Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1907 — Martin Hewitt, Investigator. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Martin Hewitt, Investigator.

The Case of Mr. Foggatt.

By ARTHUR MORRISON.

Published by Arrangement With Harper A Brothers.

mHE old house wherein my cham hers and Hewitt's ofßee were situated contained, besides my own, two or three more bachelors’ dens, In addition to the offices on the ground and first and second floors. At the very top of all, at the buck, a fat, middle aged man named Foggatt occupied a set of four rooms. .Mr. Foggatt appeared to have few friends, but lived In something a» nearly approaching luxury as an old bachelor In chambers cnn live. The man himself was not altogether prepossessing. Fat as he was, he had a way of carrying his head forward on his extended neck and gazing widely about ■with a pair of the roundest and most prominent eyes I remember to have ever seen, except In a fish. On the whole, his appearance was rather vulgar, rather arrogant and rather suspicious, without any very pronounced quality of any sort. But certainly he was-not pretty. In the end, however, he was found shot dead In his sitting room. It was in this way: Hewitt and I had dined together at my club and late In the evening had returned to my rooms to Hmoke and discuss whatever came uppermost. We sat talking while time twent unpercelved, when suddenly we were startled by a loud report. Clearly It was In the building. We listened for a moment, but heard nothing else, and then Hewitt expressed his opinion that the report was that of a gunshot. Gunshots in residential chambers are not common things, wherefore I got up and went to the landing, looking up the stairs and down. At the top of the next flight I saw Mrs. Clayton, the housekeeper. She appeared to be frightened and told me that the report came from Mr. Foggatt's room. She thought be might have had an accident with the pistol that usually lay on his mantelpiece. We went upstairs with her, and she knocked at Mr. Foggatt’s door. There was no reply. Through t&'. ventilating fanlight over the door it could be seen that there were lights within, a sign, Mrs. Clayton maintained, that Mr. Foggatt was not out. We knocked again, much more loudly, and called, but still Ineffectually. The door was locked, and an application of the housekeeper’s key proved that the tenant’s key had been left In the lock Inside, Mrs. Clayton’s conviction that “something had happened” became distressing, and In the end Hewitt pried open the door with a small poker. (Something had happened. In the sitting room Mr. Foggatt sat with his head bowed over the table, quiet and still. The head was 111 to look at, and by It lay a large revolver, of the full sized army pattern. Mrs. Clayton rnn back toward the landing with faint screams. “Run, Brett!” said Hewitt. “A doctor and a policeman!” I bounced down the stairs half a flight at a time, but it took me a good

five minutes to find a medico, after be--1 tog led astray by a red lamp at a private hotel, and another five to get back with a policeman. i Foggatt was dead, without a doubt. Probably had shot himself, the doctor " thought, from the powder blackening and other circumstances. Certainly nobody could have left the room by the ’ door, or he must have passed pay landing, while the fact of the door Iteing : found locked from the Inside made the thing Impossible. There were two : "windows to the room, both of which f were shut one being fastened by the | catch, while the catch of the other was broken—an old fracture. Below these windows was a sheer drop of fifty feet or more, without a foot or hand | hold near. The window's in the other rooms were shut and fastened. Certalnly it seemed suicide—unless it were one of those accidents that will occur to people who fiddle Ignorantly with firearms. Soon the rooms were In pos-

session of the police, and we VENP tamed oat ■ * We looked in at the housekeeper’s kitchen, where her daughter was reviving and calming Mrs. Clayton with gin and water. Hewitt took a small bottle of sewing machine oil from bis* pocket and handed it to the daughter, thanking her for the loan. There was little evidence at the Inquest. The shot had been heard, the body had been found—that was the practical sum of the matter. No friends or relatives of the dead man came forward. The doctor gave his opinion as to the probability of suicide or an accident, and the police evidence tended In the same "direction. Nothing had been found to indicate that any other person had been near the dead man’s rooms on the night of the fatality. On the other hand, his papecs, bank book, etc., proved him to be a man of considerable substance, with no apparent motive for suicide. The Jury found that Mr. Foggatt had died by accident. “Well, Brett,” Hewitt asked me afterward, “what do you think of the verdict?” r : v I said that It seemed to be the most reasonable one possible and to square with the common sense view of the case. “Yes,” he replied, “perhaps It does. Nevertheless Mr. Foggatt did not shoot himself. He was shot by n rather tall, active young man, perhaps a sailor, but certainly a gymnast—a youug man whom I think I could Identify if I saw him.” “But how do you know this?” “By the simplest possible inferences, which you may easily guess if you will but think.” “But, then, why didn’t you say this at the inquest?” “My dear fellow, they don’t want my Inferences and conjectures at an inquest. They only want evidence. If I had traced the murderer, of course then I should have communicated with the police.” “But, If you are right, how did the man get away?” “Come, we are near home now. I-et us take a look at the back of the house. He couldn’t have left by Foggatt’s landing door, as we know; and as he was there (I am certain of that), and as the chimney Is out of the question—for there was a good fire In the grate—he must have gone out by the window. Only one window is possible—that with the broken catch—for all the others were fastened inside. Out of that window, then, he went.” _ ' “But how? The window Is fifty feet

