New Britain herald., 1922-08-23
(continued From Our Last Issue)
W MAINLINE

(continued From Our Last Issue)
 There was a sudden snigger iron
 nervous gentleman in the crowd a
 the back of the room, and fhe coro
 her put on his glasses and staree
 sternly in the direction from which f
 came. The nervous gentleman has
 tIly decided that the time had com,
 to do up his bootlace. The corone,
 put down his glasses and continued.
 Did anybody come out of the house while you. were coming up the drive ?'
 No"
 Thank you. Mir. Dillingham;"
 ne was followed by Inspecto,
 Birch' The Inspector realizing tha, thls was his afternoon, and that the eyes or the world were upon him, pro. ouced plan of the house and ex. flained the situation of the difYeren, rooms The plan was then handed tc
 the jury.
 Inspector Birch, SO he told the world, had arrived at the Red House al 4:A2, p. m. On the afternoon in question. He had been received by MT, Mathew Cayley, who had made a short statement to him, and he had 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 had found no trace of a key. Tn the bedroom leading out of the office he mad found an open window There were no marks on the window, but It was low one, and, as he found from experiment, quite easy to step out of without touching it with the boots.
 few yards outside the window a shrubbery began. There were no recent footmarks outside the window, 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, together with other evidence that some body had been forcing its way through
 He had questioned everybody con nected with the estate, and none of them had been into the shrubbery re- gently. By forcing a way through the shrubbery it was possible for 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 Aus tralia some fifteen years ago, owing to some financial trouble at home De- ceased was not we'll spoken of in the village from which he and his brother had come. Deceased and his brother had never been on good terms, and the fact that Mark Ablett had come into money had been cause of great bitterness between them. It was shortly after this that Robert had left for Australia.
 Herhad made inquiries at Stanton station. It had been market-day at Statnton and the station had been more full of arrivals than usual. Nobody had particularly noticed the arrival of Robert Ablett; there had been good many passengers by the 2:10 train that afternoon, the train by which Robert had undoubtedly come from London. A witness. however, would state that he noticed a man re- sembling Mark Ablett at the station at 3:53 that afternoon, and this man caught the 355 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 was nothing to bes got from that. He felt so close to the truth; at any moment sonething might give his brain the one little hint which it wanted Inspector Birch was just pursuing the ordinary. Whatever else this case was, it was not ordi- nary. There was something uncanny about it.
 Antony went on with his thoughts.
 The coroner was summing up. The jury, he said, had now heard all the evidence. The medical evidence would probably satisfy them that Robert Ablett had died from the effects of bullet wound in the head. Who had fired that bullet? If Robert Ablett had fired it himself, no doubt they would bring in verdict of sui eide, but if this had been so, where was the revolver which had fired it, and what. had become of Mark Ablett?
 If they disbelieved in this possi- pility of suicide, what remained? Ac- eidental death, justiiable homicide, and murder. Could the deceased have been killed accidentally? It was possible, but then would Mark Ablett have run away?
 The evidence that he had run away rom the scene of the crime was strong His cousin had seen him go Into the room. the servant, Elsie Wood 1ad heard him quarreling with his brother in the room, the door had ,een locked from the inside. and there were signs that outside the open win low 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 ,e had been guiltless of his brothers ,eath. No doubt innocent people ! net their heads sometimes. It was possible that if 1t weR proved after yard that Mark Abett had shot his ,rother. it might also be proved that . -a, ;u.tided Tn so doing, and that