THIS TIMES, NEW HUH) M VI KM), PA. JULY 20, 18Q0.
THE STRANGE CLUE.
By an Ex-Dctcetlvo.
Ill Al) left tbe iMeotl ve , work several
years, and Indued had loft London,
for When I grew a little tired of the
business I was recommended to the
authorities of Combestead, a thriving
market-town In one of the home conn
tie ; and I had a very comfortable situ
ation there, having little to do, very
good pay, and being head of the borough
Police. Of course there Is a great deal
of difference between life In the country
and life in town, and from a policeman's
view It pel Imps appears greater than It
does to anybody else ; and whereas I
had often wondered how anybody could
be detected In London, I was equally
surprised to think how anybody could
hope to esoape In the country? for,
excepting when strangers came down
on some carefully planned burglary, we
ould nearly always tell where to look
for our men If anything went wrong j
in short, I knew everybody. As a
natter of course, everybody knew me.
There was a middle-aged party lived
In a quiet row of houses In Orchard
ntreet which ran parallel with our
High-street a Miss Parkway, who was
reputed to be pretty well off, although
not extremely rich, and reputed also to
l e rather eccentric. Bhe lived by her
self, In the sense of having none of her
relatives with her ; but there were other
Iersons, although not many, In the
large house where she lodged. I had
.any attention drawn to her by seeing
her walking repeatedly in company
with a young man of no very good
character, who was fully twenty years
iter junior, and at lust I heard sho was
i?o!ug to be married to him.
After all, although I have said John
lij'therly that was his name was of
. no very good character, yet there was
nothing serious against him. He was a
good-tempered, good-looking, easy sort
of a fellow, with a lot of cleverness
about him, too, that always Bhowed
dtself when it wasn't wanted , aud never
showed itself when It might be of
rervico.
Matters progressed so far that It was
known the lady had given orders to
Bunnyman & Co., our cbtef bankers, to
call in a thousand pounds of her money
which was out on mortgage; and It was
said she Intended to buy one of the
houses In the High-street and fit It up as
a photographer's.
It was known 'for certain, however,
that she had not only given notice, but
had actually withdrawn the money;
and among other things It was said that
she had admitted to her landlady, Mrs.
Ambliss, that the match with Lytherly
would break off all Intimacy with her
friendB. She only had one relative who
came to see her, and that was a gentle
man living some forty miles away, but
he had not been to Combestead lately.
Whether he was offended or not, neither
the landlady nor lodger could say; but
the latter feared he was, as she had
written and told him exactly how mat
ters stood and what steps she had taken,
but had received no reply to her letter.
Lytherly seemed, very naturally, to be
brightnlng up and took our jocular
congratulations for I had my say as
well as the others in a good-tempered
although rather a conceited style. One
annoyance he felt, which was that
everybody to whom he owed money
which was every one who would trust
him- -was anxious to be the first paid ;
and, thinking that a little gentle pres.
sure, might help them, two or three of
the tradesmen took out County Court
summonses against him ; and this, as
he said, was very hard on him and very
. selfish However, there seemed a little
chance that they would defeat them
selves, for, harrassed and worried by
these doing, be was forced to ask Miss
Parkway for an advance of money,
being the first time he had ever done so.
He had received money from her, l5ut
she had always offered it, and pressed it
uyon him when he made a show, if he
was not actually in earnest, of wishing
to refuse it. Whether she was In a bad
temper at the time, or whether she was
hurt at his making such a request,
Lytherly could not say, but she refused
to make the advance, and they parted
worse friends than they had been for
some time.
All this the young fellow let out at
the Bell on the Saturday, as. the refusal
happened on the Friday. A great part of
it in my nearlDg, for I generally took
my pipe and glass at the Bell, and I saw
that he was well on for tipsy. He had
indeed been drinking there some hours,
and would perhaps have stopped longer,
but that the landlord persuaded him to
go home. He was hardly able to walk.
aud as I did not wish him to. get into
trouble, which might mean also trouble
to me, I followed him to the door, de
termined I would see him to his lodg-
logs If necessary; but just then his
landlady's son happened to come by
The poor chap, as I well remember, had
been to the dentist's to have a tooth
-drawn, but his face was so swollen that
Mr. Cla wes would not attempt to draw
It till daylight, and the poor felow' was
half distracted with pain. He o ire red to
see Lytherly home, aud as he lived In
the same house aud slept lu the same
room, of course he was the fittest party
to do so ; and so off they Went together,
and In due course of time I went home
too.
