"THE LITTLE BUSY BEE" ENLIGHTENS THE PUBLIC.
"Special and exclusive information has just reached us of
_A Remarkable and Ghastly Murder_
in the North of London, and we hasten to lay the particulars before
the public. It will be fresh in the recollection of our readers that
in our Tuesday's editions we drew attention to a blind thoroughfare in
that neighbourhood, known as Catchpole Square, to which the only
access is through a hooded passage, bearing the ominous and
significant designation of Deadman's Court. On that morning a poor
woman, accompanied by her little daughter, whose pallid face and
emaciated appearance evoked general sympathy, made an application to
the magistrate at the Bishop Street Police Court respecting the
mysterious disappearance of her husband, Mr. Abel Death. It appears
that this man was a clerk in the employ of Mr. Samuel Boyd, of
Catchpole Square, and that on Friday evening last he was summarily
discharged by his employer. He was in needy circumstances and he came
home to his lodgings in a very desponding frame of mind, for the loss
of his situation spelt ruin to his family. In this desperate strait he
left his wife at between nine and ten o'clock on the same night, with
the intention, as she stated, of making an appeal to Mr. Boyd to take
him back into his service. From that hour to this nothing has been
heard of him. Neither has anything been heard of Mr. Samuel Boyd, who,
it may be premised, is supposed to be a man of great wealth, and is
described by some of his neighbours as a money-lender, by others as a
miser. Credence is given to the latter description by the fact that he
lived quite alone, and kept no servants in his house, such domestic
services as he required being performed by a charwoman who attended
only when she was sent for.
"Mrs. Death's application at the police court having been made public
through the medium of our columns it was a reasonable presumption that
it would have come to the notice of Mr. Samuel Boyd, and that he would
have sent a communication either to the distracted wife or to the
newspapers, stating if Abel Death visited him on Friday night, and if
so, at what hour he left. But Mr. Boyd made no sign. The woman said
that she had been several times to the house in Catchpole Square, and
had received no response to her knocking at the street door. Nothing
was seen of either of the men, and it is probable that nothing would
have been known for a considerable time had it not been for the bold
action taken by a valued member of our staff, to whose love of
adventure we have been frequently indebted.
"We may state at once that this gentleman acted entirely upon his own
initiative, and that we accept the full responsibility of his
proceedings, and are prepared to defend them. It may be objected in
some quarters that he took upon himself duties which did not fall
within his province. We will not at present argue the point. There was
a dark mystery; there were rumours of foul play; hidden from public
gaze stood a house which contained the evidence of
_A Terrible Tragedy;_
futile endeavours had been made to obtain entrance into this house;
the police did not act, probably because they had no authority to act.
What followed? That the press stepped in, and by a bold stroke
_Laid a Foul Crime Bare_.
"History records how officers high in command on land and sea, but not
invested with complete authority, have disobeyed orders and won great
victories. Success justified them. Success justifies us.
"We come now to details.
"In his endeavour to ascertain whether a search of Mr. Samuel Boyd's
house would afford a clue to the silence of its proprietor and to the
disappearance of Abel Death, our reporter ran the risk of being
arrested for burglary. Except that he did not get in by the front door
we do not propose just now to disclose how he obtained an entrance
into the open space at the back; sufficient that he did obtain it, and
that at ten o'clock this morning he found himself in an enclosed yard
at the rear of the house. The merest examination of this part of the
premises satisfied him that some person, probably a more experienced
burglar, had been before him. The back door was locked and bolted, but
a window sill and the panes of glass above had been smashed in, and
there were signs that the person who had done this had entered the
house through the window. To reach the sill the first burglar had
stood upon a rickety bench which had apparently given way beneath him.
