“Very well reasoned,” remarks Barker.
“As you also know, on the afternoon of Memorial Day a chap named Ernest Stanley was liberated from the State prison at Windsor, after serving two of a three years’ sentence for forgery. Despite the fact that Raymond was not his home and that he had not, so far as known, a friend or acquaintance in the place, and contrary to the advice of the warden, who took an interest in the fellow, he bought a ticket to this town and started north on the afternoon train. That latter fact was proved by the ticket agent at Windsor, who sold him the ticket and saw him board the train. I went to Windsor this forenoon, after the inquest, saw a photograph of this Stanley, and secured a pretty accurate description of him.”
“But there is no evidence that he left the train at this station. Or if he did—”
“He could have been, as I believe he was, the visitor at Felton’s house.”
“I am not so sure of that,” contends the detective. “On the evening of Memorial Day the agent of a granite manufacturers’ journal, published at Chicago, stopped at this hotel. He arrived on the afternoon train from the north, and after supper, the clerk told me when I quizzed him, he inquired where Cyrus Felton lived. Felton, you know, is the principal owner in the Wild River Granite Quarries. It is more than likely, is it not, that he was the visitor at the Felton residence?”
“Still he may not have called that night.”
“True. Admitting the caller to have been Stanley, what then? A motive must be assigned.”
“We will discuss that later. For the present suffice it to be known that Stanley was sentenced to State prison for forging the name of Cyrus Felton two years ago.”
“Well, what of it? If Stanley’s thoughts were of revenge they were apparently directed against Felton, not the man who was murdered.”
“That is precisely the point that is not clear to me,” confesses Ashley.