The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1891-02-28 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER XL 'THIS CLUE. Martin could not keep away from the the murder had teen committed. He he place like a spirit doomed to revisit of its guilt and sorrow. He had made sily journeys to the house, which he rith an intense and wistful interest. His • was much changed; from the hale, , right man he was before the murder, he • thin, sallow, and stooping. His face ggard, anxious look, and his manner had men its habitual, gentle dignity to morose . Toward Denby, the grave-digger, alone row any of his former kindliness. They s tombstone a good deal in the summer s, and talked of the desperate case. One curred to the sheriff to question Denby e idiot's lost whistle which the graved replaced. I what time did you give Artey that whistle, was it before or after tre murder ?" sheriff in an abstracted sort of way; for finding of the trousers the sheriff had the idea of the idiot's Complicity in the  t was nigh upon the time of the murder," plied, with no notion of what was in the m,nd. " I remember he came whistling hen I was digging Joseph FaroeWs grave, ated to choke him; hey got no reaped; for living or dead." isriff started up with sudden energy and rave digger without a word. 31artin's taking that case hard," said I the sheriff, with bowed shoulders, wended through the church-yard. "If 'twos his w couldn't take more interest. I wonder sk Martin's took himself off to? They tut to sea: he's been gone long enough to do.ten times."  went straight from the church-yard to the ansion. The place, seen near at hand, e clear morning light, wore the dilapidated n heir-at-law. The gates swung open; were grass-grown; weeds grew where tended flowers once bloomed; and the honeysuckle and roses that covered the a had cast their burden of beauty and to the ground; the spider bad spun a is web across the threshold, and no footbrushed the freshness of the grashy lawn. ariff had but one idea in his mind When inby, and that was to intercept the Wide get from him some clue to the med.h he now really suspected the boy could, approached, furnish. He had often scan the neighbourhood of the premises, but he r yet found him within the grounds, unless ; figure of his midnight quest had been the Plow Martin's heart bounded, when, as he r the house, he saw the boy clambering up at covered one of the rear gables to the a eat creeping to its prey, and disappear an opening in the gable concealed by the went at once to the spot and found the my old and powerful stock, the body of IS several inches in diameter, covering rigorous branches the entire gable, thus g any aperture that might be above. laced his toot on the lower brand:tee and o climb, but a man weighing needy two pounds could not go where a light and Lie person would be safe. He waited ,1 the foot of the ivy, and shortly a white pigeons flew from within and dispersed as on the eaves of the house. The idiot rged with • small bag in his hand, and in:ending, blew a call on his whietle, and matter the contents of the bagj evidently I of seed, which brought the pigeons in • lhe ground, where they !swarmed ereund 'eeding from hie hand, and lighting on his shoulders in the most :banal,' saanneft