Santa Rosa High School - Echo Yearbook (Santa Rosa, CA)

Page 9 text:

i 4 4 THE PORCUPINE “Tt was a coach dog,” said the witness, “that in addition to its numerous spots, had two larger ones, one directly behind the other, on the back of his neck.” “Was the dog there when you left Mr. Dexfen’s service?” “T did not see the dog for three weeks before I left. He was kept in the coach house and Mr. Dexfen himself cared for him.” “Could you recognize the dog?” pate “That is all,” said the coroner. The case was given over to the jury, who rendered the verdict of murder, so John Dexfen was held for further in- vestigation. Dexfen gave bail and the case was set for trial a week later. Menwhile Renard was put on the case by the central office, and together with a man from the coroner’s office, he made a thorough investigation of the Jacob Dexfen house and grounds. An officer had been constantly on guard, so that everything was in the exact condition as it was on the night of the crime. They began with the room in which the old man had died, but it was soon evident that all traces had been covered by the doer of the crime. The whole after- noon was spent in going over the first floor of the house. Two things worthy of note were discovered: The first was a small bottle, without label, partly filled with a colorless and odorless liquid, and which was found lying on the floor of the old man’s bedroom; the other was a book found on the library shelves. The library itself was a small room with book shelves running up to the ceiling on two of the four walls, and containing several hundred volumes of old books, covered with dust and smelling strongly of that odor peculiar to old and musty volumes. Evidently neither the room nor the books had been in use for several months or, perhaps, years. What attracted the attention of Henri Renard on these shelves, was a book with rather fresh finger marks in the dust, and which projected a few inches beyond the others. It was a volume of Longfellow’s poems.. Noth-

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THE PORCUPINE In the fall of 1897 the police department of Paris was startled by the murder of Jacob Dexfen, an old and promi- nent English resident of Paris. It was clearly a case of murder, but no motive could be found for the crime, as the house had not been robbed, nor was there knowledge of an enemy who sought the old man’s life. Consequently the guilt fell upon either John Dexfen, who also resided in Paris, a nephew and heir of the murdered man; or upon Jacob Barret, another nephew and second heir, who had come to Paris two weeks previously. The latter proved an alibi. John Dexfen was a middle-aged man of eccentric habits, as he admitted himself. He lived with only two servants, in a rather large house surrounded by spacious grounds. Recently these servants had left him, and he had gotten no others to fill their places, so that now he lived alone in the house. A charwoman came once a week to do the cleaning for him. On account of this fact John Dexfen was unable to prove an alibi, but testified at the inquest that he was at his home at the time of the murder. The next two witnesses gave startling testimony against Dexfen. The first declared that he had passed the house of the murdered man at about the hour of the crime, and had seen a coach dog, with two large black spots upon the back of his neck, standing before the house. The summary of the testimony was that the murderer was accompanied by a coach dog. The next, a police officer, testified to the fact that such a dog as the one described, had been found in the stable at John Dexfen’s place. Then one of Dexfen’s former servants took the stand.. “Did Mr. Dexfen have such a dog as has been spoken of, while you were at his house?” the coroner asked the witness. “Yes,” was the reply. “Describe the dog that Mr. Dexfen had.”

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8 THE PORCUPINE ing was between the leaves or written on the margins. What. connection did this have with their investigations? Renard answered this question, after pondering a few seconds, by reaching up in the space behind where the book had been. . Nothing was there except a piece of string. He picked it up, but the end appeared to reach somewhere else. He traced it for a few feet, and found that it led to a volume on industrial arts, stuck in behind the other books. Still the question was “What did this have to do with their in- vestigations?” Probably some freakish notion of the, old man, The bottle they took to a chemist to have its con- tents analyzed; the book Renard took home. The investigations were continued a day or two longer by Renard and his associate, and concluded by interviewing the talkative servants. By the day set for the trial, Renard had his theory worked out and backed by proof based on his investigations. One more. link was. necessary, and to obtain this he visited Dexfen. The answer he received to his query made his chain of evidence complete, i.e., that Jacob Barrett had seen the dog belonging to Dexfen when he was in Paris several months previously. This statement, Dexfen said, could be proven by the butler he had at the time. The following is a summary of the evidence gathered by M. Renard, and produced before the court: 1. Barrett was the only occupant of the house at the time, in addition to the old man and two old servants. 2. Both servants claimed that nothing out of the ordi- nary had taken place in the house on the night of the crime. 3. There was not to be found the least sign of an intru- der having effected an entrance to the house. 4. A book upon industrial arts was found hidden in the library. This book was made up of uncut pages, and only those of the chapter on the use of aniline dyes were cut. 5. This book had arrived by mail addressed to Jacob Barrett, and after his arrival. 4 : : :