Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/49

 *ceased came to his death at the hands of some person unknown."

"But who will be known ere long. But to resume. As you know, a man called at the house of Cyrus Felton shortly before 8 o'clock of the night of the killing. To the inquiry of the housemaid as to which Mr. Felton was wanted the man replied that he 'did not know there were two.' Not long after 8 o'clock that same evening a man appeared at the ticket office of the railroad station and inquired when the next train left. These incidents, while not startling in themselves, seem to prove that in each case the questioner was a stranger to Raymond. Every one around these parts knows that there are two Feltons, father and son, and the natives are also presumed to know that there is no night train through the town before 11:50."

"Very well reasoned," remarks Barker.

"As you also know, on the afternoon of Memorial Day a chap named Ernest Stanley was liberated from the State prison at Windsor, after serving two of a three years' sentence for forgery. Despite the fact that Raymond was not his home and that he had not, so far as known, a friend or acquaintance in the place, and contrary to the advice of the warden, who took an interest in the fellow, he bought a ticket to this town and started north on the afternoon train. That latter fact was proved by the ticket agent at Windsor, who sold him the ticket and saw him board the train. I went to Windsor this forenoon, after the inquest, saw a photograph of this Stanley, and secured a pretty accurate description of him."

"But there is no evidence that he left the train at this station. Or if he did"

"He could have been, as I believe he was, the visitor at Felton's house."

"I am not so sure of that," contends the detective. "On the evening of Memorial Day the agent of a granite manufacturers' journal, published at Chicago, stopped at this hotel. He arrived on the afternoon train from the north, and after supper, the clerk told me when I quizzed him,