LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1363, 27 June 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE MARINE BINOCULAR.

[“ Belgravia.”] Some time ago I lived in one of the Inns of Gourt. In was one of the smallest in London, and con-isied of about thirty houses. My bedroom, in which I had a writingwas situated at the back, and about half-way up the Inn on the left-hand side At the rear of the house an open space sloped a good deal down from the Ln. This was littered with loose stones, old tin, broken, crockery, and such debris. In the day-time, boys fought and played noisily on it ; at night, oats adopted it as a battleground. It was for London cats what Belgium has been for European armies. In those times I sat up late of nights; most of the while I read ; but often in summer, having turned down my lamp, I remained by the open window for hours together, abandoning myself to reverie. I had grown so used to the cats that they faded to challenge my a tention. But on certain nights i. was rudely wakened by loud wailing and oryi-ig for mercy in a lad’s voice coming from a top room in a house of a low court opposite to me. Owing to the Inn houses being a story higher than those in the court, and the ground upon which the latter stood being something lowey, this room was at least fifteen feet beneath my window. When light was in that room 1 c:-uld see into it; for there was no blind, curtain, or shutters. Against the wall opposite the window sto d a truckle bed. By day a rickety deal table occupied the centre of the room. There was absolutely nothing else beyond two stools. At night the table was always moved to the window, and on it a dim lamp burned.

I had never seen more than two people in this room : one, an old man over seventy ; bald on the crown, with a fringe of dull brown hair just above the level of his ears. Even still his chest was broad and full, but his lower limbs seemed to be failing, and he hobbled as he walked. His face and head were mottled with livid pqrple spots He had a large bulboqs nosq, and knotted and repulsive hanfls, A ip re utterly bad-looking old man I don’t think I e \ er saw. The other wag a youth of sixteen or seventeen. He was slight and sickly-looking with an utterly colourless face His shoulders sloped, his knees knocked, his chest was sunken, feeole, and narrow. He called the old man grandfather. When he came in of evenings his face and hands were always smeared with blue, so that I concluded he worked on a ‘ blue’-loft. I copld form no guess as to the occupation of the man. About once a week cries and sobs proceeded from that room. As 1 had sat in the bark by the open window I had seen the man beat the lad in a most cruel and brutal manner. The latter never resisted ; he only prayed for mercy; he even made po attempt 1 1 escape The youth did not sleep in the room I haye described, but iu a boarded-up passage on the same floor. This passage opened on the staircase. It had been a lobby, and by the boarding had been converted into a long narrow chamber. The lad must have slept on he bare planks, for there was no furniture of any kind in the place The old man had one habit which went very near to arousing my curiosity. Often, after his grandson had gone, he would sit down iu the middle of the floor, where the table stood by day, and with his back to the window so remain for a considerable time Owing to his position I could not foym the least idea of how he occupied himself during this singular proceeding. On the night of August the twelfth I retired to bed unusually early, at about midnight ; the lower sash of my window was fuby raised. Towards one in the morning I was aroused by loud shouts. I got up and looked opt. 3 he sky was overcast, the night extremely dark aud sultry. The noice came from that room. Thfs time, however, it was not the lad’s voice, and it occurred to me that his long endurance had been exhausted, and that at length he had risen and retaliated. In a few seconds, and before I had caught any word, the sounds ceased altogether with a muffled scream that made me shiver. T he man occuping the chamber under mine was al o at his window. He looked up and said ; ‘ Did you hear that ‘Yes. What a horrible sound !* long have you been listening ?’ ‘ Only a few seconds.’ * I have been h-re half a minute, and cou'd almost swear 1 heard the voice of the old man cry, “ Murder !” ’ ‘ Murder ? Oh, it meant nothing.’ ‘ But it seems to me it did. There was no light. The noises lasted a much shorter time than usual ; and from beginning to epd the boy never uttered a word.’ ‘ You do make it look; ugly. Aye you dressed ?’ ‘ No.’ ‘ Wfll you put on your clothes and go with me?’ f V pa * * Be quick ’ ‘l’ll be ready in ten minutes.’ Within the time appointed we were in the open air. N either he nor I knew where to flud the entrance to this c urt. Walkipg rap dly to the end of the lop we looked round. Fortunately, policeman happened to be talking to the night watchman of the Inn. We explained our suspicions to the policeman, aud asked him to accompany us. At first he was unwilliug, but subsequently consented. Passing down a street to the right we reached another on the right ; took it, and from it got into the foul-smelling court in which tHe house stood. Nat more than twenty minutes had elapsed between the time my companion aud I had first spoki u and that at which we knocked at the door We were at least five minutes in attracting attent'on Than a grumbling old woman thrust her h-ad out of a window on the ground (1 >or and demanded bur business. The old woman, after a few minutes’ delay, rais d a latch and admitted us to a stilling ball, lighted by a candle which she carried. She showed us the way upstairs. We ascended slowly, looking from right to left, but discovering nothing to, arrest at enti >n. At length we yeqohod the top ‘ There’s lh r o<« ‘ said the old woman ; and having handed the candle to the policeman, she went down The door stood up before us from the t"»p of the stairs. There was no landing. The construction of the house was peculiar. The other room on this floor, that one fronting the court, had been taken into the adjoining h use, as well all the whole of the floor beneath. So that parts of the house accessible from the door by which we had entered consisted of the basement and th« ground floors, and one room and a lobby boarded off so as to form a second room on the second floor. The policeman knocked, but receiving no answer raised the latch aud entered. We followed, and found ourselves in the enclosed lobby. No one—nothing here. < n the left we saw another door. At this the policeman knocked twice, got no answer, opened it and went iu An exclamation from him drew us hastily over the threshold. He was standing in the middle of the room, holding the candle aloft; the table lay overturned, a strong smell of paraffine oil pervaded the air, and at his feet I saw the figure of a man on its face and kuees. The figure was only partially clad, and at the back of tfle neck rested a short round stick, like an cfhoo ruler, but of common white wood, not varnished. The policeman laid hold of this to remove it, but failed. He handed me the candle, stooped down and furred the figure over. Sm ultaueoasly we three uttered a cry ol ho ror, and I aud ray compapicp sprang b-ick. I cauld scarcely rqcogniae the features. The face wag, a black-purple, the tongue and . • y«-balla protruded, the lips were drawn back so as to expose the toothless gums, and in the neck appeared a deep incision, a’thougb no blood was visible. ‘ ■■ urder! ’ said the police nan in a deep voice that seemed tlo float out of the window

and find shuddering echoes in the sultry night. Once more turning the body over, the policeman caught the stick and discovered attached to each end of it the end of a stout string. Upon follow ng this string it was found to bury itself in the neck of the victim. It wns now j.lain how the crime had been effected The loop f rmed by this string had been thrown over the old man’s head mid the stick then twisted. With haste the policeman untwisted the string, but life had been some time extinct. * Where is the lad ? ’ he asked, turning to us. We both shuddered, and drew near the door instinctively. * Will you stay here until I get help ? The lad must be arrested. This is his work.’ The constable went away, and was absent about a quarter of an hour. When he returned, other policemen and an inspector accompanied him. No additional facts of importance was just then discovered, and having given our names and addresses my companion and I went home. Two hours after we left the presence of the dead, the lad was found lying in ffhe open space at the back of the house. No marks of violence appeared upon his body save those which could be accounted for by the fall. Ho had fallen on the back ol his head —the skull was completely driven in; but beyond this, and some bruises on the right shoulder, which had sustained a p rtion of the shock of the fall, and a few marks on the body corresponding to stones projecting from the ground, there was no superficial injuries The corpse had been for nd lying on its back with the head to the wall. That afternoon the inquest was opened, and the following paragraphs summarise the important portions of the evidence : My companion and I told our tale, then the policeman his. The old woman swore that the deceased occupied two rooms in the tup of the house ; that the entrance to the first floor and to one of the rooms on the second was not by the same doorway as that to the two rooms occupied by the old man and the lad. bhe knew nothing of them beyond the facts