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To-day's Weather.

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WHAT WE THINK.

NEWS GLEANINGS.

COLLIERY WARNING.

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MURDER, AT MARGAM.

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MURDER, AT MARGAM. HORRIBLE DEATH OF A GAMEKEEPER. Escape of the Assassin. AN ARREST ON SUSPICION One of the most awful crimes in tha anii-il- of Welsh criminality was perpetrated in tb" quiet district of Margam, between Port Talbot and Pyle, on Friday morning. Or, rather, the discovery, in all its g-hastly detail. was made and spread on Friday; the tragedy must have occurred between the hours of eight and nine o'clock on Thursday night, when the twilight shades had hardly fallen over the magnificent woodlands and valleys of the Margam Estate -fated to be the scene of an event which shamed their peaceful beauty. The bare facts cf the case are that Miss Talbot's second game- keeper, Robert Scott, was murdered on the mountain top, between the valley-ravines known as Cwmphilip and Cwm Cae Treharne, and that his dead body was found on Friday and conveyed home to his wife and infant son-who had been expecting a husband and a father eagerly all night. But the fact, terrible as it is, perhaps con- veys no more than the ordinary record of a murder, brought home, certainly, to our doors, but appealing only to the sense of pity felt in general for the victim of a crime, and the natural detestation of the perpetrator. The details of the Margam murder, though, as furnished by our special reporters on the scene, are of a character to wring the heart of the reader with the anguish felt already by those who first learnt of the manner in which they were bereaved, in the first case, of a husband; in the next of a neat friend or relative. Robert Scott was a strong man, in the prime of life, 39 years of age, with a wife and chubby little golden-haired child of two years old. For the last five years he has been second game- keeper on Miss Talbot's estates, under Mr. Stubbs, the chief. He was a Scotsman, of sturdy build, 5ft. loin, in height, with light reddish hair on head and face. often associated with the appearance of the men of Scotland. He came to Margam from Miss Hamilton Ogilvy's estate, near Edinburgh, and a year or so after settling in Wales, in a neat stone cottage, next door to the post-office in Margam village, he took a. holiday run to Scotland, and brought home as a wife the girl to whom his troth was plighted ere he left the North. The unfortunate lassie will take back heartrending recollections of Wales, for, though Miss Talbot will assuredly be kind, the associations of Margam with a brief married life so tragically ended will, doubtless, make her future stay in Wales so painful as to be impossible. A DANGEROUS DUTY. Scott's duty was a dangerous one. Though Margam is a village so peaceful that nothing but the song of birds is heard from year's end to year's end, and the sole variation of the rural monotony is the passing of a carriage or a bicycle, it is situated in the centre of a district which supplies a number of habitual and determined poachers, whose pro- clivities, countless warnings, and con- tinual captures and police-court prosecu- tions fail to stop. Poachers are said to hail from Maesteg, Taibach, Aberavon, and such works and colliery towns within a few miles' raidius of the estate. Scott soon be- came noted for his activity on duty, and his keen watchfulness and alert pursuit of poachers brought him many threats of reprisal. Not long ago, on the same mountain where he met his death, a poacher brought to bay threatened him with his gun, and police-court prosecutions (in one of which he figured at Aberavon on the day of his death) were not calculated to lessen tlie malice expressed by a number of the fraternity against him. He has been engaged in more than one affray, and been in more than one tight corner, whilst at' watch along the lonely mountain sides and in the deep .ravines and thick preserves at night. The danger (for experience teaches that law- breakers are tigerish at night) led him to the precaution of securing an attendant or two, as a general thing whilst on his round. SCOTT'S LAST ROUND. At six o'clock on Thursday evening Scott left, his house at Margam for the round which proved to be his last. With him there lived a young under-keeper named Robert Kidd, and both men, as the gun began to dip behind the trees, started from the lodge gates along the road which skirts the farms on the estate, and runs upwards between deep- wooded vales, and opens on the mountain top. The Margam Estate possesses peculiar, but magnificently beautiful, characteristics— and a sketch of these features are necessary to understand what follows. The carriage road for the first mf.e or so runs along the bank of Margam Lake-a broad, oblong sheet of placid water teeming with fish. Beyond the lake a little cottage-Cwm Farm-lies amid the most luxuriant tree-growth. Just before the farm is reached the road divides; one portion, passing behind the farm, becomes a broad, rough mountain path, running along the verge of a narrow ascending valley, whose near side is not so thickly covered with oaks and beeches that a keen eye cannot detect anything that