The Millbank Case: A Maine Mystery of To-day

by George Dyre Eldridge

“If it’s my name you want, it’s Trafford. The murderer attempted first to rob or murder me in the covered bridge at Millbank, before he committed the actual murder,” answered the detective.

“I did not doubt before,” the priest answered, with something of stateliness; “only when a trust is given, one must be certain. The message is that the man who was drowned was not murdered. It was an accident, in which the one barely escaped and was unable to save the other.”

“Even so,” Trafford retorted, “the other might have had a chance to escape, if it hadn’t been for a broken collar-bone, and for that the man who denies the murder was responsible.”

“But it was by mistake he inflicted it,” the priest answered.

“By mistake, because he missed the man he intended to strike and hit his associate in crime. He was in the bridge to rob and probably to murder, and if the death of his companion was directly accidental, it came through a violation of the law and that makes it murder.”

“In the eyes of the law, possibly,” the priest said; “but we look to the intent. The man did not intend to kill his associate. He died as the result of an accident.”

“Are you permitted to give me details?” Trafford asked, wisely avoiding a discussion that might return again and again on itself without actual progress.

“A wounded man found me asleep in a hut where he sought shelter, guided by the Blessed Virgin, I doubt not. I heard his confession. On that is the seal of the Church. He begged me to find you and give you this message, and what he said in that I will strive faithfully to repeat. It is all that I can say. He was not in the bridge to murder the man at whom he struck, but to seize him and take from his person certain papers. He struck in the dark in the direction of a noise made, as he supposed, by the man. He may have struck harder than he intended. At the least, he struck his companion and not the man, and with force sufficient to break the collar-bone. What they had been set to do, they were to do and then return to the woods without being seen. He had now the fear earned by failure, and the certainty that the man, having escaped, would call on the authorities, and he and his companion would be betrayed by the latter’s wound. He, therefore, persuaded him to bear his pain until they could get to a place of safety, and not daring to travel the roads, where they could be tracked, they struck to the river banks above the Falls, and followed these until they found a boat into which they got, turning its head upstream.

“He had only an old and broken oar with which to paddle, but a driver can paddle with a single pole, and they easily reached the middle of the river. Here he turned at a groan from his companion and failed to see a floating log which struck their boat, and, worse still, knocked the oar out of his hand. Before he could recover himself, the boat was in the rapid current above the Falls, and rushing downstream with increasing force. His companion, roused at the growing roar of the waters, seemed to think that it was with intention that this was happening. He begged to be spared, and called loudly for help. The other told him what had happened and that he was powerless to prevent the boat going over the Falls, whereupon the wounded man sprang to his feet, with a prayer to the Virgin and Saint Anne, and leaped overboard, just as the boat touched the white water above the plunge. The other ran to the bow, which was shooting straight out, and stood there for a second of time until he felt it tremble for the dip, at which instant he jumped for the deeper water below the Falls, and by a miracle escaped the rocks at the very base of the plunge. As you know, the water there is very deep, so that although he sank, he did not touch bottom. He floated through the cañon and succeeded in landing just above the railroad bridge. He knew there was no use in looking for boat or companion, and so crept up the bank around the Falls, secured another boat, and finally towards morning landed just below the Bombazee Rips. He set the boat afloat and plunged into the woods. That is all I am permitted to tell you.”

“But it is not all you know,” Trafford said.