the mystery of the crime. With Detectives
McDermott and Sheriff Plummer I went to where the body was found, and
came to the conclusion that she was murdered there. There was so much
blood on the ground that it led me to this belief, and I also found
blood high up on the surrounding bushes, which I believed to have been
caused by the blood spurting from the neck. I found blood on all the
under side of the leaves, showing that the course of the blood was
upward, as though the body was on the ground when the throat was cut.
The ground was literally saturated with blood. The earth was upturned
and blood was found to a depth of eight or nine inches."

"State from your examination to your best knowledge and belief who
committed the crime?"

There was a deathlike stillness in the room as the detective answered:
"Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling."

"What have you found to lead you to that belief?"

"The dead girl, Miss Pearl Bryan, left her home at Greencastle to visit
a family named Bishop at 95 Center Street, Indianapolis. Her relatives
identified her clothing. We discovered that Scott Jackson had been
intimate with the girl. He left Greencastle October 14., and pregnancy
having become apparent she, at the solicitation of a cousin, named Will
Wood, went to Cincinnati to submit to a criminal operation. Jackson was
to have the operation performed and Walling was to assist in the
performance. The last we know of Pearl Bryan in life was in the company
of Jackson and Walling Friday night preceding the finding of her corpse
between 6 and 7 o'clock, when the three were seen to enter a hack at
Wallingford's saloon, at George and Plum Streets. We have discovered
that Jackson had hired Walling to perform the operation on Miss Bryan.
Jackson's coat was found on evidence furnished by Walling in a sewer
where it had been hidden. A pair of Jackson's trousers, covered with
blood and with mud on the knees, were found in Walling's locker."

"Has Jackson or Walling made any statements in your presence concerning
the crime?"

"Yes, sir. Each accuses the other."

"Can you account for Jackson and Walling the night preceding the finding
of the body?"

"Only up to the time they entered the cab at Wallingford's saloon. Then
all traces are lost. Neither Jackson nor Walling was seen or can give
any satisfactory account of their whereabouts from 7 p. m. of Friday to
3 a. m. Saturday."

"Have you any other evidence?"

"We found two valises,