The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-11-06 00:00:00

CHAPTER XLVI.

BERYL MARES A SENSATION.
Small is the worth
_ Of beauty from the light retired;
Bid her come forth,
Suffer perself to be desired,
And blush not to be admired. —WALL P.R.
MRS. JARVIS stared at her husband in amazement, for
she verily thought he had gone mad with the fright
and werry.
"In our house, John! Impossible !"
"It's not impossible. It's true."
"It couldn't be. I left everything 'safe and right
when I went out. You didn't get up and set light
to it yourself did you ?"
"No, I didn't; but it began there for all that," he
persisted.
"I doubt you've been dreaming, old man," she said,
soothingly. "I haven't carried match nor candle
there since summer set in."
44 I know that, wife; but I'm right for all that.
The fire began there; and these that set it alight
didn't mean that I should ever come out of that house
alive, or you either, if you had been there. But if you
had been at home she couP not have done it"
"She !"
• "Yes."
"Who ?"
Mrs. Jarvis was getting more and more bewildered.
Every strange word her husband spoke seemed to
prove more clearly than ever that he was mad, and
yet he seemed calm and rational enough in his
manner."
"I'm not raving," he said. "Come closer, and let
me whisper in your ear. It was the woman who
wanted to buy the picture of us—the queer creature
in black that offered us the £100."
" Johnl4
"It's as true as that I'm alive, and not burned in
my bed at this minute. Hold your tongue till we are
by ourselves, and then I'll tell you all about it."
They were soon alone, for the good people of the
house to which the bed-ridden man had been carried,
went off again to see the excitement which still per-
vaded in the streets-, and left them to themselves with
an intimation that they were "kindly welcome " to the
shelter.
"Now, John," Mrs. Jarvis said, breathlessly, 44 t-11
me all about it before they came back again. I can't
think it's true; but I met that woman on the bridge
when I was going over."
"Then you met her coming to murder me. I was
asleep. I know that much for I was dreaming of the
little girl and her mother, and of the old times in
Birmingham, and something, I don't know what,
woke me up with a start. I was wide awake in a
moment. You know the way when you wake in a
fright?"
"Yes, oh, yes. Go on."
"Well, then, she stood right in the middle of the
room, staring at me. Ah, you may shake your head,
old woman; but she was no ghost, and no fancy, for
I heard her step across the room quite plain,
and the turn of the handle as she opened the door
yonder. She went straight into the liitle room, and it
seemed as though I was bewitched, for I could not
move or speak for the life of me."
"You are dreaming, my poor John—dreaming."

"No, I wasn't. I was as wide-awake as lam now,
andyou'll know it some time, wife. She didn't stay
In the other room two minutes, and then she came
back and looked at me with hard, wicked eyes."
I think you'd better have taken the £1.00,' says
she; and I couldn't speak a word to answer her. It
seemed as if my tongue were glued to the roof of my
mouth, and she went straight out the room and down
the stairs. I seemed to be counting her footsteps, for
I heard her right down to the bottom; but I must
have been a bit stupid, for I don't remember anything
else till the place was all alight and full of smoke, and
the neighbours, bless em! were taking me down-
stairs."
" It's a queer thing," said Mrs. Jarvis, reflectively;
"and if it's all just as you say, John-"
"It is, every word of it."
"Then it's just a confirmation of all we suspect
and fear. "It's not much wonder they wanted that
picture, if it was worth so much to them that they try
to burn down half a dozen houses and risk the lives of
scores of people for the sake of destroying it."
"What E hall we do now ?" asked the old man.
"Hold our tongues, in the first place. It's no use
filling other people's mouths as well as our own; but
we mustn't keep it to ourselves quite, for all that. I
think the best thing we could do would be to tell Mr.
Gibson."
"I don't know but it would. He's a kind, good-
hearted gentleman, and he knows something of the
matter already. Mr. Mctsters didn't send you to him
for nothing."