The Argosy — page 2: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

194 : - THE ARGOSY. a glance that her grace and beauty had been her undoing, for surely nothing but the madness of jealousy or the frenzy of unrequited love could prompt the murder of so divine a creature. I placed my hand upon the body. It was cold. ‘*She has been dead for some hours,’’ remarked the coroner, in answer to my inquiring look. ‘‘I should judge that the murder was committed some time last night.’’ I looked at my watch. It was nine o’clock in the evening. Nine o’clock the previous night would set it back twenty four hours. JI must have looked incredulous, for he bent over the corpse, and taking hold of one dainty hand, lifted it slightly, allowing it to spring back again, to prove that the muscles were set and rigid. Then he pointed to the blood upon the floor, which had assumed a dull color and coagulated appearance. After the coroner had removed the body to the morgue, I was free to pur- sue my investigations in quiet. I closed and locked the door, and sitting down upon a chair reviewed the situation. i had already ascertained her name from the other tenants of the build- ing. Little was known of her there. She had occupied the room but a little over a week, and none of her fellow tenants had formed hex acquaintance, although all who had seen her in life remarked upon her wondrous beauty. I glanced keenly around the room. It was a small one, not more than twelve by eighteen at its widest part. The bed was undisturbed, proving that the murder had been committed before her usual time for retiring. She had been shot through the heart, and the blood, which had been to some extent absorbed by her garments, still left quite a pool upon the floor. It usually results to my advantage to sitand think a while in such cases, and this one was no exception. Before sitting down, I had lighted an extra gas jet which I had noticed upon the wall beside the dresser, and the side light cast by that upon the pool of coagulated blood before me gave me the first real clue in a case which, up to that moment, had been shrouded in the deepest mystery. Glancing down meditatively, it seemed to me that I could trace the shape of a hand in the hardening mass before me. In an instant my senses all sprang into acute action. I bent intently over it. Yes, there were the fingers, the palm, and the thumb. The position of the hand was evidently down- ward. The discovery set my pulses tingling with excitement. The jet was on the wrong side. I turned the gas off, and struck a match on the farther side. The marks seemed more distinct. ‘There were little dots where the fingers had lain, and the blood had congealed on either side, perfectly outlining the imprint of a hand. It was a man’s hand, too, for the dainty little one of the murdered girl could never have left that large impression. I lighted the gas again, and with the additional light of my matches I carefully studied every atom of the pool, until I was certain there were no other marks. Then taking my knife, I cut out that portion of the carpet bearing the imprint, and locking the door behind me, safely carried my clue to headquarters, and deposited it in my locker. It had already hardened Eomicboo <SGom | 4 1 OS Se