A SLENDER CLUE.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 75, 8 November 1884, Page 5

A SLENDER CLUE.

Many a year ago, on a July afternoon, I was sitting in my study, waiting, like many a young avoid, for clients who camo not, ■when at about 4 o'clock a gentleman was announced by the name of Lavigno. I was glad to think that I knew no one of the name, for being unknown he might; be a client. A tall, well-dressed man entered, and asked whether he could havo half-an-hour's talk with me. I consulted my watch and diary with the true air of a busy man, and thought I could sparo time. Would T mind locking the door ? Hardly. Did I remember the Dumont murder? Slightly. Would I listen while he gave an account of it ? Ten years ago Mons. Dumont, a wealthy banker, married a young Avidow, with whom two of his friends, Messrs. Le Thcuff and Goudin, were in love ; nevertheless, they remained his friends. All three gambled heavily, and tho banker, tho rich man, won while the others lost. One night, the 3rd of February, Madame Dumont went to a masked ball, leaving her husband, who was suffering from rheumatism, at home in bed. On her return fcho found him lying dead, with his throat cut. Goudin was arrested and tried. A strong case of circumstantial evidence was brought against him, the principal witness being Mons. Le Theuff. Mons. Goudin set up an alibi. He proved that he was at the dance, and asserted that during the time wli3n tho deed must have been done he was in an alcove, talking to Madame Dumont. This she corroborated. The Court reluctantly acquitted Mons. Goudin, but all Paris believed him guilty, and thought Madame Dumont his accomplice. The v idow retired to her mother's, and Mons. Goudin, though really innocent, unable to face the public suspicion, "went to Australia and there made a fortune. My visitor had grow n so excited that I soon guessed that 1 had before me Mons. Goudin returned from Australia. Wishing to show my smartness, I stopped him and said, " So you are Mons. G., and have come back from Australia anxious to prove your innocence" The stranger jumped up and nervously asked how 1 knew it, and seemed much relieved to find that it was a guess. He said I wat? right, and that he Mould spare no expense to establish his innocence. Since his return he had seen tho widow. She had told him Le Theuft Mas heavily in debtcd to her husband, who on the 2nd of February had said that he had quarrelled with him over cards, and Mas going to make it warm for him next day ; that she was sure Le Theuff had murdered her husband; she "\\ ould not, however, tell him the reason for her belief. The murderer had left Paris soon after the trial, as he was found out in cheating at cards. He was living quietly at Auray, in South Brittany. <% Now," said he, "I know he is a murderer, for he gave false evidence against me. You must go to Auray, get introduced to him— that 1 can manage : and even if it cost you two years you must worm out his secret." I objected on the ground that there could not be any evidence. Mons. Goudin then said that he had omitted one thing Madame Dumont and her maid said that the murdered man had round his neck, the night of his death, a gold chain with a locket containing her portrait, painted by her, and also a lock of her hair. This chain was not found on the body, nor was the locket. She was sure Le Theuff had taken it, and did not believe, for reasons that she would not give, that he had destroyed it This seemed to be very probable, and I felt that if I could find the locket in his possession I should convict the man. Mons Goudin offered so large a reward that at last I agreed to aid him. I soon arrived at Auray, and took a room at the very comfortable Hotel dv Pavilion. The day after my arrival I called on Mons. Poncard, a notary ; he was to introduce me to Mons. Le Theuff. I found him a clever, handsome man and very polite. He told me that my adversary was considered queer ; he did not go into Auray society — indeed, he shunned it ; he lived all alone in the upper half of a house in the Rue Leperdit, the shopkeeper of the lower half acting as valet, cook, &c. He was fcaid to be studying the Carnac stones, and supposed to be writing a book about them. Mons. Poncard had met him at Carnac, and had dined several times w ith him, but found that he played cards too high and successfully, at which I smiled, knowing the cause of his -ucce&s. He never would come inside any one's house but his own. After a long talk, we a\ alked together to the Rue Leperdit. I am naturally of a phlegmatic disposition, but for once my heart beat very fast. I had formed the idea of a tall, big man, for Mons. Goudin was tall and big ; but when a deep voice had called