Greenfield Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 14 March 1895 — Page 7

ki w#

HS*\*

,j^L

•r. Kite?

v#i

&

,-)

!f\

:f:i

'•.

IV

S.

A|?

fp-f

i-'H

.Vt

A STUDY IN SCARLET.

By A. COHAN DOYLE.

*. uijoajica gmuiy, uiiu we an aescended together. Our prisoner made 110 attempt to escape, but stepped calmly into the cab which had been his, and we followed him. Lestrade mounted the box, whijmedjut) thp horse and brought ns in a very short time to our destination. We were ushered into a small chamber, where a police inspector noted down our prisoner's name and tho names of the mei^ with whose murder he had been charged. The official was a white faced, unemotional man, who went through his duties in a dull, mechanical way. "The prisoner will bo put before the magistrates in tho course of tho week," lie said. "In the meantime, Mr. Jefferson Hope, have you anything that you wish to say? I must warn you that your words will be taken down and may be used against you." "I've got a good deal to say," our prisoner said slowly. "I want to tell you gentlemen all about it."

Hadn't' you better reserve that tor your trial?" asked the inspector. "I may never be tried," he answered. "You needn't look startled. It isn't suicide I am thinking of. Are you a doctor?" He turned his fierce, dark eyes tipon mo as he asked this last question. "Yes, I am," I answered. "Then put your hand here," he said, with a smile, motioning with his manacled wrists toward his chest.

I did so and became at once conscious of an extraordinary throbbing and commotion which was going on inside. The walls of his chcst seemed to thrill and quiver as a frail building would do inside when some powerful engine was at work. In the silence of the room I could hear a dull humming and buzzing noise which proceeded from the same source. "Why," I cried, "you have an aortic aneurism!" "That's what they call it," he said placidly. "I went to a doctor last week about it, and he told me that it was bound to burst before many days passed. It has been getting worse for years. I got it from overexposure and underfeeding among the Salt Lake mountains. I've done my work now, and I don't care how soon I go, but I should like to leave some account of the business behind me. I don't want to be remembered as a common cutthroat.

The inspector and the two detectives had a hurried discussion as to the advisability of allowing him to tell his story. "Do yon consider, doctor, that there is immediate danger?" tho former asked. "Most certainly there is," I answered. "In that case it is clearly our duty, in tho interests of justice, to take his statement," said tho inspector. "You are at liberty, sir, to give your account, which I again warn you will be taken down.'' "I'll sit down, with your leave," the prisoner said, suiting tho action to tho word. 'This aneurism of mine makes me easily tired, and the tusslo we had half an hour ago has not mended matters. I'm on tho brink of tho grave, and I am not likely to lio to you. Every word I say is the absolute truth, and how you use it is a matter of 110 consequence to me."

With tlieso words, Jefferson Hope leaned back in his chair and began the following remarkable statement. He spoko in a calm and methodical manner, as though the events which ho narrated wero commonplace enough. I can vouch for the accuracy of tho subjoined account, for I have had access to Lastrade's notebook, in which the prisoner's •words were taken down exactly as they •were uttered. "It don't much matter to you why I hated these men,'' he said. "It's enough that they were guilty of the death of two human beings—a father and a daughter—and that they had therefore forfeited their own lives. After the lapso of time that has passed since their crime, it was impossible for me to secure a conviction against them in any court. I knew of their guilt, though, and I determined that I should be judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. You'd have dono the same, if you have any manhood in you, if you had been in my place. "That girl that I spoke of was to have married me 20 years aji. She was forced into marrying that same Drebber and broke her heart over it. I took tho marriage vi::g from her dead finger, and I vowed that his dying eyes should rest upon that vory ring, and that his last thoughts should be of tho crime for which ho was punished. I have carried it about with mo and have followed him and his accomplice over two continents until I caught them. They thought to tire me out, but they could not do it. If I die tomorrow, as is likoly enough, I die knowing that my work in this world is done, and well done. They have perished, and all by my hand. There is nothing left for me to hope for or to desire. "They were rich and I was poor, so that it was no easy matter for me to follow them. When I got to London my pocket was abont empty, and I found that I must turn my hand to something for my living. Driving and riding are as natural to me as walking, so I applied at a cab owner's office and soon got employment. I was to bring a certain snm a week to the owner, and whatever was over that I might keep for myself. There was seldom much over, but I managed to scrape along somehow. The hardest job was to learn my way about, for I reckon that of all the mazes that ever were contrived this city is the most confusing. I had a map beside me, though, and when once I spotted the principal hotels and stations I got on pretty well. "It was some time before I found out where my tw^ gentlemen were living, but I inquired and inqnired until at last I drogpfed ffcrosB them. They wj&re at a

