Bower's spirits picked up. He had a
strong premonition that at last he
was on the right track.

He gave his orders and Scott and his
stalwarts started to open up the ditch.

“Blime, we'll ‘ave dug ‘arf the
bloody county up before we're fin-
ished!” grunted one of the diggers
between shovelfuls.

“Yus,” agreed a companion, “but
Tl] bet the old man finds wot ’e’s look-
ingenur..

Then suddenly, late one afternoon,
after six weeks of searching, Bower's
dogged faith in his intuition was re-
warded.

Turning Back the Records

And now to find out more about the
corpse in the ditch we must turn back
the record four years and eight
months—to September, 1898, and to
Miss Camille Cecile Holland, a 56-
year-old spinster, born in India of an
English father and a French mother,
who were now both dead. Her only
living relative was a married nephew,
Ernest Holland, a civil servant work-
ing at Somerset House, the United
Kingdom’s repository of vital statis-
tics.

Miss Holland’s father had left her
moderately well off and she lived,
like most spinsters of her class, in
private hotels and boarding houses.
She had been given a good education,
had traveled on the continent, and
spoke French and German passably
well. Most of her money was invested
in gilt edged securities handled by an
old established firm of London stock-
brokers. A very proper firm of Eng-
lish solicitors handled any legal work
for her.

Perhaps at one time Camille Hol-
land had thoughts of marriage; but
apparently the right soul mate hadn’t
come along, for now her closest com-
panion was Jacko, her little foxterrier.

She was a little person, just five feet
tall, tiny and petite, and her slightly
graying light brown hair matched her
hazel eyes. Always making the most
of her appearance, she looked ten

John J. Prachyl’s
S T R | A H car traveled every
way but on four

wheels. He collided
with a truck, after
which his car trav-
eled 60 feet on two

MODERN ROOMS WITH HOT AND
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years younger than her age, and in a
way could be called good looking.

By nature artistic, a legacy from her
French mother, she loved to sketch
and paint in water color, and she
played the piano just moderately well.

A rather gay, friendly and butterfly-
like soul, she lived in boarding houses
where she could have company and
friendship.

In September, 1898, she was living
in a boarding house in Elgin Crescent,
in the Notting Hill quarter of Ken-
sington, when a great event happened;
she met “Captain” Samuel Herbert
Dougal.

Where the couple met is uncertain;
some say that it was at the Earl’s Court
Exhibition: Others, that it was
through a matrimonial agency. Per-
haps the captain met her coming out
of her bank. Once before in his
chequered career he had met a
maiden lady coming out of her bank.
She had found the acquaintance a
very costly experience.

Herbert Dougal—a Predatory Type

Herbert Dougal was 52 when he
met Camille Holland. He was tall,
swarthy and heavily built; an impos-
ing figure, with a black moustache
and beard which he kept closely
trimmed. He went in for cutaway
coats and fancy double-breasted
waistcoats, across which were usually
draped a massive rolled gold watch
chain. He looked the typical Ed-
wardian gentleman, and in fact he
looked not a little unlike England’s
reigning monarch, Edward the Sev-
enth. Dougal’s bearing gave evidence
of military training; for he had served
in the Royal Engineers and been re-
tired on pension after twenty-one
years’ service—with the rank of
quartermaster-sergeant.

He was strictly of the predatory
type, accustomed to getting what he
wanted. He could ingratiate himself
with women, but men were not so
easily fooled; there was something
forced about his bluff joviality. And
at times, among his cronies, when
women were mentioned he had a sly,

@
In Fort Worth

wheels, then  top-
pled on its side and
slid 100 feet, and
finally rolled over
on its top for an-
other skid of 240
feet. Prachyll re-
ceived only minor
bruises——The Beat.

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