New Britain herald., 1922-03-11
Continued From Our Last Issue
 CHA pTTR YIJ

At ten o'clock the following morn ing Sandy Cove smiled peacefully in the golden sunshine.
 Within the decorously shade drawn library of the Tudor house six persons were gathered: Mrs. Tudor herself. her niece Fay, Captain War rem, Kenneth Clayton, Sheriff IIuiAe and Sergeant John Barry The lat- ter was seated at the long magazine table in the center of the loom with a sheaf of notes spread out before him, and 1t was toward him that all eyes Were directed. None appeared to notice the pasteboard boxes of various sizes which fanked the notes upon the table, and certain it was that none save the sheriff and Barry himself knew that outside the door two husky constables waited with a big-framed bettle-browed woman for the signal to add themselves to the gathering.
 "The sheriff and I have asked you to meet us all together" began Bar ry, pleasantly enough .ir order that we may tell you the result of our in- vestigations of yesterday into the
 
 murder, of course, but her death was never intended. You all know the method by which the crime was com- mitted, but what l think that none of you know is that the carbon mon oxide was meant not for her but for her cousin, and the fact that the two young ladies changed beds during the night was all that saved Miss Fay Tudor from the fate meted out to her, although it rebounded upon an in nocent victim-innocent in that she had aroused no enmity in the breast of the murderer. When I said that none of you knew this, ] meant none except one, for the guilty person i' in this room at the present moment"
 Fay sat c1utching the arms of her chair tightly but she made, no out ward move and her eyes never left growled a sudden exclamation, but Captain Warren sat immovable, al- though slight flush crept upon his cheek. Mrs. Tudor started to her feet with a swift cry.
 Please sit down, Mrs. Tudor Barrys tones were sympathetic but firm. q know how you must be feel ing at this moment, but l shall not keep you long in suspense.
 Some time between three and four o'clock in the morning the murderer started to enter the room where the two young ladies were asleep, carry ing in one hand the receptacle con- taining the carbon monoxide, and in the other an electric torch. This per son dared not turn on the lights in the room for fear of waking one or the other of its occupants, in spite of the fact that they had both been heavily drugged. On the threshold, by a miracle of fate, perhaps, the electric torch went out!
 The low light at the farther end of the hall did not penetrate the re bn1, but the murderer had gone too ffr to retreat now, for already the fumes of the poison gas were escap- i.'S from the faulty, hastily con- structed container. Putting it down upon the floor just outside the door the container had once held oil, and the mark of 1t is still visible on the rug upstairs-the murderer sped to the room formerly occupied by the young man whom all then believed to be dead, and, obtaining his gas mask, returned to the room
 There this person went straight to the bed ordinarily occupied by Miss Laurel, touched the har--which in the dark could not have been detect ed from that of Miss Fay, for both are of the same teXture-and fitted the mask carefully over the face.
 You can figure the rest out for yourselves--the r,urderer's advance to the other bed; the insertion of the tube between the lips of the uncon- scious girl; the application of ban dage over her nostrils so that, per force, she must breathe in the dead ly gas; the departure from the room for a certain, calculated period; the return; removal of the mask from one face and bandage from the other; and hurried exit with the container.
 But the murderer had made the fatal mistake of trusting to the sense of touch alone. It was upon the wrong face that the bandage was placed, and into the wrong lips that the tubing was inserted!"
 Stop! I can bear no more.' The ringing cry came from Mrs. Tudor's