boarding house at Camberwell, over on the other side of the river. When once I found them out, I knew that I had them at my mercy. I had grown my beard, and there was no chance of their recognizing isle. I would dog them and follow them until I saw my opportunity. I was determined that they should not escape me again. "They were very near doing it, for all that. Go where they would about London, 1 was always at their heels. Sometimes I followed them on my cab and sometimes on foot, but tho former was the best, for then they could not get away from me. It was only early in the morning or late at night that I could earn anything, so that I began to get behindhand with my employer. I did not mind that, however, as long as I could lay my hand upon the men I wanted. "Tliey wero very cunning, though. Thcv itmsfc have thought thfit there. was some chance of their being followed, for they would never go out alono and never after nightfall. During two weeks I drove behind them every day and never once saw them separate. Drebber himself was drunk half the time, but Stangerson was not to bo caught napping. I watched them lato .and early, but uever saw the ghost of a chance, but I was not discouraged, for something told me that the hour had almost come. My only fear was that this thing in my chest might burst a little too soon and leavo my work undone.

At last one evening I was driving up and clown Torquay Terr,ice, as tho street was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cab drive up to their door. Presently some luggage was brought out, I and after a time Drebber and Stangerson followed it and drove off. I whipped up my horse and kept within sight of them, feeling ill at ease, for I feared that they were going to shift their quarters. At Euston station they got out, and I left a boy to hold my horse and followed them 011 to the platform. I heard them ask for the Liverpool train, and tho guard answered that one had just gone, and that there would not be another for some hours. Stangerson seemed to be put out at that, but Drebber was rather pleased than otherwise. I got so close to them in the bustle that could hear every word that passet? between them. Drebber said that he had a little business of his own to do, and that if the other would wait for him he would soon rejoin him. His companion remonstrated with him and reminded him that they had resolved to stick together. Drebber answered that the matter was a delicate one, and that he must go alone. I could not catch what Stangerson said to that, but tho other burst out swearing and reminded him that he was nothing more than his paid servant, and that he must not presume to dictate to him. On that the secretary gave it up as a bad job and simply bargained with him that if ho missed the last train he should rejoin him at Halliday's Private hotel, to which Drebber answered that he would be back on tho platform before 11 and made his way out of the station. "Tho moment for which I had waited so long had at last come. I had my enemies within my power. Together they could protect each other, but singly they wera at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undue precipitation. My plans were already formed. There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless tho offender has timo to rcalizo who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has como upon him. I had my plans arranged by which I should have the opportunity of making tho man who had wronged me understand that his old sin had found him out. It chanced that some days before a gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some houses in the Brixton road had dropped tho key of one of them in my carriage. It was claimed that same evening and returned, but in tho interval I had taken a molding of it and had a duplicate constructed. By means of this I had access to at least ono spot in this great city where I could rely upon being free from interruption. How to get Drebber to that houso was the difficult problem which I had now to solve. "He walked down the road and went into ono or two liquor shops, staying for nearly half an hour in the last of them. When he came out, ho staggered in his walk and was evidently pretty well on. There was a hansom just in front of me, and he hailed it. I followed it so close that the nose of my horse was within a yard of his driver tho whole way. We rattled across Waterloo bridge and through miles of streets, until, to my astonishment, wo found ourselves back in the terrace in which he had boarded. I could not imagine what his intention was in returning there, but I went 011 and pulled up my cab a hundred yards or so from the house. He entered it, and his hansom drove away. Give me a glass of water, if you please. My mouth gets dry with the talking."

