Show I r Strokes Sl ok s of Great Detectives By GEORGE BARTON I M. M HAMARD Al AND THE HENRI MYSTERY 1 Pierre Henri and his wife wIre lived in a little cottage in one of the small towns owns of or Brittany that old province In the northwest ol ot France She was wasa a working hard-working woman but he was wasa a worthless sort of ot fellow He was wasn in n th tha habit of ot going off on sprees and oi oil Oh such occasions she gave save hi hia him hima m a vigorous tongue tons lashing Life Lite i is s I often like that in some somo parts of the peninsula between the English channel channel chan chan- nel and the Atlantic ocean Many of the people were as rough and as harsh as the land itself and that is saying a great deal deaf Even today they speak their own language which Is neither English nor French but Breton I s I Pierre Henri had bad his moments of exultation and his periods of depression depres I lion sion and when he was depressed he I threatened to lea o tho the picturesque country countr never to return One day he disappeared and no noone noone one ono knew what had become of ot him His wife iro was not worried In the least All AU she said was that she hoped he would not return to annoy her The neighbors shook their heads and thought it was dreadful but Madame Henri Henrt smiled Ironically as she went down to the river bank to do her washing But no one Is considered unimportant tant in France and so M. M Hamard the noted detective undertook to find out something ng about tho the disappearance disappearance dis dis- appearance of Pierre He gave the local police instructions to scour that part of ot the country One day one of ot them was walking along the bank of ot a stream near the home of oC the Henris he noticed a n. rough sack tangled angled in the spokes of a water wheel He made It his business to disengage it and to hIs found that hat it contained some fragments of human flesh This led to a a. further Investigation and three other sacks were found in the he same stream And each one of them contained parts of a human human human hu hu- hu- hu man body These fragments were so mutilated Led that it was almost impossible to Identify the remains But the police of Brittany are patient and persevering persevering persever persever- ing and in tho the course of time they proved beyond the shadow of ot a doubt that hat the remains were v those of Pierre Henri The theory of M. M Hamard and the others was that Henri had been murdered murdered mur- mur dered and that his body had been hacked backed apart with a hatchet parts of or it placed in the several bags and then thrown into the stream They went to Madame Henri and informed her that the remains were i those hose of ot her husband and wanted to know enow what she had to say about It She had nothing to say and the only answer to their questions was a con contemptuous shrug of the shoulders But SF the French police pollee are arc not in the habit of ot dismissing crime with a shrug of the shoulders so they proceeded proceeded pro pro- with their investigations with more earnestness than ever They followed one clue after another In the hope of solving the mystery The I original bag baR that had been found In the water wheel had been kept at the police poUce police station A second examination examination examina examina- tion of the sack showed that it had been securely sewed at the top I That convinced them that the crime had been committed by a W won vc man If It It had been a man mall they ther argued he would have hate tied the top of ot the tho bag Only a n. woman would have thought of sewing it So much for the acumen of ot the thc French police They made a search of ot the house of or Madame Henri and they found a stained blood hatchet And they found articles of clothing covered with blood The local Judge who was conducting the Investigation In bluntly accused Madame Henri of having committed the crime She had borne up well before that but when she was called a murderess she he swooned It was probably the time first In her life lIre that this husky woman had ever fainted tainted When she recovered she cried out It was indeed I who committed this crime He provoked pro me nie beyond endurance It was not only that he was an Idler but he gave me no peace He started to spend my small inheritance and then he came home drunk and taunted me I picked u ua up a club and hit him Ho He fell teU dead Then frightened ned I hacked up the remains with a hatchet and placing the tho remains in bags sewed them up and threw them into the stream running running running run run- ning by our house The truth of these statements was fully verified at the trial and the woman t was convicted of or murder She was sentenced to a term of ot twenty years in pr prison on The rhe crime was as a sordid one but much significance lies in the tho fact that the mystery was solved when the French police poUce by intuition de decided decided decided de- de that the ba bags must have been sewed up by a woman Copyright b by Public Ledger 44 |