The White Rose of MemphisFalkner, William C. (Clark)
General
The White Rose of Memphis
Falkner, William C. (Clark)
Memphis (Tenn.) -- Fiction
“‘Ah, hem! yes, Mr. Demar,’ replied the detective, as he took the last
corner from his plug of tobacco, ‘I have something more to say; and, in
the first place, allow me to mention the fact that I heartily indorse
your idea as to Bowles. We must by all means keep him in the dark as to
what we have resurrected against him. He is a sly, shrewd rascal; but
I’ll capture him if you don’t thwart me. In Mr. Ragland’s flower garden
there is a large summer-house made of lattice-work, and all covered over
with vines. It is constructed in an octagonal shape, with wooden
benches, arranged round inside. This house has been the meeting place of
Miss Bramlett and Bowles. Miss Jemima Tadpoddle saw them there one night
at a very late hour. She had called to see Mrs. Ragland one evening, and
was informed by the house-maid that her mistress had gone out to attend
a meeting of some benevolent society, of which she was an active member;
but the maid told Miss Tadpoddle that Mrs. Ragland would be in soon, and
while waiting in the drawing-room for Mrs. Ragland’s return, she saw
Miss Bramlett go into the summer-house. Soon after Miss Bramlett went
into the place Bowles came in through a secret entrance at the back of
the garden, and went into the summer-house where Miss Bramlett was
watching for him. After waiting a long time to see Mrs. Ragland, Miss
Tadpoddle left without seeing her; and when she went away Bowles and
Miss Bramlett were still in the summer-house. How long they remained
there she of course did not know. When Miss Tadpoddle gave us this
information we made a thorough examination of the premises, in order to
find the place where Bowles got into the garden. We searched for some
time without any result, but at last we found his entering place; and I
must give him credit for great skill, for the manner in which he had
managed it. The garden was inclosed with a common paling fence of pine
timber, painted white, the palings being about four feet high, sharpened
to a point at the top, and nailed to a horizontal railing. Three of
those palings had been so arranged that they could be taken off and
replaced, so as to leave no signs of having been removed. The nails that
had originally been driven in to hold the palings in their places had
been drawn out, small wooden pins put in their stead--so that when
anyone wished to enter the garden he had nothing to do but to draw out
the wooden pins, take off the palings and walk in; then replace them,
and no one could see that the palings had ever been interfered with. I
don’t think we should have made the discovery had it not been for the
signs left on the grass by the feet of the party, who had evidently
entered very often. We found that the ground near the place had been
hardened by continuous tramping on it; and this led us to examine the
palings very closely; the result was we found what I have just
mentioned. We made a very extensive search among the blades of tall
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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