Omaha daily bee., 1921-06-12

the may be. The change has done you
good-save for ycrr remorseful expression.
never saw you looking WELL"
Thus he dismissed and I felt glad to
think of other things until the evening
on which I to dine with him. He put me
off for farther week, however, but saw me at
his office and asked few questions concerning
the West Indian problem These I answered,
and he made comment my replies.
Then I dined with him and, after the meal,
he read me the following report:
II have solved the problem" he said. "and
| am absolutely convinced in my own mind that
it is correctly solved. Whether those most vital
y interested, however, will accept the solution,
is another question"
Solved it?" l gasped.
'To my satisfaction he repeated; land
/ shall he disappointed if not to yours also. You
are not to blame You did everything that I
should, or could, have done myself You
lacked the necessary synthetic inspiration to
put the pieces of the puzzle together after col
ecting thenl--that is all"
THAT is erything."
"1ou right, but let appearances tempt
you away from the truth Your intuition had
only to be followed, but, basely, you deserted
it,
glow could follow it against an absolute
fact?"
My dear friend, fact is absolute"
r But murder can't be suicide
Murder may be suicide and suicide may be
murder. Don't make rash assertions; but light
your cigar and listen. I'm rather pleased with
this; though 1 repeat it is quite likely that
body but noble selves will appreciate it at
it's true, value. From your description of Amos
Sanning | am quite sure that he will not.
Therefore, let expect no reward"
Then he read me his solution of the mystery.
"Only through a. close and exhaustive study
Of character is it possible to reach any explana-
ton o. this problem; and in the Of Mr..
Henry Slanning on whose death the destruction
of the lesser men, John Diggle and Solly Law
son, will be found to depend. ample material
for an estimate Of his complex temperament
exists. Not only from the facts recorded con-
cerning him, but also from his own disserta-
tons and meditations he may be measured; and
it is from my estimate of him, built on elaborate
data, that I PROFOUND the following theory and
reconstruct the incidents which deprived him
and the ether two victims of their lives.
"Emphatically Solly Lawsons end forms
part of the larger problem, for I find in him a
very vital component of the whole. Accident
involved him in the heart of the catastrophe,
and, without him, we should have had one dead
instead Of three and a tragedy Of an in
terestirr psychological nature, but mystery
whatever. For the mystery now to be ex-
planned is not the premedtated work of man,
but the blind operation of chance.
Let us then glance first at character. and
take the dead in rotation AS shall show, we
are concerned alone with them No undscov-
be myself. yet understands the secret These
three alone are responsible for their own
doing; or it would be more correct to say that
an egregious action of Henry Slanning precipi-
tated the death of the two humber personages
Henry Slanning we find to be man of
cultured and refined tastes, from even
the incidental violence of sport Mrs. Jane
Digsle said of him that he could not kill
Scorpion He was shrewd, sagacious, and
good man of business. The power of wealth he
inherited and did not abuse. He worked hard
and with an exemplary humanity and considera-
ton for alf he employed. He was generous
thoughtful and kind hearted; did he lack
for ambition beyond his own prosperity and the
well-being of his many employees, for we find
him accepting civil offices in Barbados and de-
voting no small measure of his time to unpaid
labor for the general veal
"Ths is the other and the personality
familiar to his brother, his friends and ac-
quaintances but there is another Henry SLAM
ming. intellectual of inquiring spirit, cease
less searcher after curious knowledge, volum-
inous reader, and keen thinker along certain
lines. He is interested in many things, but GER
tain subjects possess for him peculiar fascina-
ton, anG one above all others would seem per-
sstently to intrigue his mind
'It is morbid subject hardly to be asso-
ciated with a prosperous, hale, and popular
young man of 35; but there can be no doubt of
the fact, since not only was it reported to my
colleague from more than one quarter in the
course Of his independent inquiry, but also
find /. present theme of Henry SLAM
nins's careful Memoranda. He commits himself
to definite opinion upon it; he ra Ncks pro-
fame literature for his support and ADDS justi-