up.” "Of course it is. But why will yon persist In assuming that the only way of escape by a window Is downward? Bee, now, look up there. The window Is at the top floor, and it has a very broad sill. Over the window is nothing but the flat face of the gable end, but to the right and a foot or two above the level of the top of the window an iron gutter ends. Observe it is not of lead composition, but a strong iron glitter, supported just at its end by au iron bracket. If a tall man stood on the end of the window sill steadying himself by the left hand and leaning to the right, he could just touch the end of this gutter with his right band. The full stretch, toe to finger, is seven feet three inches. I have measured it. An active gymnast or a sailor could catch the gutter with a slight spring and by it draw himself up on the roof. You will say he would have to be very active, dexterous and cool. So he would. And that very fact helps us, because it narrows the field of inquiry. We know the sort of man to look for. Because, being certain (as I am) that the man was in the room, I know that he left in the way I am telling you: lie jhust have left in some way, and, all the other ways being Impossible, this alone remains, difficult as the feat may seem. The fact of his shutting the window behind him further proves his coolness and address at so great a height from the ground.” All this was very plain, but the main point was still dark. ‘‘You say you know that another man was in the room,” I said. “How do you know that?” “As I said, by an obvious Inference. Come, now, you shall guess how T arrived at that Inference. You saw everything in the room as plainly as I myself. Did you see a newspaper, for instance?” : 1 —' —~ "Yes; there was an evening paper On the floor, but I didn’t examine it.” “Anything else?” “On the table there was a whisky decanter, taken from the tantalus stand on the sideboard, and one glass. That, by the bye,” I added, “looked as though only one person were present.” “Bo It did perhaps, although the inference wouldn’t be very strong. Go on.” “There was a fruit stand on the sideboard, with a plate beside it, containing a few nutshells, a piece of apple, n pair of nut crackers and. I think, some orange peel. There was, of course, all the ordinary furniture, but no chair pulled up to the table except that used by Foggatt himself. That’s all I noticed, I think. Btay—there was an ash tray on the table and a partly burned cigar near it—only one cigar, though.” “Excellent—excellent, indeed, ns far as memory and simple observation go. Don’t yon remember everything that I did as we went downstairs?” “You returned a bottle of oil to the housekeeper’s daughter, I think.” “I did. Doesn’t that give you a hint? ,Come, you surely have it now?” I “I haven’t.” “Then I shan’t tell you. You don’t [deserve It. Think, and don’t mention ithe subject again till you have at least lone guess to make. Goodby. I’m off lOow. There’s a case In hand I can’t Ineglect.” | “Don’t you propose to go further into this, then V Hewitt shsugged his shoulders. Tm not a policeman,” he said. “The case Is In very good hands. Of course if

[anybody comes to me to do It os a matter of business I’ll take it up. It's very Interesting, but I can’t neglect my regular work for It. Naturally, | shall keep my eyes open and my memory in order. Sometimes these thlug3 come Into the hands by themselves, as It were. In that case, of course, I am a loyal citizen and ready to help the law. Au revolr.” • I am a busy man myself and saw no more of Hewitt for klx weeks. One evening we together turned Into Lukattl’s, off Coventry street, for dinner. ) "I have been here several times lately,” Hewitt said. “They feed you very well. No, not that table”—he seized my arm as I turned to an unoccupied corner—“l fancy it’s drafty.” .He led the way to a longer table where ja dark, lithe and (as well as could be seen) tall young man already sat and took chairs opposite him. We had scarcely seated ourselves before Hewitt broke into a torrent of conversation on the subject of bljeycllng. As our previous conversation had been of a literary sort and as I had never known Hewitt at any other time to show the slightest Interest In bicycling, this rather surprised me. I had, however, such a general outsider’s grasp of the subject as Is usual In a Journalist of all work and managed to keep the talk going from my side. As we went on I could see the face of the young man opposite brighten with Interest. He was a rather fine looking fellow with a dark though very clear skin, but had a hard, angry look of eye, a prominence of cheek bone and a squareness of jaw that gave him a rather uninviting aspect. “Of course,” Hewitt said, “we’ve a number of very capital men Just now, but I believe a deal In the forgotten riders of five, teh and fifteen years back. Nobody ever beat Cortis—except —let me see—l think somebody beat Cortis once. Who was it, now? I can’t remember.” . “Liles,” said the young man opposite, 'looking up quickly. •

“Ah, yes, Liles It was—Charley Liles. Wasn’t It a championship?” “Mile Cortis won the other three, though.” “Yes, so he did. I saw Cortis when ihe flrst broke the old 2:46 mile record." And straightway Hewitt and' the stranger plunged into a whirl of talk )of bicycles, tricycles, records and rac'ing cycllßts. Our new friend, it seemed, had himself been a prominent racing bicyclist a few years back and was presently, at Hewitt’s request, exhibiting a neat gold medal that hung at his watch guard. That was won, he explafnedr in the old tall bicycle days, the days of bad tracks, when every racing cyclist carried cinder scars on his face from numerous accidents. He pointed to a blue mark on his forehead, which, he told us, was a track scar, and described a bad fall that had cost him two teeth and broken others. The gaps 'among his teeth were plain to see as )ie smiled. f Presently the waiter brought dessert, and the young man opposite took an japple. Nut crackers and a fruit knife jlay on our side of the stand, and Hewfltt turned the stand to offer him the knife.