out " Entrez" and I saw him, I was staggered. He was tall, very broad-shouldered, ami deep chested, and under his heavy arms, when he moved them, rose mountains of muscle. His face was one which Mons. Legros would have delighted to paint; a bi'oad, low forehead, heavy black brows, and dark eyes set very far apart ; a wide, short, flat nose ; a long upper lip, with a large, thick mouth, fresh, drink-suggesting lips, and a great square jaw. Not a beauty, you will say ; no, but hideouslj fascinating. lam not imposing, in body at least. My height is but five feet three, and lam not broad. I don't think I could lift 200 pounds even to be made King, or Emperor of France, or President of the Republic, as the case might be. My face, however, is eminently aristocratic, so my friends say. High, narrow forehead, and delicate prominent nose, and I have been called not bad looking. What a pretty contrast there must have been for Mons. Poncard to observe between the hunter and the hunted ! Mons. Le Theuff wa3 very pleasant, and talked remarkably ; instead of showing, like an ordinary educated Frenchman, a surface knowledge of many things, or, like an Englishman, a solid acquaintance with a few, he exhibited a Frenchman's universality and an Englishman's solidity of knowledge, so that each subject seemed to be his special study. After a long talk we left, but not before I had accepted an invitation to dine with him that evening. The dinner was delightful, for wine and cooking were good, and his talk was fascinating, and, indeed, under his influence I myself talked much better than usual. After dinner we played at cards, at which I lost heavily ; what can skill do against unfair play? During the next week I saw him daily, but learned little. I found that he carried pistols ; do you suppose I did not? I asked him why he had them. He had nervous fits sometimes, in which he fancied some one was pursuing him, and he felt relief by feeling them. Was it not ridiculous ? I thought it so ridiculous that a cold stream of perspiration ran down my back. By the end of the week I found the cards were becoming a serious strain, and feared Mons. Goudin would not like tho bill. Did he play chess ? Yes. I found that I was somewhat the stronger, so I manoeuvred to just let him win on the whole. Three weeks I spent at Auray, yet I heard nothing, saw nothing, found nothing.

Throe delightful weeks, yet in part a period of agony. Alone together we sailod in his boat down the river. Beautiful is the wido river, miming now past tho hilly banks covered with trees, through which peeps out many an old chfiteau, and now by tho flat shores of the oyster parks, with tho lazy cormorants waiting with stolid patience for the incautious movements of thoir prey ; brightenod by the fishing boats with their strange-shaped red sails. Along wo used to sail, [down to Gavr' Innis, tho Isle of the Goat, and then out into the lacowork of blue sea and ruddy island which form the little Sea of Morbihan, somtimes landing on and sometimes rounding the islands, which equal in number the days of the year. One day in the boat there happened that which ended our sails. I, sitting thcro, a few feet from a desperate man of ten times my strength, with but an inch of wood between me and death. So powerful grew this madness that the terrible effort 1 made to combat it saved me by causing me to faint ; and when I came round T found the monster had tended me with the kindness of a woman. Long walks we took together to Quiberon, over the narrow peninsula, with the deep still sea of a heavy blue stretching out heavenward on the ono sido, and on the other the sea battling -u ith the red-brown rocks, throwing up clouds of dazzling white spray, through which the sun shone so that they looked like showers of crystals : walks to Carnac to gaze at tho rows of great stones, mute, indecipherable records of the buried past, till one evening, when tho sun had sunk and the dreary stones cast a thousand weird shadows in tho moonlight, the same mad longing to tell him my secret camo over me, and the same dreadful struggle with my madness took place. I began to despair of success ; three weeks £one, nothing new known, and I grew n sick of the whole affair, when ono day ho announced that ho was going to Parib on business, The news gave mo lifo ; somethingwas to be done at last. 1 lastily I sent off to Mons. Goudin to bid him make ready in Paris, and then I waited "with feverish anxiety till he had gone. Hardly had he left the house bctoro 1 entered, accompanied by a locksmith, and we searched. Was ever a house so searched before? We took up all the planks, removed all the tapestry off tho Malls, tested every stone, took all the furniture to piccc^ shook all tho wine bottles, and, in fact, .so carefully did we search that the locksmith said if he had hidden a pin we should have found it. All in ■sain. We put c\ cry thing back in its place, and I waited. Then camo a di&mal letter : with the aid of the police, Mons. Le Thcuft had been attacked by sham robbers, three of whom ho had nearly killed, had been chloroformed, stripped, and searched, and at the same time all his luggage had been secretly examined at his hotel ; nothing was found. Back came Mons. Le Thcuu", furious at having been robbed. I now w ibhed to give up the case ; the locket seemed destroyed, and therefore all clue was gone, and my health had begun to suffer from the mental struggles 1 had gone through, lime. Dumont was sure ho would never have destroyed the locket, but that it must be hidden ; and she begged me to go on. Mons. Goudin told me that Madame had promised to marry him if tho murderer was convicted, and not otherwise, and joined his entreaties to herb, and so I gave way. A few clays slowly dragged on, when suddenly I hit on a grand idea : this is how it happened. I was sitting at dinner at my hotel ono day, next to an Englishman. Now, I understood English very well, I am a very good linguist ; he was talking to the lady on the other side of him, of Friedorich Anton Mesmer. I hardly noticed the conversation until the lady said, " 1 would not let any one mesmerise me ; they might make me tell my secrets." Like a flash of lightning came to me the idea of mesmerising my murderer. So much did it startle me that foolishly trying to swallow some red-hot soup in a mechanical way I choked badly. My Englishman kindly patted me on the back with blows like an elephant's kick. To paris I went next day to study mesmerism ; stopped a week, and came back quite satisfied. Though lam \\ eek in body lam strong in mind, and I had found no great difficulty in mesmerising esveral young men. In the evening of the day of my return I went round to Mons. Le Theuifs ; I felt that I should have to be very careful lest, like the English hdy, he should decline to be mesmerised lor fear of telling his secret. During dinner I casually mentioned the subject, and afterward 1 told him of part of what I had seen, stating, however, that none of the subjects could be got to talk. 1 turned a delicate hint about his being an interesting subject (a strong enough truth to morally counterbalance the falsehood about the muteness of the mesmerised), then came a check — so decided a statement that he would never be mesmerised that I dared not say more. That night, sorely troubled by the apparent failure of my scheme, I tossed about on my bed in sleeping despair for hours, till at last, exaustcd I fell asleop and dreamed. In my dream I found myself gazing at the murderer, and gradually losing my senses before the power of hiB eyes ; and just as I felt all was over, lo ! his eyes relaxed their stare, he fell back, and 1 woke. Then came into my mind this strange idea : why not let him try to mesmerise me, and mesmerise him in the atrempt ? In the morning I went and talked to Mons. Pone ard. He thought that my idea would not do, for being the subject, I could not use any passes ; and so not only might I fail, but I might succumb to his power, and then "And then there would be an inquest," said I. "But I think I see my way. I believe he has no knowledge of tho subject, and probably no book on it. Let us print a book with false directions, so that ho using it will really be mesraeris cc, and not mesmerizor, and I can use the passes." At once he agreed. In four days I had a clean copy of a treatise on the subject, with a chapter cut out and a false one added. Mons. LeTheuff had asked me to dinner on the night on which the book came home, and so, warning Mons. Poncard, I set out at a quarter to six with the book under my arm. It was an oppressively hot evening, and a rising summer storm seemed to blow the heat about in red-hot particles. He was in great spirits, for he had just found his oat, which had been lost for four days— a quiet, timid white cat, which was the only thing ho seemed to love or even to carefot. A teeling of pity came over my mind as I thought of the poor wretch, reduced to choosing a cat as something which he dare love. Never had he seemed so pleasant, never did he talk so brilliantly ; co that I, catching his spirit, astonished myself with my sallies of wit. Yet a moments pause almost unmanned me, and dish after dish went away, half eaten with relish and half untouched. After dinner a game of chess, in which I at first got the best, till looking up I saw the white cat sitting on his shoulder, and a horrid thought of the handkerchief that would be bound round his eyes on the scaffold struck me, and so unnerved me that I played stupidly and lost. The game did what I wanted — it exhausted him to some extent, I now broached the subject, and

