MURDER WILL OUT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3008, 24 October 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

MURDER WILL OUT.

[BY C. CASEY,]

"Well," ho commenced, "it is now, I suppose, about 27 or 28 years ago that I was the ropr..oontiitivo of a largo Birmingham firm, doing a good trade with the Australian colonios in tho hardware line. I travelled from Sydney to Melbourne, Adelaide, and all the important towns in tin island continent. At the turn when the facts I aui about to narrate took place, I way staying in Melbourne, which, by-the-bve, was a very different place to tho splendid city of that name to-day; though eveu then a thriving and busy place, and rapidly growing in size and importance from the gold that was poured into it by the never ceasing .stream of diggers, many of whom would arrive, and, after living at tho rate of £1000 a year for a week or two, go back to procure a fresh supply from the apparently inexhaustible diggings, which, when earned, would, in most cases, be again squandered in as rapid and reckless a manner as before. They were a free and easy lot, thsse diggers, and seemed to vie with each other as to who could get rid of his pilo tho first. If remonstrated with on their extravagance, the reply would bo. ' What's the odds, there's plenty more where this comes from.' Shopkeepers, tradesmen and publicans—nil who could minister to their wants and amusomont — reaped a rich harvest, and were paid with a lavish hand unknown in these degenerate days. Of course, there was a good deal of quarrelling, fighting and bloodshed when these men became maddened by drink, but upon the whole they were a generous, goodtempered set of fellows, generally ready to help a mate who was hard up —us, indeed, why should they not when in a week or two they might be in the same impecunious condition themselves. 1 had been in Melbourne about a ! fortnight, an;!, lining fairly weil satisfied with the orders 1 had taken, ■ was beginning to meditate a departure. Thero were, however, still t-.vo or three firms with whom 1 hoped i to do business to see, and having called upon one of these and been informed that the manag- , itig partner was out and would ■ not be bark for two hours, I left word that I would call ( again and strolled out, hardly know- , ing what to do to fill up the in- j terval. I looked at my watch, and, ; finding it to be just 12 o'clock, I thought I would call in somewhere and get a mutton chop. I had not , gone fir before I saw "luncheon , room " written on the ground gkss of the window of what seemed to be a respectable hotel ; so in I went, made known my wants, and was soon accommodated witli what I asked for, with the ever-app-tising ( Worcestershire sauce. I ate my luncheon leisurely, and then, finding it still wanted more than an hour to the time of my appointment, I thought I might as well smoke a pipe and drink a bottle of pule ale. So having settled with the waiter, i enquired the way to the smoking- ( room. Pie pointed this out, and I made my way to tho apartment indicated. It was rather a large room, with fixture armchairs all round the sides, and small tables placed at intervals ; but there was also a larger tabic in the centre and a few round-backed comfcrtablelooking chairs scattered about. Seated in one of these, his feet elevated upon the back of another, with a bottle of brandy and a tumbler at his elbow on tho large table, was a man I was destined to know something more about before long. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a very curved Jewish looking nose, square jaw, thick lips, and small dark eyes sot very close together, not by any means a pleasant looking fellow; it struck me at the time, I remember, that he would probably be a rather nasty customor toolfend. He had black curly hair, and a black mouchstache, but his checks and chin were clean shaven, showing clearly the square massive jaw. It was a gross sensual looking face; not however devoid of intelligence, if the moro animal passions could have been kept under, ho looked like one who should have made his mark in the world, for I never saw n face that indicated greater firmness and capability of overcoming obstacles. Ho was dressed in a light tweed suit, a soft felt hat with enormous brim, and a light cane with an iron handle lay besido him on tho table

He lifted up his head from the newspaper he had been reading when I entered, and said, "Hullo! mate, you are just in time to help me finish this bottle; a bottle of brandy is, like a goose, rather too much for ono, but perhaps hardly enough for two; anyhow, I suppose there's plenty more where this comes from."

I laughed--ftncl thanked him. for his offer, but h, 4 <l, I had just ordered a bottle of a. and that I did net usually drink bniu'v in tho middle of the day.

