Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise., 1938-04-22

wounded her on the forehead and she
tainted.
"For long time I wondered who
had fired the second shot. Had a
third person played in the drama?"
"Why third person." interrupted
the Captain, 81 thought that the Con-
sui stood behind the door, so of course
he shot and wounded his daughter"
"You are right vt for a long
time I pondered on the question.
Somehow I did not feel sure that the
Consul fired the second shot. I knew
that the Consul had a noiseless air
revolver (you saw it recently in the
card room) and I knew that this guns
report made just a short, sharp whiz-
zing sound. Now in Miss Traer's
room l heard two loud pistol shots.
Finally I concluded that the Consul
had two revolvers upon him-the other
one being mine, which he had taken
away from me when he caught me
opening his safe. 1t was clever of
him to have used it because, if his
daughter had been murdered, it would
have been proved that she was shot
with my revolver. In other words, I
would have been the guilty one.
"Afterward, the Consul punched my
neck with his bare fist. In the dark,
l believed it was a third person who
hit me during the melee.
Undoubtedly the Consul-so sure
of his sharpshooting skill-believed
his foster-daughter was dead, so he
decided that it would be better if he
pretended that he too had been muir
dered. So he fixed the walls in the
cellar and the stairs. You all have
read in the papers how the cellar
looked and how his nightshirt was
found"
"Just why did the Consul want to
kill his daughter?" asked the Mate.
"There are two reasons, and I do
not know just which one was the more
important in his mind. He did not rob
in order to amass wealth, but for the
excitement and the thrill he experience
ed. He would murder for the joy it
might give him. He acted the part of
a burglar for the games sake, not for
the sake of gain. Now his foster
daughter was in his way; he had no
patience with her, her mere presence
annoyed him. He thought: She is in
my way, she must die
''Now for the other reason: Miss
Traer was his foster-daughter; that
is, when he was young man, he
a widow Anderson who had
a small daughter. He had loved the
widow as much as it was possible for
such a man to love anyone. After
her death he adopted the little girl and
paid for her schooling. Perhaps he
tired of his guardianship that was a
constant reminder of his dead love or
perhaps he desired to possess the in
heritance that would fall to Miss
Traer when she came of age. He knew
that she would inherit about a mil
lion dollars from relatives across the
ocean. He might intrigue for bet
ter share of this were she dead.
"And now to go back to that blood
curdling night when escaped from
the Consul's villa and fled in a pet
hiding place which keep in the north
ern section of the city. I did not care
to be arrested for the Consul's or any
other murder and then, too, 1 had
steel casket with me that was full of
thousand mark bills as 1 learned quite
soon. In my great excitement I had
brought the box with me and now I
was at loss what to do with it.
II was in painful situation. Later
on I found out that the thousand mark
bills were evidence against the Consul
The numbers of these bills were noted
at the police headquarters, because
they had been stolen from a bank.
The Consul had given them to me os-
tensibly as pay for the murder but
really he was glad to get rid of them.
"The day after the supposed muir
der 1 had a surprise. Miss Traer
came to consult me! 1t was a shock
perhaps she suspects me! But no,
she came as a client to consult me as
detective. I was delighted. Nothing
pleased me more than to be the official
adviser of the Consul's foster-daugh-
ter. I said nothing to her of my ex-
perience in her home that night. And
have left her in the dark until today
about the identity of the blond intrud-
er who so upset the Traer villa.
let her think that he was an accom-
plice of her father
"Miss Traer did not report to the
police her fathers part in the attempt
ed murder. She knew she did not