results now of my exanoina uon Of the paper. There were twen-| ly-thTee other deductions which Modld De or more interest to experts than to you They all tend to deen- en the impression upon my mind that the Cuanlnghams, father and son had written this letter,
 HaVlfg got so far, my next steD vas, of course, to examine into fhe details of the crime, and to seq how Tar they would help us. went mn, +o ,.I ..e house with the Inspector, and saw upon the dead man was as r was ahis, 70 determine with absolute Confidence @ - GU rom a revolver at a distance of som soInetnlns over four yards There ] ciothes. Evidently therefore. Alec v had lied when he said lndL the two men were strleeIiDo Mhen ealaIsn the shot was fired. Again, both nc fI where the man escaped into the road AE that point. however, as it happers there is a broadiSh ditch. moist at the of tlt AS there were no indications | apSoiutely sure not only that the Cum 4ItS tnShdInS mad again died, but that | mere had never been any unknown | man upon the scene at an
 And now have to consider tba Inotlve of this singular crime To get | sso so1,ta unlf $, ,1 endeavored first of all to glsry at MT. Acton's. I1nfIers+ooa rom something which the Colonel told us, that lawsuit had been. going | on, OF hetween you. MT. Acton. and, the | occurred to me that they had broken into your library with the, intention of | getung at some document which might De or importance in the case"
 Precisely so," said Mr Ac+o, mere can be no possible doubt as to IT tIeT intentions. I have the clearest eIalm upcn half of their present es- tate and if they could have found a slngIe paper-of which Fortunately was in the strong-box of my solicitors they wou4d undoubtedly have crip-
 There VOL al,e '' said IIo1,oae ,,,oi, ing Tt was dangerous, reckless at tempt in which I seem to trace the influence Of young Alec Having found ! no Ilolnlng: they tried to divert suspicion oE making 1t appear to be an ordinary burglary, to which end they carried off whatever they could lay their hanCS upon That was all clear enough put there was much that was still ob- Scure. What wanted above all was Sc get the missing part of that note. was certain that Alec had torn it out of the dead mans hand and a1 most certain that he must have thrust it into the pocke of his dress inS-goWn- Where else could he have put IL? The only question was whether II was still there. It was worth an ef- fort to find out, and for that object we all went up to the house.
 The Cunninghams joined us. as you doubtiess remember. outside the k1rchen door. It was, of course, of the very first importance that they | should not be reminded of the exist ence of his paper, otherwise they would naturally destroy it without de- lay, The Inspector was about to tell | them the importance which We at tached to it when, by the 1uckiest | chance in the world. tunlbled down i conyersation.''
 Good heavens,'' cried the Colonel, laughing, do you mean to say all our sympathy was wasted and your fit an impoSture
 Speaking professionally, it was admirably done," cried I, looking in amazement at this man who was for ever confounding me with some new phase of his astuteness.
 It is an art which is often useful ,, said he When I recovered I. man aged, by a device which had perhaps some little merit of ingenuity, to get old Cunningham to write the word twelve,' So that might compare it with the Twelve upon the paper"
 "Oh, what an ass I have been," I exclaimed.
 'I could see that you were com mlseraung me over my weakness" said Holmes, laughing tI was sorry