Part 38 (2/2)

”Forgive me and I pray to meet my sweetheart in heaven.

”Alfred.”

This morning at 10 o'clock a jury impaneled by W. V. Hopf, Ellis County coroner, will a.s.semble in Dawson Grove for an inquest into the two deaths. At the same hour the funeral of the girl will be held from the house of the widowed mother she supported.

The funeral of Barker will be at two o'clock to-morrow.

_GIRL DEAD IN MYSTERY CASE_

2. Miss Emily Benton was found dead late yesterday in a patch of bushes on the outskirts of the village of Dawson Grove. She had disappeared Sat.u.r.day evening in company with Alfred Barker, a young man who had been paying her attention since childhood.

Searching parties in the field since early Sunday morning were joined last night by a sheriff's posse in the quest for Barker.

Barker is described as an athletic young man with a ”Johnny Evers” jaw. Barker was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and a blond.

Barker and the girl were ”pals” in the words of their relatives, who only half guessed at times that perhaps the long friends.h.i.+p would become a ”match.” Together the girl and Barker often through the springtime took long walks at night--occasionally a matter of many miles--to the villages of Hinman and Nashville. For several years the couple rode to Chicago together to work every day on the same commuters' train and often returned home together at night.

While an alarm was sent out through all the surrounding towns for the apprehension of Barker, no charges have been made against him. An autopsy held in secret by Coroner Hopf of Ellis county was expected to reveal the cause of the girl's death.

Alfred Barker, returning from his work at the general offices of the Burlington Railroad in Chicago, dropped off a train at the station in Dawson Grove on Sat.u.r.day afternoon at 5:15 o'clock.

He lingered about the station platform until the 6:30 train came in and met Miss Benton, home from her day's work at the Parisian Fas.h.i.+on Company in Chicago. Together they walked to the girl's home and stood talking on the doorstep of the Benton residence, just as they had most every afternoon in the last seven years.

The mother says she overheard this conversation:

Alfred.--”Let's take in a show to-night.”

Emily.--”No, but I'll be over to-night. I want to see Pauline.”

The girl abruptly entered the house and greeted her mother a trifle impatiently.

”I'm getting awful tired of Al,” she said.

That evening the girl went to the home of her sister, Mrs. Henry Wallis, where Barker and his aunt, Mrs. Fannie Willis, mother-in-law of Mrs. Wallis, also live. At 8 o'clock the girl and Barker left together.

”They said they might go to a show, and that's the last I saw of them,” Mrs. Wallis said.

Late at night the two households became alarmed when neither of the young people returned. The families suggested to each other that Barker and the girl had eloped, but still there were doubts and misgivings.

Martin Whittier, the town marshal, was called and the alarm was sent to the Chicago police. Sunday morning came and there was no word of either of the missing.

A group of high school boys volunteered to look for the couple, and soon they were joined by the whole school. No trace of the trail was found.

Yesterday morning the disappearance had grown into a village sensation. The schools were closed for the day and all the pupils turned out to beat over the fields and woods.

Carl Selig, a grocery delivery man, was driving in Orchard Street on the south side of the village, about 5 o'clock, when something behind a bunch of bushes and tanglewood at Lyman Street caught his eye. He climbed off the wagon and pushed through the brush to investigate. In a small open place half concealed by the bushes Selig came upon a girl's body. The face was covered with her coat and her hands were folded across her breast. He gingerly pulled off the coat and recognized the girl as Emily Benton. Selig gave the alarm and the body was removed to Davis's undertaking rooms in the village.

The ground near the death spot was closely examined without discovery of any trace of a struggle. Ten feet away from the body a boy picked up an empty two-ounce bottle. It showed no trace of its contents and it bore no label.

At the undertaking rooms a preliminary examination of the body disclosed a bruised splotch on the girl's neck, another on the right temple, and a third on the chin. The inside of her mouth was discolored and seared, as though she might have taken carbolic acid. There was no odor to indicate any chemical.

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