Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 1Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
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Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 1
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
Yesterday, at the Martin Street Police Court, Antony Cowlrick was
brought up for the seventh time, on the charge of being concerned in
the mysterious murder which took place at No. 119, Great Porter Square.
The remarks we have from time to time made upon this case and upon
the arrest of Antony Cowlrick have been justified by the result. The
prisoner was finally discharged. All that was wanted to complete the
tragical farce was a caution from the magistrate to the prisoner not to
do it again.
We now intend to speak plainly; and the strong interest the case has
excited will be our excuse if our comments are more lengthy than those
in which we generally indulge in our editorial columns. The elements
of mystery surrounding the awful murder were sufficiently complicated
without the assistance of the police. Their proceedings with respect
to the man calling himself Antony Cowlrick have rendered the task of
bringing the murderer to justice one of enormous difficulty.
Our business at present is not so much with the murder itself as it is
with Antony Cowlrick and the police; but a brief recapitulation of the
circumstances of the murder is necessary for the proper understanding of
what is to follow.
On Tuesday, the 1st of July, a gentleman engaged a back room on the
first floor of the house No. 119, Great Porter Square. There was a piano
in the room. The landlady of that house, who has undergone more than one
lengthy examination, has stated that she "reckoned him up" as a man who
had just come from a voyage, and that there was something superior "in
the looks of him." When she asked him for his name he said it did not
matter, and he handed her four weeks' rent, telling her at the same time
not to trouble herself about a receipt. This was sufficient for the
landlady; she received the stranger as a tenant, and he took possession
of the room.
He led a remarkably quiet life. He did not trouble the landlady to cook
a meal for him, although "attendance" was included in the sum charged
for the rent of the room. He had but one visitor, a lady, who came so
closely veiled that no person in the house caught a glimpse of her face.
She called three times, and when the street door was opened, asked for
"the gentleman on the first floor," and went up to him without waiting
for an answer. This lady has not come forward, and she has not been
tracked. After the 10th of July no female resembling in the slightest
the vague description given of her has called at No. 119, Great Porter
Square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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