showed him the book on mosmerism. How my heart beat and the pulses in my temples throbbed while he read ! The minutes he took soemed hours ; and when he simply said, " Is that all?" tho sudden relief almost made ino giddy. He consented, after a little, to mesmeriso me. I drew my chair close to his, and put a candlo besido mo. Thoro was littlo need of light, foy the moon streaming through tho opon window filled the room, but I thought tho candle might hurt his oyes. 1 seated mysolf opposite to him, and put his hands on my knees, and then I held my hands over his eyes as a shade, and turned my eyos on his. Momont by moment passed, and those eyes, usually so sleepy and small, grow larger and larger, blacker and blacker, and scorned to stand out of his head; and then came through my mind the awful question — Shall 1 fail? Wcakor and weaker I grow, and an awful vague horror lilled mo, so that in an agony I would have screamed, but that my tongue stuck in my mouth ; just as hopeless, helpless, and motionless in body, my very soul seemed being dragged out of mo, the thought of my dream-triumph rushed through my mind and woke mo from the deadening lethargy. Stronger I grew atonce. Taking my hands from his cyos, I moved them slowly over his forehead. Fearful became his grasp on my knees, so that I nearly cried out, and then T became conscious, although I saw nothing, that he -uas struggling fearfully against me. For hours the struggle seemed to last, and my bodily exhaustion became terrible, while his hands seemed to eat into my flesh. At last mechanically I put my thumb on the broad space between his eyes. Firmly 1 pressed, and his hand's grasp grew w oakor. Then almost suddenly tho lite bccmcd to go out of his eyes, though they remained open ; his hands fell to hib slides, and his head .sank back. Noiselessly I got up, though I knew no noiso would wake him, and, lilling a glaoi w ith cognac, I drank it. Nc\ cr was nectar so sweet. The blood rushed tin ough my veins, and I ceased to tremble. 1 drew hib pistols from his pocket, took out the cartridges, emptied the powder, put t hum back, and then replaced the pistols. I ran over to Mons. Poncard's, and «aj ing never a -won.!, for 1 seemed to have lost my tongue, 1 beckoned to him, and he followed. Up the stairs we crept, and then, leaMiig him in the antoioom, I walked to tho door. My hand was on the handle, when the thought. Suppose ho is awake ! struck me. I listened a moment, and could hear nothing but my hearts beat and the distant moaning wind. Suppo^o ho was feigning sleep more surely to catch me ; I iclt 1 had gone too far to draw back. I cocked my pistol, and then noi&cless-ly turned the door handle. A long timo I stood, scarce daring to breathe, my heart beating to that I fancied its sound would disturb him. Inch by inch I pushed tho door open, and then suddenly began a .soft \ibrating noise, now growing louder, now softer. My heart ceased to beat, my hand ceased to tremble, and almost petrified with terror 1 stood and listened. After a fewmoments the mysterious pound struck me ac being not human, so with a- littlo nohc as possible 1 pushed my head into the room. There he feat, motionless as one dead ; his head thrown light back, the cold light of the moon pouring down on his tacc, showing its cruel haul line-* and his great bull tin oat ; and there on his knees feat the white cat, purring, unconscious of her master's fate. On tiptoes I advanced, and as I drew near I saw something which caily sickened me. The light streaming dow n on his eyes showed but two dull white masses, for the eyeballs' had passed into the head. Dvi\ ing Way the cat, which had been trying to wake him from his^ deadly sleep, I told him to rise, and the voice that came from my lips w as as that of a stranger. He moved not. Again andagainl spoke; still he sat there, like a dead thing, so that the notary, Avho had crept in, called out, " Mon Dicu ! you have killed him !" You can guess how that alarmed me. I sent Mons. Poncard away, and, shuddering, laid my hands upon his forehead, and then passed them to and fro, flicked my handkerchief in his face, and blew on him. Then the eyeball* slowly de=ccnded, and I feared he might have come too far round, but his vacant looked icassured mo. As the eyeball? came back, I felt in me a strange feeling of double consciousness, as if I had two minds in me. I told him to libC, and slowly the head came forward, the body straightened, the legs moved, and he got up. A stiangc and repulsive idea came over mo that the feeling of