I handed him the glass, and he drank it down. "That's better," he said. "Well, I waited for a quarter of an hour or more, when suddenly there came a noise like people struggling inside the house. Next moment the door was flung open, and two men appeared, one of whom was.. Drebber, and the other was a ypung chap whom I had never seen before. This fellow had Drebber by the collar, and when they came to the head of the steps he gave him a shove and a kick which sent him half across the road. 'You hound 1' he cried, shaking his stick at him. 'I'll teach you to insult an honest girl 1* He was so hot that I think he would have thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only that the cur staggered away down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran as far as the corner, and then, seeing my cab, ho hailed me and jumped in. 'Drive me to Halliday's Private hotel, said he. "When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped so with joy that I feared lest at this last moment my aneurism might go wrong. I drove along slowly, weighing in my own mind what it was best to do. I might take him right out into the country, and there in some deserted lane have my last interview with him.. I had almost delisted

i7- W '/-riv^ 'w'^ v."

upon tiii£ when lio solved the problem for tv). The craze for drink had seized him again, and ho ordered me to pull up outside a gin palace. Ho went in, leaving word that I should wait for him. Thero ho remained until closing time, and when ho came out he was so far gone that I knew the game was in my own hands. "Don't imagine that I intended to kill him in cold blood. It would only have been rigid justice if I had done so, but I could not bring myself to do it. I had long determined that he should have a show for his lifo if ho chose to take advantage of it. Among tho many billets which I have filled in America during my wandering life, 1 was once a janitor and sweeper out of tho laboratory at York college. One day the professor was lecturing 011 poisons, and he showed his students some alkaloid,, as he called it, which he had extracted froiii somo South American arrow poison, and which was so powerful that the least grain meant instant death. I spotted the bottle in which this preparation was. kept and when they were all gono I belied myself to a little of it. I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills, and each pill I put in a box with a similar pill made without poison. I determined at tho time that when I. had my chance my gentlemen should each have a draw out or one of these boxes, while I ate the pill that remained. It would be

