"Now John Siders is found murdered--is found killed, in his
lodgings, the morning after he has arranged things so that his
antagonist, his rival in love, Albert Graumann, shall come under
suspicion of having murdered him.
"What evidence have we that this man did not commit suicide? We
have the evidence of the disorder in the room, a disorder that
could have been made just as well by the man himself before he ended
his own life. We have the evidence of a letter to some unknown,
making plans for pleasure during the next days, and speaking of
further plans, presumably concerning business, for the future. In
a town the size of G--, where every one must have read of the murder,
no one has come forward claiming to be the friend for whom this
letter was written. Until this Unknown makes himself known, the
letter as an evidence points rather to premeditated suicide than to
the contrary. Oh, if I could only have seen the body! They tell
me the pistol was found some little distance from the body. Is it
at all likely that a murderer would go away leaving such evidence
behind him? If Graumaun had killed Siders in a hasty quarrel, he
might possibly, in his excitement, have left his revolver. But I
have already disposed of this possibility. A man of sufficient
brains to so carefully plan his suicide as to conceal every trace
of it and cast suspicion upon the man who had made him unhappy, such
a one would be quite clever enough to throw the pistol far away
from his body and to leave no traces of powder on his coat or any
such other evidence.
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