Our reporter managed to put this together in a sufficiently firm
manner to afford him a temporary foothold. Then, with an upward
spring, he got his hands upon the sill, and scrambled through the
window into a small unfurnished room. He did not effect this violent
entrance without noise, but there were no indications that his
movements had disturbed any person in the house, which was silent as
the grave. His next task was to examine the rooms, all the doors of
which were unlocked. He proceeded with great caution, and at length
reached an apartment which, from the fact of its containing a writing
table, desk, and safe, he concluded was the office in which Mr. Boyd
conducted his business affairs, although, from the singular collection
of articles scattered about, it might have been the shop of a dealer
in miscellaneous goods, comprising as they did several dozens of wine,
old tapestry and armour, pictures, valuable china, a grand piano, and,
strangest of all, the wax figure of a Chinaman which might have come
straight from Madame Tussaud's exhibition. Our reporter confesses to a
feeling of alarm when he first saw this figure, the back of which was
towards him, and, while it did not lessen his surprise, it was with
relief he ascertained its real nature. Up to this point, however,
strange as were the objects which met his eyes, he had seen nothing to
warrant his breaking into the house. The safe was locked, and there
was no appearance of its having been tampered with; with the exception
of the broken window at the back of the house, there were no signs of
disorder in any part of it, and he began to doubt the wisdom of his
proceedings. He was not to remain long in doubt; he was on the
threshold of
_An Appalling Discovery_.
"There are three doors in the apartment in which he stood. One leading
to the passage, one on the left, and one on the right. This last door
opened into a bedroom, which he entered. Seeing the form of a human
being in the bed he retreated, uncertain how to act. Then he called
softly, and receiving no answer spoke in a louder tone, and still
received no answer. Mustering up courage he approached the bed,
stepping very gently, and laid his hand on the man's shoulder. The
silence continuing he turned down the bedclothes. The man was dead!
"In view of the proceedings he had determined to take our reporter
last night obtained from a policeman a personal description of Mr.
Samuel Boyd, and he had no difficulty in identifying the features of
the dead man. They were those of Abel Death's employer, and from
certain marks on his throat he came to the conclusion that Mr. Boyd
had been murdered by strangulation. The position of the furniture did
not denote that a struggle had taken place on the floor of the
bedroom, and the reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Boyd had been
strangled in his sleep. After the deed was done the murderer must have
composed the limbs of his victim, and arranged the bedclothes over the
body, in order, probably, to make it appear that Mr. Boyd had died a
natural death. The shortsightedness of this proceeding is a singular
feature in this ruthless crime, for it is scarcely possible that the
marks on his throat could escape detection, or that the strangulation
could have been effected without some violent efforts on the part of
the victim to save himself, whereby the bedclothes must have been
tossed about.
"The silence of Mr. Samuel Boyd on the subject of the disappearance of
Abel Death is now accounted for; the disappearance of Abel Death has
yet to be explained. We make no comment. From this hour the matter is
in the hands of the police, who will doubtless set all the machinery
of Scotland Yard in motion to discover the murderer and bring him to
justice.
"A circumstance remains to be mentioned which may furnish a clue.
Before he left the house to give information to the police our
reporter's attention was attracted by certain dark stains on the floor
of the bedroom and the office. They bear the appearance of having been
made by a man's feet. Our reporter traced these dark stains from the
office into the passage, and from the passage down a staircase leading
to the small room which our reporter first entered through the broken
window. There they end. The mystery is deepened by the fact that there
are no marks of blood on the clothes of the bed in which the murdered
man lies. Our reporter scraped off a portion of the stains, which we
have placed in the hands of an experienced analyst, in order to
ascertain whether they are stains of human blood.
"An important question, yet to be decided, is, when the murder was
committed. Our reporter is of the opinion that it was perpetrated
several days ago. The evidence of doctors will be of value here. We
understand that no person in the neighbourhood of Catchpole Square has
seen Mr. Boyd since last Friday evening. From Mrs. Death's evidence at
the Bishop Street Police Court we gather that her husband has not been
seen since that day. The presumption is that the murder was committed
on Friday night. Much depends upon the discovery of Abel Death and
upon the explanation he will be able to give of his movements. It is
understood that Mr. Boyd leaves one son, his only child, who is now in
London.
"We shall continue to issue editions of 'The Little Busy Bee' until
midnight, in which further particulars will be given of this strange
and most mysterious murder."