The Argosy — page 280: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. 261 ted to chemical investigation, which showed that there was blood upon it. Mr. Holmes, of Sladford, examining the hammer with Dr. Palmer, agreed with him that it was just the instrument likely to have inflicted the wound which the dead man received ; in fact, they both believed this self-same instrument had been the one to inflict it. Mr. Grale’s lawyer was for bringing Edgar Vivian to trial. He thought much of this additional presumptive evidence. “Tt is not sufficient,” dissented the doctors, who were not so ready to rush into law as the other was. “Ifa man gets tried upon insuff- cient evidence, and is acquitted, he can’t be tried again, you know,” said they. One day Miss Vivian took a short railway journey for the purpose of giving instructions concerning some little special article she wished to present to Charles and Lettice as a wedding gift. It was the first time she had gone out of Dering since the passing of the events told of ; and she had to own to herself that the change of scene, unexciting though it was, the fresh fields and hedgerows, the unaccustomed faces and streets in the country town to which she resorted, seemed very refreshing. As she settled herself in the railway carriage for the return journey, she was aware of a strange faint reassertion of her old calm and cheerfulness. She did not resent this, as stormier natures often do. She said to herself that nature will in time clothe the harshest precipices with softest moss and fairest flowers ; that nature will heal the wounded limb so that it is once more fit to encounter work and weariness ; she might have gone on to reflect that nature will re-vitalise the broken spirit, so that itagain becomes conscious of balms, or blows. And then she might have proceeded to ask herself which way the next blow would fall. Instead of that, in her newly re-stirred interest in life, she took up a newspaper which some previous passenger had left behind him. It was a society journal. Maria read what was to be the new fashion in bonnets; and how the Duchess of X had had her portrait painted as a jockey ; and that the heir to the Earldom of Y was going to marry the heiress of a City merchant’s fortune. Then her eye wandered on to a longer paragraph in closer type. It was headed ““’The Midland Mystery,” and it ran thus: ‘We understand that our sensational novelists might make a fortune out of the rumours and romances attaching to this singular tragedy. It is even whispered in legal and detective circles that a trial for murder may be looked for, which will contain all the true elements of a cause célebre. Whether this prove true or not, there is no doubt that local fame—or infamy—points an unwavering finger of accusation towards the popular scion of an old and respected county family. The latest report is that the instrument by which the unfortunate young man, Allan Grale, met his death, has been found with his blood still upon it, and that the links connecting it with the hand of his assassin are neither few nor far between.” COMM @) NOOKS (CO)