CHAPTER XXI.
_A Romantic Theory Dissipated._--_The Fair Clara becomes communicative._--_An Interview with the Barkeeper of "The Crescent Hotel."_ While these events were transpiring within the jail, I was actively engaged in the attempt to follow the clue in relation to the two suspicious individuals who had made their mysterious appearance at Stamford on the night of the murder of Henry Schulte.
It will be remembered that their actions attracted universal attention, and that, after inquiring for a train to New York, they had taken one going in a directly opposite direction.
Judicious inquiries soon brought my officers in personal contact with several parties who distinctly recollected the two strange persons above mentioned, and from their descriptions we were enabled to trace them to their places of residence.
It was ascertained that they were two respectable and peaceably-disposed Germans who resided at New Haven, and who had come to Stamford on that evening to attend a frolic at the house of a German farmer who lived near to that place.

They had spent the evening in a jovial manner, and had left the house under the impression that by hastening their steps they would be in time to catch the train for their homes.
They had consequently run the greater part of the distance to the station, which being nearly a mile away, accounted for their breathless condition upon reaching there.

They had then inquired for a train _from_ New York, and not _to_ that city, and upon being informed that no further trains from that direction (as they understood it) would arrive that night, they had indulged in an extended personal altercation, each accusing the other of being the cause of their detention.

When the train did arrive, contrary to their expectations, their ill feelings had not sufficiently subsided, and they sat sullen and apart upon their journey to their places of abode.
These facts, of course, dissipated the romantic theory that foreign emissaries had been employed by the relatives of the deceased to put him out of the way in order to secure his wealth; and so that glittering edifice of speculation fell to the ground.
I did not have much faith in this story from the outset, but it is a rule with me to follow every point in an investigation to a definite and satisfactory conclusion, and this line of inquiry was diligently pursued to the results mentioned.

I therefore dismissed the matter from further consideration.
Operatives were also detailed to visit the Crescent Saloon, where the fair and voluptuous Clara presided and ministered to the bibulous appetites of her numerous friends and admirers.
They succeeded in making the acquaintance of the young lady, and by a liberal purchase of drinks, were successful in getting the fair but frail damsel in a communicative mood.