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POPOLAE COtflm SENTINEL, DOtJGLABVILLE GEORGIA. FRIDAY. JiOVEMBER 2i^. 1919:
Harmonint
fUgBtmj
By
V. G. WODBHOU9B
night, when he would take some whl»-
fcy. Ala head was not strong. and a
little of the spirit was enough t# make
him aeml-lntoxlcnted. when he would
lie hilarious end often Insulting.
"I gather that Muller found him a
difficult roommate, but he la one of
those placid Germans who can put up
with anything. He and Gunner were
In the habit of playing checkers to
gether every night In their room, and
Guhner had a harmonica which he
played frequently.
"Apparently, he was playing It very
noon before he died, which Is signifi
cant, as seeming to dispose of the Idea
of suicide.
"But. If Captain Gunner did not kill
himself, I cannot at present Imagine
who did kill him, or why he waB killed,
or how.
"As I say, I have one or two theo
ries, but they ore in a very nebulous
State. The most plausible Is that on
one of his visits to India—I have as
certained that he made several voy
nges there—Captain Gunner may in
some way have fallen foul of the na
fives.
"JClplIng's elory ‘The Mark of the
Beast,' Is suggestive. Is It not possible
that Captain Gunner, a rough, over
hearing man, easily Intoxicated, may
In a drunken frolic have offered some
Insult to an Indian god?
"The fact that he certainly died of
the poison of the kralt, an Indian
snake, supports this theory.
, "1 am making Inquiries as to the
movements of several Indian Bailors
who were here In their ships at the
time of the tragedy.
"I have another theory. Does Mrs.
Pickett know more about this affair
than she appears to?
"I muy be wrong In my estimate of
her mental qualities. Her apparent
'Stupidity may he cunning,
i "But here again the absence of mo
tive brings me up against a dead wall.
I must confess that at present I do
, Dot see my way clearly. However, I
will write again shortly.”
Mr. Snyder derived the utmost en
joyment from the report. He liked the
matter of it, and, he liked Oakes’ liter
ary style.
Above nil, he was tickled by the ob
vious querulousness of It. Oakes wus
baffled, and Ills knowledge of Oakes
■ told bint, that the sensation of being
haflled was gall and wormwood to that
blgh-splrlted young gentleman.
• Whatever might be the result of this
Investigation, it would at least have
the effect bf showing OakeB that there
was more In the art of detection than
he bad supposed. It would teach him
the virtue of patience.
He wrote his assistant a short note:
"Dear Oakes:
"Your report received. You certainly
aeem to have) got the hnrd case which,
I hear, you were pining for. I wish
you luck.
"Don't build too much on plausible
motives ip a case of this sort. Fauntle-
goy, the^London murderer, killed a
woman for no other reason than that
she hud thick ankles. Many years ago
I myself was on n case where a man
murdered an Intimate friend because
Of a dispute: about a hall-game.
"My experience Is that five murder-
era out of ten act on the whim of the
moment, without anything which, prop
erly speuklng, you could call a motive
at all.
"Yours,
"Paul Snyder.
from Mr. Snyder with a curt supercil
iousness which now he was beginning
to regret.
Such an attitude as he had assumed
could only be Justified by results, and
the fear was creeping over him that
he could not produce those results.
Failure was staring him in the face.
Since his arrival he had not ceased
to brood over this problem, but he
could see no light.
Mrs. Pickett’s pnle eyes somehow
made him feel very-young.
Elliott Oakes' first act after his brief
Interview with the proprietress bad
been to examine the room where the
tragedy had taken place. The body
had gone, but, with that exception,
nothing bad been moved.
Oakes belonged to the magnlfylng-
glnss school of detection. The first
thing he did on entering the room was
tq make a careful examination of the
floor, the'walls, the furniture, end the
wlnflow-slll.
He would have hotly denied the as
sertion that he did this because It
looked well, but he would have been
hard put to It to advance any other
reason.
He discovered what probably, In his
heart, he had expected to discover—
nothing. There were particles of dust
on the floor, but they conveyed noth
ing to him. There were marks on the
window-sill, but what they signified he
hud no notion.
However, he went through his per
formance conscientiously. It was his
way of taking formal possession of the
case.
He rose, a little flushed, and, aban
doning the magnlfying-gluss, mode a
comprehensive survey of the room
from a position near the door. If he
discovered anything, his discoveries
were entirely negative, and served
only to deepen the mystery of the ease,
As Mr. Snyder had said, there was
no chimney, and nobody could have
entered through the locked door.
There remained the window. It was
small, and apprehensiveness possibly
on the score of burglars had caused
the proprietress to make It doubly se
cure with an iron bar. No human be
ing could have squeezed his way
through It.
After a quarter of an hour he left
the room, locking the door behind him.
No more unsatisfactory preliminary
Investigation could ever have been
made.
It was late that night that he wrote
and dispatched to headquarters the re-
'port which had amused Mr. Snyder.
The Interval he filled np by making
guarded Inquiries among his' fellow
boarders.