Next day was Huuday, and a quiet
day enough It always was lu Combe
stead. Younger men might have
thought It dull, but it suited me. I had
lived fifty years In London, and did not
object to the steady-going ways of the
little town ; la fact I took to going to
church, and all sorts of things. , Well,
the day passed by without anything
particular, and I was really thinking of
going to bed, although It was only 0:110,
for I felt sleepy and tired, when I heard
somebody run hurriedly up our front
garden, aud then followed a very loud
double knock at the door. I lived, I
should mention, at a nice house in
Churoh-street, which was a turning that
led from the High-street into Orchard
street, where, as I have said, MIbs Park
way lived. 1 was Just about to drink a
glass of egghot, which is a thing I aui
very partial to when I have a cold, and
this was winter-time; but I put the
tumbler down to listen, for when such a
hurried step and knock came, It was
nearly always for me ; and sure enough,
In another half minute the door was
opened, and I heard a voice asking If
the Superintendent was In ; then, with
out any tapping or walling, my door
was thrown open, and I saw a young
woman whom I knew as servant to Mrs.
Ambliss. The moment I saw her -1
knew something serious was the matter;
loug experience enabled me to decide
when something really 6erlous was
coming.
" Now, Jane," I said, " what Is it V"
" Oh, Mr. Hoblnson I" Bhe exclaimed,
(I forgot whether I have mentioned
before that my name Is lloblnsou, but
such Is the fact ;) "come round at once
to missus', for we have found poor MIrs
Parkway stone dead and murdered in
her room !"
Aud with that, as is a matter of course
with such people, off she went Into
strong hysterics. I couldn't stop with
her ; so I opened my door, and equally,
as a matter of course, there I found the
landlady and her servant listening.
" Cio lu and take care of that girl," I
said ; "and one of you bring her round
to Orchard-street as soon as she can
walk."
I didn't stop to blow them up, and
they were too glad to escape to say a
word ; so off I went, and found a little
cluster of people already gathered round
the gate of the house I wanted. " Here
is the Superintendent!" I heard them
say as they made way for nie. I hur
ried through, but had no occasion to
knock at the door, for they were on the
watch for ine. Mr. and Mrs. Ambliss
were in the passage, and a neighbor
from next door; all looked as pale and
flurried as people do under the circum
stances. '
"This Is a most terrible affair, sir,"
says poor old Ambliss, who was a feeble,
superanuated bank clerk. " We have
Bent for you, sir, and the deotor, as
being the best we could do. But per
haps you would like to go to her room
at once?"
I said I should, as a matter, of course,
and they led me to her ' room. There
was a light there, and they brought
more up, so that everything was plainly
visible. The people had not liked, or
had been afraid to disturb anything, so
the room was in the same state as when
they had entered it. It appeared they
had not been surprised at Miss Parkway
not coming down in the morning, for
this was not uncommon with her; but
when the afternoon and evening passed
away and she did not appear, and no
answer was returned to their rapping
at her door, they grew alarmed, and at
last forced an entrance,when they found
the furniture in confusion, af though a
struggle had taken place, and poor Miss
Parkway in her night-dress lying on
her face quite dead. They had lifted her
on to the bed, and from the marks on
her throat had Judged she died from
strangulation. As 1 could do no good
to her I noticed as closely as I was able
the appearance of the room, and especi
ally looked for any fragments of cloth
torn from an assailant's clothes, which
often remain after a struggle; or a
dropped weapon, or any unusual marks
But I could see nothing. There was no
difficulty In deciding how the assassla
had entered the apartment and how he
had left it, for the room' was on the
ground floor, and the lower sash of one
of the wludowa was thrown up al
though the blind was drawn fully down
The furniture was knocked over and
upset; the wash-stand, which was a
large and somewhat peculiar one, of a
clamsy and old-fashioned description,
had been overthrown, and had fallen
into the fire-place, where it lay resting
on the bars in a very curious manner ;
while the jug had fallen into the grate,
deluging the fire-place with water, but,
extraordinary to relate, without being
broken i not broken to pieces, at any
rate, although badly cracked.
I ought to have mentioned that -the
drawers in which Miss Parkway kept
her money and Jewelry were forced
open and every valuable abstracted, the
only trace of thoin being a few links of
a slight chain of a very unusual pattern,
which, with a curious (tone, the lady
generally wore round her neck. This
chain had evidently been broken by the
violence used and parts of It scattered
about ; the stone was gone.
