The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-05-25

self had packed some hours previously,
but what lent peculiar significance to
it was the fact that the bottle had been
violently smashed owe the head of his
late master and this fragment was the
neck which the assailant had grasped.
When it is realized that no footprints
were available for the professional in
vestigator; that the victim was dead
when John Aske found him, and that
many people regarded him with i'll will
because he had been a usurer, the ex-
ceptional value of that shard of glass
became plain. John, who had discov-
cred the tragedy, realized that very
completely.
John had not really the making of a
good citizen.
He was astute even for a butler whose
business it is to know a little more than
his master and before he left the ser
vice of his former employers heirs he
made an opportunity of comparing the
finger marks of neighbors left upon
glasses with those four pads down the
one side of the little glass tube and
the thumb mark left upon the bulge
Of the shoulder. They were impress
sions such as have made solemn and
dignified officials rise and dance in
Scotland Yard.
AS a consequence he had called on
MI. Mark kildare, a cousin of the de-
ceased, to ask him whether he ought to
discover that bit of glass in some hid
den Granny of the rocks near the scene
Of the murder or whether the more
humanitarian part was to restore it to
whomsoever had last used it.
It will be appreciated that since an
embossed trademark on the bottle was
faithfully imprinted on the bald head
of the corpse and the missing frag-
ment could be individually identified
by its broken edge, those finger marks
were of poignant concern to the man
who had made them. Had Mr.. Kill
dare not been in hot and impetuous
vein at the time of the occurrence he
would have remembered it.
One pays for ones carelessness.
Mr.. Kildare found that he had tx
pay.
John Aske showed no disposition tx
be unreasonable. His modest demand.
were for a hundred pounds every three
months for warehousing and four thou
sand down at any time for the fina
delivery Of the goods.
MI. Kildare, who inherited a com
forting proportion of the dead man.
estate, would be able to meet those de-
mands SO soon as the estate was wounc
up, though it made disastrous inroad.
on the profits of his former enterprise
However, beggars cannot be chooser!
and Mr.. Kildare vas begging for hi!
neck.
He paid a hundred pounds for hi!
option to purchase and had three
months in which to think things over
but, being, like his late cousin, particul.
arly clear and precise in the matter
of values, he perceived that, though hi
had successfully taken a considerable
risk to insure that his legacy would bt
speedily available, he would retain only
nj thousand pounds of that legacy
whereas John Aske, who had done
nothing, would receive four. The in.
justice was manifest. Mr.. Kildare wa!
a very hardly used person. The direc
inference was that, If a certain risl
was worth running for a mere thousane
pounds, the same risk was better worth
running for five thousand and an as
sured nights rest, for Mr.. Kildare hat
not slept at all well since he had mad
his bargain with the former butler.
He gave the idea every consideration
He resolved, too; to profit by experience
SO that If the expedient which has
served him before should seem advis.
able again, he would not twice be cheat.
ed OF the fruits Of his endeavor.
With that object, having advised Johl