He had no difficulty in making them
talk. Nothing like the death of Cap
tain Gunner had ever happened among
them, aud the difficulty would have
been to start successfully any other
topic of conversation.
Captain Muller, the big Germah,
who, by virtue of having been the dead
man’s roommate, might, If he had de
sired, have held tho position of princi
pal speaker and star-witness, was the
only man who seemed to have nothing
to say. He was plainly a nmn of silent
habit, and not even Ills vleurlous con
nection with the tragedy could sliukc
him from It.
The theories of the others ranged
from heart-disease—Id spite of the
doctor's definite statement to the con
trary—to the ingenious suggestion
from one of the party that Captain
Gunner had been bitten by a snake at
some previous dote, several years be
fore, and that the poison hud lain dor
mant In his system until this moment.
The theorist claimed to have known
a man who had made a voyage with a
man to whom a precisely similar ex
perience had hnppened. The only weak
Bpot in the story was the fact that the
speaker's Informant had the reputa
tion of being the most persevering liar
In his native state of Massachusetts,
and had twice claimed to. have seen
the sen-serpent.
Young Mr. Oukes went to his room
with the beginnings of a bad headache.
All the really reliable Information
which he had acquired from his com-
pnnions'lie had embodied in his report,
detective, bnt lie w»
/ He was
human.
Certainly Elliott Oakes was not en
joying hlmpelf. The man of all othera
whom lie had afynlred and revered
most Intensely all his life—Elliott
Oakea, to wit—was beginning to show
sign's of not being so tremendous as he
had aHvays pictured him.
He was being tried and found want
ing.
He wished Mrs. Pickett would not
look at him like that It. hurt hla self
esteem.
CHAPTER V.
The Mystery Solved?
Two days later Mr. Snyder sot In
his office. There was a telegram be
fore him.
It ran as follows:
“Have solved Gunner mystery. Re
turning. "Oakea.”
Mr. Snyder rang the bell.
“Send Mr. Oakes to me directly he
arrives," he said.
He put his feet up on the desk,
tilted his chair back, and frowned at
the celling.
He was tiplned to find that the chief
emotion with which the telegram from
Oakes had affected him was annoy
ance. The swift solution of such an
apparently Insoluble problem would re
flect the highest credit on the agency,
and there were picturesque circum
stances connected with the case which
would muke It popular with the news
papermen und lead to Its being ac
corded a great deal of publicity.
On the whole, no case of recent
years promised to give the agency a
bigger advertisement than this one.
Yet, in spite of all this, Mr. Snyder
was annoyed. It was ridiculous and
unprofessional of him to be annoyed,
but humun nature was too strong for
him.
He realized now how large a part
the desire to reduce Oakes’ self-esteem
had played with him.
Looking at the thing honestly, h«
owned to himself that fie had had no
expectation that the young man would
come within a mile of a reasonable
solution of the mystery; and he, had
calculated that his failure would prove
a vamable piece of education for him.
For the professional was mixed up
with the unprofessional In Mr. Sny
der’s attitude toward his assistant. It
was not only as a private Individual
that he had hoped to seh Oakes reduced
to humility by failure: he also believed
that failure would make Oakes a more
valuable asset to the agency.
Oakes had Intelligence. That he had
never denied. Mr. Snyder's grievance
against him was that he had only
abouj half the Intelligence with which
he credited himself.
His aggressive belief In himself Im
paired bis utility as a detective. He
needed breaking In, and Mr. Snyder
had looked to this case to effect this
end.
And here he was, within a ridicu
lously short space of time, returning
to the fold, not humble and defeated,
but with flying colors.
Mr. Snyder looked forward with ap
prehension to the young man's prob
able demeanor under the Intoxicating
influence of victory.
His apprehensions were well
grounded. He had barely finished the
second of the series of cigars which,
like milestones, marked the progress
of his afternoon, when the door opened
and young Mr. Oakes entered, ram
pant.
Mr. Snyder could not repress a faint
moan at the sight of him. One glance
was enough to tell him that his worst
fears were realized.
Few people in the history of New
York could have been so pleased with
themselves as Oakes obviously was at
that moment. He diffused self-satis
faction like a scent. In some mysteri
ous way he seemed to have grown
bigger.
He was still tense, but his tenseness
now was that of the leopard returning
from sonte important kill, announcing
hla magnificence to the rest ot the
Jungle.
He sat down before Mr. Snyder had
time to invite him, and thd" older man
looked with dismay at this significant
sign of his Increased importance.
“I got your telegram,” said
Snyder.
Oakes nodded,
“It sifrp:.-' ' vow ell?”
•ug tone or me question, nut ne had
resigned himself to be patronized and
gave no sign of resentment.
One of the old man's chief virtues,
which had compensated him for a cer
tain lack of genius in his make-up.
was hla level-headedness and his abil
ity to allow nothing to disturb him
seriously. His sense of humor had
saved him In a hundred difficult sltua-.
tlons, and It saved him now.
He realized that Oakes could no
more help being patronizing at this
moment than a dog could help bark
ing after retrieving its master’s walk
ing-stick from a pond.