Information was of course sent to
Miss Parkway's relative who came some
times to visit her. And the result of all
the Inquiries made was to make things
look so very suspicious against young
Lytherly, aud so much stress was laid
upon his quarrel with Miss Parkway
upon her refusal to lend htm money
which seemed known to everybody
that I was obliged to apprehend hlm.
I didn't want to hurt his feelings ; so I
went myself with a fly, although his
lodgings were not half a tnlle from the
town hall, so us to spare hlm from
walking In custody through the streets.
I found him at home, looklog very
miserable, and when he saw me he said :
" I have been expecting you all the
morning, Mr. Hoblnson ; I am very
glad you have come."
"Well, I'm sorry," I answered.
"But you may as well remember that
the least said Is soonest mended, Mr.
Lytherly." ,
" Thanks for your cniiUoujold friend,"
he says with a sickly smile; "but I
shan't hurt myself, and I feel sure no
one else can do so. Why I said I was
glad you had come, was because from
Sunday night, when the murder was
found out, until now, middle day on
Tuesday, everybody has shunned me
and avoided me as If I had the plague.
I know why, aud now it will be over."
I didn't put handcuffs on him or any
thing of that ; and when we got Into the
street he saw the fly, round which
there had already gathered at least
a score of boys and girls, who had, I
suppose, seen me go In. He looked
around and said :
" This was very thoughtful of you,
Mr. ltoblnson ; I shall not forget It."
We drove off, and spoke no more
until we arrived at the town-hall. Here
the magistrates were sitting ; and here I
found a tall, dark, grave-looking gentle
man talking very earnestly to Mr. Win
grave, our chief solicitor. I soon found
thlB was Mr. Parkway, the cousin of the
murdered lady. He was giving Instruc
tions to the lawyer to spare no expense ;
to oiler a reward If he thought it neces
sary; to have detectives down from
London, and goodness knows what.
Mr. Wiugrave Introduced me, aud was
kind enough to say that there was no
necessity for detectives to be brought,
as they had bo eminent a functionary as
myself in the town.
It was supposed that this would be
merely a preliminary examination, but
it turned out differently. A few of
Lytherly's companions although, as it
transpired afterward, they fully believed
him guilty were yet determined he
should have a chance, and so subscribed
a guinea for old Jemmy Crotton, the
most disreputable old fellow in the
town, but a very clever lawyer for all
that; and Jemmy soon came bustling
in. He had a few minutes' conversa
tion with Lytherly, and then asked that
the hearing might be pat off for an
hour. This was of course granted, and
by the end of that time he had over
whelming evidence to prove an -alibi,
for tbe landlady's son hadn't slept a
wink for his toothache, and he was with
Lytherly until dinner-time on Sunday ;
and then the accused went for a walk
with a couple of friends, and did not
return until after dark, having spent
two or three hours at a public house
some miles off, as the landlord, who
happened to be lu the town, It being
market-day, helped to prove; the rest
of the time he was in the Bell, as was
usual, poor fellow.
There was no getting over this. There
was not a shadow of pretense for re
manding him, and bo much to Mr.
Parkway's evident annoyance Lyther
ly was discharged.
" Mr. Parkway left thai evening, hav
ing placed his business in the hands of
Mr. Wingrave; lor as there was no will,
he was the heir-at-law. Now this was a
very curious affair about the will,
because Miss Parkway had told her
landlady not many days before, that
she had made her will, and in fact had
shown her the document as It lay,
neatly tied up in her desk. However,
It was gone now ; and she had either
destroyed It, or the person who had
killed her, had taken that as well as the
money ; and even if tbe latter was the
case, it was hardly likely to turn up
again. So, as I have said, Mr. Parkway
went home. The solicitor realized the
poor lady's property ; and all our efforts
were in vain to discover the slightest
clue to the guilty party. As for Lyther
ly, he soon found it was of do use to
think of remaining in Combestead, for
guilty or not, no one of any respecta
bility cared to associate with him ; and,
as he owned to me. Urn ni h.i-t r it.
all was that old Crotton, the lawyer,
wnenever mey met at any tavern,
would laugh and wink and clan hlm on
the shoulder, and call upou every one
present to remember how poor old
emmy Crotton got his .vountr Mam! nrr
so cleverly how they " flummoxed,'!
the magistrates and Jockeyed the peelers,
nen it was any onus against his youmt
friend.
