AN UNEXPECTED WITNESS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2629, 18 May 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN UNEXPECTED WITNESS.

Part I. Paul Hartley stood for a few moments on the brood top step at the front door of the old-fashioned house in Washington Square. It was past twelve o'clock, and the gravel walks leading through the public garden were deserted save for a stray grey-coated policeman. Paul recognised with a subtle sense of satisfaction the odor exhaled by the budding trees, then he turned on his heel, opened the door with his latch key and went up the broad staircase on his way to bed. As he passed his uncle's room on the second lloor he .saw a pencil of light shining through the keyhole and piercing the inky blackness of the unlit landing. Austin Warren was only a half-brother of Paul's mother, but lie occupied toward the young inau, whose only surviving relative he was, the position of a father. When Paul's presence had first chased the shadows from the echoing rooms in the big house, the frank independence of the lad banished the fears felt by his uncle before his arrival that the cares of guardianship would interfere with his devotion to mechanical pursuits, almost a mania with the rich middle-aged bachelor. As years passed on, and the boy grew to man's estate, he disappointed his uncle Austin by displaying 110 inclination to apply himself to mechanical seicnce, but they were, nevertheless, the best eifriends and cronies. Paul, it is true, displayed a most reprehensible tendency to say unkind things about his uncle's knack for laboriously constructing ingenious machines which did everything but work, and insisted on being excessively rude to the shabby, long-haired and wild-eyed iuventuvn who were entertained at dinner by his relative, and, although the old man had cyme to consider this as " Paul's way," it occasionally caused him a feeling of annoyance. On this particular ovouing, Paul had made some unusually exasperating remarks, and in a sudden fit of anger, Austin Warren had denounced tho young man in unmeasured terms as an ingrato. Paul had retorted sharply, as was his wont, and later on, when tho war of words was at its height, had rushed out of the house. However, ho soon forgot this incident, and half an hour later was giving ail amusing account of what be called " the late unpleasantness" to Harold Proudfoot, city editor of the New York Daily Chronicle, and an old college chum of Paul's. .Ue returned homo at twelve o'clock and discovered the loss of a favourite seal ring. Ho looked foi it about his room for awhile in vain, and then tumbled into bed and fell into a deep sleep, from which 110 was suddenly

awakened at daylight by his uncle's old servant and factotum, Isaac, who shook him violently by tho shoulder, crying: "Get up, Mr Paul! Come downstairs. Something dreflle's happened to master 1" The old man's evident agitation, as much as the import of his cry, roused Paul into instant action, and he ran downstairs ahead of tho butler with an acute feeling of apprehension, Isaac followed, wringing his hands in a helpless way, while the tears coursed down his furrowed cheeks. The room into which he followed his young master was that on the second floor from whoso keyhole Paul had noticed the rav of light streaming when he went up to bed not half a dozen hours before. The room was devoted to Mr Warren's experiments, and was littered with a heterogeneous mass of material, which Paul used unceremoniously to refer to as "junk," while on a blackened pine work-table in the centre, directly under tho hanging chandelier, every jet of which was lighted, stood an odd-looking machine, the glass jars standing near showing it to be some sort of an electrical apparatus. In front of it, on the floor, lying in a huddled heap as though he had been kneeling and had suddenly fallen forward, was what had once been Austin Warren, his head, with its snow-white hair, stiffened and clotted with darkening blood. Paul took in the horror of the situation in an instant. There was no need for him to ask a question or touch the body at his feet, for he knew, as though by intuition, that the man who had been more than a father to him, and whom lie loved as few fathers are loved, had been done to death. Motionless and speechless, ho stood there until he was roused by a voice saying grullly, " A bad job, sorr!" and, looking up, ho saw in the room the same groycoated Park policeman whose measured tread had struck his ear as ho stood on the stoop tho night before. "What does it mean?" he asked, mechanically. " It's this way, sorr," said tho man : " About twilve o'clock last noiglit I see a young man (which I don't doubt it wor yoursilf), who kem up to de dure and lot hissclf in wid a latchkey. Half an hour later I wor passin' the house agin, when I heard loud voices come from this very room troo de open windy. I shtopped, fur I thought it,seemed strange. I heard de old gentleman say (I knew his voico, fur its many tho palaverin' we'vo had together): " Afther I've clothed an'fid ye fur twintv years, yo ungrateful scoundrol 1" Den 1 heard a fall an' a cry, and I med up me moind there was somethin' wrong. So I just waited aroun' till dayloiirlit kem, an' I see the ould man hero (pointing to poor old Isaac) come down an' open de shutters. Then I axed him if there was anything wrong, an : lie tuk me up here, an' we opened the dure, an' shuro wo see this,'' He pointed to tho body, and, kneeling down, began to straighten out the poor, twisted limbs. As ho opened the clenched hand he start :d slightly, and Paul, in a mechanical sort of way, asked: "Has he been murdered, do yon think ?" " Shure. I kuow he has, an' tho man that this fits done tho deed," and, still kneeling, he held up Paul's ling for inspection. Paul took a step forward, but needed no close scrutiny to assure himself as to the identity of the object. His overtaxed nerves could no further stand tl.o strain. Without a cry or a sound, ho fell forward over the tabic in a dead faint.

