Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-13

f1G Gf1O01 Ut FELL.
7 INSPECTOR WAYNE was sadly dis
appointed by his questioning Of
Prof. LaXton, whom he had select
Il ed as the most likely ghost" to
have fred through the keyhole.
Laxtons account was quite simple.
He had arrived in the morning, walking
from Brimpton, where his car had
broken down, and learned at the gate
| house that Mr.. Fotherbury was out. He
had walked straight to the site of the
excavations and had look around.
Then he had gone to Brimpton, had
lunch there, driven back the car, now
repaired, left it at the Lord Nelson and
come on to the abbey. 1t was little
be nobody at the diggings so he called
at the house. He saw no servant in the
hall, but thought he heard footsteps in
stone corridor, walked along 1t and
was passing an opening in the wall
when he struck his head against some
thing and struck 1t so hard that he was
stunned.
Wayne pieced this together with
other facts. The blow which struck
chin. The footsteps were those OF the
footnan and myself going to the library.
His assailant must have pulled the un-
conscious LaXton Immediately into the
passage, and both must have hidden
there when the footman returned after
showing me the way.
After this the man lurking in the
dark had watched three people pass the
entrance, Seabroke, Pell and Mr..
, Fotherbury
Within the next few minutes he must
have gone to the library door and re-
moved the key. view of a small Sec
ton Of the library could be got through
the keyhole.
How or why he fred through it could
not be guessed. But when the leap to
the door took place and the unbolting
began the gun went of, and it went Off
at the precise instant when Pell's head
passed down as he stopped to the lower
| bolt.
Wayne spent long time examining
the keyhole through glasses. But he
had to give up any hope of establishing
the shot through it by local evidence
The door was two inches thick, the huge
iron lock another two inches. The hole
pierced in the wood on the inside was
rough and shapeless. A dozen shots
might be fired in 1t without leaving any
sign Wayne did fire blank through
and the keyhole showed no sign of It,
If the murderer was Pells ghost
he might have shot Pell by accident in
the attempt to shoot somebody else. II
not Pell's ghost-well, Wayne had now
handed the thing over to Scotland
Yard. The hue and cry began for 1.-The
keyhole murderer"
The most curious thing in the case
for me was the success with which two
prevaricators got away with it--Laxton
whose yarn about his movements that
afternoon was an improvised invention
and Marling, who never said word
about his previous knowledge of Pell.
So far as Wayne knew, Roger Pei
had no identity but h 5 name. Fother-
bury said he knew him only as a casual
stranger. Marling declared that he hao
no glimmering of Pell's meaning in
those last wild speeches. Seabroke saio
| Pell was undoubtedly mad. Royle anc
Somerfleld knew Pell only through New
place Abbey.
In Pell's effects at the Lord Nelson
no hint could be found to trace hin
back beyond the day of his arrival al
| the inn. Pell was dead. In the public
mind he was not only dead, but quickly
| forgotten.
For me, however, no sooner had Pei
| died than he began to live again. to dos
my steps and haunt my thoughts.
| 1t began the very night of his death