double consciousness was true; that, in fact, his will he had passed into me, and, though his muscle? obeyed his, it was subordinate to mine, for it was in me, and so he seemed part of me, and I felt as if his guilt was my guilt. This idea so shocked me that I drew back from the gigantic u plight figure, the monster who seemed part of me, and ran to Mons. Poncard. He said that ifc was fancy, and advised me to bathe my head, which I hurriedly did. I camo back feeling calmer, but in no wise relieved of my idea. I stood opposite to him, took his cold dead hand in mine, and said, " Do you remember the 3rd of February?" Slowly the jaw opened, and in a harsh, colorless voice came the word " Yes." "Tell me what you did that day." In so blundeiing a way did he begin to speak, and so fiercely did he struggle to keep silent (I felt the struggle, tor it seemed to take place in me), that I began to fear I should get no account from him. " Ask him questions only requiring 'yes' or 'no/" said the notary. How his voice startled mo ! for I had become so absorbed in my victim as to have forgotten him. " Did you quarrel with Mons. Dumont ?" "Yes." "About cards?" "Yes." "You owed him money?" "Yes." " Was thai all?" "No." "Did he lind you out in cheating, you scoundrel !" called out the notary. No answer. Again and again camo the question. No answer. Every one of my questions had been echoed in my breast, and in mo was a fierce flight of my will to make him answer, and his to resist. The notary's question I only seemed to hear with my ears, and there was no mental echo. Then I put the question, and got the answer " Yes." Slowly I dragged out tho horrid talc, till I came to the question, "Did you cut his throat ?" Then camo so fierce a struggle in me that I began to fear failure, and faint and exhausted I sat down on a chair. After lea minutes' rest, I began with greater strength, and made him confess. We then camo to the most important questions : " Had he destroyed the locket ?" No. "Was it in tho house?" No. " Where Avas it ?'*' It was in vain that lat first tried to get an answer ; but after a rest I put the question, and there came the words, as if torn out of his and my heart, " Under a stone at Carnac." Mons. Poncard and I gazed at one another nearly stupefied. This was the cause of his interest in Carnac ; this explained his long late walks. In vain did I try to get from him an intelligible explanation of the position of the stone : he fought every question, and was aided by the fact that it was a difficult thing to

explain. At last, woariecl and despairing, I gave up the task. What was to be done ? Wo could not convict on a confession so strangely obtained without any corroborative evidence, and a confession which would surely bo denied. To dig up the 1,500 stonos would be a herculean task ; probably it would not be allowed ; and even if it wero, he could not be kept under arrest the while. For somo timo wo thought in vain. Suddonly 1 said, " Let us take him to Carnac with us now, and mako him show us the stono." Straightway wo wont to his stable, and put his black English maro in the dogcart. Mons. Poncard got up behind ; I took tho reins, and mado tho murderer sit bosido me. Off wo went. What a diivo ! through the wild, windy night, now almost light as day, and now almost }.itch dark, as tho black clouds, fast drivon by tho howling wind, passed in front of tho full moon and then iled on again — drawn by the restless mare, sitting in contact with tho unconscious monster whoso will was so strangely and horribly tied up in crimo. Kapidly avo drove till tho maro, who seemed frightened by tho wind, bolted. On A\e rushed, pa&sing Plouharncl, (lying oursoh'cs like the wind, till suddonly the notary shrieked through tho storm, "Tho a\ md will be driving the sea over the peninsula ! wo are lost ! givo mo tho reins.'' Almost at once the mare know her master's hand, and quickly did his great strength stop her ; then wo turned back, came to Plouharnol, and turned to tho left down the road to Carnac. Throo parts of tho way had avo gone ay hen ho pulled up and got dow n Silently avc followed. lie fastened up tho mine and turned to the left. His mind seemed to have changed, and instead of opposing me X felt that ho had a A\ild Icurc, stronger than my o\\ n, to sco tiio locket. O\cr tho glorious red heath he strode, so fast that a\c had to half run to keep up with him, crushing the beautiful blue gentians a\ ith w Inch the red heather makes the glorious carpet of the moor; neither to light nor left, nor up nor down, did he look, \et he avoided the stones mid holes> ; ovei the "v\ all of the -wild farm thieo pu.its> of a mile fiom Carnac church ho leaped, alw a) -5 looking on, as if