goes on below. From the path the other side of the valley is clearly seen, and the hillside opposite becomes a'most bare until the broad summit is so brown and barren that even a moving dog is easily discernible against the hill or sky. The path winds upwards, with the view into and across Cwmphillip, now clear and now obscured by foliage, till it emerges on the grass-covered plateau of the hill. Deep ravines are seen below on either side, but the view in front is a gentle green slope of a mile or so, crossed by rough turf or mortarless stone walls. A man running across this open space must be a good steeplechaser to jump the mud-walls, or must know his course well to head for the gaps. The plateau is ended by a sudden rise, which forms the extreme summit of the hill. Frcm this hill-top the hill on the eastern side of the valley, with a steep cart-road running ever it,- is but three or four hundred yards away, apparently, and the whole country can be viewed for miles around..Naturally, it is a favourite look-out of the gamekeepers. It was towards this point, then, that Scott and his companions headed. They had arranged to meet on the way another servant of the estate, Hawtin, who is stationed on the new light railway line. and is a private officer of the line and the estate. THE ASSASSIN SIGHTED. The pair had not yet reached the meeting- place when the stillness of the eveni- air (it was between 6even and eight o'clock) was broken by the sound of a shot from the valley they were skirting. They stopped, peered through the trees, and saw the figure ofa man some distance off, moving along the valley, in their own direction. They did not give pursuit immediately, for the poacher was going d p direction that would take him into the lion's mouth soon enough; they proceeded on towards the meeting-place, where Kawtin was in waiting. He had also heard the shot. The three conferred a moment 011 the fringe of the plateau described above, and then divided. Kidd and Hawtin pressed right on across the plateau to the top of the hill, whilst Scott dived into the glen and came up the side again towards their position. t It was now nearly nine o'clock, for the climb is long. SCOTT AND THE POACHER. The circumstances are so difficult of com- prehension by those who have not seen the spot, even after the most careful description, that a study of the sketch accompanying is neces- sary. The sketch is taken from the hill-top sloping down on the near side of the wall shown in the foreground, and ending in a yard- wide galley which runs along this side of Mie SCENE OF THE ±. The poacher started from A to 1. where so me stones have been knocked out of the wall. Scott came from B, and sighting the poa cher, ran to the first X. where, as his face appeared in the gap in the wall, the poacher stopped at 1 and shot him. Scott crawled on to the spot shown by the second cross and was again shot over the second gap. wall. The 'vantage ground from which the artist overlooks the scene cannot, of course, be depicted. It was on this 'vantage ground that Kidd and Hawtin stood at last when Scott dis- appeared into the g'en marked by the tree- tops. He re-appeared again on the nea.r side of the wall, coming round the corner at the spot marked B. At the same moment the poacher whom he searched for was seen to jump over the low turf wall at A and make across the open ground, now running and now walk.ng towards the spot near -the figure 1, where the stones of the wall had been knocked j off sufficiently tJ- make a gap, a couple of feet, below the top of the 5ft. 6in. wall. The watchers made signs to Scott to lie down behind the wall. The keeper did not see or either did not heed their signals, I but he sighted the poacher, and the two atten- dants, thinking all was right now, went on their round, as originally directed by the keeper. I THE MEETING AND THE MURDER. As the man appeared on the open ground I' Scott sighted him, and the recognition must have been mutual. The poacher ran across the three hundred yards of ground, straight GAMEKEEPER SCOTT, The Murdered Man. for the gap, and the keeper fran along behind the wall to meet him there. He lost his cap in his hurry; it was picked up afterwards 300 yards from the body. That meeting was the fatal one. As the keeper reached the gap the poacher was still some ten yards off. As the keeper's face appeared above the wall the poacher levelled his gun and fired at his face. The effect was awful. The unfortunate man's right cheek was turned towards the gun, and the mere force of the explosion at such close range dislocated his lower jaw, and the charge, entering his right cheek, shattered the who',e of his face, tearing flesh and skin and splintering the nasal bones and spattering the wall with blots of blood. Blinded, choked by the blood, and shattered teeth and splin- tered bone which filled his mangled mouth, the victim fell back. But he was not dead yet. Staggering to his knees he crawled on- wards, for some fifteen yards, pitching for ward, rising again on hands and knees. But just as he got in front of the second gap (m^ed 2) his desperate strength failed him, and he sank back against the bank. It was then the murderer committed the most fiendish atrocity in this fiendish crime. Creeping along the other side of the wall. he saw, across