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The brand of Cain by Ward Sterling. Doctor Andrews, the physician who had

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been called in by the coroner,
gave as his opinion that Waldo Fellows had

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met death shortly after midnight. The
conditions of the body, he said,

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proved his contention. Then, too, the fact that the blood with which

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the sheets had been smeared had dried
and hardened caused him to stick to his

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statement. Yet Orville Hitchins, Fellow's
secretary, swore that his employer had been

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alive and well at two o'clock in
the morning. Hitchins stated that he had

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been summoned by Fellows at one o'clock
and requested to drive to Amboy, two

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miles away for some bromide. Mister
Fellows had been extremely nervous of late and

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found himself unable to sleep. Finding
that he had no bromide, a drug

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that he was accustomed to taking,
he had awakened the secretary. Hitchins asserted

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that he had taken the light car, made the trip and returned just before

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the clock struck. Two. Fellows
had taken a dose of the drug,

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and Hitchins had again retired. Henry
Phelps, the drug clerk, verified Hitchin's

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statement as to the purchase of the
bromide, while Landis, the chauffeur,

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told of getting out the light car
for the secretary, who had driven it

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himself. In spite of this,
Doctor Andrews stuck to his statement that the

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murdered man had been dead at least
ten hours when he made his examination.

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Swinson, the valet, had discovered
the murder when he went to awaken his

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master at eight o'clock. It was
nearly ten o'clock when Coroner Stevenson arrived,

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accompanied by doctor Andrews and Bram Dwyer, the New York detective, who,

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with myself, was spending a few
days vacation in the little village. The

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prominence of the murdered man, coupled
with the fact that the detective and Stevenson

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were old friends, caused the New
Yorker to interest himself in the case at

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the latter's request. Fellows was a
gentleman farmer, a man worth several million

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dollars made in Wall Street, who
tired of the life in the city,

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had purchased Samoset Farms just at the
edge of Amboy Township, and after stocking

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it with the finest blooded cattle and
horses that money could buy, had settled

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down to a life of rustic bliss. As time passed, he had added

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to his acreage by purchasing adjoining farms, until half the township was his.

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He had erected a mansion around which
he had built smaller homes for his employees.

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These, with the great barns,
sheds for the machinery, dairy and

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offices, made Samoset farms almost town. Such a man, as Waldo Fellows,

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sat down in the midst of a
rural community is bound to be sought

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out by his fellow man. Twice
he had reluctantly allowed himself to represent his

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district in the state legislature. The
governor's chair could have been his for the

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asking. His fellow townsmen loved him
for the nobility of his character. Yet

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he had enemies by the score,
many of them the small landowners whose farms

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surrounded his. For the man who
does things on a big scale is certain

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sooner or later to tramp on the
toes of others. But who among those

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he had offended hated him to the
extent of taking his life. Two Fellows

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was murdered in bed, apparently in
cold blood, for there was no evidence

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of a struggle of any kind.
Nothing in the room had been disturbed,

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so far as could be retained,
nothing of value had been taken. The

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fact that the bedding was not must
led to the belief that the murderer had

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struck while his victim was asleep.
None of the servants or Missus Fellows,

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who slept just across the hall,
had heard any noise, save when Hitchins

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returned from the drug store with the
drug which Fellows had requested. Missus Fellows

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had called over the trancem to Hitchins
to ask what was the matter, and

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he had told her of his employer's
sleeplessness. The bottle of bromide, with

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a small quantity gone, was found
on the table beside the bed. Bromide

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seldom acts inside half to three quarters
of an hour. Hence, assuming that

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Hitchins had told the truth, and
everything pointed to his having done so,

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Fellows must, if he was killed
in his sleep, have met death not

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early than three o'clock. Yet the
blood which had flowed from the wound,

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the condition of the body, everything
led a cool conservative medical man to declare

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that death was struck at least three
hours earlier, nor could his testimony be

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shaken. There were twelve servants who
slept in the house, all occupying the

