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Show i True Detective ! StOrV by Vance Wynn Public Ledger The Man With the Dark Lantern WUO killed John Hayes in the old Inn between London and OxTord? The facts can be stated very briefly. The gentleman In question was an English squire of great wealth. On his way from the capital to the old university town be stopped at a tavern kept by Jonathan Bradford. Brad-ford. There were two other guests at the place and Mr. Hayes struck up an acquaintance with them. They had supper together, and during the course of the meal the squire laughingly remarked that he had a large sum of money with him. The two other guests Brown and Harley exchanged significant glances at this unexpected confidence. confi-dence. Bradford, the landlord, was in the room at the time, and It was noticed no-ticed he listened to this part of the conversation with eagerness, if not greediness. Late that night each of the three guests was escorted to the room that had been assigned to him. John Hayes was domiciled In a middle apartment on the second floor, nnd his valet was placed in a room on the same floor and In the rear of the house. James Johnson, one of the permanent perma-nent guests of the Inn, sat up late that night reading. He used a candle which stood In its socket on the table, and Just when this began to sputter Johnson was aroused by sounds of a scuffle In the adjoining room. This was the apartment to which John Hayes had been assigned. Sounding the alarm, Johnson rushed to this room and, opening the door, rushed in. To his horror he saw a man In the bed, covered with blood. Standing over him, with a knife in his hand and a dark lantern fastened fas-tened to his arm. was another man who averted his face. Johnson was so petrified with astonishment as-tonishment that he was unable to speak. Two other boarders came into the room, and they were so shocked that they were helpless. In the meantime the man with the lantern slipped around the foot of the bed and out Into the darkness of the night. The police were summoned and they began the investigation to discover dis-cover who killed John Hayes. Suspicion pointed to the two men who had been the companions of the deceased at supper on the previous evening. But when the inquest was held Mr. Johnson said that the man with the lantern and the knife who stood by the side of the bed was Jonathan Bradford, the keeper of the inn. He was much confused at this charge, but positively denied that he was in any way responsible for the murder. He said he had heard the groans of the dying man and had gone to the room to ascertain the cause of the trouble, and was thus found standing there by Johnson and the other boarders. But the evidence was against him and he was convicted and duly executed exe-cuted according to law. After It was all over one of the county detectives was curious enough to get a list of the property that had been stolon from the murdered mur-dered man. One of the articles was a gold snuff box which had engraved upon It the coat-of-arms of George I. The Investigator made a tour of Hie pawnshops of London and in one of them he found the gold snuff box. With the assistance of the pawnbroker pawn-broker he managed to locate the man who had pledged the article. And whom do you suppose It was, gentle reader? None other than the valet of John Hayes, who had slept In the Inn that night I He was followed to a little room where he was living In London, but was found to be in a dying condition. condi-tion. Before he passed away, however, he made a full confession, In which he admitted that he had gone Into the room that night and murdered his master for his money. It might be Imagined that a cruel miscarriage of justice had occurred If another and even more startling revelation had not come to pass. One of the men who accompanied Jonathan Bradford to the scaffold said that the inn keeper had told him that while he had not committed commit-ted the murder, be was morally guilty. He confessed that be had conceived con-ceived the Idea of killing the poor old man for his money and. securing secur-ing a dark lantern and a knife, had slipped into his room for that purpose pur-pose only to find him dead by the hand of another. WNU Service. |