Evening star., 1921-03-06

his "IlStS, ana,
he sought again the now searching
eyes of the prisoner.
Are <all your teeth intact. Mr..
Swett?" persisted the lawyer. cold and
incisive. He held up to view the OBJ
ject in his hand; it was the rubber
impression Of the upper jaw of the
murdered man. one incontrovertible
link in the chain of circumstantial
evidence that the law had been forg-
ing about Dean Pettibone these last
three days.
Il ask particularly" continued Bal
lard. now suddenly stentorian. about
the first bscuspid. of the right upper
he urged. advancing on the witness,
who seemed to hvae become stone.
Ballard opened his own mouth and
indicated with a finger the tooth.
The answer was unexpected ac-
ton, almost too swift for the staring
eyes TO register. With single bound,
SWEET was out of his seat: he cleared
the steps in stride and bowled over
the obstructing figure of his tornen-
tor. With almost the same gesture
he seized a chair, and raising il above
his head. charged on Dean Pettibone.
crying shrilly:
You die, You die now. / take you
with me-"
1t was Admission. unused to pro-
tectlve reflexes. as he was. who fell
on the advancing mailman as he tow
cred over the little dean and the
pair went to the floor with a crash.
The next instant the court officers
mad pinioned the struggling SWEET.
Your honor. and gentlemen OF the
jury. rang out the triumphant voice
OF Ballard. over the din of pounding
gavel and the shouts of the officers
restoring order, behold the corpus
delicti. Behold the murdered man. in
person"
"CACER was phantom" said Arm
iston. molding a cigarette with
finished care. He was tasting tribute.
This was the first time Willingly the
author had ever set the stage OF his
typewriter with real characters and
watched them walk through their
parts. Luckily we were able to pro-
vide the corpus deficit with an alibi
Else. added the beaming author,
turning to the little dean. who sat
balanced on the end of a sofa, "our
conscientious friend here might have
added another notch to his gun,
Dean"
Parr took this sally woodenly.
'Ninety-nine per cent OF my work
is common sense" said he. II leave
the ouija board l per cent to the fic-
ton writer's
SWEET set up the fictitious identity
of Sauer. with proper makeup. to be
murdered.' went on the author. ''Tha t
was his game from the beginning. He
took eight years to do it. Once he es-
tabiished the identity. he plotted to
he brought to Pettibone. to quarrel
with him. to have Pettibone the last
man seen with him alive. Then he
planted his bludgeon. his fake finger
prints and the gold filling-and van
ished. leaving the rest to Parr That's
all there is to it..
But how-how?" demanded Parr.
who had arrived at the state Of open
enlisting the aid of the hectic author.
Habit said Oliver sententiously.
IT'S the strongest impulse we have.
It's not born; it's acquired. It attacks
mans faculties in their weakest spot.
II you ask the dean. he will tell you
that mans weakest faculty is his
memory"
The dean admitted as much with a
nod.
But how-how did you trace him
how did you catch him. insisted the
deputy. in his hunger for facts.
He caught himself" said Admission.
You went ahead on the belief that it
the dean It was sauer. You had
seventy-three copies of j. H. Sauers
signature, Parr. I dug up thirty-six
more. Once he signed it H. j. in
stead of j. H There is one thing
In the world man isn't apt to forget
That's his own name. ]. H. Sauer did
Once, That was enough" Admission
laughed. shaking his head at the dep
uty. "Parr. It all lay before your
eyes. waiting to be picked up"
Still don't see lid the deputy.
SWEET hasn't a criminal record. How
trace one. II. j. Somebody among
>, .'oh: it wasn't wasn't as .. bad as, as that" 4,
Somebody to interest me would be
in Pettihone's log book. ! found IL
j. swetts Is m name M nsn there fdnnd Thas vas
SWEET himself. living obscurely-the
discredited plaintiff Of a million-dol-
lar patent suit can't exactly lose
himself. !, During the three months
]. H. Sauer was dickering with Brown
bone there was no trace Of ]. II.
SWEET Thatawas another trump card.
Then I wanted his handwriting. I
schemed all sorts of ways but failed
Finally I robbed the mails" Oliver
shook with nerriment. Il saw, him
mail a letter. After he was gone /
absent -minaedly mailed my own eye
glasses in that same drop-box. and
then yelled bloody murder. till the
postman came along and opened the
box for me. Then with facility
that actually alarmed me 7 palmed
which one it was when I saw the
hand writing"
The little circle. Ballard. Parr. the
district attorney and the dean him
self nodded their admiration at this
confession of robbery Of the sacred
mails.
"That brings US to the final cur
tain. I wanted to ask J. Fl. SWEET one
ouestion-about that tooth. He must
have pulled it. to extract that gold
filling. Then he probably had an
other put in. in its place. How to
Ballard, who has the direct mind OF
a child. and some lawyers" said Ar
miston. Ballard said, Put him on
the stand as a material witness. and
ask him. Nothing simpler. SWEET
might reasonably be called as a wit
lars through the deans expert testi-
mony in that patent suit. 1t Jared
SWEET when he found where he was.
But he had great nerve. and he car.
ried it through, until ballard asked
him about that tooth. Then you saw
what happened"
The author tenderly caressed his
swollen eye. now rapidly taking on
a violet hue.
SWEET had been living pretty re-
tired" he went on. He was reading
ali the papers, and gloating-but he
STAYED behind his shutters. This
morning. I think. he got nervous. He
ran out his car and started OF up
town. There was only one way to
sion him. Ram him. 1 rammed him!
Then I smashed him in the eyes with
NV fat accusing him of wrecking