The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-06-23
Chapter "A
FATHER ,RoeART's END

( TT WAS quite naturally the priests death that brought things to their climax. that was in itself the beginning of that preordained de lnouement. s-- a,s.ts. For 1t was, of course. the body of the erstwhile priest that we found that morning. huddled and crowded fn it's black robes in the depth of .he coffin-like piano. It was the priest. and he had been poisoned, and the poison, said the commis- baire. wiser now. was again nico- line.
 There was a small puncture in the skin of his right arm. and the poison, 1t appeared. and Lorn agreed with the police when he told me of it. had been administered quickly and deftly with a needle. It was. added Lorn more dryly than usual. a very quick-action poison. The priest would have had practical ! y no time to call TOT nelp.
 It was to be expected. too. that the murder of the priest would sharply deny my previous calcula- tions. Everything. to my mind. had pointed toward, the priests guilt. But now he himself was a victim to the insensate plan that reckoned murder. and murder by poison. only a counter.
 The first murder had been that of an unknown and. till very lately. iunidentifiable man. The second mur. der had been that of waiter shocking enough as a crime. it's l true. but still Marcel had been in the eyes of the world person of little importance. And his death had been considered. and rightly, l thought. to have been induced by. and a result of. the first murder. But the murder of priest-that was different-even though he might prove to be only mas queraded priest.
 It was not only the fact of third murder in few days that reused the town and the police to a higher pitch of excitement and energy. There was also the fact that it proved that the murderer had es- capped all efforts of the police to dis cover his identity. and that he felt so secure in his safety that he dared another brutal murder under their very noses.
 If there had been few clues about the first murder and only my own evidence, which was little enough to go on in the case of Marcel's death, there were no clues at all for the third. The priest was dead by poison and had been dead for from seven to eighteen hours, and that was all they knew.
 The police sent promptly to far. away Paris for assistance: from something Lorn said. believe there had been in the town one of those subterranean political wars brewing which had previously intervened and determined the commissaire to settle the matter If it was possible without help. . DUT the third murder proved too D much for his faith in himself and his wish to inspire his political opponents with a sense of his own ability. Or perhaps 1t was the pres. sure of public opinion that grew too great for him.
 He also temporarily increased his force. so that instead of our being simply clapped into jail we were. to all practical purposes. held pris- oners by the numerous guards which surrounded the hotel and overfowed into the courtyard and rambled uneasily through the cor riders and went to the kitchen There Paul supplied them with such frequent drinks that there were several occasions. I'm sure. when. fl the murderer had popped up under their noses like a rabbit and de clared his identity. they might az readily have welcomed him as .
 comrade as have given chase.
 It Is perhaps not strange. under
 the circumstances. that while thia
 guard might have been supposed tc
 act as protectors as well as 1ailerl
 they were not wholly successful ir
 either role. as you will see.
 And by the time the detectives
 from Paris arrived the thing had
 already marched to its swift and
 violent ending.
 The intervening time seems long
 in retrospect, but was very swift 1T experience. for we were so caught ir
 the rapid. dangerous swirl of events that everything beyond our imme
 diate peril was crowded out of ouI
 consciousness.