The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-07-29

but he viii die, I think, and Il he. DIES
die without speaking-well, we shall
lose nothing for our hospitality it's
worth risking. Mind, now, what tell
YOU he added, with a fierce look at me !;
If you DON'T I'll be the death Of you.'
"Then he went out through the front
door and gate, ostentatiously In hurry,
and heard him running down the 81
lent road. l turned to my patient and
found him still breathing. but quite I'M
conscious.
"Terrified and bewiidered I hardly
know how long it was before I heard
hurrying footsteps again on the road;
and presently, having let himself in by
the latch-key, my husband appeared
with a stranger, the doctor, seedy.
needy-looking man.
"Kapidly examining the patient, he
said, with his finger on the pulse:
"'AbOut twenty minutes since he
was seized, Ell? HIM, your younger
brother, you sayP'
"'Yes,' answered my husband,
promptly, with significant look at me
as started at his reply.
1.-The doctor had his ear on the
|
Sinued with assumed emotion:
my youngest. my favorite brother,
dear sir, pray tell me--Ah! l fear by
your face. but say, is there no hopper
"The doctor shook his head.
"'Oh, will he dep
"The doctor bowed his head, and my
husband buried his face in his hands
for moment.
81 was aghast, perplexed beyond
measure, and was about to speak when
another fierce look checked me.
"When the doctor had moistened the
patients lips once more with brandy,
he said, with professional gravity:
| lit is my painful duty to tell you
that you must prepare for the worst
"'Ah, I feared SOP said my hus-
band. MY poor brother was supposed
to have disease of the heart; it was the
years ago.
"'This is not the heart said the doc
tor, feeling the pulse again. This is
cerebral hemorrhage = apoplexy, in
fact. He is all but gone, nothing can
be done
"Then there was slight CONFUSION.
and the doctor continued:
"'I fear can be of no further use
professionally; but can I help you to do
what is necessary now, or do you know
any
"'No, we know no one in the neigh
borhood, we are strangers here in
terrupted my husband: We are from
Cornwall, and are come to live in Lon
don, and have only been in the house
three days. My dear brother came to
stay with us yesterday. He has been
out all day. The moment he came in
he tainted, and then-and then ran
for you. Will there be any need for
an inquest?'
"'Indeed,' said the doctor, Pm
afraid there will
ooh. how very distressing! went on
my husband. Can we not be spared
this pain?'
1.-The other paused, and then said,
slowly, with peculiar expression on
his face:
"'Well, surely, surely, with what
you tell me. and with what have seen
Of the case, might perhaps certify,
and SO spare you the distress of an in
quiry.'
"'Thank you, thank you thousand
times said my husband, earnestly, as
saw him press couple of the sover-
eigns he had lately taken from the dead
mans pocket into the Doctors hand
"Very well, then,' answered that
functionary; i will manage it, and do
all that is necessary. l will send some
one Immediately. Good night
when he was gone l summoned
up courage to ask the meaning of what
/ had heard.
What are your intentions? Pray
tell me- l said.
"'You always were an idiot, he an
swered, but will try and make you
understand for once in a way. Any
woman who was not fool, and had
been loving wife and alive to her hus-
bands welfare, could have seen with
half an eye what my game is. It's
very simple one, and mind you do not
spoil it, or it will be the worse for you;
and that you may have no excuse for
doing so I'll tell you plainly what it is.
There was something like six hundred
pounds sterling in notes and gold in
that poor devils pocket-book. There is
nothing to show who he was to any,
body but me, who luckily can keep a
secfet, so l shall not tell you his name;
besides, it does not signify. Not a soul
but our two selves knows how he came
onto my premises; he can never be
traced there. l pass him off as my
brother, and bury him accordingly. No
one hereabOuts knows who we are, so
who is to say he is not my brother?
Had not good luck brought him up to
our hospitable gate at the critical mo-
ment. and had you not been the far. seeing
clever woman you are, and not let him
in, why he would have fallen down
dead in the public highway and his
property have been at the mercy of the
first person who found him. They
might have been honest or not. He
would have been taken to the hospital,
and, of course, his friends would have
been duly informed of the sad loss they
had sustained. Now, as it is, they will
be spared this sorrow, because they will
never know what has become of him.
He will only be one more victim added
to the list of mysterious disappear
ances.' = III
"Well, but I broke in, his friends
will make inquiries after him. He may
be traced to our gate, and we will. be
called upon to explain s&s
"'We may be- continued my hus-
band, but it's sufficiently unlikely. It
will be cursed piece of ill-luck if he is.
Who is to trace him into this God -aban-
doned region? Under all the circum-
stances and by your own showing it is
most improbab!e-nay, it is impossible
eyes again interposed; but he
will be advertised for and described
every likely he went on. but the
doctor and the undertaken are the only
people besides ourselves who will have
seen him, and they will have nothing to
identify him by even if they ever know
or hear anything about the disappear
ance. They will never recognize in my
dear brother, poor John Smith, who
died of apoplexy here in my house, un-
der the very eye of the doctor, the for
lorn man by the name of - (but will