The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1923-06-08

When he was called to the phone.
took out the piece of paper on which
he had been drawing and had care
lessly thrown 1t into a waste-paper
basket as he passed. On 1t were the
same figures that l had found on the
magazine cover. Even then was slow
to believe he could be the murderer,
though science had proved that per-
son always draws the same design.
found the same symbols on the knife
handle. There was but one way he
could have been killed"
MY Cd, howe" Roche gasped out.
"The knife blow came from the
front. You who sat next to the chnuf-
feur heard nothing. No one could
have crept up on him without making
some sound. Therefore the knife had
to be thrown"
Thrown" we gasped.
"Yes. That was the only way 1t
could have reached him. The blow
came from directly in front of Brit
feur. It could only be thrown. Upon
the knife handle were the circles such
as l had found elsewhere. Someone
had scratched them on 1t in mo-
ment Of idleness. It was a trench
knife. Doctor King had been to the
front; he was the only one directly
in front of Briffeur, and the only one
who could have thrown it. We had
all agreed that Briffeur was killed be-
cause he knew who. had murdered
Slyke, and that the same man MUIR
dered them both. There is another
proof, also. The only person, outside
of the family, that the dog liked was
Doctor King. The day we found
Slyke dead the dog came in, growled
at the rest Of US but let King pat
him."
The doctor raised his head, his face
white save for two red spots in either
cheek. His eyes were pools of blaz-
ing light. He looked at US wildly for
a second, then threw out his hands
and in voice, low at first but grow
ing louder as he continued, he admit
ted, Yes, I killed them. never in
tended to do so, God knows! 1t all
goes back some time"
BARLEY interrupted him. ''To the
time when you got mixed up with
Slyke and Briffeur. selling whisky?"
5 "Yes-yes, that was it. 1t goes
back to that His voice faltered, then
he recovered. 81 came back from the
war, broke. Slyke suggested that 1
go in with him on running whisky. ]
had a camp and fast motorboat on
Lake Champlain; it was all I did
have. He suggested we run the whis-
ky down the lake from Canada to my
it in the vault. He never played fair
with us; he cheated us again and
again. That's why Briffeur suggested
we break into the house and see If
he had told the truth about the
amount of money he said he got for
it. He kept the records of all our
sales in his safe. We tried to-you
know the rest about the robbery"
His voice trailed off into whisper.
recalled that he had been she'll
shocked, and wondered If he could
stand the strain he was undergoing.
1.-THE night l was at Currie's to din
ner and met Mr.. BARLEY it was Slyke
who called me up on the phone"
His voice was shrill now, and I
thought he would break down at any
moment. 81
"He said he wished to see me. and
l started over here. ran into Brif-
feur, who told me that Slyke had sold
the rest of the whisky for $4,000.
Well-where was II" He stopped,
confused, and passed his hand over
his face.
'Oh, yes-the whisky. I went up
to the tower. and he suggested we go
out on the balcony-why. don't know.
I asked him what he got for the whis-
ky, and he said $4,000. 1 knew he
lied, and told him so. We quar-
relied, quarreled- All at once, he
flashed revolver on me and said he
had good mind to kill me-he had
been drinking"
Again his voice trailed away into
silence and his eyes closed. Then he
recovered himself with an effort and
continued. "Just what happened then,
/ don't know--don't know! Ny nerves
have been in pieces since I was she'll
shocked. We struggled. and l know
shot him. did as you say. Took
him downstairs, undressed him, and
put the revolver in his hand. l knew
-knew-that most people would
think he had killed himself. / was
desperately sorry-but 1 am hardly to
blame for his death. My big mistake
was calling in Mr.. BARLEY the next
morning. 1 knew, if I could fool him,
/ could fool everyone"
He paused; his head sank again
into his hands. saw that BARLEY
pitied him deeply and his voice was
soft and his face grave as he asked,
"And Briffeur?"
With an effort the doctor raised his
head. ...
II was always afraid of that man.