quite as deadly and a good deal less noisy than firing across a handkerchief. From that day I had always-my pill boxes about with me, and the time had now come when I was to use them. "It was nearer 1 than 12, and a wild, bleak night, blowing hard and raining in torrents. Dismal as it was outside, I was glad within—so glad that I could havo shouted out from pure exultation. If any ol' you gentlemen have ever pined for a thing and longed for it during 20 long years and then suddenly found it within your reach, you would understand my feelings. I lit a cigar and puffed at it to steady my nerves, but my hands wero trembling and my temples throbbing with excitement. As I drove, I could see old John Ferrier and sweet Lucy looking at rne out of the darkness and smiling at me just as plain as I see you all in this room. All the way they wero ahead of me, one 011 cach side of the horse, until I pulled up at the house in tho Brixton road. "There was not a soul to bo seen, nor a sound to bo heard, except the dripping of tho rain. When I looked in at the window, I found Drebber all huddled together in a drunken sleep. I shook him by the arm, 'It's timo to go out,' I said. 'All right, cabby,' said he. "I suppose he thought wo had come to the hotel that he had mentioned, for he got out without another word and followed mo down tho garden. I had to walk besido him to keep him steady, for he was still a littlo top heavy. When we came to the door, I opened it and led him into the front room. I givo you my word that, all tho way, tho father and daughter were walking in front of us. 'It's infernally dark,' said he stamping about. 'We'll soon havo a light,' I said, striking a match and putting it to a wax candle which I had brought with me. 'Now, Enoch Drebber,' I continued, turning to him and holding the light to my own face, 'who am I?' 'He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, and then I saw a horror spring up in them and convulse his wholo features, which showed me that he knew me. He staggered back with a livid face, and I saw the perspiration break out upon his brow, while his teeth chattered. At the sight I leaned my back against the door and laughed loud and long. I had always known that vengeance would be sweet, but had never hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me. 'You dog!' I said. "I have hunted you from Salt Lake City to St. Petersburg, and you havo always escaped me. Now at last your wanderings have come to an end, for either you or I shall never see tomorrow's sun rise.' Ho shrank still farther away as I spoke, and I could see on his face that he thought I was mad. So I was for the time. The pulses in my temples beat like sledge hammers, and I believe I would have had a fit of some sort if the blood had not gushed from my nose and relieved me. 'What do you think of Lucy Ferrier now?' I cried, locking the door and shaking the key in his face. 'Punishment has been slow in coming, but it has overtaken you at last.' I saw his coward lips tremble as I spoke. He would have begged for his life, but he knew well that it was useless. 'Would you murder me?' he stammered. 'There is no murder,' I answered. 'Who talks of murdering a mad dog? What mercy had you upon my poor darling when you dragged her from her slaughtered father and bore her away to you accursed and shameless liarem?' 'It was not I who killed her father 1'ho cried. 'But it was you who broke her in-nocent-heart!' I shrieked, thrusting the box before him. 'Let the high God judge between us. Choose and eat. There is death in one and life in the other. I shall take what you leave. Let us see if there is justice upon the earth or if we are ruled by chance.' "Ho cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy, bnt I drew my knife and held it to his throat until he had obeyed me. Then I swallowed the other, and we stood facing one another in silence for a minute or more, waiting to see which was to live and which was to die. Shall I ever forget the look which came over his face when the first warning pangs told him that the poison was in his system? I laughed as I saw it and hold Lucy's marriage ring in front of his eyes. It wasUut for a moment, for the action of %he alkaloid is rapid. A spasm of pain contorted his features. He threw his hands out in front of him, staggered, and then, with a hoarse cry, fell heavily ufrou tho floor. X, turned him over with iny foqtjuid

GREENFIELD REPUBLICAIN, THURSDAY, MARCH 14- 181)5.

placed my "hand upon his heart. There was 110 movement. He was dead! "The blood had. been streaming from my nose, but I had taken no notice of it. I don't know what it was that put it into my head to write upon the wall with it. Perhaps it was some mischievous idea of setting the police upon a wrong track, for I felt light hearted and cheerful. I remembered a German being found in New York with 'Rache' written up above him, and it was argued at the time in the newspapers that the secret societies must have done it. I guessed that what puzzled the New Yorkers would puzzle the Londoners, so I dipped my finger in my oWn blood and printed it on a convenient place on the wall. Then I walked down to my cab and found that there was nobody about, and that the night was still vqry wild. I had driven somo distauce when put my hand into the pocket in which I usually kept Lucy's ring and found that it was not there. I was thunderstruck at this, for it was the only memento thc£ I had of her. Thinking that I might havo dropped it when I stooped over Drebber's body, I drove back, and leaving my cab in a side street I went boldly up to the house, for I was ready to dare anything rather than lose the ring. When I arrived there, I walked right into the arms of a police officer who was coming out and only managed to disarm his suspicions by pretending to be hopelessly drunk.

'That was how Enoch Drebber came to his end. All I had to do then was to do as much for Stangerson, and so pay off John Ferrier's debt. I knew that he was staying at Halliday's .Privato hotel, and I hung about all day, but ho never came out. I fancy that ho suspected something when Drebber failed to put in an appearance. He was cunning, was Stangerson, and always on his guard. If ho thought he could keep me off by staying indoors, be was very much mistaken. I soon found out which was the window of his bedroom, and early next morning I took advantage of some ladders which were lying in the lane behind tho hotel, and so mado my way into his room in tho gray of the dawn. "I woke him up and told him that the hour had come when he was to answer for tho lifo he had taken so long before. I described Drebber's death to him, and I gave him the same choice of tho poisoned pills. Instead of grasping at the chance of safety which that offered him, ho sprang from his bed and flew at my throat. In self defense I stabbed him to tho heart. It would have been tho same in any case, for Providence would never have allowed his guilty hand to pick out anything but the poison. "I havo littlo moro to say, and it's as well, for I am about dono up. I went on cabbing it for a day or so, intending to keep at it until I could save enough to take 1110 back to America. I was standing in the yard when a ragged youngster asked if there was a cabby there called Jefferson Hope and said that his cab was wanted by a gentleman at 221b Baker street. I wont round, suspecting 110 harm, and the next thing I knew this young man here had the bracelets 011 my wrists and as neatly shackled as ever I was in my life. That's the wholo of my story, gentlemen. You may consider me to be a murderer, but I hold that I am just as much an officer of justice as you are."