“No, thanks,” he said. “I only polish a good apple; never peel it. It’s a mistake except with thick skinned foreign ones.” And he began to munch the apple as only a boy or a healthy athlete can. Presently he turned his head to order [coffee. To my unutterable amazement, Hewitt reached swiftly across the table, snatched the'half eaten apple from the young man’s plate and pocketed it, gazing Immediately with an abstracted air at a painted Cupid on the ceiling. Our neighbor turned again, looked doubtfully at his plate and the tablecloth about it and then shot a keen jglance in the direction of Hewitt. He [said nothing, however, but took his icoffee and his bill, deliberately drank the former, gazing quietly at Hewitt as he did it, paid the latter and left. immediately Hewitt was on his feet and, taking an umbrella which stood near, followed. Just as he reached Jthe door he met our late neighbor, who had turned suddenly back.

“Your umbrella, I think,” Hewitt said, offering it. “Yes, thanks.” But the man’s eye had more than its- former hardness, and his jaw muscles tightened as I looked. He turned and went. Hewitt came back to me. “Pay the bill,” he said, “and go back to your rooms. I 1 will come on later. I must follow this j man. It’s the Foggatt case.” As he ! went out I heard a cab rattle away and Immediately after it another. I paid the bill and went - home. It was 10 o’clock before Hewitt turned up, calling In at his office below on his way up to me. “Mr. Sidney Mason,” he said, “is the gentleman the police will be wanting tomorrow, I expect, for the Foggatt murder. Ho Is as smart a man ns I remember ever meeting, and has done me rather neatly twice this evening.” “You mean the man we eat opposite at Luzatti’s, of course?” "Yes. I got his name of course from the reverse of that gold medal he was good enough to show me. But I fear he has bilked me over the address. He suspected me, that was plain, and left his umbrella by way of experiment to •see If I were watching him sharply snough to notice the circumstance and to avall myself of it to follow him. I fwns hasty and fell into the trap. lie tabbed it away from Luzatti’s, and I gabbed it after him. He has led me ; |a pretty dance up and down London I ( tonlgbt, and two cabbies have made jquite a stroke of business out of us. tin the end be entered a house of which bf course I have taken the address, but ft expect he doesn’t live there. He is (too smart a man to lead me to his den, 1 put the police can certainly find some- | Ithlng of him at the house he went in j »t—and, I expect, left by the back way.

By the way, you never guessed that simple little puzzle as to how I found that this was a murder, did you? Ton see It now, of course?”, “Something to do with that apple you stole, I suppose?" “Something to do with It? I should think so, you worthy Innocent Just ring your bell. We’ll borrow Mrs. Clayton's sewing machine oil again. On the night we broke Into Foggatt’s room you saw the nutshells and the bitten remains of an apple sideboard, and you remembered It, and yet yon couldn’t see that in that piece of apple possibly lay an Important piece of evidence. “First, how, the apple was white. A bitten apple, as you must have observed, turns of a reddish brown color If left to stand long. Different kinds of apples brown with different rapidities, and the browning always begins at the core. The apple on the sideboard was, as near as I could tell, a Newtown Pippin or other apple of that kind, which will brown at the core in from twenty minutes to half an hour and In other parts In a quarter of an hour more. When we saw It, it was white, with barely a tinge of brown about the exposed core. Infer-ence-somebody had been eating it fifteen or twenty minutes before, perhaps a little longer—an Inference supported by the fact that It was only partly eaten. “I examined that apple and found it bore marks of very Irregular teeth. While you were gone I oiled It over and, rushing down to my rooms, where I always have a little plaster of paris handy for such work, took a mold of the part where the teeth had left the clearest marks. I then returned the apple to its place for the police to use

if /they thought fit. Looking at my mold, It was plain that the person who had bitten that apple had lost two teeth, one at top and one below, not exactly opposite, but nearly so. The other ttetb, although they would appear to nave been fairly sound, were irregular In size and line. Now, the dead man had, as I saw, a very excellent set of false teeth, regular and sharp, with none missing. Therefore it was plain that somebody else had been eating that apple. Do I make myself clear?” “Quite! Go onT (TO BE CONTINUED]

Something had happened.

“I mu st follow this man.”