Show ACCUSED BY A CLOCK I 1 it was magnificent in its caned carved walnut wood case with its large enameled dial and with it its gerld pendulum I 1 I 1 it im of brass bright as gold pl passing anil n rep re passing n ing before ta tin ile opening covered w with v th a 11 d disc csc of glass A all 11 who caught sight of it through Pie rreta ithe tho clockmakers clock makers window stopped to gaze at it and formed little knots about hie door Ili erret the clockmaker was still a man in his thirties but never nevertheless thelms he lie was in dined to sadness and not at all talkative lie ile had known a great sorrow seven yeara years before N while hile ho lie was serving in the army his ili father had been murdered in fri this very shop now occupied by him who was the assassin on whom could lie avenge av ense tho the old man who had bad never done harm to anybody od and rd who had been so aind kind to him justice had failed to ia lay V hands upon the murderer mui derer and arid robber who had carried off saved sou son by sou by tire father for the eon son all researches had been fruitless pier ret had finished hl ills time of service ice in ili tire army and ns as soon as tie lie w was as free lie returned and established himself in ili the mur derad mans shop determined doubtless doubt lesis to drive away care by labor but iowna it was clear that suffering was gnawing grims ing at hi ills heart at nightfall ho he i wait as seen wandering i about the tile village as if in search of somebody sonn body that somebody being surely the criminal time pissed p ased weeks months years the murder was forgotten by all bave save the tile orphan and other who could not but remember it quite recently pierrot had bad gone to paris Parte and retrained reiga ineil there several days lays making purchases bringing back with him the magnificent clock which set everybody who v ho saw st it longing to possess it come in ili gentlemen said to the tile admiring groups who pressed clinely clo choicely icely about his ld shop w window what is the price ot of it one hundred brownis crow no nis idies acx a it strike certainly listen Liste lil the clockmaker caused the bell to sound clear ron t orous silvery hut but nobody will buy it said faid Pl erret 1 I am afraid I 1 have done flone a foolish thing in bringing parl paris oil t that hat del depends lends Pierr etl we are not rich enough bu but t there is somebody here whom lh aard good looking hoeard who is going to marry and mind what he lie spends it if vou you would not mind putting in a it word tor for me with pleasure and who knows by touching him on oil the his lila vanity you would be doing me a greather grea ervi vice 11 jacques was not very much liked and that for several I 1 eamons antho in the first place he lie had made his bli fortune too a sud iut dearly it had come to him from the clouds ly by the intermediary of a notary oh not of this village but ot of a long way off over the tile mountains an all inheritance which had at once put I 1 liin ani at bis his ease and be he had in creased this by dabbling in business F for or all that lieras he was closefisted poke spoke in a loud voica swaggered in I 1 the lie direct street drank heavily arid had ft it following when any body wanted to unloosen en ills its pune strings for a bowl of punch or ft a bottle of chani ahn m they knew on which side to deal with him A man like him the king ol 01 the coun tryl he ile wagged his ills head and al 1 I lowell lowed himself to be taken in the thing thin however waa was not so easy as it had bad at first seemed to be when the name cf waa was pronounced before bocard it evidently produced an unpleasant effect on that persons nerves he lie disliked pier ret that was clear well everybody la is free to like or dislike according to his lis lin preb la is he not Ilie rreta a pettifog ger an all idler no nor no lie was not that tb t but even it if he lie were what had that to alo do with the greatest wonder No that had ever ever been been seen in ili the place besides Ilee idea it cost nothing to look at it while talking bocard had bad drunk a good deal he ile begun to get warm laying saying yes 11 saying no and finally consenting to troll stroll as far as the clockmakers clock makers shop then withdrawing ills his colment cot colim ment nt why any ally OLO ole would say you were afraid to go to pierrets Pier rots Af afraid IP it what do I 1 care for Pl pierrot erret conic come on the little watchmaker was at bis ills bench his magni ayi fyi ng glass M ii ia inn him right eye bend ing hig over the works of certainly he ile was not looking at anything that was w a going on outride outside of hm bs hop yet lie havy very cry plainly observed the approaching group sand something very much like a mile might have beer been seen to play about his ills 11 lips ps as he lie did so he lie hoped for a caa cus tomer and to a poor t melesin an that must iiii itt always be a pleasant feeling must it not oh doubtless hut but for alt all possible cir bomers hope hoped I 1 tor for ole and arid that ine tile was w as now at tho the door hoeard entered Is that it he ile said contemptuously pierrot ruse politely d turned his back upon hini from hauteur evident in short he lie immediately agreed to give the twelve pounds and threw throw down a five pound note on account or on condition that the clock should be lie t hat that name evening installed stalled in hm ilia dining room at his house this evening friends cried bocard of course be did not include well drink to m my new piece if of furniture 