The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1923-04-06

our trouble.
Shakespeare was right when he
said, we are such stuff as dreams are
made Of" BARLEY added in quizzi-
cal tone as he paused to. relight his
cigar Miss Potter dreamed more
than once that Slyke had been killed.
We are told dream Is a suppressed
wish, and that in our dreams our
wishes are often hidden by symbols.
This woman probably did not wish
Slyke actually dead. She had no
quarrel with him as far as I know.
What she did wish was entirely differ
ent. She wished that he might be
away SO that he would be out of
some trouble, and her suppressed
wish caused her to dream that he was
dead. That's the reason why be-
lieve that she knows more than she
will tell."r
what can 1t be?'' / asked.
IT don't know, but it is something
that was causing great deal of
trouble to Slyke. perhaps to all of
them. It might even be something
that will bring dishonor. Anyway, It
was SO serious that. sleeping or wax
Inc, it was on her mind. / wish she
WI talk; we need all the light we,
ca..
But nat does not actually prove
that she knows anything about his
DEATH" suggested.
BARLEY turned quickly and glanced
at me to see If. l were serious. Seeing
that / was, he explained: 81 don't
say that 1t does The ouija board
performances and the dreams were
before his death, not after 1t. OF
course, the fact that the dog did not
bark throws suspicion ON everyone
that was in the house at the time"
He was silent for while. glancing
thoughtfully out Of the window, and
then resumed his story.
After left him. he had locked him
self In the tower for over an hour and
gone over the two rooms and the bal
cony almost inch by inch. The only
thing that had escaped us in our first
search, he said, was small stopper,
the end covered with red wax. He
was not sure whether the finding of
the stopper meant anything or not.
His second examination had made
him more positive than ever that
Slyke had been murdered, and that
the murderer wished his death, to APP
pear to be suicide.
1t would be almost. impossible to
make Jury believe that it was muir
der ON the slight evidence that we
had, and /. said as much to BARLEY.
He agreed with me, and admitted he
would not be surprised il King, as
coroner. brought in verdict Of sui
eide. pondered on this a while;
then a thought struck me.
Suppose, after all, he did kill him
self, BARLEY. You base your theory
Of murder on the position Of the bed
clothes and the way the gun was held.a
Suppose he did kill himself, and some
other person, not the murderer, came
into the room and pulled the bed
clothes up around his neck"
He shook his head in denial. I'VE
would still have, Pelt," he said with
a rather sarcastic smile, 1.-THE other
questions to be answered. First. we
would ask how the blood.stains got
on the balcony Of the tower. We
would also want to know why the
hand did not grasp the gun as tightly
as 1t should. Then we would demand
to know why there was no blood on
the pillow. where his head rested. 1t
won't do. There is no doubt of 1t.
He was killed"
interrupted to ask If. as Miss Pot
ter admitted, she had closed his eyes,
why she might not have been also the
one who pulled the bedcl0thes up
around his neck.
BARLEY replied, ut is true that she
did close his eyes, but she insists she
touched nothing else"
''But," / broke in, 'what was her
real reason for doing itT'
"She said, you remember, that the
eyes frightened her. Let nervous
woman come suddenly upon dead
body and it is very possible that the
eyes staring at her might SO frighten
her that she would close them. Her
confession cleared up point that
bothered me. The accounting for the
eyes being closed does not prove that
he committed suicide, however. There
is little enough evidence one way or
another, but what there is points to
murder and to nothing else"
"There is another thing" l. said.
"Why was the revolver taken from
him while we We're upstairs? 1t seems
a very foolish thing to have done.
Who did it? Was it the butler or
Miss Potter"
Both the butler and Miss Potter
had been out of the tower room, Bart
ley reminded me. for some time be-
fore we suspected Sykes death was
murder and not suicide. AS to who