draw n to his doom by somo in\ isiblo ropo. At the end of somo minutes avo came to a solitary dolmen — three- large stones standing as it upsido doAvn, and supporting a fourth. J Lore ho stopped suddenly, and 1 tclt that Ins desire to sec the locket was gone. T s-tcoped down, cntcu-d, and turned my lamp liy.li t on the ground No sign of earth disturbance. Then I ga/cd on him, and bade him liud the locket. He pushed me aside, crept in, put hi.s right hand against one side of the loofstono and pushed it slowly up, then sti etched his left hand across in front of hi& face, felt in a holo of tho supporting stone, took out something, and dropped the roof. Jfalfa minute he crouched there before my excitement would let me call him out. Slowly ho came, and thero, as 1 turned the light on hi.s band, 1 saw tho locket • Thon came a mad idea to mo to wake him and show him his direction. " Awake, monster," i cried, "and see your fate!" Then I Hashed the light in his face. Slowly a great weight seemed lifted oil' my heart, and the lite came back to his eyes, For, moment ho Avas da/ed, then his eyes fell on the locket ; with a yell lie leapt forward, knocked me yards away, drew his piitols, ami Jircd at each of us. Tho falso cartridges saved us. Seekig us unwounded ko turned and lied ; after him avo ran as fast as we could. Fast though avc ran, ho gained easily, so avo stopped and fired, but in vain. Apparently accustomed to leavo his dogcart in the place in which avo had left it, he ran straight toAvard the spot : ho had gained 300 yards and seemed to have escaped, Avhen suddenly ho fell, and a fearful oath rang out. Fearing some tiick, we reloaded our pistols and ran up. There ho lay screaming and cursing, his ankle broken; he had caught his foot in a holo, and had fallen heavily. Threatening him Avith our patois, wo handcuflcdhim and took tho locket aw ay. Startled by the pistol shots, a peasant had come from the neighbouring farm, and Avitb his aid we carried him back to the dogcart and drove into the town, The excitement caused A\as tremendous, so gi eat that even Paris for somedays talked of nothing else, and 1 found myself famous. The trial Avas attended by everyone of fashion, and, in accordanco Avith tho public interest rather than ith diiliculty, lasted several days. Tho last day was certainly exciting. Lo TheufV, who had been lighting tho evidence, finding tho case hopele&s, gave a minute confession in court, lie explained that, rejected in a dishonorable suit by Mine. Diunont, and fearing exposur of his dishonest play by her husband, he had resolved to murder the banker and throw the suspicion on tho friend. Ho gave a full account of the way the deed was done, and concluded Avith a charitable Avish fora private intcn iew r aa ith me. The jury found him guilty, and next day tho gaoler found him dead ; he had taken poison. The A\idow did not long resist my client's suit; on the wedding day Mons. CJoudin gave me a cheque for twice the sum ho had promised. The name the case earned for me brought so many clients that my pesition soon becamo too good for it to be neccs- 1 sary for me to engage in any more of such \ desperate enterprises. — E, F. Stlncis in " Bclgravia."

A new story of Carlylo is afloat in London. One evening the sage of Chelsea Avas talking of books in a small but somewhat miscellaneous company, when a young nobleman—an Oxford student— announced that he did not care much for works that expressed merely the author's theories and opinions, to which Carlylo gravely replied, "Young sir, once upon a timo there was a man in Franco whose name was llosseau, and ho wrote a book which was filled with theories and opinions. And the young nobility and fops of the period said that the book was wind. But, young sir, it is an incident of history that their skins wont to bind tho second edition of that book !" In Stockton, California, they give wifebeaters ninety days in tho chain-gang, and in consequence, this form of crime docs not spread. It is a pity wo have not got a chain-gang here. Tho first statue over erected to a woman in the United States has just been unvoiled at New Orleans. It is to Margaret Houghory, who devoted her great wealth to orphans. She was a Catholic, but her charities were impartially disponsed by the ministers ofevery l oreed. In Scotland, says the Dunedin " Herald," the wheemen aro holding camp meetings ; they bring thoir tents and romain in constant companionship for a week together. This is sensible, and enables them to solve some of the many abstruse cycle questions of the day. It has been proved, for instance, that the Abordonians will never make good wheelmen on account of their massive heads, which causes tho cycle to be top-heary.