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upper floor, with the exception of
Hitchins, Marie, missus Fellow's maid,

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and Sweenson, the valet. Watson, the butler and general man about the

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house, was the last person to
bed, and according to his own statement,

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the first up in the morning,
he had personally locked all the doors

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and windows on the first floor.
They were all locked when he made his

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rounds in the morning. Hitchins,
in going to the drug store, had

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left the house by the side door. This he had left unlocked, re

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locking it upon his return. This
led to the assumption on the part of

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some of the officials that the murderer
had entered the place by that door during

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the secretary's absence, hiding until his
return, and after Fellows was asleep,

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had struck the fatal blow and escaped
by the same door, springing the lock

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after him. There was no other
way of looking at the matter unless one

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went on the theory that the deed
had been committed by one of the servants

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or Missus Fellows, and the latter
was unthinkable. While the servants, all

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of them had been in fellows employ
for years and were known to be absolutely

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loyal. Of course, the window
of the sleeping rooms on the second floor

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were open. A man of agility
might have gained an entrance in this way,

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but luckily there had been a slight
rainfall earlier in the evening, and

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as a result the ground was in
a condition to take impressions easily. The

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coroner and the sheriff made a thorough
search for marks of a letter or footprints,

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but were positive that there was none
beneath any of the windows, and

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there was always to be considered the
lack of motive. Aside from the farmers

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who were jealous of the big landowner, there was no one known to hold

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a grudge against him. My friend
Dwyer declined to assist the officials in their

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hunt for footprints, contenting himself to
dawdle around the house as if greatly bored

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by the whole affair. Conversant as
I am with his methods, I admit

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that this surprised me, for he
is usually personified when there is some perplexing

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problem to be untangled. Eventually,
however, the officials, nonplussed, were

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forced to turn to him for advice. He answered with a shrug of his

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shoulders, absolutely refusing to be drawn
into a discussion of the case. Following

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the time worn methods, the sheriff
called all the servants together and examined them,

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elictiting no more information than had already
been gained. It was at this

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point that Dwyer, who had been
listening to the questioning without comment, offered

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a suggestion. There is a band
of gypsies camped a few miles the other

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side of town. He remarked,
quietly. There chief is old father Lipke,

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a friend of mine. The old
fellow knows his business from the ground

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up, fortune telling, mind reading
and all of that sort of stuff.

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In fact, he's assisted me on
more than one occasion. I know that

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you'll laugh at me for the suggestion, but let me bring him here.

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I'll guarantee that he'll have the murderer
by the heels inside of half an hour.

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How he does it, I can't
pretend, and to know it's positively

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uncanny the way he pulls off his
stunts. But if it's results you want,

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then Lipkey is your man. The
sheriff sneered Coroner Stevenson, in spite

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of his friendship, for the detective
suppressed a smile with difficulty. You don't

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want us to think you believe this
rot, do you? Brahm? He

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inquired. My friend shrugged his shoulders
again. You asked for my opinion,

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he answered, I'll give it to
you. I'll take a chance on Father

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Lipkey. In fact, as I
have stated I have many a time,

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the man has powers beyond the understanding
of men like us. But of course

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it's up to you and the sheriff. Three darkness had fallen when Dwyer and

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the coroner again drove up to the
fellow's home, accompanied by Father Lipke.

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The gypsy member of his race was
Lipkey, a wrinkled little figure far past

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the age allotted to man, but
in spite of his years, he carried

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himself like a youth of twenty,
and his black, beady eyes glittered like

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those of a boy as he prepared
the stage for the affair, his huge

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brass ear rings rattling like castanets as
he hurried here and there. The spot

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selected by the Coroner, upon the
advice of Dwyer, for the test of

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Lipky's power was the huge living room
on the lower floor. The servants were

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ordered to carry out all of the
furniture, with the exception of the chairs,

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which were arranged along the wall.
Then every member of the household,

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with the exception of the widow,
was ordered to be present. The old

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man mumbled to himself, drew a
large circle on the floor in the center

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of the room with a piece of
charcoal, after which he commanded us to

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seat ourselves just outside eyed the circular
mark, warning us, under penalty of

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death, not to enter the circle
unless commended to do so by him.

