1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



125 



a hazy idea that Uaivin had known 

 more of the affair than he bad pretended. 

 On those lines I followed up my old 

 hnnt. and I was not a bit surprised to 

 find out from one of the servant girls 

 that a small bottle had been found in 

 the hand of the dead man. I ran down 

 that side of the story at the start and 

 showed the doctor up in great shape, for 

 he had given a certificate for heart fail- 

 ure, having been induced to do so by 

 f alvin's friends. Then I wanted a pic- 

 Cure, but the deuce a picture was to be 

 had. Finally an old friend of Calvin's 

 told me there was a large crayon of the 

 lumberman in the lodgeroom where 

 they met. Calvin had been one of the 

 past presidents, and on retiring, shortly 

 after the death of his partner, had pre- 

 sented the lodge with this picture, fol- 

 lowing a custom in vogue in that par- 

 ticular body. The man who told me of 

 it was one of the trustees, and he. offered 

 to go to the room with me and let me 

 have the portrait. I did not want, of 

 course, to bother with the frame, so I 

 proceeded to take out the back. While I 

 was doing so the trustee looked for some 

 wrapping paper, and I was alcne. Talk 

 about luck! Luck wasn't in it. I am not 

 religious, as you know, but I have had 

 a queer feeling about that affair ever 

 since. I found a folded parchmentlike 

 paper between the picture and the back, 

 and you can bet I hustled it into my 

 pocket darned quick. 



"Just imagine, boys, bow my heart 

 beat lantil I got to my room. I wasn't 

 married then. I locked the door and got 

 out my precious paper. It was a com- 

 bination will and confession, and the 

 introduction was the strangest part of 

 it. Calvin gave his reason for hiding it 



in the picture, and it was this: That 

 while be had not the courage to expose 

 his villainy, he was willing to leave it 

 to Providence. If there was such a 

 thing, he said, the matter would all 

 come out even in the face of apparent 

 impossibilities. Then followed the con- 

 fession. He had been playing a crooked 

 game with Johnstcu for years, but at 

 last the senior partner had become sus- 

 picious and had started an investigation 

 of the books himself. Ruin and disgrace 

 confronted Calvin, and in a paroxysm 

 of fear he bad taken one of the keen fire 

 axes, and, creeping behind the unfortu- 



nate man, split his head open with a 

 blow. He lived next door and had no 

 difficulty in getting to his bouse unno- 

 ticed, cleaning the ax and restoring it 

 to its place on the wall on the way 

 back. He never expected such luck as 

 Wilson falling into a circumstantial evi- 

 dence trap, and he let him go to prison 

 without a qualm. But his conscience or 

 spirit, whatever you like to call it, 

 couldn't stand the strain, and he fell 

 back on morphine, both to quiet his 

 nerves and furnish an excuse for the 

 suicide he contemplated. He had tried 

 in a small way to atone to Wilson's 

 family by sending them, anonymously, 

 money every month sufScient to keep 

 them fairly comfortable. In the third 

 clause of the document he bequeathed a 

 handsome amount to the woman whom 

 be had made worse than a widow. He 

 left 110,000 to the wretched man be bad 

 allowed to go to a cell when he could 

 have saved him with a word. Every- 

 thing was straight as a die. There was 

 not an ambiguous word in the document, 

 and the signature was properly witness- 

 ed by the cashier and one of the clerks. 



"I got back to the office without any 

 more delay and wrote na.y story after I 

 had given the ciry editor an outline of 

 what I had. He just jumped out of his 

 chair with delight and did a double 

 shuffle in the excess of his exuberance. 

 The boys thought he had suddenly gone 

 mad, but be gave them no satisfaction, 

 and I, too, kept my discovery to myself. 

 He asked me what I was going to do 

 with the confession. I told him my idea 

 was to see the g'^vernor myself and se- 

 cure poor Wilson's release. He said a 

 fellow that brought in a story like that 

 could do any darned thing he pleased. 



"The governor happened to be in the 

 city that day. When I told him my 

 story, he started an investigation at once. 

 He sent for the superintendent of police 

 and the judge who bad tried the cape, 

 an old friend of his. The man who bad 

 let me into the lodgeroom was also sum- 

 moned to corroborate my statement, and 

 letters written by Calvin were secured 

 so the writing in . the confession could 

 be identified. Fortunately everything 

 ran smoothly, and before 9 o'clock, with 

 the concurrence of the judge, the gov- 

 ernor decided on releasing the prisoner, 

 giving as a double reason for his prompt 

 action that the best way to redress the 