Part 11, Tho period between Paul Harley's committal by the Coroner and his appearance before the jury was one of horror to hitn, the only relief being the almost constant presence of Harold Proudfoot, who obtained leave of absence from his editorial duties, and gave himself up to tho task of proving his friend's innocence ; but the case seemed hopeless until ono day about a week before the trial. He spent the afternoon sitting in tho room in which tho crime had been committed, occasionally walking about and idly fiddling with tho odds and ends of machinery until the deepening dusk prevented his seeing clearly, and he foil into a chair by the pine work-table in a fit of abstracted musing. Half an hour later he left the house with a light in his eyes and a smile on his lips. When the day of tho trial came Paul could find no fault withanvof the witnesses against him until old Isaac stepped feebly up and told his story. Ho identified the seal ring as Paul's property, and testified that after ho had retired on the night of Lhe murder, ho had heard Paul enter and go upstairs to bed. With evident reluctance he went on to say that an hour or so afterward he heard his descent and enter his uncle's room, that ho heard the murmur of voice?, lasting a half hour or 80, followed by a heavy full, and after a short interval, Paul passed up tho stairs again towards his bedroom. This part of the evidcncc Paul know to bo false, but lie was surprised when Mr Ellery, his counsel, rose and began to cross-examine tho witness, whoso agitation was painful to behold, to find if his hearing was in any way defective. " I cau hear better than many a younger man," was the answer, and on this point Paul himself could have backed tho witness up, for he knew that Isaac's sense of hearing was peculiarly keen. He began to feel annoyed when Mr Ellery harped on this question, evidently wishing to prove that oven if he had been awake the old man would not have heard what he described, and lie felt almost angry when he found that Harold's object in having Dr. Elleiidorf, the great aurist, retained as a witness was to obtain expert testimony as to Isaac's auditory nerves. By permission of the judge Dr. Ellcndorf, after having been sworn, and stating his profession and so forth, produced the apparatus with which he intended to experiment. A square mahogany box about two feet squaiv, along tho lid of it being cut a slit al'out an inch wide, protruding through whieh was a long rubber tube, terminating at the opposite end iu a Y-shaped piece, with a flat black rubber ear-piece on each of its branches. These were carefully arranged by the doctor over tho oars of tho witness Isaac, and two wires leadiug from an electric battery, which an assistant placed on the table, were connected with two brass knobs ou ono end of tho mahogany box. Then somethisg inside tho . was twuehed by the doctor, and a whirling sound as of delicate machinery was heard to proceed from within. Isaac, while all this was going on, sat with a puzzled look of apprehension on his wiiuMcd face, rendered almost ludicrous by I be Saps of black rubber whieh covered his ears. Suddenly the expression changed and a look of deadly fear distorted his features ; he made an attempt to raise his hand to seize tho apparatus whieh covered his ears, but the doctor was too quick and forced his hands down. The look of agony increased and a faint moan issued from betweeu his whitened lips. With a convulsive effort tho doctor oould not restrain, tho old man rose from tlio chair, threw his arms wildly above his head, and shrieked out: " Keep still, my God, keep still 1 I killed you, I know I did ! But why do you cotnc back to torture me ? " and fell on his faco insensible. That tho old man who, limp and unconscious, wus carried out by the court attendants into the Judge's private room, was the murderer of Austin Warren every oue within hearing of his pitiful cry seemed to know by instinct, but how he was led to give forth

that cry was a mystery. The evidence of Harold, wlio was culled to tlio stand when, the excitement had abated, us tho first witness for tho defence, explained it. Tho muchino which stood on tho work-table, and with which old Warren had been experimenting just before he was struck down, was a fonn of phonograph, on which ho had long been at work, so constructed that it recorded the faintest sound made within a radius of several feet. The instrument had lain unheeded until tho afternoon which Harold spent in the worksl op. Almost mechanically ho had adjusted it, set it in motion and apapplied his ear to the reproducing diaphragm, to hear, with a feeling of horror, tho last words of Austin Warren, miugled with those of tho man who had murdered him. lie recognised the voice of old Isaac feebly defending himself against the charge of petty peculation, the stinging accusation of liis master, his sudden blaze of fury as he called attention to the fact that the servant even then had on his finger Paul's finger ring, which he had evidently stolen. Then a crushing blow, followed by it slow groaning gradually dying into silcuce. " The story of tho crime waa clear enough," said Harold, "but there remained the difficult task of making n scientific toy give its evidence in a court of justice. By Mr Ellery's advice, tho course so successfully followed was chosen, and the danger of relying on so frail an instrument alone was overcome." As soon as he recovered consciousnfss, Isaac made a full confession, but his nerves were so shattered that he did not long survive the shock. Paul, of course, was acquitted.

—The Epoch