Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1886-06-17


His struggle with fate. if not a loar,
had been bitter one. There fell
grevIOus sickness on the neishbor.
hood disease and death stalkrd
abroad, and moved down their vie.
TINS without counting the numbers.
Against the grim tyrants Gideon
West fought day and night his ener.
sy was endless, his courage undaunt.
ed. and he triumphed. No, not Gid.
con West, but the weapons OF science
trinmphed in his hands. Disease and
death We're driven from the field
as they lied they shot one last bolt At
their victor-it glanced OFT his armor.
but left his wife and child dead At
his side.
Yes, he had won; but what was
the victory worth Fame. reward
wealth, all were his but the one hone
OF his life was dead. Yet he never
spared hlnseli-never ceased work
for day-never hesitAted at any
sacrifice. He lived, he said, for only
one obJect-it was ITO wear out his
life. The old home knew him to
the end, and one faithful and devoted
woman gave all her wears 10 cheer
the one hero of her life. the poor
struggling surgeon, the great phySl.
c'an-the man who for pure love had
married her only child-Ciertrude's
husband.
But the end came suddenly at last
and outwardly there seemed to be no
signs of failing power. The mind
seemed as fresh and as vigorous AS
ever. Only in one direction did it
give way. Years OF never ceasinq
brooding over his dead wife and chnli
did Its work and as the sad anniyer-
sary ot his wifes birthday, her mar
rlage, and of her death once more ap-
preached. the strain overpowered
him. a mania seized him: he must
offer her the most costly treasures.
let they must not appear to come
from him, but from others, from those
who owed their life TO bis skill. They
must be proofs OF his fame-proois to
the dead wife OF her husbands tri-
umph. The mania grew upon him.
Wherever he saw anything that was
OF peculiar value, he seemed to claim
it as his own, fully persuaded. as
believe, that it was willing offering
to the memory OF his dead wife. And
so those once inexplicabie disappear
ances We're explained. No one sus-
pected, would dream of suspecting,
the great doctor; and sane in every.
thing else, yet with his brilliant in
tellect already ripe for decay, the un-
happy man for weeks past had been
the victim Of a mania he neither COM
pretended nor was able to resist.
learned afterward that medical con.
ference had taken him to the house
where the Countess diamonds were
lost on that particular morning, and
he must by accident have entered the
room where the diamonds were mo-
men;arIly left Unguarded. and at once
he had been led, by an irresistible
impulse, to possess them.
Before I lef, that strangely haunted
house at Chelsea on that Christmas
morning, the twice-stricken mother
led me TO the dread bedside, and
placed my hands on the cold face.
looked at the mother, and then | felt
the white hands that lay clasped be.
fore me. The woman read my
thoughts.
mo, she whispered. at is not the
flesh of mortal Ii is but a fearful
counterfeit Of death. 1t was modelled
from the dead wife and child, and
was to have been reproduced in mar
ble for Gertrudes tomb. But Gideon
West would not have it removed.
Call it a morbid fancy. or a passionate
love which you will but for years
he has spent the hours of his solitude
beside this poor image OF his wife.
Now, tell me, wal yonier dead man
thief or was he the victim to uncon-
querable mania"
For Gideon West was dead, and his
secret died with him.
We laid him on his own bed, and
when the coroners jury said next
day that he died By the visitation OF
God, they spoke the truth.
The lost Jewels were restored 10
their owners, with the simple expla-
nation that he who had taken them
was beyond the reach of human Just.
ice
For my part in the restitution /
was generously rewarded. but it was
the last Investigation ! ever under
took. Many years have passed, and
the world soon forgets. bat | thought