Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-08-23
CONTINUED from our last issue)

at the back of the room, and the
ron put on his glasses and
stared sternly in the direction from
which it came. The ervou gentle
man hastily decided that the time
had come to do up his bootlace. The
coroner put down his glasses and
continued.
did anybody come out of the
house while you were coming up the
drive?"
NO"
THANK you. Mr.. Dillingham;"
He was followed by Inspector
Birch. The inspector, realizing that
this was his afternoon, inc that the
eyes of the world were upon him,
produced a plan of the house and
explained the situation of the differ
ent rooms. The plan was then
handed to the jury.
Inspector Birch, so he told the
world, had arrived at the Red House
at 4:42 p. m. OF. the afternoon In
question. He had been received by
Mr.. Matthew Cayley, who had made
a short statement to him. and he
a then proceeded to examine the
scene of the crime.
The French windows had been
forced from outside. The door lead
ing into the hall was locked; he had
searched the room thoroughly and
a found no trace of a key. In the
bedroom leading out of the office he
had found an open window. There
were no marks on the window, but
1t was a low one, and, as he found
from experiment, quite easy to step
out of without touching it with the
boots.
A few yards outside the window a
%shrubbery began. There were no
recent footmarks outside the win
dow, but the ground was in a very
hard condition owing to the absence
of rain. In the shrubbery. however,
he found several twigs on the
ground, recently broken off, togeth-
er with other evidence that some
body had been forcing it's way
through.
He had questioned everybody con-
nected with the estate, and lone of
them had been into the shrubbery
recently. BY forcing a way through
the shrubbery it vas possible for a
person to make a detour of the
house and get to the Stanton end of
the park without ever being in sight
of the house itself.
He had made inquiries about the
deceased, Deceased had left for
AuSlIdid SOIue nlleeH years dSo,
ewing to some financial trouble at
home. Deceased was not well
spoken of In the village from which
he n his brother had come. De-
ceased and his brother had never
been on good terms, and the fact
that Mark Albeit had come into
money had been a cause of great
bitterness between them. 1t was
shortly after this that Robert had
left for Australia.
He had made inquiries at Stanton
station. 1t had been market-day at
Stanton and the station had been
more full of arrivals than usual.
Nobody had particularly noticed the
arrival of Robert Albeit; there had
been a good many passengers by the
2:10 train hat afternoon, the train
by which Robert had undoubtedly
come from London. A witness, how
ever, would state that he noticed a
man resembling Mark Albeit at the
station at 1858 that afternoon, and
this man caught the 1855 up train to
town.
There was a pond in the grounds
of the Red House. He had dragged
this, but without result
Antony listened to him carelessly,
thinking his own thoughts all the
time. Medical evidence followed,
but there vas nothing to be got
from that. He felt so close to the
truth: al any moment something
might give his brain the one little
hint which it wanted. Inspector
Birch was just pursuing the ordi-
rary. Whatever else this case was,
it was not ordinary. There was
something uncanny about it.
Antony with on with his thoughts.
MIA vow a,, xrAc ~ y, i,nr tyn NH
jury, he said, had now heard all the
evidence. The medical evidence
would probably satisfy them that
Robert Albeit had died from the
effects of a bulIet-wound in the
head. Who had fired that bullet?
If Robert Albeit had fired it himself,
10 doubt they would bring in a ver-
dict Of suicide, but If this had been
so, where was the revolver which
had fired it, and what had become of
Mark Albeit?
If they disbelieved in this posi-
bility of suicide, what remained?
Accidental death. Could the deceased
have been killed accidentally? 1t
was possible, but then would Mark
Albeit have run away?
The evidence that he had run
away from the scene of the crime
was strong. His cousin had seen
him go into the room, the servant
Elsie Wood had heard him quarrel
ing with his brother in the>room,
the door had been locked from the
inside, and there were signs that out
side the open window someone had
pushed his way very recently
through the shrubbery. Who, If not
Mark?
They would have then to consider
whether he would have run away if
he had been guiltless of his brothers
death. No doubt innocent people
lost their heads sometimes. 1t was
possible that If it were proved after
ward that Mark Ablet had shot his
brother, it might also be proved
that he was justified in so doing,
and that when he ran away from
his brothers corpse he had really
nothing to fear at the hands of the
law. Mark Albeit guilty of murder
it would not prejudice his trial in
any way If and when he was APP
pretended. The jury would
consider their verdict.
They considered it. They an
rounced that the deceased had died
as the result of a bullet-wound, and
that the bullet had been fired by his
brother Mark Albeit.
Bill turned round to Antony at his
side. But Antony was gone. Across
the room he saw Andrew Amos and
Parsons going out of the door to-
eether with Anthony between them.
CHAPTER XIX
The inquest had been held at the
Lamb" at Stanton; at Stanton Rob-
ert Albeit was to be buried the next