So thrilling had the man's narrative been, and his manner was so impressive, that we had sat silent and absorbed. Even the professional detectives, blaso as they were in every detail of crime, appeared to bo keenly interested in tho man's story. When he finished, wo sat for somo minutes in a stillness which was only broken by the scratching of Lestrade's pencil as ho gave the finishing touches to his shorthand account. "There is only one point on which I should like a littlo more information," Sherlock Holmes said at last "Who was your accomplice who came for tho ring which I advertised?"

Tho prisoner winked at my friend jocosely. "I can toll my own secrets," ho said, "but I don't get other people into trouble. I saw your advertisement, and I thought it might be a plant, or it might be the ring I wanted. My friend volunteered to go and see. I think you'll own he did it smartly." "Not a doubt of that," said Holmes heartily. "Now, gentlemen," the inspector remarked gravely, "tho forms of the law must be complied with. On Thursday the prisoner will be brought before the magistrates, and your attendance will be required. Until then I will be responsible for him." He rang the bell as he spoke, and Jefferson Hope was led off by a couple of warders, while my friend and I made our way out of the station and took a cab back to Baker street.

CHAPTER VIL

We had all been warned to appear before the magistrates upon the Thursday, but when the Thursday came there was no occasion for our testimony. A higher Judge had taken the matter in hand, and Jefferson Hope had been summoned before a tribunal where strict justice would be meted out to him. On the very night after his capture the aneurism burst, and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor of the cell, with a placid smile upon his face, as though he had been able in his dying moments to look back upon a useful life and on work well dona "Gregson and Lestrade will be wild about his death," Holmes remarked as we ohatted it over next evening. "Where will their grand advertisement be now?" "I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture,'' I answered. "What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence," returned my companion bitterly. "The question is, What can you make people believe you have done? Never mind," he oontinued more brightly after a pause, "I would not have missed the investigation for anything. There has been no better case within my recollection. Simple as it was, there wdre several most instructive point* about it"

1 1

••rfimple!" 1 ejaculated. "Well, really, it can hardly be described as otherwise," said Sherlock Holmes, smiling at my surprise. "The proof of its intrinsic simplicity is that without any help, save a very few ordinary deductions, I was able to lay my hand upon the criminal within three days." "That is true," said I. "I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance. In solving a problem of this sort tho grand thing is to bo ablo to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment and a very easy one, but peoplo do not practice it much. I11 the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are 50 who can reason synthetically for ono who can reason analytically." "I confess," said I, "that I do not quite follow you." "I hardly expected that you would. Let me see if I can make it clear. Most people, if you describe a train of events to them, will tell you what the. result would be. They can put those events together in their minds and arguo from tborn that something will como to pass. Thero are few people, however, who, if you told them a result, wc$ld bo able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what tho steps were which led up to that result. This power is

