The Case of Jennie Brice

ght of telephoning for Mr. Reynolds to meet me, but it was his lunch hour, an

s he had stopped whimpering and was wagging his tail. A

ing from the boat. "Steady, old

erly gentleman brought his boat to a stop at the foot of the stairs, and reaching down into a tub at his feet, held up a large piec

gentleman reached down again, got a wooden platter from a stack of them at his feet, and placing the

elderly gentleman, beaming at Peter over his

y mind," I explained, humbl

ty-eight, madam! And ninety-three cats! I have found them marooned in trees, clinging to fences, floating on barrels, and I have found them in comfortable h

one of the seats of the boat, and picked up an oar, smiling benevolently at Peter. Th

that?"

t," I replied. I glanced up at th

ng-glass. He bent over, holding to the rail, and inspected the stains with the glass. I

up at me. "That's blood. Wh

ow it got there. That was a new rope last night." I gla

en, if you will allow me to fry a little of that liver. There's a wretched

so I turned around and led the way

Perhaps if you tell me, I can help. If I can't, it will do you good to talk about it

. "I guess I'm only nervous, and thinking littl

ks back when I glance up. I come in and find a pet dog, obviously overfed at ordinary times, whining with hunger on the stairs. As I prepare to

ven patted me on the shoulder-what with his kindness, and the long morning alone, worrying, and the sle

about it. If it's a husband on the annual flood spree, don't worry

husband,"

ndly in his face, and it was so long since I had had a

y Maguire, next door, hauling the morning's milk up in a pail fastened to a rope, her

hed. "It's curious, but-you can't prove

'll find the body," I said, s

esn't he try

. He only went back wh

ered into the lower hall. He was too late. His boat wa

her, a door-step rose above the flood. On the step was sitting a forlorn yellow puppy. As we stared, Mr. Ladley stopped the boat, looked back at us, bent over, placed a piece of liver o

He ran down the staircase, only to come back and look out the window again. The police boat was not in sight, but the

d, "if you'll take me on that

id the oldest boy

over the window-sill, holding by his hands

e called to me, and jerking the pole from one of the boy

hurried back and took it off. By the time I had cleaned the pan, Mr. Holcombe was back again, in his own boat. He had found

can't go to the police with a wet slipper and a blood-stain

told me yesterday he was a fiend. He kil

But he didn't

boat, feeling every foot of the floor with an oar, and finall

mething her

ome, and the two of them brought the thing to the surface, it was only th

ing-room and kitchen from a floating plank; the doors were too narrow to admit the boat. But he found nothing more important than a rolling-pin.

s a nice boy, and if there is anything to this, I'd like him to have it for his paper. He and I have

e saturated, and while he was changing them the telephon

the city?" some one asked, th

sband s

o come to

s not

ou expect

re he is co

ily, "can't you give me any sati

d you all

know wher

, s

coming back to rehears

way about noon and hasn't come back. That's all I know, except

ect any one to believe that Jennie Brice had gone for a vacation without notifying the theater? Especially when she was to rehearse that week? I t

never made a bed-but made the way a man makes one, with the blankets wrinkled and crooked beneath, and the white counterpa

I said. "It's his fountain pen; when t

ombe, stopping in front of the man

clo

y onyx clock was gone

rent, as happened now and then, more than once I'd been tempted to sell the clock, or to pawn it. But I had never done it. Its ticking had kept me company on many a lonely night, and its elegance had helped

of the mantel-shelf, which Mr. Holcombe

t take it away yourself

could hardly l

lock had stood. "The key is gone, too," he said, busily ma

t think I ev

only use your eyes to cry with? How can you wind a clock, time after time, and not know

, "I am ordinarily both

him. "Then perhaps you can tell me the col

pencils are red, and

. "I've been writing with a fountain pen," he

it, where it had fallen, lay a towel, covered with stains, as if some one had wiped blood

pulling out bureau drawers, drawing the bed out from the wall, and crawling along the base-board with a lighted match in hi

Very clumsy. Peter the do

scrap of note-paper stuck between the base-board and the wall, I dug it out with a hairpin, and threw it into the grate, to be burned later

he snapped, fishing among the ashes. "You

ll, and later, when every one was against him, and many curious things were developing, I stood by him through everyth

olcombe?" he asked. "H

. Holcombe. "Mrs. Pitman, this is Mr. Howell, of whom I

nd, Mr. Holcombe took his note-book and read alo

at 42 Union Street, heard two of her boarders quarreling, a man and his wife. Man's name, Philip Ladley. Wife's

rd of her," he said. "Not mu

out of work, and employing his

ing it," said M

his," I put in. "He said that the c

th a snap. "After we have finished

e time in writing a pl

t, returning about five. Mrs. Pitman carried their supper to them at six, and both ate heartily. She did not see Mrs. Ladley at the time, but heard her in the next room. They were apparently reconciled: Mrs. Pitman reports Mr. Lad

lower hall. He and Mrs. Pitman investigated. The boat which Mrs. Pitman uses during a flood, and which she had tied to the stair-rail, w

o the stairs, met Ladley coming in. He muttered something about having gone for medicine for his wife and w

ked Mr. Howell. He had b

, and on Mrs. Pitman remarking this, said that his wife was not playing this week, and had gone for a few days' vacation, having left earl

. "If he was doing anything wrong, h

act that the dog, shortly before, had found floating in the parlor down-stairs a slipper belonging to Mrs. Ladley, and, later, a knife with a broken blade. She maintains that she had the knife last night up-stairs

believes that circumstantial evidence may probably hang a man; I do not." And to Mr. Holcombe:

l what we had found in the room. Mr. Howell listened, smiling to himsel

ng at the mark in the dust. "Are yo

ut the key underneath. Yesterday, be

it, Holcombe? Did he brain her with t

ope, the broken knife, the slipper, the towel, and the clock. Besides, this scrap of paper may contain some informat

es

had just read from his note-book:

nd said "Rope, knife, shoe, towel. Horn-

ing at the mantel.