tl.e second gap, his gasping, groaning victim, prostrate, but still living. Leaning across the gap, he levelled his gun again, and fired. The shot struck the miserable man in the right shoulder; the flame burnt the cloth THE HOUSE OF GAMEKEEPER SCOTT. I of his coat and singed his hair; the shot tore a hole in his shoulder, and carried the coat- sleeve away. That finished the ghastly work. There, hidden in the narrow gulley, the victim lay. THE MURDERER'S ESCAPE. The evidence show that the murderer crossed the wall, and assured himself his ghastly work was quite completed. He could have had no ) doubt of that. the poor fellow's injuries were too terrible. Hours afterwards, when the body was found, strong men turned faint at the sight. The murderer neglected nothing. He evidently knew his victim, and his victim must have recognised him. Then, on the principle of "Dead men tell no tales," he finished the crime he had begun. He left no trace-not even a footmark, for the ground was hard. The other keepers, hovering not so far away, caught no further glimpse of him. He must have dived into the glen, and, under cover of the falling night, have hidden in the woods until his evident knowledge of the place told him the coast was clear. His retreat to any of the hamlets near was not likely to be impeded. AN UNCONSCIOUS WITNESS OF THE CRIME. There was one man who from a little distance actually saw the crime committed, without knowing it He was young Mr. Thomas, spoken of as "the son of Blaenmallwg," a farm in the hollow marked by 'the trees in our illustration of the scene. In the background of the picture will be noticed the second hill and the cart. road which descends it. ,fr. Thomas, just before nine o'clock that evening, was driving a cart down the hill towards the farm, and, looking across the valley from a correspond- ing height, he was in full view of the open ground where the crime occurred. Had he but known that what he viewed was a murder of the most atrocious kind, the chapter, so far as the assassin was concerned, might have had a different finale. As he looked across he saw the man with the gun making hia way across the plateau, and. though from his distance he could not be certain of identi- fying any man, he made the man out to be one of the collier cut, a figure not uncommon As a Margam poacher. He saw the man make for the gap and disappear against the black background of the wall. This was the actual moment of the murder, but the unsuspicious spectator heard no gun fired, or noticed none, with the rumbling of the heavy cart over the stony road sounding in his ears. THE SEARCH ON SUSPICION. Meanwhile the two men, Kidd and Hawtin, finished the rest of their round, and looked for their companion to join them. They had heard the sound of a shot. but the hill was between them and the shot, and they heard it so faintly that it seemed to come from a greater distance than the actual spot. Long as they waited in the woods, Scott did not appear. They grew anxious, and went back towards the place where, as they thought, the keeper was about to meet and identify the poacher. The darkness had come down, and they saw and heard nothing. Scott must have gone off out of his way, they thought. But later they grew anxious, and. returning to Margam, informed the head- keeper, Mr. Stubbs, of his disappearance. Inquiry at their missing comrade's house told them that he had not returned, and. thoroughly alarmed, Mr. Stubbs headed a search of the estate. All night they searched, with- out avail. At four o'clock, in the light of early morning, they passed within forty yards of the spot where the body lay, btit so thoroughly was the victim hidden by the gully and the wall and the contour of the hill above that they missed him utterly. FINDING THE BODY. It was not till nine o'clock on Friday morn- ing that they came upon the mangled corpse. The head-keeper was searching along the brook in Cwm Phillip, when the other men hailed him, with unmistakable horror in their tones. Hurrying up, he knew the worst. The murdered man lay in the gully on his back, with his head on the bank and his feet towards the wall. His legs were doubled up, and little pools and splashes of blood on wall and bank and stones along the gully showed how terrible had been the strong man's struggle against death. EVIDENCES OF THE CRIME. Ghastly as the details given above must be, they are borne out in every word by the evidences of the crime. At the first gap, where he first was shot, the stones were reddened with blood. A loose flat stone, evidently by its new under-surface freshly knocked off the wall, bore such evidence as showed that the victim was about to look over the gap when the first shot was fired, and the,, falling, his shattered face collided with the edge of the loose stone, and the stone fell with him. Then. all along the gully, as he crawled away, are the too evident marks of his struggle and pro- gress. The minute details are too painful for description. At the second gap, where he sank for the last time, are the evidences of the second shot—the wad, the bits of blue paper, and a shot found by Mr. Stubbs in the bank, and handed to the police. POLICE ON THE HUNT. On the discovery of the body, the head-keeper hurried to Maesteg with information to tho police. Inspector