110 looked rather sulky at nr; refusal to drink with him and said he thought it was only women and children who drank such stuff as that, pointing to tho alo which tho •waitress had now brought in on a tray. I sat down at the other side of the table, took out my pipe case, and then began to search for my tobacco. I felt in all my pockets,

and at last remembered that I had changed my coat before leaving my hotel, and had forgotten to empty all the pockets when doing so, so that my tobacco was left behind. I was about to rise and ring the bell for a cigar when the gentleman in the grov suit, who had evidently been watching mv movements, said, " Lost your baeca, mate ; try a pipe of this ; there is no better to be got in Ole Virginny," and he threw a very large cake of tobacco across the table to me.

T thanked him, and proceeded to cut enough to till my pipe, saying, " Yes, it looks like the genuine article" Whilst cutting up the tobacco, I felt a slight pricking where my thumb pressed the centre of the cake, so I changed ray hold of it, and having filled my pipe, took up the cake again to lind out what hud caused the pricking sensation. On examining it, [ saw a small point of some metal, and speedily extracted, with my penknife, about a quarter of an inch of what looked like the pointed end of a wire nail, saying as [ handed the cake back to him, '• Your tobacco is not quite so genuine as it looked to

" Why, what the devil is the matter with it " he said.

" You don't call that tobacco do you," I said, pointing to tin; bit of

"No by G—d "he said, " it, looks as if they had chopped up wire nails to adulterate their tobacco with, I should sooner have expected to find such a tiling in a sausage, though a sausage mill is hardly suitable for chopping up nails. How the devil it git there is a puzzler. How came you to find it out T'

"Oh !" I said, " something pricked my finger when 1 was cur.ting the tobacco, so I thought I would see what it was.

" Well," he said, "if I had broken a tooth biting off a chow, I guess I should have done some cussing, and it would have been a bad job for the man who put it there if he had been about at the time ; however, there it goes, it will do nobody any harm now I guess," so saying, he threw it into the fire plac", awl I saw it fall through some rem leaves that were put to ornament the grate (it was summer time N on the white hearth below.

1 low little did either of us think at that time that the fragment of iron he threw so carelessly away was to be,in the hands of Providence, the means for the detection of a great crime, and that he who thus disposed of it, was iu reality furnishing a clue that was to lead to such disastrous consequences to himself. But so it was, circumstances, trivial apparently in themselves, may be fraught with consequences the most, beneficial or fatal. How truly Shakespeare has declared this when he says:—There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." We have read of the youth who went to a banker to endeavour to obtain a situation in his banking establishment, and who, being dismissed, under the plea of there being no vacancy, picked up a pin from the pavement as he was leaving the house. The action was witnessed from the wi idow by the banker, who, thereupon recalled the youth, thinking that oni' who could be so careful in small things, would be well fitted to look after more- weighty afifaiis. The story concludes, if I remember rightly, in the young man becoming a partner in the concern and ultimately marrying his patron's daughter. What acts could be more simple than the picking up of the pin, or throwing away the bit of useless iron, and both were in the end to bring about results totally unforseen by the actors, y«t influencing their destinies in a most marked manner.

After throwing away the nail we sat smoking for some moments in siletieo, which was only broken by the clicking occasionally of billiard bulls in a room adjoining the smoking-room. At length my companion took hij pipe from his month, emptied his glass, and then asked me if I played billiards. I said, " I played a little, but had no skill in the game." " That's all the better," he replied, " I am 110 player myself. What say you to going and knocking the balls about for half-an hour." I told him, that I was sorry I could not accommodate him as I had an appointment to keep, and it was about time I started. He seemed more sulky than ever at this second refusal of mine, and said " the place was damned slow and the people too." Shortly after this, I got up, having finished my pipe and bottle of beer, and left the ronm. As I was going out, lie mutterpd something about hell and a muff, which I did not choose to hear, or at all events to take notice of, so that our acquaintance did not end quite so pleasantly as it began. As I was walking down the street to keep my appointment, and meditating on lilt! strange character I had just left, wondering what his oecun ilion might be, and what he did for a living, I saw, coming towards me a man, whose face seemed strangely familiar to me, and as he got nearer, 1 felt more than ever, that it was someone I had once known ; he also stared intently at me, and when ne.ir enough, held out his hand, broke into a smile, and said :—''lf I thought it at all likely that I should meet an old

schoolfellow in Melbourne, I should sav you are Tom Blackmore."

11 Well, that's my name, sure enough, I replied ; and you are—l know your face quite well, though I can't call to mind your name."