“Yea,” he replied, “I must say It
did surprise me. I didn't gather from
your report that you had even found
a clue. 'Was It the Indian theory that
won out, or did you catch Mrs. Pickett
with the goods?”
Oakes laughed tolerantly.
“Oh: that was all moonshine. I never
really believed that truck. I put It in
to All up. I hadn’t begun to think
about the case then—not really think.”
•‘Nor’
"No. I was just looking around It
—giving It the once over.”
“And having given it the once
over— 1
was to nave a talk with Mrs. Pickett.
A very dull old woman."
-"Qurtoos. She struck me as rather
Intelligent.”
"Not bn your life. She doesn’t know
beans from buttermilk. She gave Aoe
no assistance whatsoever.
"I then examined the ’ room where
the death had taken place. It was
much as you had described It. Locked
door. Window high up. No chimney.
I'm bound to say that, at first sight.
It looked fairly unpromising.
“Then I had a chat with some of
the other boarders. They had nothing
to tell me that was of the least use.
Most of them simply gibbered.
"I then gave up trying to get help
from outside, and resolved to rely on
m.v own intelligence.”
He smiled complacently.
“It Is a. theory of mine, Mr. Sny
der, which,I have ,found valuable,-that
in nine cases out of ten, remarkable
things don't happen.”
“I don't quite get that.”
■*1 mean exactly what I say. I will
put it another way If you like. What
I mean is that the simplest explana
tion Is nearly always the right one.”
"Well, I don't—"
I have tested and proved It. Con-
“Why, I took my coat off and waded - Rl(ler this case. Was there ever a case
In.”
“You weren’t lbng about it.”
Ifr. Snyder extended his cigar-case.
'Tight up and tell me nil about It.”
“Well, I won’t say I haven’t earned
tl)is,” said Oakes, puffing smoke.
“Shall I begin at the beginning?"
“Sure. But tell me first, who was
it that did it? Was it one of the board
ers?”
“No.”
“Somebody from outside, then?”
Oakes .smiled quietly.
“Yes, you might call it somebody
froie outside. But I had better trace
my reasoning from the start.”
“That’s right. It spoils a story know
ing the finish. Go to it.”
Oakes let the ash of his cigar fall
delicately to the floor, another action
which seemed significant to his em
ployer. As a rule, his assistants, unless
particularly pleased with themselves,
Used the ~
my first art on
which was more entitled by rights to
a bizarre solution? One was almost*
Inclined to believe in the supernatural.
It seemed impossible that there should
have been any reasonable explanation
of the man’s death. Most men would
have worn themselves out guessing at
wild theories. If I had started to’ do
that, I should have been guessing now.
“As it is—here I am. I trusted to
my belief that nothing remarkable
ever happens, and I won out.”
* Mr. Snyder sighed softly. Oakes was
entitled to a certain amount of gloat
ing, but there was no doubt that his
way of telling a story was a little
trying.
“I believe in the logical sequence of
events. I refuse to accept effects un
less they are preceded by causes. In
other words, with afl due deference to
you, Mr. Snyder, I simply decline to
believe in a murder unless there is a
motive for it.
(Continued next week)
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Captain Gunner had certainly visit
ed India in the course of his wander-
Ings, hut there the trail stopped. He
had never shown any of the' signs
cullies had merely stimulated him. He , which might be supposed to nup-k the
wus tired of being assigned to tnvostl-1 nmn conscious of being ceaselessly pur
gations which offered no scope for the 1 sued by the outraged servants of an
Inductive genius which he considered Indian god.
thnt lie possessed. In his ranfbles along the water-front
Hitherto he hnd been a razor cut- he had frequently met Indians, but'be
ting wood. Now, however, he told him- j had betrayed no nervousness. On the
pelf, he could really show Mr. Snyder contrary, if they happened to get In
the difference between modern moth- his way, he lmd usually kicked them,
ods and the stupid rule-of-thumb This was not the attitude' of a hunted
which seemed to be the agency's only 1 nmn.
form of mental expression. I Oakes, was bound to admit that his
This mood, had lasted 1 for some 1 confidence in the Indian theory was
Jiours Then doubts hud begun to creep i n °t very robust. He had put it to Mr.
to The problem began to appear in- j Snyder In his report more as an evi-
l uMe dence of good faith, as a proof that
True he had only Just taken it up, busy brain was at work und that
hut something Wild him that, for all j he was bringing a laudable nimbleuess
the progress be was likely to make, he ; of imagination to the quest, tlmn be-
Btlgbt just as well have beerf workiug ca ^ e hl ' r, all y believed it.
on it for a mouth. He was baffled. | His innuendo against Mrs. Pickett
. - was pure spite. Tho. woman irritated
nan oeen keen and abrupt during j hltu profoundly, and it soothed him to
that Interview. He had cut In on her
remarks. He had examined her with
veganl to the facts which he- needed
to supplement those which he bad had
~ ' ■ Vi...
fancy himself, eyen . for a mcmcnt
watching her like n hawk, and Causing
her myeasiuess by hla relentless pur-,
suit. ^ ^
J C. McCARLEY
Douglasville