Ho he went : and a good inanv dedar.
ed he had gone off to enjoy his ill-gotten
gains but I never thought so ; and one
of our men going to Chatham to Iden
tify a prisoner, saw Lytherly In the
uniform of the lloyal Engineers, and, In
fact, had a glass of ale with hlm. The
young follow said It was his only re
sourcedig he could not, and to beg
whero he was known would be In vain.
He sent his respects to me, and that was
the last we heard for u long time of the
Combestead murder.
I had left the Police altogether, and
was living very comfortably, my good
lady and I, up at Islington, In the same
street with my married daughter, who
was doing very comfortably too, her
husband having a good berth In the
city. I had always been of a saving
turn, and had bought two or three
houses; so with a tidy pension, which I
had earned by thirty years' service, I
could afford to go about a bit and enjoy
myself. Of course In all that time I hod
made the acquaintance of a good many
professional people; and there were
very few theatres or exhibitions that I
couldn't get admission to.
It was at the Canterbury I first had
the Combestead murder more particular
ly recalled to my mind.
There was a young woman who sang
a comlo version of " There's a Good
Time Coming," spendldly; and as I
always was of a chatty turn, I couldn't
help remarking to the person that was
sitting next to me how first class she
did It, when he exclaimed : " Hallo I
why, never I Superintendent ltobln
son 1" And then held out his hand.
It was young Lytheyly, but so stout,
and brown, and whiskery If I may say
so that I didn't know him.
"Mr. Lytherly!" I exclaimed, "I
didn't expect to see you; and you're
right as to my being Ilobluson,although
Police officer no longer. Why, I
thought you were In the army."
" Bo I was," he returned ; " but I'm
out of It now, and I'll tell you how It
was."
It seems he bad been to India, and
got some promotion after three years'
service; and had the good fortune to
save his Colonel from drowning, or
what was more likely in those parts,
being taken down by, a crocodile, under
circumstances of extraordinary bravery.
He did not tell me this last bit, but I
heard so afterward. Lytherly was al
ways a wonderful swimmer, and I
remembered his taking a prize at Lon
don. Tbe exertion or wetting brought
on a fever, and he was recommended
for his discharge. The Colonel behaved
most liberally. But what was the best
of all, theold fellow who kept the can
teen at the station died about this time,
and Lytherly had beeu courting his
daughter for a good bit, more to the
girl's satisfaction than that of ber
father; so then they got married, and
came to England, and he was tolerably
well off. He naturally talked about the
Combestead murder, and said frankly
enough, that except the people with
whom he lodged, and they were sus
pected, he said, of perjury he thought
I was the only person in town who did
not believe him guilty of the murder.
" But murder will out, Mr. Robin
son," ho said, "and you will see this
will be found out some day. I dream of
it almost every night; and my wife
consulted some of the best fortune-tellers
In India, and they all told her it would
be discovered."
"Hum!" I said; "we don't think
much of fortune-tellers here, you
know."
. " I am perfectly aware of that," he
says ; "and I shouldn't give them In
evidence; but if you had lived three
years in India with people who knew
tbe native ways, you might alter your
mind about fortune-tellers. Anyway,
you will remember when It's found
out, that I told you how It would
be."
I laughed, and said I should; and
after we had another glass together,
and be had given me his address and
made me promise to call on him, we
parted.
It was the very next day that Mrs
ana myseir liau agreea to go and see a
new exhibition of paintings which some
one was starting in London, and tickets
were pretty freely given aM(ay for it;
but the same reason which stopped my
wife from going to the Canterbury,
stopped her from going to the exhibi-
tlon. I .went, of course, because I
couldn't be of any use, under the cir
cumstances', to my married daughter ;
and a very gooorexhlbition It was too,
There were plenty of paintings, and I
had gone all through all the rooms and
entered tbe last one. There worn verv
few persons, 1 was sorry to see, In ; the
place, so that you could hava an unln.
terrupted view of any picture you pleas-
eu. Alter glancing carelessly round the
room, for one eels kind nf anrfnltml
With pictures after a bit, I was struok by
a gloomy-looking painting to the left
of the doorway, which I had hot noticed
on my first entry. When I came to
iook closer into it, l was more than
struck I was astounded. Concluded
next week.
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CENTRAL STORE
NEWPORT, PENN'A.
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