Room Number 3, and Other Detective Stories

eauty has imp

think myself so weak. I simply credit

several witnesses. Hers

r some disinterested testimony supporting his assertion, but I have found none. No one knows anything. Of the three persons occupying rooms in the extension last night, two were asleep and the third overcome with drink. T

ly differ on this point. What she does not do is to let her mother into her confidence. She sees the man — runs upon him, if you will, in places or under circumstances she cannot avoid — till her judgment leaves her and the point of catastrophe is reached. Then, possibly, she awakens, or what is more probable, seeks to protect herself from the penetration and opposition of his friends by meeti

u know h

ell me. It’s young Maxwell. I

. Or was it a reflection from the setting sun? “You called hi

on oath, and I fancy he wi

say there was

ges things. It makes possible a certain theo

do

pt, she hustled her lover off and hastened to meet the approaching figure. But it was too late. The mother had seen the man, and in the excitement of the discovery and the altercation which undoubtedly followed, made such a sudden move, possibly of indignant departure, that her foot was caught by one of the roots protruding at this point and she fell her whole length and with such violence as to cause immediate death. Now, Mr. Hammersmith, stop a minute and grasp the situation. If, as I believe at this point in the inquiry, Miss Demarest had encountered a passion

t and, nodding slightly,

he first time the attention of the police has been drawn to this house by some mysterious occurrence. You remember the Stevens case? There must have

e theft here. The fellow had been to the fair in Chester all day and

mby as the man. Then there is the ad

remembe

by’s attention to her losses. He advised her to lock her door, which she was careful to do after that, but not with the expected result. She continued to miss things, mostly jewelry of which she had a ridiculous store. Various domestics were dismissed, and finally one of the permanent boarders was requested to leave, but still the thefts went on till, her patience being exhausted, she notified the police and a detective was sent: I have always wished I had been that detective. The case ended in what was always considered a joke. Another object disappeared while he was there, and it having been conclusively proved to him that it could not have been taken by way of the door, he turned his attention to the wi

nd much sarcasm in that smile. Hammersmith turned

n in the morning with my jury. It won’t take

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