what I mean when I talk of reasoning backward, or analytically." "I undetstand," said I. "Now, this was a case in which you were given tho result and had to find everything else for yourself. Now, let me endeavor to show you the different steps in my reasuiiing. To begin at the beginning, I approached the house, as you know, on foot and with my mind entirely free from all impressions. I naturally began by examining tho roadway, and there, as I have already explained to you, I saw clearly tho marks of a cab, which, I ascertained by inquiry, must have been there during the night. I satisfied myself that it was a cab and not a private carriage by tho narrow gango of the wheels. Tho ordinary London growler is considerably less wide than a gentleman's brougham. "This was the first point gained. I then walked slowly down the garden path, which happened to be composed of a clay soil, peculiarly suitable for taking impressions. No doubt it appeared to you to bo a mere trampled line of slush, but to my trained eye every mark upon its surface had a meaning. There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps. Happily I have always laid great stress upon it, and much practice has made it second nature to me. I saw tho heavy footmarks of tho constables, but I saw also tho tracks of the two men who had first passed through M10 garden. It was easy to tell that they had been boforotho others, because in places their marks had been entirely obliterated by the others coming upon tho top of them. In this way my second link was formed, which told mo that tho nocturnal visitors wero two in number, ono remarkable for his height, as I calculated from tho length of his stride, and the other fashionably dressed, to judge from tho small and elegant impression left by his boots. "On entering the houso this last inference was confirmed. My well booted man lay before me. Tho tall one, then, had done the murder, if murder there was. There was no wound upon tho dead man's person, but the agitated expression upon his face assured me that ho had foreseen his fate before it came upon him. Men who die from heart disease or any sudden natural cause never by any chance exhibit agitation upon their features. Having sniffed the dead man's lips, I detected a slightly sour smell, and I came to tho conclusion that he had had poison forced upon him. Again, I argued that it had been forced upon him from the hatred and fear expressed upon his face. By the method of exclusion I had arrived at this result, for 110 other hypothesis would meet tho facts. Do not imagine that it was a very unheard of idea. The forcible administration of poison is by no means a now thing in criminal annals. Tho cases of Dolsky in Odessa and of Letnrier in Montpellier will occur at once to any toxicologist. "And now came the great question as to the reason why. Robbery had not been the object of the murder, for nothing was taken. Was it politics, then, or was it a woman? That was the question which confronted me. I was inclined from the first to the latter supposition. Political assassins are only too glad to do their work and to fly. This murder had, on the contrary, been done most deliberately, and the perpetrator had left his tracks all over the room, showing that he had been there all the time. It must have been a private wrong and not a political one which called for such a methodical revenge. When the inscription was discovered upon the wall, I was more inclined than ever to my opinion. The thing was too evidently a blind. When the ring was found, however, it settled tho question. Clearly the murderer had used it to remind his victim of some dead or absent woman. It was at this point that I asked Gregson whether he had inquired in his telegram to Cleveland as to any particular point in Mr. Drebber's former career. He answered, you remember, in the negative. "I then proceeded to make a careful examination of the room, which confirmed me in my opinion as to the murderer's height and furnished me with the additional detail as to the Trichinopoly cigar and the length of his nails. I had already come to tho conclusion, since there were no signs of a struggle, that the blood which covered the floor had burst from the murderer's nose in his excitement. I oould perceive that the track of blood coincided with the track of his feet. It is seldom that any man, unless he is very full blooded, breaks out in this way through emotion, BO I hazarded the opinion that the criminal was probably .a robust and ruddv

wt*f.-

rauea mma. -liiv^-nio jjxoveci that 1 fcsti judged correctly. "Having left the houso, I proceeded to do what Gregson had ncglected. I telegraphed to the head of tho police at Cleveland, limiting my inquiry to tho circumstances ccnnccted with the marriage of Enoch Drebber. Tho answer was conclusive. It told me that Drebber had already applied for the protection of tho law against an old rival in love, named Jefferson Hope, and that thiai same Hopo was at present in Europe. I knew novv- that I held tho clew to tho mystery in my hand and all that remained was to secure tho murderer. "I had already determined inmyowj mind that tho man who had walked in-,. to the house with Drebber was nono other than tho man who had driven tho cab. Tho marks in the road showed BID that tho horse had wandered on in a way winch would havo been impossible had there been anj' one in charge of it. Where, then, could the driver bo unless ho were inside the house? Again, it is absurd to suppose that any sane man would carry out a deliberate eriroo under tho very eyes, as it were, of a third T)0r.- 0'i who was sure to betrav him. Lastly, supposing one man wished to. dog another through London, what better means could he adopt than to turn, cab driver? All these considerations led me to the irresistible conclusion that' Jefferson Hope was to be found among the jarveys of tho metropolis.