that two years ago she let the two rooms to the old man. and when he took possession the boy was with him; the two had resided there ever since; both went out before breakfast, and neither returned until after tea. She did not think him possessed of more than kept body and sul together. The old man never spoke to any other lodger, nor to the witness since the day he took the rooms, nor was either on speaking terms with any of the neighbors. Every Saturdav morning he knocked at her door, and without uttering a word handed in the weekly rent. She had no fault to find with him except that he beat the lad and so caused a disturbance. He never had any one to see him at his rooms. The lad had never spoken to her. The front door was never locked or bolted. Each lodger was provided with a latch-key; until nine o’clock the front door was open. On the previous night she went to bed at ten o’clock. She hart previously closed the door. Soon she fell asleep, and remembered nothing until the policeman roused her. The first floor and the separated room on the second belonged to a printing office where no one slept. The finding of the lad’s body was next proved by two policemen. They described its position, adding that it was found under the lobby window, the bottom sash of which was fully rai-ed. The evidence of the foreman of the.loftin which the lad worked was wholly uninteresting Then the inquest was adjourned to the next day. The medical testimony declared that the old man had died of strangulation; and that the wounds on the body of the lad were sufficient to account for his death but that there was singularly little blood on the lad’s body or where it had been found, and that the brain was remarkably deplete of blood. More blood would have been expected from a healthy waking person. Up to this point the evidence seemed to favor the suspicion that the lad might have strangled the old man, and then committed suicide by throwing himself headlong from that window. But here things took another turn The, doctor who had made the post mortem further stated in reply to the coroner: — That the skin of the lad’s hands would be easily injured, and there would be abrasion and contusion with subsequent extravasation and congestion from any violent employment by him of such a weapon as that used by the murderer. Considerable force would have been needed to strangle the old man, and there were no marks what-ve r on the hands of the lad, and all the muscl s had been found hood leas and relaxed. The position in whioh the lad’s b >dy was discovered went in disfa er of suicide; it would have been all but impossible for him to throw himself so as to fall on his back with his head c’ose in to the wall. 'Coupling these facts,’ said the coroner, ‘with the small quan'ity of blood in the brain, and with the placidity and deplete condition of the muscles, what do you as a scientific expert conclude ? ’ * It is not safe to form a definite conclusion from such premises.’ ‘ Well, what d» you suppose?’ * That the heart of the lad had ceased or almost ceased to beat at the moment he fell. That he was at the tme deeply asleep; that he was dead, or almost dead, when he left that room.’ ‘ '» our belief is that he was thrown from that window ? 1 * Yes. I can bo almost certain that when he fell he had not en ugh muscular vitality to stand.’ Here the police asked for an adjournment for a week. At the end of that time, there being no additional evidence, the Coroner summed up and the jury returned a verdict of “ Wilful Murder : ’ against some person or persons unknown in the case of the old man and an open verdict of “ Found Dead ” in the lad's case. I he affair came under the not’ce of the Hune Secretary, who first had a reward of £IOO for the conviction of the criminal After a fortnight the reward was doubled. Another fortnight p-ssed without result, and people in the neighborhood were beginning to treat the mystery as insoluble. <>ne of the most confounding features of the case was that no possible motive could be assigned for the outrage. < 'ne evening towards the close of September I was writing in my own room when word was brought that a man wanted to see me. He had given the name of Bracken, but said I would nqt recognise it. I went down and found a tall, thin, dark man waiting for me He told me his business was of a private and confidential nature, and could be communicated to me alone. I invited him upstairs, aud in a few minutes we were seated in the top back room. He began at once : (To he continued.) The adulteration of beer by glycerine, for the purpose of giving “body” to it, has become so common during late years, that the German Society fo? the Encouragement of Industry hasr offered a prize of 3000 francs for an easy and accurate method of detecting (he presence of this adulterating agent in beer.