M'Donald, with a number of constables, was soon upon the scene, and, whilst some arsis' ..Mils conveyed the body back along the path which Scott had trodden a few hours before, active search was made for clues to point to the murderer. The scene at the little house in Margam was heat-trendy. The widow was not allowed to see the body, but the Rev. M. Williamson, the local clergyman, was sent for to break the news to her. The little child still played at the neighbour's garden-gate with his dead father's riding whip, happily oblivious of the tragedy which had orphaned him. TRACES OF THE MURDERER SEEN BEFORE AND AFTER THE OCCURRENCE. At first it seemed as if the utmost diligence of the police would probably fail to discover any important clue in such a case as this. The murderer had, apparently, gone upon the principle of "Dead men tell no tales." After emptying his first barrel he evidently dis- covered that Scott, terrible as his wound was, had a good deal of life in him yet, and he thereupon either first belaboured his* face with the butt-end of his gun or gave him the other barrel, and so extinguished the last spark of life. Under such circumstances, in a desolate locality, with only one cottage anywhere near, and with no eye-witnesses, it would have seemed that the murderer had probably effaced all the evidence against him, but careful in- quiry by one of our representatives in the dis- trict yesterday elicited the fact that clues v, ill t:ot be wanting in this terrible case, and although art present somewhat vague, they may yet bring the culprit to justice. One thing seems pretty clear from our investigations, and it is that the murderer was seen before and after the crime. lIe was actually spoken to, it would seem from present evidence, by a ,e farmer's son resident close by after tho. crime had been committed. We eive the fact with all reserve, with an intention to put 110 obstacle in the way of the police in their arduous task. To begin with. the probable murderer was seen by Kidd, a gamekeeper, and Hawtin, a private constable, just before the fatal shot was fired. Kidd is a North- country young fellow, evidently country-bred, with a broad accent and a very reticent air, but, with some hesitation and almost mono- syllabic reluctance, he described what he saw of the man to our representative. "We were out searching," he said, "because we had heard shots there on previous evenings. We had no idea who was shooting, but we had some sort of suspicion. The three of uE-the deceased, Hawtin, and myself—went out about six. We were together for only a short time. We separated at a spot called Cwm Ph Hip. We made no arrangement to meet again—that was to be as circumstances went; but I and Hawtinsaw Scott once after we parted from bim. lid was then coaning up the side of the bill. We had heard o*e shot before this, and we were looking for the fellow. Just as we saw Scott we had sighted the fellow with a gun. We motioned to Scott to sit down, but he appeared to misunderstand us, for, instead of siting down, he went ba<:k into I suppose he thought we meant him to 40 back. We never saw him after that. Neither did we see the feUow with the gun, although we locked about for some hours." "Did you go home then?" "No, not for some time, but we could see nothing of Scott, so at last we went home." "Can you describe how this man you spoke of was dressed?" "No; we think he had dark clothes on and at. long coat, so far as we could see, but we were not near enough to be sure of anything." "Would you know him again?" "No; I would not know him from the man in the moon." "You had seen him twice?" "Yes. The first time he would sure to be a mile away. but the second time he was a little nearer, but we could not see much about him." "ilaxl he a hat or a cap on?" "We could not see that. Hawtin says it was a cap." "Whereabouts was he when you saw him— was he anywhere near the spot where the murder "as done?" "The first time we saw him he was passing along the very wall where the body was found." "Then you lost sight of him?" "Yes. We neither saw him nor Scott after that." "But you called him 'a fellow with a gun.' How could you say he had a gun at that distance?" "Well, we could just see he had a gun, and then we had heard shooting, so we know he had one." "Really speaking, you were out chasing this man from the first?" "Well, we were looking out for somebody." "Did you know him. then?" "No, no. We had our suspicions, I sup- pose." "You had heard shooting there?" "Yes. We heard shooting several nights." "Is that such an unusual thing, then. here?" "Yes. Poachers with guns are not often caught here. It is years since we had one." The above interview deals with the facts mentioned previously, that the probable mur- derer was actually sighted on the very spot a little while before the deed was committed, but at such a distance that it was almost im- possible to describe him. Now comes some much more startling and. damning evidence, which in the hands of careful inquirers may yet prove useful in the search. One of our representatives spoke to a Mr. Robert Thomas, who is a labourer employed on the Talbot Estate, and who actually saw the man whose dress corresponded so far as could be with the vague description of what the keeper saw at that distance. The man in question