" You have surely not forgotten George Barrett," he said laughing, " and Dr. llyall, and the school at Edgbaston." " No, by Jove, I haven't," I replied, shaking his hand heartily ; and then began a lot of questions and answers and talk of old schooldays, which I won't trouble you with.

I had never seen him since 1 had left school fifteen years ago, and it seemed strange that our first meeting should take place so far away from home.

lie said he had been in Australia twelve years, and during that time had tried a variety of occupations ; been shepherd, stockman, digger, policeman, besides various other ways of getting a living ; that for the last seven years he had been in the detective police force in Melbourne, and finished up by asking what strange fate had brought me to Australia.

I gave him an account of my present position and prospects, and invited him to spend the evening at my hotel if he could manage it, so that we might have a long talk of old times. He said he had nothing very special on hand, and would come about 8 o'clock.

The interview took place, but I need not trouble you with our boyish reminiscences; we had been great chums at school, and were mutually pleased to renew the friendship. I told him that I had taken my passage for Adelaide on the following day ; but should, in all probability, be back in Melbourne in about a fortnight, when I should be sure to look him up.

The next morning accordingly I embarked for Adelaide, and had, I well remember, beastly weather on the voyage.

I had been in Adelaide, I think, about a week, when looking over tho daily paper, I saw, under the head of Melbourne nows, a paragraph, as nearly as I can remember to tho following effect. It washeaded " Murder or Suicide —" On Wednesday last, as some men were 011 their way to repair the Ballarat road throe miles out of Melbourne) they saw a man lying partly on the road, and partly in the ditch. Believing him to bo someone overcome with liquor and sleeping his drunken spree away, they were passing away without interfering when ono of them noticed a revolver clutched in his outstretched right hand. Goi.ig nearer to tho supposed drunkard, he perceived that the man's head was lying in a pool of blood ; and on further examination they found that tho blood had oozed from a hole in tho head, apparently produced by a bullet from the revolver he had in his grasp. Tho man was not only dead, but must have been so for many hours as rigor mortis had sot in. and the body was quite cold and stiff. Ono of the men hurried back to tho nearest police station, and in half an hour returned with two policemen and n stretcher, upon which the body was placed aud taken to the " Black Horse " public house to await an inquest. From the statement of one of the men to our reporter, there appears little doubt that it is a case of suicide, as the hole in tbe skull corresponds exactly with the bore of the revolver, which was a singlo barrelled ono with five chambers. In the pockets of tho deceased was found part of a letter addressed to James Swinford, and from the information thus afforded the police have succeeded in learning that the suicide was a digger who had left Ballarat, with a considerable quantity of gold, to have a spree in Melbourne, but what had become of the products of his six months' digging does not appear. Nothing was found in his pockets but the abovementioned letter, 5s Gd in silver, a pocket knife, pipe, and cake of tobacco. His swag, which was still attached to his arms by leather straps, contained two blankets, a suit of good tweed clothes, and a pair of lace-up boots. It may turn out after all that the unfortunate man did not take his own life, but was murdered for the sake of the gold he had with him. The police are investigating the matter, and probably the truth will come out at the inquest." I read this as I would any other piece of news, never for one moment thinking that I had any concern in the matter, or was likely to know anything further about it except such additional particulars as the detectives might ferret out themselves. I thought no more of the affair until my return to Melbourne, when, according to promise, 1 lost no time in calling upon my old schoolmate, George Burnett. 1 found that he occupied two rooms within a stone's throw of the Chief Police Office, and, being a bachelor, kept no servant, but got his meals at some hotel, or when at home had them sent from a neighbouring restaurant. As it was evening when I called, we wi.lked out to this restaurant, and as we wished to be unrestrained in our conversation, Goorgo ordered beef steaks and oyster sauce to bo sent to his lodgings, and in less than half an hour our legs were beneath his table, and an appetising supper before us. The steak was tender, and we both did ample justice to it, and after supper was over George produced from a cupboard

a round-bellied, big jar of whiskoy, which lie said he could recommend, although he could not answor for its having had tho lawful duty paid upon it.

This was a matter that did not concern mo, and I did not consider it neecssary to inquire how an article camo into his possession which had not got the " Hall mark" of the excise officials. I think I have heard, even in England, of such things happening; nay, even of Despatch Boxes with an ambassador's seal and signature affixed, containing other matters beside state documents. The whiskey was there aud its quality undeniable. (To be continued.)