The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-02-05

ward To the bedside
''Go down. Jane, and see if she has
not come"
They have orders. madame. to let
yOu know the instant she arrives" the
woman said.
Yes. but they may linger Moments
are ages to me now Go 20.
But the doctors orders s-you were
not to be left alone for IN instant"
The doctor is AN idiot. Do YOU
serve me or him.? demanded Marga-
yet MnNley. in sharp. qlirrulous tones.
" on, certainly. | only Thought
Stop thinking. then. and do as bid
! you"
/ Reluctantly the woman departed. Ii
was not the rst time sine had been on
this fruitless errand. and each time she
had been in terrible fright lest her mis-
tress should fall into one of her dread
/, ful spasms, and SO he dead when she
got back.
/ She was not absent from the room
more than ten minutes in all. She
found Robert and Miss Ginevra just ar
rived, and she only stopped for half
dozen words with the tier, before she
dragged her up the stairs to her aunt :
room
Ginevra sprang ahead and entered
the apartment first, but shranG back
upon her own steps, as though she had
| encountered Satan himself in there.
shudderinS with horror, and uttering
| scream upon scream, that resounded
| to the farthest corner of the house.
Thinking that what she had feared
had happened in her absence. the nnrsc
pressed past her into the room. But
how much more awful the sight that
met her than any she had ever dream
ed Of
Margaret Moxley lay half way out
of bed, as though dragged there in
some awful struggle, her eyes already
fixed and staring, her throat cleft with
a cash, through which the life-blood
flowed in Il purple tide.
The poor old woman had been mu.'-
de: ed by somebody who could not wait
for her death even the little time he
would have had TO.
The nurses screams, added to Gin
evra's, brought every one in the house
about them.
Somebody went tearing away for the
doctor, as though he could be of some
use, and the rest stood about in horri-
fed groups, or, the more stout-hearted
of them, ransacked the house in search
of some traces of the murderer.
There was an inquest the next morn
ing, and when Ginevra was brought
into the room to give her testimony,
quiver ng in every limb and white with
horror, the first face upon which her
eyes fell in the apartment was that of
Dane Eckhart.
Ha hal haap fonpA bi1;nOr in ho
shrubberv, watching for Il chance to
see Ginevra, and those who knew of
she enmity between him and the dead
woman, had fallen upon him rs her
murderer. He had resisted AT first,
and then, seeing that ii was of no use,
had come with them. His face was Il
little ale, but confident, as he stepped
to Ginevra side.
1T was this lady was watching in
the shrubbery to see. he said, trying
10 take her hand; ''she is my wife
"A singular place to be looking for
her, said the coroner mildly; and Gin
evra Shrunk from his extended hand
with II strange, threatening look in her
dark. ho"riiied eyes.
In that brief moment her mind had
gone back in a flash TO the day before.
and this mans brutal words to her
then. She remembered how pitiless
he had been, and she was saving to
herself now AS she said then:
Heaven help yon, Dane Eckhart, if
nv turn ever comes.
If had come now. and she took il.
In calm, self-pOsSeSsed voice. from
which every trace of agitation had van
ished. she told how she had entered
her aunt room first and of the ghast-
ly sight that had met her ewes.
WAS anyone else i'll the room? Did
YOU hear or see anyone9' demanded
the coroner.
Ginevra paused. with her eyes bent
upon the floor, and an ashV tremor
creeping around her lips.
Il cannot testify. she said in low,
clear tones; 1.-THE man who is charged
with her death is my husband. The
law does not require the wife 10 speak
in such cases"
Dane Eckhart shrank as though she
had struck him. He understood now,
if he had not before, what Il fool he had
been to dare such woman As this.
''She shall give her testimony he
declared wildly; ''she can sav nothing
TO criminate me; let her if she can.
She is not my wife; / deceived her
with sham marriage"
Genevra's lips trembled into a bitter,
awful smile, as the man cried out SO
rashly, but her falling hair hid ner
face. and none saw anything but the
grief of wife who fears to crimilate
her husband.
Dane Eckhart caught on the faces
the conclusions his rash words had
given birth TO. He struck himself with
his clenched hands and was silent.
The inquest went on, and he was
committed for trial at the coming ses-
sion of the court, for the murder of
Margaret MoXley.
He thought it would come to moth
ing. He said to himself that nothing
could come of it. but he shuddered in
voluntarily as he met the dark. bright.
menacing eyes of the woman he had
wronged.
Margaret Moxlev had made her will
in favor of her niece. Gineyra, in those
days before she had ever seen Dane
Eckhart. When Ginevra mad eloped
with Dane she had made great pretense
of disinheriting her, but she had never
made new will. and she sent for her
at the last in kindness.
So the property was all Gineyra's,
and Dane in his prison-cell on that aw-
full charge, had ample opportunity to
mediate on his evil deeds and the evil
fruit they had borne him.
Bad as he seemed, Dane Eckhart
was not altogether evil. A wanderer
ever, learning young Ito live by his
wits" and seeing life thus in many of
its worst phases. he had never aspired
to be what is called good man. Per-
haps the nearest approach to his better
nature had been his love for beautiful
Gineyra Moxley. He had loved her,
and it had been no sham marriage be-
tween them, as he pretended.
He saw plainly that Gineyra would
never consent to leave him, and that
they We're miserably poor, and with
the prospect of worse before them.
He thought that once set free from
him. her aunt would take her back,
and knowing that she would never 60.
except in some harsh alternative as
! this, he had lied to her thus.
H. los - IL