New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-02-06

by making less noise: wish to Sleep
D retired from the door and resumed m
9 former seat.
a .'What do you understand by this ?"
4 asked Leroy ''Is it not strange, myst
e rious incomprehensible p
e IN OF at ALL" he said; merely coinc
? dence. We happened to be talking
DR.. Trent while he was in the next room
) | He overheard us and seized the opportt
nifty for ventilaing one Of his peculls
ideas"
''But how came he in the next room!
"This is hotel therefore see nothin
singular in his presence there. 1t is e.
tremely improbable that he came there b
any other than natural means If 20
will take the trouble to accompany m
down stairs to the Office when / start fc
home-which will be directly-you wi
doubtless see his name upon the register
You have singular dread of this mar
Frank"
II have, l always have had; I can nc
help it. You're not going YETI"
''Must, my dear boy, have to get u
early in the morning, and it's already,
consulting his watch, ''as / live it's mid
night an hour later than l thought"
l went down to the office with Leroy
and on the hotel register We found tn
name rs. Trent, II. D."
$50 you see, my boy" Leroy said, "ou
old friend came in that room by perfect,
natural and legitimate means"
Notwithstanding this, could not sup
press shudder of loathing at the very
thought of the man.
Dornton Leroy left me with cordial
pressure of the hand and good humored
admonition to carefully fasten the doc,
between my room and Doctor Trent's-
which advice l followed.
| That night l was awakened from a
sound slumber by a peal of unearthly,
horrible laughter in Doctor Trent's room.
l sprang from my bed and lighted the gas;
a cold moisture was upon my forehead
The laughter ceased. l consulted nv
| watch; it was just twenty minutes past
four. 1t was long before l could sleep
again. At last l fell into slumber, from
which was awakened at eight o'clock by
loud knocking at my door.
"Who's there, cried.
George Charlton" was the reply, let
me in; have news for YOU"
Good or bad?" l asked, as l admitted
my old friend.
bad, bad, be said, gravely. 'Dornton
Leroy is dead"
What" cried, grasping his arm.
He repeated the words.
1T can not be-" l gasped, "you are
mistaken. He left me in perfect health
at midnight-it can not be-
Il have just left his home" Charlton
said. ''it is true"
Il can not realize this What was the
cause of his death?
Remington, twas suicide"
Suicide l exclaimed, almost pros
trated by the accumulation of horrors
George Charlton told me that the inmates
of the house in which Leroy had boarded
had been awakened by the report of a
pistol; it proceeded from his room. They
had found him lying upon the floor, dead,
the fatal weapon in his hand, bullet in
his hand. Upon the table was note
those words:
Il have no desire to live longer. Fare
we'll, all.
"Merciful heavens ~ l exclaimed when |
| had heard this; sit seems impossible that
his is so. When he left me at midnight
ae was in the best of spirits"
"Aud yet Charlton said, ''at twenty
minutes past four he took his own life in
tit Of melancholy. Is not
"At what hour" interrupted.
''The shot was heard at precisely twen-
y minutes past four"
1t was at that very moment that the
zeal Of tiendish laughter from the old doc
or's room had awakened me from my
sleep! l did not tell Charlton of this. It
n q 10 ,,<t
The thought occurred to me to notify
N his door. informing Charlton briefly
hat an old friend OF the deceased &C.
upied the room, but there was no re-
ponse to my knock. On inquiry at the
'ffice l learned that Doctor Trent had
eft the hotel at six o'clock that morning.
l went with George Charlton to the
DOM where Dornton Leroy lay dead. As
We looked upon his face we each thought
# one to whom his loss would be far
more bitter application than it was even
o US, his bosom friend. That one was
Ahce Bentley, the young girl to whom Le-
oy was to have been married in month.
hey had been engaged one year with the
ull approval Of all concerned or in
crested. She was rarely beautiful and
Intelligent girl, the idol of her parents, who
bought Leroy the only man in the world
7orthy of becoming her husband, while
e considered her tar too good and too
ure for him. She was frail, delicate
FEATURE, and ! feared that this blow
7ould kill her. While Charlton and my
elf were still in the room she entered: we
withdrew, and left her alone
nth her dead lover. Two days later we
aid Dornton Leroy beneath the sod.
Six months passed. Alice Bentley did
ot die as she stood by the coffin Of the
1an she loved so dearly, but as the days
nd weeks passed on, she faded like
liant torn from the soil which matured it,
nd the physician said that an entire
hange OF scene, at once, hight save her,
ut that nothing else could. So a Eu-
opean tour was planned. A large party
arty was formed, of which l was men,
er. On the third OF October we sailed
Or Liverpool. We had scarcely left the
'harf when l discovered that among the
assengers was DR.. Trent. l recoiled with
ositive terror as my eyes fell upon his
ice. Must be brought for two weeks in
onstant contact with this man whom 1
etested? For moment I thought of
eaving the steamer at Sandy Hook and
to New York in the pilot boat,
ut l dismissed the idea, for l knew l
ould give no satisfactory answer to my
riends for such an act. I endeavored to
ersuade myself that was wrong in feeling
5 did toward this man who had never
armed me by word or deed, that 1 was
lorbidly sensitive upon this subject; but
IL my efforts were in vain; l still felt to-
ard DIR. Trent as toward poisonous