The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-15
FICTION

LOIiioOSii.
 "Yes, I shot himv' The young man sprang to his feet and uttered the words in loud, excited tone which rang through the empty house. And so little do I re- gret what I have done, that if I had the chance to recall the past I would not falter Il would shoot him again."
 ''Sit down again." said Crewe kindly. ''Do not excite yourself. You and I can dis cuss this thing quietly whatever else is to happen afterward."
 ''How long have you known that 1 did it?" asked Marsland, after pause.
 ''It was not until yesterday that I felt quite certain. What annoys me-what of fends my personal pride-is that my inn petuous young friend Gillet picked you out as the right man before l did. He was wrong in his facts, wrong in his deductions, wrong in his theories, and hopelessly wrong in his reconstruction of the crime. He had no more chance of proving a case against you than of against the first man he might pick out blindfolded from crowd, and yet he was right. True, he came to the con- clusion that he was wrong when l put him right as to the circumstances under which the tragedy occurred, but that doesn't soothe my pride altogether. If there is one lesson have learned from this case, it is that humility is virtue that becomes us all.
 "But, after all, do not think have been so very long in solving the problem" the detective continued. "It is only 13 days since the tragedy took place, and from the first l saw it was a complicated case. l never ruled out the possibility of your be- ing the right man after Brett and Miss Maynard tried to sheet home Lumsden's death to you. I do not think she was fully in Brett's confidence-in fact it is fairly obvious that he would not tell her the story of his treachery But he knew that you had shot Lumsden and she caught at his conviction without being fully convinced herself. Bretts conduct was inconsistent with guilt. But it was consistent with the knowledge that Lumsden had met his death at your hands and that he himself would share the same fate if you encountered him.
 q am under the impression that he reached Lumsden few minutes after you rode away from the spot, and that Lums- den was then alive. Probably he was able to breathe out your name to Brett. The latter helped the dying man into the motor car and started to drive back to Staveley for medical aid, and after passing the matched cottage on the right he became aware that Lumsden had collapsed and was past human aid. So he decided to take the body to the farm, and in order to disappear, without drawing immediate suspicion on himself, he tried to indicate that Lumsden was shot in the house.
 q feel sure he was killed But if his body is recovered the police will learn from it that it was you who shot Lumsden."
 "How will they find that out?"
 '"The girl Maynard has told them that he had an important paper in his possession when he was drowned and that is why they are so anxious to recover the body. They do not know the contents of the document, but it is an easy matter to divine them. Let us look at this matter in the way in which Brett must have looked at it after thinking it over carefully. He knew that you had shot Lumsden; he knew that if he met you his life would not be worth a moments purchase. The shot you fired at him when he was breaking into your room at Staveley was an emphatic warning on that point, if he needed any warning.
 "Do you think that he would not take steps to bring his death and Lumsden's death home to you in the event of his be- ing shot down? If he had got out of the country, as no doubt he had hoped to do, he would have put the police on your track for shooting Lumsden. If the police re- cover Brett's body, they will find on it a document setting forth Brett's account of