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His next act was to produce a
braser, which he lighted and placed in

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the center of the circle. By
its side, he placed a small vessel

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containing water. The lights were then
turned out for an instant, we were

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in darkness. Then the brazier flamed
up, filling the room with an unearthly

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blue, greenish sort of glare.
Chanting to himself, the old man threw

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a pinch of powder onto the flames. At intervals, the light would turn

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for a second into a vivid red, then die away again to the dull,

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sickly bluish green. Suddenly, he
seated himself cross legged at the side

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of the brazier and bowed his head, closing his eyes as if in prayer.

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He mumbled to himself in an unintelligible
jargon. I confess to a feeling

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of nervousness. I could tell from
the expression on their faces that the others

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were the same. The tension was
becoming almost unbearable when the old man slowly

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raised himself to a standing position,
and, seizing the vessel of water,

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sprinkled it on the floor inside the
circle, being extremely careful that not a

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single drop fell outside the mark.
I must protect you from the powers of

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evil, he exclaimed. Keeping carefully
inside the mark, he made the rounds,

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touching each of us lightly on the
forehead, making on each of us

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the sign of the Cross, in
the name of the Father, Son and

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Holy Ghost. I heard him mumble
to himself. Reseating himself on the floor,

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he again bowed his head, and
once more his lips moved, as

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if in prayer. Suddenly he fell
over and for several minutes writhed about as

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if in terrific pain. I leapt
to my feet to assist him, but

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the strong hand of bram Dwire held
me back. Remember, he shouted.

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The old man commanded us, regardless
of what happened, not to cross the

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line. After three or four minutes, the spasm ceased, and the gipsy,

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seemingly none the worse for his experience, arose and addressed us, my

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friends. He commenced in his halting
broken English, you have asked me here

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to use my arts in the detection
of one who has committed a crime,

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the crime of murder. I have
done my best inside this circle. I

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have wrestled with the powers of darkness
and the spirits of light. I know

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not which one of you committed this
foul deed. No one knows save God.

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Yet, he who has created all
things, will not allow the crime

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of murder to pass unnoticed. Therefore, I say unto you this, If

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he who has committed this murder is
in this room, there will appear upon

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his forehead the sign of the Cross, the mark that God placed upon Cain.

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This alone, I can do more
than that. I am not allowed,

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for my powers are limited. He
signaled for Dwyer to turn on the

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lights. An instant later, we
were blinking at the unaccustomed brightness. The

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old man seized the brazier and held
it close to the face of each of

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us, gazing into our eyes as
if seeking to read there the secret he

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was bent upon obtaining. Then there
came a shriek, a gasp of astonishment,

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of horror, a cry. I
turned my head, my eyes,

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following the gaze of the others.
Upon the forehead of Hitchens was the sign

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of the cross. For a second
there was silence, cold, oppressive silence.

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The secretary gazed from one to another
of us mutely, questioningly. Then

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his eyes sought the mirror above the
fireplace. Afterward I recalled that Dwyer had

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seated him in front of the glass. His face became drawn. The sweat

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stood out on his forehead in great
beads. Slowly, as if stunned,

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his fingers sought the accursed mark upon
his forehead. He spat upon his hands

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and rubbed the spittle against the spot, as if to erase it. He

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held the tips of his fingers in
front of his eyes, surveying them thoughtfully,

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dazed. Then, without warning,
he dropped to his knees, his

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arms outstretched toward the swarthy man within
the circle. I did it, I

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did it, he shrieked. Four. No. I never met Lipke until

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yesterday. Dwyer chuckled to us,
as two hours later, Hitchin safely lodged

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in jail. He sat with the
coroner, the sheriff, and myself in

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the former's parlor and went over the
various phases of the case. I'm a

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fairly good judge of character, and
when I noticed him begging on Main Street

