Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason Corner Folks Part 34

"You're a dear, good father to help," and she gave him another embrace and a kiss.

The next day there was a preliminary meeting which Quincy attended at Mary's request. It was with difficulty that Mary waited until he made his report.

"The princ.i.p.al witness was Gustave Pinchot, the night watchman. He heard loud voices but as Mr. Ellicott was quite deaf he did not attach much importance to that. Pinchot didn't see anyone come in or go out."

"Couldn't Bob Wood prove an alibi?"

"Hardly, for he testified that he went to the office that evening, and Miss Ellicott said that he told her he was going."

"No alibi--and no evidence yet," said Mr. Dana.

"It's coming," said Quincy. "Mrs. Larrabee with whom Wood boarded testified that he had a heavy oaken staff and that he took it with him when he went out that evening because he had sprained his ankle."

"Did Mr. Wood acknowledge that the staff was his?"

"He did finally. He injured his case by saying, at first, that he didn't take it with him, but Mrs. Larrabee's testimony knocked that."

"Is that all the testimony against him?" inquired Mary.

"Oh, no," continued Quincy. "Wood made a damaging statement that will make it go hard with him. When he asked Ellicott for his daughter's hand, the old man got mad and threatened to kick him out. Then the judge asked Wood what he said when Ellicott threatened him and the young fellow incriminated himself by saying that he told Ellicott if he did that he would not live to do it again."

"Did it appear that he had been kicked out?" inquired Mary.

"No; and Wood denied it as well."

"And you saw his father, Quincy? What did he have to say?"

"He's all broken up, but says that his son is innocent."

"Of course, that's to be expected," said Mary, and then continued, "I saw Mabel Ellicott yesterday. She's in love with him, sure, and of course does not think him guilty. She told me, though, that Bob Wood had said to her that if she were an orphan there would be no objection to their marriage."

"That would probably go against him, if the prosecution calls her at the trial, and she testifies to that. But, what do you really think about it, Mr. Dana?" asked Quincy.

"I have my suspicions, but I am not going to mention them yet. You two young people are taking hold of the matter in good shape, and I want to see what you can do about it; but, although, I do not say that Wood is not guilty, I do say that I doubt if the government has sufficient evidence to convict him."

Mary became so interested in the case that she decided not to go to the White Mountains for the summer, and Quincy also remained in Fernborough, helping Mary as much as he could. Often they would go off on long tramps in the surrounding country, and once Quincy went to Boston and was gone several days. That they procured some evidence was clear from the satisfied remarks made by Mr. Dana, who approved of the lines on which they were working.

Although they had made some headway they were not ready to present their theories when the time came for Bob Wood's trial. Many thought him innocent, but the jury were of a different opinion, and brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree.

The day after the close of the trial, the district attorney of Normouth County was sitting in his office opposite the Court House. He was preparing his address opposing the granting of a new trial, which he knew would be proposed the next day by the counsel for the defence.

He had gone over the evidence time and time again. He was a conscientious man. He felt that the law of the State had been defied--had been outraged--and yet within his heart was that natural feeling of sympathy and pity for the unfortunate being for whom but a few short weeks of life remained, and he could not help regretting the part he had been obliged to take in convicting the young man.

At that moment, a clerk entered and said that a young lady wished to see him. In obedience to the direction given, the clerk withdrew; the door was opened again, and a blue eyed, fair-haired girl entered. Standing near the district attorney's desk, she said:

"Mr. Harlow, as there is no one here to introduce me, I will introduce myself. My name is Mary Dana. My father is, or rather was, a detective for seventeen years in Boston, but our present abiding place is the town of Fernborough. In the city he often used to tell me of the cases on which he was working, and I would try to solve them with him. Robert Wood lived in Fernborough, and from the day of his arrest I have been much interested in the case, and with the help of my father and a friend of mine, Quincy Adams Sawyer, the son of the former governor, I have been trying to find the man who murdered Mr. Ellicott,--for I have never believed that Robert Wood was the guilty person." She smiled, and added, "Detectives, I believe, are more often interested in strengthening evidence, and bringing about imprisonment and executions than they are in trying to prove people innocent."

"But, my dear young lady," said the district attorney, "the young man whom you speak of has already been proved guilty by a fair-minded jury.

There seems to be no question of his being innocent, and, after the jury have returned their verdict it is rather late to still try to prove him not guilty."

"What I have to tell you I think is important. Can't you spare me a little time?"

"I have a luncheon engagement in half an hour, and can give you twenty minutes, but it will do no good, I am sure. Won't you sit down?" and Mr.

Harlow placed a chair for her near his desk.

"Thank you," said Mary, as she seated herself, "I will be as brief as possible. I have read of many murder cases, but I believe I never knew of one in which there was more conclusive evidence against the person accused than in this instance. When I first took up the case, my father did not think there was a possible loophole of escape for him; but the truth does not always appear on the surface. Then, jurors get wrong impressions. Witnesses are often prejudiced. Sometimes the judge is not impartial. Then there are coincidences which are fatal so far as appearances go, but which can be satisfactorily explained."

