Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-06


vows that he would acknowledge our child.
kept them. One day the scoundrel
| threatened that he would take them and
expose me. / refused him money, and he
gave me to understand that once he had
the letters he would do what he liked with
me. / was weak enough to believe him,
| for was 10 an 'orrible state of fright. All
the same, did not like to destroy the let
tiers. To get them out of the way, | asked
the missus to let me put some family docu.
ments, of value to me, into bureau, where
she kept her own.
"Missus gave me drawer for myself,
and key. know that | have only TO let
her have message that l want the papers,
and she. would send them Immediately.
But | have no confidence In the woman
that's with her, and she's the very one
that would be sent with them. From
some words she let drop, l can guess she Is
the cabinet.maker's friend now He is
paying her attentions, and she has let her.
self be taken in by them, for he is a hand
some, outspoken BLACKBOARD. But if he is
wheedliug her, tbs only to get those let
tiers, Now, you understand my trouble.
Oh, if you would only do me kindness
l have no claim on you, It's true, but it
would be real mercy if you would render
me this service.
"What service?"
I" To bring me my letters.
But how am | to get them :"
:" 1t is easy as possible. Every evening
before bedtime missus takes choral, and
at 10 she is as sound asleep as 'ummlng-
top. At that hour there is nobody In the
place but herself; the serving woman
always leaves at 7 in the evening. She
does not know that missus takes choral,
for missus kept that very quiet always,
through fear of robbery. She only told it
to me-to me, because she trusted me SO
much, the poor old lady Well, you can
enter her rooms at l0-she will never hear
you going in or coming out-and you can
fetch Inc my letters. There is no danger
OF anybody noticing you besides, even if
they do, you can pretend that you are
going into the cabinet-maker's shop.
You're silly, woman. How could |
open the bureau and the widows set of
rooms, how could get into them ?"
81 have a duplicate key to the bureau.
To my shame | had it made to help me
rob the missus. Here it is; the little one
opens my drawer. One of these Others is
a iatch.key for the hall door, and the
other opens missus's rooms. Do me this
kindness, / entreat you. / don't know
why, but have faith in you. am sure
you will act friend, and aid me to die in
peace.
Jonathan Smith took the bunch of keys.
His eyes were set. a sudden paleness
overspread MS face. Nervous contractions
twisted his thin lips. The possibility of a
crime had flashed across his mind. The
woman, by whose couch he was leaning,
once out OF the way, the thing was easy
OF execution.
My poor girl" said he, ~ would go
to do you a kindness; but tell me, may
not the cabinet. maker be on the premises
and guess what | am after:'
No, no he is never there at night ;
he only works in the shop on the ground
floor"
"And how am to get into it, if any
body interrupts"
II have a key for that, too it was
there we used to meet. There it is.
Jonathan took the key-he had now
five-and chuckled to himself that he was
almost as we'll fixed as locksmith.
The conversation had been carried on
in an undertone but now short sharp
gurgIing cry came from the bed.
son, I'm choking, I'm choking >"
gasped the patient, who was exhausted by
her long narrative. =" Water, water some
thing to drink "
The ward was in semi-obscurity. family
illuminated by night light. There was
no attendant near. The occupants of the
neighboring beds were in profound repose.
Jonathan lifted the head of the sick wo-
man, drew back the pillow, and, clapping
it to her mouth, pressed upon it with all
his strength and weight. He had the awful
determination to preserve that position for
ten whole minutes.
When he raised the pillow and looked at
the woman's face all was over. She was
suffocated. She had been unable to make
a single movement or utter single moan.
She had the appearance OF having sue
cumbed to cerebral congestion. He replaced
the pillow under her head and drew the
coverlet under her chin. The corpse had
the tranquil aspect, to those who might
pass carelesslY by, of a wearied sufferer in
deep sleep.
The murderer walked quietly out Of the
hospital, passed the porter with nod, and
in an instant afterward was in the mad
whirl Of the busy, tumultuous Strand, with
its streams of rafting cabs and carriages,
it's crowds of hurried pedestrians its lively
shops, its cheerful noises, and it's blaze Of
giarlng gas.
It was twenty minutes past o'clock.
Jonathan Smith walked as far as Drury
lane, entered tavern there and drained a
pint of ale; then, fastening across Hol-
born, he made his way to the house in
Great Coram street, which he reached at
FIVE minutes to 10.
Ga the road he had matured his plan.
He opened the hall door and coolly
passed in. There was none to perceive
him. Selling his opportunity he unlocked
and pushed siar the door of the cabinet
makers shop, and CROPPED his way to where
a working suit lay roughly thrown across
a bench. By the dim rays cast into the
shop from the fan-Gght, he perceived
coarse cotton mixture necktie. He tore
strip from one end of it, and then, STEALTH
ly shutting the door, stepped boldly but
cautiously up the stairs till he reached the
entrance to the widows set OF apartments.
He tnrned the key and walked on tip-toe
into her bedroom. She was sleeping, as he
had been told and expected "sOund as a
Huntington" He grasped her firmly by
the throat and held her in his vise-like
clutch for full quarter of an hour, until
theI eyeballs, released from the lids, Pro-
jected in CLASSY, dubious stare, and the
tongue fringed with froth- specks, protruded
some inches. She would never wake
again.
Jonathan then opened the bureau and
found in large middle drawer medley of
railway bonds, leases, assurance papers,
and parochial and other receipts. These
he pushed aside with a gesture of dis
gust. In the drawers to the right and left
he was more fortunate. In one there
were piles of tempting yellow sovereigns
in the other. bundles of crisp bank-notes-
f5, 400 In all. He had the demoniac self
possession to count them.
He next searched for the letters the
woman he had smothered in the Strand
Hospital charged him to find. He burned
them in the chimney, taking care to leave
intact the fragments most compromising
for the serving.wench and the cabinet
maker. \ few, well-chosen, were sufficient