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yesterday, I immediately placed the old
fellow as being far above the average of

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his class mentally, and capable of
playing almost any part he might be called

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upon to take. I realized far
better than the rest of you that the

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murderer was too clever to be captured
unless some subterfuge was used. And when

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you appeal to me, Stevenson,
my thought reverted at once to the old

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man. A falsehood or two in
the interest of justice, is, in

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my opinion, perfectly a lie.
And that I was correct in my estimate

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is proved by what happened. What
appealed to me from the very start was

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the apparent lack of motive. Had
we been able to supply a motive,

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we might have been able to lay
our hands on the man who struck the

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blow. But in the absence of
one, it became necessary to try some

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radical step. To imagine that one
of the farmers hereabouts would become jealous enough

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to strike Fellows down was absurd,
and granting that some of them might have

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the nerve, they lacked the imagination
to pull off so mysterious a crime.

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I was confident in my own mind
that Hitchins was the guilty party. Why

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because he was the only man who
had the opportunity to kill Fellows. But

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on the other hand, his frank
statements apparently eliminated him from the suspects.

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Let us analyze the affair a trifle
deeper. Doctor Andrews swears that Fellows was

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killed shortly after midnight. We now
know that he was correct, But Hitchins

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bobs up with the story of being
in conversation with the murdered man at two

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o'clock. He was able to prove
his statements by two reputable and disinterested witnesses,

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Landis the chauffeur and Phelps, the
drug clerk. Therefore, my conclusion

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was that either Hitchins was lying or
that the physician was wrong. But my

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experience has taught me that medical men
are, as a general rule, cold

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blooded. That is, they figure
things out with mathematical accuracy, and by

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the law of averages they are right. Ninety nine times out of one hundred.

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Therefore Hitchins was lying, but so
far as we knew, there was

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no motive. Now, the average
man has deep within him a streak of

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superstition and a fear of whatever he
does not understand. Therefore I took the

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indolent attitude before the servants, finally
working things up to a climax so that

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they expected wonderful things from the gypsy
whom I had touted so highly. As

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soon as you gave your permission,
I hunted up the old man, whose

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name, by the way, is
not Lipky but Rodrigo. For ten dollars.

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He agreed to play the part the
way I told him to, and

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that he sustained my estimate of him. I believe you will all agree.

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I spent the afternoon in coaching him. I felt that in case Hitchins did

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not confess, we would have lost
nothing. But I was betting on the

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superstitious streak in his makeup and won
out. We all know what his motive

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was. He had been systematically robbing
his employer for years. Fellows had become

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suspicious last night notified the secretary that
they would go over the books together today.

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Hitchins waited until his employer was sleeping, then entered the room by means

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of a key that he had secured
possession of, struck the fatal blow,

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then went through the mummery of going
to the village after the bromide, thus

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providing himself with an almost perfect alibi. With Fellows dead, he figured that

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as confidential man, he would be
retained for a year or two to come,

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finally reaching the point where he could
get his hands on a large sum

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of money and make his escape before
his defalcations were discovered. But rumbled the

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sheriff. I'm still in the dark
as to how the gipsy caused the black

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cross to appear on his forehead just
by mumbling a few prayers. Those people

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know a lot of black art that
we more civilized people will never be able

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to understand. Grinned I furnished the
black art myself, he answered. It

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cost me ten cents at the drug
store. The old man made the cross

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on Hitchin's forehead. First, if
you will recall the affair, he had

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just dipped his hand into a vessel
of what looked like water. He only

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pretended to dip his hand into it
when he anointed the rest of you.

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The heat of the brazier brought out
the mark, or started it when he

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held it up and pretended to peer
into your faces. What was it?

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Merely a ten percent solution of ammonium
chloride, the same stuff from which invisible

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ink is made. The old man's
skin being dark, it didn't come out

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on his hand as it did on
Hitchin's forehead. And that's the whole story,

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The end of the Brand of Cain
by Ward Sterling