The district attorney nodded, somewhat impatiently, and fingered his watch-chain.

"The day after the murder I called on Mabel Ellicott, primarily to ask her some questions about Robert Wood, but I also had a chance to see the body of her father, and to examine the wound upon the murdered man's head. I decided that Mr. Ellicott had been struck with something else beside the oaken staff which, covered with blood, was found near his chair. In fact, I found in the wound certain foreign substances which could not have formed part of an oaken staff.

"That was a clue, but I told it only to my father and Mr. Sawyer. It led us to look for something else. I must confess that a week pa.s.sed without our discovering anything to bolster up my opinion. Finally, it occurred to me that perhaps the foreign substances I had found in the wound might have been on that part of the cane that comes in contact with the ground. But we will drop that for the present.

"Back of the mill is a piece of sunken ground. During the night, after Mr. Ellicott was murdered, there was a heavy fall of rain, and this piece of sunken ground was covered with water to the depth of several inches, in some places, at least six. I do not mean that the rainfall was so great, but the water ran down from higher elevations until it made, what appeared to be, quite an extensive pond.

"Mr. Sawyer and I made several circuits of this temporary pond; why, I could not exactly tell you. A detective, I have been told, can seldom tell why he examines certain objects so closely, but something seemed to draw me towards that improvised lake.

"While looking at the water, I saw something which projected several inches above its surface, and I had a curiosity to know what it was.

Mr. Sawyer put on a pair of rubber boots, and waded out to it, lifted it from the water, and found it to be a large, irregular shaped stone weighing at least ten pounds, which he brought back to me. He then went back and splashed round in the pond with the hope of finding something else of interest, but could discover nothing.

"I wondered how that stone came to be in the middle of that pond, and we devoted several days after that to an examination of the surrounding country. Back from the mill, some four or five hundred feet away, was a ledge of rock. We, that is Mr. Sawyer and I, for I forgot to tell you my father is now a cripple and could only help us with his advice at home, examined its surface very carefully, using a magnifying gla.s.s and, to my great satisfaction, I finally located a place into which the stone found in the pond fitted nicely. Evidently, then, the stone had been detached for some purpose, and that purpose having been accomplished, the stone had been thrown into the pond."

The district attorney looked at his watch again and betrayed signs of uneasiness.

"Pardon me, Mr. Harlow, but would you not rather lose a dinner than send an innocent man to his death?"

"You still have ten minutes," was the district attorney's reply, "But, I cannot see the connection between what you are relating and your idea that Robert Wood is not guilty."

Mary continued her narration.

"I asked Mr. Sawyer to examine the tools and implements in the mill workshop and he found a pickaxe, one point of which had been subjected to rather rough treatment. I naturally connected that pickaxe with the ledge of rock that had been found in the pond.

"An examination of the night watchman's quarters followed. Mr. Sawyer could discover nothing until he came to a small cupboard which was locked. Locks, however, do not keep detectives, or criminals either, from making further investigations. In the cupboard, he found a coil of rope. There was a certain peculiarity about that rope of which I will speak later.

"After that Mr. Sawyer loafed around the mill quite a good deal in the evenings and became acquainted with Mr. Pinchot the night watchman. He is a French Canadian. He told Mr. Sawyer that his parents lived in a small town near Montreal, that they were both quite old and he was their only living son, although he had five sisters, all working in the States.

"He had saved some money, and as his parents had a farm, and needed his a.s.sistance, he had resigned his position and the day following the murder was to have been the last one at the mill. He had withdrawn his resignation when told that the law would require him as a witness, and has continued in service.

"Mr. Sawyer then made a trip to Boston and found that Mr. Pinchot had not intended to go to Canada but had been making inquiries as to when a steamer would sail for France. He had been told he would have to go to New York. Am I taking up too much of your time, Mr. Harlow?"

"It makes no difference now. I am too late for the dinner. Pray proceed."

"While in the city Mr. Sawyer called upon the architects who drew the plans for the Ellicott Mills. I mean the original plan, for many changes have been made in the interior. He procured a copy of this, and we found that when the mill was first constructed, the part used by the treasurer at the time of the murder had been the receiving room for raw materials.

I next made an excuse for us to visit the mills one Sunday and we investigated the second story of the mill. The floor was covered with grease and dirt and was black with age. I got upon my hands and knees and, with my magnifying gla.s.s, examined every foot of the floor.

"For a long time, my search was not rewarded, but, finally, I found a white place in the wood. A splinter had been detached. With a knife, I sc.r.a.ped the dirt from the floor. My search was rewarded. I had found a trap door! Its former use was apparent. On the wall, above the trap door, was a stout hook. Upon this hook the tackle had been put and goods lifted from the receiving room to the story above."