1 at what hour nine As as found himself quite alone he lie burned the tire bank note in the flame of ft it candle then he lie went into the room behind the shop and took up a small bo box on which there were english labels laic lii parted pasted returning I 1 le e opened the case of the clock no jio doubt to regulate the movement e within the bromhed prom lied hed time line I 1 it placed p I 1 aced prominently placed amid aruid the rich furniture of locardi Lo cards dinin dining room around the table from n w which ahli h point up ward n goodly array of bott lUli t huifu klind lo 10 eard card and bl his old friends drink laugh and slog si 7 the anver bell records the tile hour what it boive e a song rather one could listen to it through the whOle night light midnight the v oloe voice puts forth all im its delightful power attention one two light the punch the flame flits goblin like over the tile surface ft of the bowl lapping it w with ith up tip thrown tongues of yellow und and blue the sugar frizzle r now ow put out the lamp the clock Is going to strike no it speaks alks jacques hoeard jacques Lo carill ll ahl hl Who spoke who said that jacques locardi I 1 confesol Con fessl Con confers fesAl Il ilgard Lo card locardi what jest Is this how low v cry very pale you ou aal a 41 the voice bounds as if it cave from the cellar jacques bocard you are a murderers erl it is falise who has h 11 dared to aay say that jacques Lo bocard card it is you who killed old Pl pierrets Pierr errett etl ft f A I 1 there are cries groin fi 4 ills risen to his flet feet lost i ile lutea 4 at his cravat to tear 06 ig i ibi 1 I 1 ir I 1 k I 1 I 1 g 7 0 7 I 1 mr C ft t T ti bevo f ocic iest M ni pan at eay 1 I echi cobill nui s 4 toiled VOi led distant di tant na its if it coining conling from it tomb it repents ie repeats peats repeals the tile word as its raisin sain 11 loc ard tills falls upon ills knees rises falln falla ag asala a I 1 n 1 I confess confes s I 1 confess coi fea tie lie cries yes it was livas I 1 who killed the theold old man mail and robbed liim him but let that horrible voice cease it did not stop but went on repeat repeating inz ita its dreadful with the persistency ot of a machine in ili motion it Is the clock that speaks speak sill screamed bocard seizing it shaking it draggi dragging I 1 11 1 it from front its plate place casting it upon the floor tho tile works were scattered and in their midst wit w oi been seen it small cylinder 1 under covered with metallic paper who had ilal heard all sprang into t the lie room through the open window and beizem bocard by tile throat throaty you arc are all witnesses that this man Is the murderer of my eatherl fa therl he lie cried murder will out but mm men who take the lives of their fellow men nien for gain always think their cunning moro more than a match for proverbial wisdom so thought Lo cocard caril and had not seven years im justified his ills estimate estinia te of ins his own cleverness no it had only put him ot off the guard which the murderer must never for a moment cease to keel the police had bad utterly failed to track him down had not even aso associated him in any way with the crime yet there had lind been at detective at ills heels as its ho lie now saw with horror A few years in the army do one of two t things sharpen or deaden the tile wits of a 41 soldier they sharpened tB the failure of tho tile police left in his ills mind a deep and bitter sense of disappointment his ills father had been cruelly murdered and robbed almost in the light of day a kind hind ly but undemonstrative man mail rl respected by all ills old townsmen who was never known to hai have e made an enemy who had many friends cocard among amon the tile number dumber who but bilt one of his friends could 11 have are known that lie had by the merest accident of circumstances the tile whole savings of 11 till I 1 life in hit hn that day lay in view bew of an advantageous investment to be lie torn com plated on oil the morrow that neier never tame car ne for him no stranger could hae have knowl of this no stranger that idea ha haunted tinted pier mind day and night and goaded him to action step liy by step lie pushed on in hit by bit he lie came upon the his hn tory of all his fathers old friends and aei as soua socia tei tet and at length suspicion pointed to the tire sudden and arid vaguely explained ll 11 ud uprising of icard nearly simultaneous simul taneo ul w witt ith t the lie old blocknia clock nia kers assassination there was tho the filae false reckoning of chances too eager for the employment of his murder stamped gold he lie surprised his acquaintances by fly his ilia ostentatious display os of means but lio lie provoked to ili mike ake inquiry as to their origin still the tire proof the legal proof eluded the young mans search though ho he bid bad come close enough to it to satisfy the in of ins his heart while the persistency wit li which bocard abo M ho had hoe been an all al 41 most daily dally visitor to bl his fathers house avoided biri was in iti elf a confession it was at tills this stage of his search for justice that the idea of laying a trap for or the crim inal trial came into his mind gentlemen of the jury sari said the prose cating barrister you see hero here of what social utility is tile progress 4 of science was it nota not a trait of genias on the part of it poor clocks clockmaker ker to have utilized by adapt ing it to tx affe mechanism of if an all ordinary clock that immortal indention invention of Edi souls the phonograph true flag |