"If he had been one, there was 110 reason to believe that ho had ceased to be. On the contrary, from his point of view, any sudden change would be likoly to draw attention to himself. Ho would probably, for a timo at least, continuo to perform his duties. There was no reason to suppose that he was going under an assumed name. Why should he change his namo in a country where no one knew his original one? I therefore organized my street arab detective corps and sent them systematically to every cab proprietor in London until they ferreted out the man Jiat 1 wanted. How well they succeeued and bow quickly I took advantage of it are still fresh in your recollection. The murder of Stangerson was an incident which was entirely unexpected, but which could hardly in any caso havo been prevented. Through it-fWis you know, I came into possession of tho pills, tho existence of which I had already surmised. You see, the whole is a chain of logical sequences without a break or flaw.'' "It is wonderful!" I cried. "Your merits should bo publicly recognized. You should publish an account of tho case. If you won't, I will for you." "You may do what you like, doctor," he answered. "See here!" ho continued, handing a paper over to me. "Look at this!"

It was The Echo for the day, and tho paragraph to which ho pointed was devoted to tho caso in question. "Tho public," it said, "havo lost a sensational treat through the sudden death of the man Hope, who was suspected of tho murder of Mr. Enoch Drebber and of Mr. Joseph Stangerson. Tho details of tho caso will probably never be known now, though we are informed upon good authority that tho crime was the result of an old standing and romantic feud in which love and Mormonism bore a part. It seems that both the victims belonged in their younger days to tho Latter Day Saints, and Hope, the deceased prisoner, hails also from Salt Lako City. If tho case has had no other effect, it at least brings out in the most striking manner the efficiency of our detective police force and will serve as a lesson to all foreigners that they will do wisely to settle their fends at home and not to carry them on to British soil. It is an open secret that the credit of this smart capture belongs entirely to tho well known Scotland Yard officials, Messrs. Lestrade and Gregson. The man was apprehended, it appears, in tho rooms of a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who has himself, as an amateur, shown some talent in tho detective line, and who, with such instruotors, may hope in time to attain to somo degree of their skill. It is expected that a testimonial of somo sort will bo presented to the two officers as a fitting recognition of their services." "Didn't I tell you so when wo start-' ed?" cried Sherlock Holmes, with a laugh. "That's tho result of all our,, Study In Scarlet—to get them a testimonial!" "Never mind," I answered. "I have all tho facts in my journal, and the public shall know them. In the meantime you must mako yourself contented by the consciousness of success, like tho Roman miser— "Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipso domi simul ac nummos coiitcniplar ill area."

THE END.

WONDERS OF THE SEA.

Sea water is said to contain all tho soluble substances that exist on tho earth. The average depth of all oceans is supposed to bo between 2,000 and 3,000 fathoms.

The sea nettle stings its prey to doath by means of a poison secreted in its tonta* cles.

If tho surface of tho earth were perfectly level, the waters of tho ocean would cover it to a depth of 600 feet.

The first mention of the gulf stroam is In the journal of Alaminos, the pilot of Ponce de Leon, in 1518.

It Is estimated that more gold and silver have been sunk in tho soathan are now in circulation on the earth.

Tho proportion of salt in sea water is largest where tho water is deepest, but does not increase with the depth.

The first map of the gulf stream wa» made by Benjamin Franklin, who tried to point out the utility of ocean currents 1* navigation.

The sea anemone is capaDle of swallowing an animal many times larger than itself. It spreads its body, and thus sur» rounds its prey.

The Venus' belt Is a thin, flat mepl« brano from 1 to 2 feet long and about the width of a lady's belt. Its mouth is in thtf middle of its body.