GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?"

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7605, 15 January 1903, Page 4

GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?"

(By W. W. HUTCHIXGS.)

Ko. 11.

THE VANISHING OF THE WIDOW HOUET.

[All PvlQsts Reserved.] In his sprightly and entertaining memoirs, which show tfant to the acumen of (he born detective he added no mean literary faculty, M. Cnnler teils n.-s of a ruse to which he once found it necessary to rer sort in placing under observation a house in the Ruo de Vaugirard, Paris. His business was to see thnt, ponding a certain im-\ portant investigation, the garden of the house remained undisturbed, for he tad reason to know that there were- those whose interest it was to frustrate the investigation. It was not- desirable, however, to take the present occupier or the sub-tenants into his confidence, and so he told the former, with an air of great mystery, that as he. had information that the house was to be attacked fpom the rear by burglars, he proposed to station in the- garden two inspectors of police in order to seize • the thieves a3 sen as they should have scaled the wall. Naturally enough, the man was only too glad to accept, the protection thus providentially offered -him, and at nightfall he- admitted the officers to the garden, and liberally supplied them with refreshments to sustain them during their vigil. No burglars, however, made their appearance, cither on that or on several succeeding nighta. Then one morning ths situation underwent a sudden change. Two carriages drove up to the door of the house. From oae of them alighted first a magistrate, then two men wbo were evidently in custody, for they were immediately surrounded by a, nuaiber of police officers who were waiting to receive them. From the other carnage stepped out two of He most eminent men of science in Paris— Sl. Orffia, the chemist and toxicologist, and M. Doumooticr, the anatomist— together with a couple of cloc°Th© magistrate led the way into the garden, and to the astonishment- of the occupia- of th* premises, directed a co upuvo* labouring mm, wlo were furnished with matin and pick-axe, to dig up the ground. Ther set to work, and for a tame taere wa* notlun-r <o teward their toil. Iken a detective? noticing that one of the men » enstodr had persistently stood all the wh^ «n the «pnt where ho had pwced himself S erufin, the garden *id to lum roughly. "Come now, shift a l»t L, the old Indv holding you by tae few. At tbb U» fclUw turned pale and trembled. But he moved away, ana tie dto»n began to ply their implements upon S2° ground whow he had -be« atandoi^ imsuriiatdy the axe .at .r« ck something hard- vV.eli it penetrated, and the man who wkiJ/*l it exclaimed in triumph,, "We have found- it!" And found it they had! For the atxfc moment it was seen that what «* axe had struck was a bed of ■nicklhne which h*d formed into a caw round I hunsftn akelrton. The flesh had all gone, but fie icumo rercained in its entirety. There, too, was the grey -hair which by- it« leugtii indicated- the iox -and by its colour tli-3 approximate s.ge of th«s defunct rand the c ■?! "iiager *i in* Is* **&& as BtSL m ' circicd by- n weidiag ring. How she had coate by "her death, too, was plainly to be Be-&a: ircnud her neck v»us a cord, four times knotted. . , ■ . . Parefuiiy the skcl-etou hikm up acd bonift icto the hous-a for th« great anatoiiiisb atrl b.k coll-isguss to cxa-mino. ThU linw, too, wmi scnipmoasly collected to the list morsel, in order that it, might be ana^ iy«sd by M. Oi-fila. Having completed hia examination, M. Donmoutier promotinoed that the .remains were- those of a womaa about seventy y^ars of ag-e, and: about four feet eig-'at inol»«s in heigbfc; that from tho saiallndss of the hs,tjds an 4 tho appcaranoo of i*A noils she had bzeo. unaocustonwid to hard r.iaJiual work; that ah© had been strangled,' bat rtofc «&psade«d, . so that it ttas a case not <ti suidob bub of murder; that .•'no :ivu-!c hav-s b-ec-n interred within a •ew hours o-f- 'kac'h, &inca . the 'body li&cl bcou bent nwrly double bo that it might be go!: inro its cxigrun;? brd, which must have hi-.?)! .lono before rigor jnor i;is set 3n ; nnA x'<v.l it 'had' prob-sbly fcoea lying there ten ()• »w-eLve year?. Tfc3.fc tho qu-ck-lima had" dov;o its i»ork s<J it-effectuaUy was e«si!y eip'ait-.t:l by M. Orfila; the murderer or muvdernrs had fargnUcn to mi>i.?t«n. it, and had thus presei-;ed v.hat they were bent ttj>oii destroying. As tho m«n of *ckn..;e stated their conolusioivs ar>.si g'av-& ihc-ir Tev.svD.is for them, the raan of law coiild* r.ot rcpp&s-s his satisfaction. When th*y had nniph-sd, a3 we leiuu i'rom Spic«x"?. "Ju-is.«al Dram&s." Tr-hicu suppUsienie! th^ story as told by M. Caisler. ths magistrate turne-i' to t-ha prisofiers. " These genvl«ai>?n, : ' ha fold- them, " kn*vr nothing of tho charge for which y-cn havo been aiTeeted ; yet in two horns tin-y have drawn a perfect pktuift of ycur victlni. It only remain* lor me to m^ntiais her aame —^tha widow Ifoiie'.- !" It was o-i the 26th- of April, 1&3, that this uncanny scene was enacted in tho Rueda Vaugirard. The widow Hou-et, ssventy years cf age, hads^udiiiejily nnd mysteriously disappear&i from ccortal ken on the 13th of Septffinber, 1821, twelve years less fpur months before. If. therfiforo, this skeleton were indeed hers, tb.& calculation of the men of science as to her axe and as to the time «b« hftd been lying inh^-r unhallowed grave was marvellously near tho mark. The old lady, who was possessed of a