The Washington herald., 1921-06-19
The THREE DEAD MEN

was N extraordinary lASk II an evidence;
for IN such cases, nine times cut Of ten,
chance offers foothold for first step, and
this or that man or woman. from outside the
ease, win appear with some incidsnt or OBJ
ssrvation that may open the way 70 inquiry
or suggest . train Of research. But no such
thing happened for me. Not . soul bore any
testimony Of any sort Whatever. and not
soul actually came within the radius Of the
case. Here, apparently, one stood confronted
with three barsfaosd and deliberate murders,
committed in . night on small island. yet
not shadow Of any motive explained them
and not living being could fairly b pointed
At a. suspect In any degree.
I made very oopious notes and. Of course,
pursued inquiry through many minor chan
nels, which all ended in failure and contrib
utsd no light stood In the disasrssabls
position Of being unable to make case, and
after . months very hard and conscientious
work was forced to own It to myself A loss
Of self-esteem resulted. began all over
again. only to complete another circle Of fall.
ure. Nor could II be called comparative un.
success. The futIiity Of my Investigation
was complete. arrived at no theory Of any
sort or kind. and though once giimpsed
the truth darkly. As afterwards appeared, I
wandered from the right road the moment It
began to appear impossible.
Ny last week at Barbados, the last Of SIX
spent upon the subject. was devoted largely
to Amos Staining. He had been extraordi.
ma tIy IND IN
upon my spending few days at the Pelican
Estate a. his guest before I felt the West
Indies. He was frankly disappointed at my
failure, but not more than myself confessed
to being. 1t Is true that though trained to
this work by instinct and native bent with
already some fair share Of success in various
obscure cases. failed sisnally here.
1 could only admit It and hope my chief
might prove more fortunate. We talked
much Of Henry Slanning: indeed, I kept the
conversation to him as far As one decently
might and not only with his twin brother;
for now I saw the truth Of what men had
told me-that Amos entertained an opinion
OF his brothers character that differed from
the truth. He did not undervalue his recti.
tude. or the regard and respect universally
extended to the dead man: but he had never
fathomed q character very different from his
own. and probably never felt even If he had
seen. the Intellectual and inquisitive side of
Henry slannins's character.
For example. when returned to the DOS.
sibility Of suicide, a thought that haunted
me in connection with the case, though the
facts were there to prove murder. Amos
siannins assured me that nothing was more
unlikely. and even when tho revolver was
proved to have been bought in England by
bis brother, he ,stoutly protested that IL
could not have been purchased with any
thought Of such a purpose. Others, how
ever, saw no improbability in the idea of
Henry Standings suicide under certain cir.
cumstances; but. since obvious murder and
not suicide confronted US. they saw no OBJ
ject in raising the question.
I begged for a photograph Of the dead
man TO take home with the rest of my
elaborate dossier. The picture he lent me
resembled Amos closely in feature, but the
expression was dinerent-subtler and more
melancholy. Indeed, 1t was a face where
unrest had made q home and one had
Judged the man who looked so was defeated
Of his ambitions. Yet no cynicism clouded
his features and his mouth was as kindly
as his brothers and no nrmer The photo
graph had been taken before Standings
love affair
What proved more Interesting to me came
m nv
I left the island on my homeward way.
Amos, searching among his brothers things,
had found a diary. which contained nothing
that threw illumination upon the past and
apparently abstained of set purpose from
any mention of Henrys romance: but, in
addition to this he discovered a pile of
manuscript-the musings Of an Intellectual
man on a variety Of subjects. all Of direct
human interest
Study Of Henry slanning's personal H.
brary had already convinced me of his
activity in the domain Of thought, while
Lady Warrender had confirmed the fact.
His books were for the most part philosophi.
cal. and found a translation Of Gomperz
that had evidently occupied much Of his
time, and TRANSACTIONS of other German
writer's including the English version in
twenty volumes of Nietzsche; He had Gil.
bert Murrays Greek tragedians also, with
Plato and Aristotle deeply read. His inter
est evidently ran on the great pagans. As
to his own writings. they reminded one OF
the Anatomy Of Melancholy" They abound
ed in curious quotations and tended to the
morbid; but they were full of illumination
as to the character of the man revealed in
his interests
He had compiled on love, passion. ambi.
ton. patience. duty, suicide. justice free
thought, and free will as opposed to destiny.