was making his way from the barren mountain- side, apparently in the direction of Maesteg, shortly after eight p.m. It was quite probable that at that time the deed had been accom- plished, for a shot had been heard by that time after Scott had left his friends. Mr. Thomas was with a farmer's son, named Maddox, when they saw a man proceeding along as stated. Their suspicions were aroused immediately by seeing a man in such a neigh- bourhood at that time, and, wondering where he was bound for, Maddox went down a little way from where they were sitting to a gate at Ty Is ha, which the man would apparently have to pass. The fellow was mumbling or humming to himself as he came up, and when he got to the spot Maddox hailed him. Strange to say, although he was then going in the direction of Maesteg. he immediately asked the way to Aberavon, and on being told the way he went on, making the same humming tune. They watched him to see whether he would keep on the Aberavon way, and he did so. He had a three-quarter coat on to his knees. They did not see any gun, but, as was suggested, a gun is easily con- -cealed in such a coat, which is most useful for the purpose. "I am usually suspicious," said Mr. Thomas, "when I see men about the place at night, because I have some fowls up there." Still further evidence our representative secured at second-hand from a man employed on the estate, who said that a farm labourer at Blaenmalog Farm had also seen the man in question shortly before eight o'clock near the top of the mountain, and it is possible that at the inquest some of these witnesses may be produced. It appears pretty clear from the distinct narratives given above that the man sighted by the keeper soon after seven was the man who was seen making his way over the mountain towards Maesteg about eight o'clock, and who then asked his way to Aberavon, and so changed his route. The police will, natu- rally, make every inquiry upon such facts as these, both at, Maesteg and Aberavon, for it will be important to see whether any man of the kind was seen coming to either place that night—a matter upon which the local police at .these places may possibly be able to afford information. A GUN WAD FOUND. Search all over the spot where the body was found hilA. we learn, faJed to elicit much evi- dence. There was blood in three or four p,aces. It was hoped that a cartridge might be found which might give a cine to the weapon used, but the murderer had evidently slipped them out of his weapon into his pocket. A gun wad, however, was found on the spot, which shows thait the gun was a 12-bore. This is not much evidence. In fact, if the size had been more unusual—say, a 16-bore-it would have been more valuable. The extrac- tion of shot from the face of the deceased will probably afford a slight further clue as to the nature of the weapon. POACHERS' RECORDS AT MARGAM. In conversation with the local police one of our representatives elicited the information that a good deal of poaching occurs on these mountain slopes. The estate keeps three or four keepers and a constable to keep it in check. A month ago a navvy was fined £5 for assaulting this constable — Police-constable Hawtin—and L2 for trespass. He had struck Hawtin on the head with a clinker whilst out poaching. Going back a few years, the father of Stubbs (the present head-keeper) was caught by poachers in a wood and tied to a tree, head downwards, and they also gave him a good beating. The covers at Margam are full of game. and it was, therefore, a regular resort for poachers. INTERVIEW WITH INSPECTOR M'DONALD. Inspector M'Doi aid, Aberavon. on being asked to recount the circumstances in order as they came linda- his cognisance, said that at 10.35 that morning Police-constable Hawtiu came to Aberavon Police-station with the information. Hawtin, he explained, was a county police-constable, but he was in the em- ploy of the "estate, and lived at Kenfig Hill. Hawtin reported tha.t Robert Scott, the second gamekeeper, who had been missing since the prtvious evening; had been found murdered on Margam Moantain, behind a wall separating the upper fields from the mountain land. In- spector M'Donald at once went to the spot indi- cated, which is a couple of miles up the moun- tain from Margam. and there found the body lying, as described, under the wall. It had not been disturbed since it was discovered. "Did you know the deceased?"I knew him very well indeed. He has been in the neigh- bourhood for six or seven years. I was speak- ing to hiir. only yesterday morning; he was here in court with us." "What sort of a man was he in disposition? —"Oh, a most steady, respectable, inoffensive man as you ever could meet with—too quiet he was, if anything, for his job." Proceeding, Inspector M'Donald said the body was lying on a slant face upwards. The moun- tain had to be cut away to make way for the wall. and deceased was in a sitting position on this slope. "What did you gather had occurred?'*— "Well, the previous evening Scott, the deceased, together with Police-constable Hawtin and Kidd, an under-keeper, were out looking for poachers. They heard shots fired, and saw a man in the distance whom they could not describe. After being together some little time they separated, and afterwards Kidd and Haw- ^CONTINUED OJST NEXT PAGE.J