The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-03-22
HOW SHE LOST HER REASON

We were on board the steamer Ventura,
which afterward went to pieces off the coast
of Monterey.
The Ventura was fine looking steamer
and well manned, and piled between San
Francisco and the lower coast, carrying
freight and passengers.
do not remember how many of the lat
ter were on board the boat at the time |
write my recollection alone recalls two
persOns-a young girl of seventeen or
thereabouts, aud man of forty. | re-
member the man of forty very distinctly,
and ! may say vindictively, FOR he threat
ened to kick me into the sea if | didn't
mind my own business and as for the girl
of seventeen, l remember heI because she
was in company with this man, and wore
mourning, and was altogether very pretty
and interesting.
Do not misunderstood me she was not
pretty in the sense that other girls are
pretty; she was not bright, ami liable and
chatty on the contrary, she was cold as an
icicle ; she never smiled, she scarcely ever
looked up /; she was like n person brooding
over a terrible wrong. Her black eyes had
a far away look, as if trying to pierce the
gray bills or, when turned on the water,
they seemed to fathom the ocean yet,
believe now hel mind was turned iHward,
and she saw nothing external.
Probably you would like to know what
. business had observing this girl SO close.
That is a question | cannot answer; | do
not know myself, only that l was young,
aud, perhaps, curiouS, not only this, but
very impressible.
As / have said she was girl Of very
peculiar behavior and appearance she
looked like no one else had ever seen, and
| began to wonder and think and conjec-
ture who she was, where she came from,
and whittier she was going. She was on
the forward deck in the morning, and at
noon and at night, all the time looking at
the water or at the distant bills OF the sky,
or at some creature of her own fancy float
ing in the air.
Had not this big, black whiskered man
been constantly 10y her side, | would have
questioned her at once on the cause of her
strange melancholy. but, as it was, mere
ly kept my wondering eyes on her, all the
while thinking, all the while building
around this mournfnl beauty the walls of
a terrible mystery. The first night | ever
dreamed about her. She was the las. per-
son on deck, and as left her still bending
over the railing looking at the foaming sea,
L went To my room, aud, retiring, dreamed
that she the daughter of the man who
was constantly watching her, and that he
was murderer. | dreamed more than
this, a disconnected story altogether wild
and Improbable, and the next morning,
deck, ready to seize upon any new develop
meuts.
| had no idea of seeing or finding any
thing of startling nature, but | did find
and see this aud no hing more. 1t was
simply Thin strip of paper torn from
memorandum book and covered With elab-
crate writing, which, when Interpreted,
had this significance
JEAN: The way to kill him is "a cat of
his head H. nal I II OF a Lu, IL r..l
dollars. MARGURET
This was a strange note and | wondered
about it more than little. could scarce
ly believe that 1t was the work of the young
giIl in If Tourning, yet all the circumstances
of the case tended that way.
But what did the note signify? was there
a dark deed of blood contemplated? Aud
who was Jean, or, for that matter, who was
Marguret?
l still held the note in my hand as the
young woman came on deck, but she did
not see it, nor did she see me. but, passing
TO the prov of the BOAT, she leaned over
the railing and fastened her eyes on the
gray hills in the distance.
] do not remember how / felt at that
moment; [ only know that | stepped
quickly forward, and, Uith a voice that /
could not control. asked the dreamer if she
were not afraid Of falling into the water.
Then. like flash, she turned her eyes on
me and said
Afraid Of the water? You do not know
me, it seems, l am not afraid of anything.
Who are youY
Il told her my name, but she did not ap-
pear to comprehend my words but, with
her black eyes till upon me, spoke again !:
Are you going far? p
TO Los Angeles, l replied.
do you live there p
No; do you?'
Yes, when they let me. have been
away for year.