Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-10-30
opinion until have ascertained that of the

for which l was waiting with breathless i'm
patience at York. Alas! itdid not announce,
as l had hoped might be the case, the i'm
mediate discharge of my darling. Patience!
patience!
But : nightfall the glad news came.
Secretary of state will advise queen to grant
free pardon. Formalities can be completed
tomorrow"
And the next day I was at the castle bv
daybreak, waiting to be admitted to the
governors room. I was too soon, of course.
Even when officialism acts with unwonted
speed, it cannot outstrip the i1npatience of a
lover. 1t was now the 18th OF December.
In a week longer Christmas would be with
US. Twelve days had elapsed since I had
heard the shameful doom pronounced upon
my beautiful darling-the woman whom I
had chosen out of all the world as worthiest
and best, aye, and who had chosen me-, all
unworthy as I was-to keep that tender
heart OF hers-the .purest and truest that
ever beat in a human bosom.
Only twelve days since that awful scene
when Daisy and l had seemed to stand to-
gether within the very jaws of death! l
could not believe it. Half of my entire life
appeared to have been expended in the
varied emotions through which I had passed
since then. The officials of the prison were
long, long in coming. | walked to and fro
lmpatiently. l declare this waiting now
was harder even than had been that waiting
for the verdict, when my darling's fate
hung in the balance. l recalled oil the
history of those eventful four months which
had passed sincs I first saw her in her peer
less beauty, and the full flush of health and
strength, in the railway station of this very
city; and while l rejoiced more than ever at
the blessing which had been bestowed upon
me in her love, my heart cried out to heaven
for pardon for all those errors which
in my recklessness and blindness ]
had committed, and from which she had
suffered. All, if it could but have come over
again, how differently l should have acted,
and with what loving care I should have
shielded her even against that Internal net
work of lies which had been woven so Gun.
ningly about her! So 1 thought, as l looked
back upon it all; and so, possibly, it might
have been il that strange drama could have
been re-enacted. But who can tells Even
now, when l fully recognize the blunders OF
which l was guilty, the folly, the blindness,
the stubbornness displayed in my dealings
with Mauleverer and his friends, 1 some.
times ask myself whether my blunders may
AOU uufO Occu llOTO USEFUL GudIl lily pFu.
dence would have been.
But what is that sound? The door opens,
and l turn to greet the governor with the
longed-for news. No; tho governor is not
there. 1t is my darling herself who stands
before me, pale as q statue Of marble, worn
and wasted by the strain of an agony which
might have brought even a strong man to the
grave, but with all the light of life and love
shining upon me from her star-lit eyes.
we were at Scarborough two days later.
staying once more in the Grand hotel. The
great houss was practically empty now, and
Daisy and Mrs. Cawthorne might, if they
pleased, have had the.r choice OF any of the
rooms in the building. had induced Hard.
ing to como with us to the place where I had
first met him. It was not merely that ]
needed to consult him on n hundred matters
that concerned the interests both of Daisy
and myself. In that fierce ordeal through
which my darling and l had passed 1 had
learned to love this true and tried friend as ]
had loved few men before.
1t was on thiss second day of our stay ir
the hotel that l received tho following letter
from the arch villain who had so nearly by
his crimes marrcd the lives of both Daisy
and myself. The letter had been posted a.,
Scarborough on the very day on which the
Golden Hawk sailed for its unknown port.
But, strange to say, it had been directed te
me, not at York, where the doctor knew
that l was staying, but at Great Lorton Hall,
from which place it had reached me, after
some delay, at Scarborough.
GOLDEN HAWK,
OFF SCARBOROUGH, Dec. 1G.
"DEAe MIR. FENToN: l promised to lei
you hear from mo within twenty-four hours,
and ! mean to prove myself a man of my
word. said that when you did hear Of me
again | should probably cause you to think
less hardly OF mo, and | still trust that il
may be so.
"You are n young man who is not wholly
lacking in discrimination, though in your
impulsiveness you make some very great
mistakes. You are probably now cursing
what you may regard us the blunder you
made last night when you revealed to me the
telegram from that detective with the for.
eign name OH the subject of my diary. Pray
console yourself. Even from your-and
Daisy's-point of view, you did not blunder
there, as l shall soon prove to you.
"Every man, great or small, has some
weakness. Mine has been u very simple
one. lhavc ha | no confederate ali through
my life; even Flintcr, and che or two more
in Australia who have been permitted to
understand something of my schemes, have
never really been liz my confidence. am q
sociable being, as you know. I could con.
tide in nobody else; | made a contidant of
myself. Don't suppose that l did not know
there was u risk III doing it, even with the
cipher l had adopted. l was well aware of
that fact. But there must be an element of
risk in all things human, and the chances
We're certainly Il thousand to one against
any harm happening to HE through the in
diligence Of this little foible. Now. of
course, all your petty moralists, from, your
detective upward, will preach their little
sermon about the blindness with which
Providence atflicts all criminals, and will
prove entirely to their own satisfaction that,
if l am a great villain, I am a still greater
fool l deny it. l am no fool; and even
after the lesson l have now had, l should
not hesitate once more to repeat-of course,
under different conditions-the indiscre elton
which has cost me so dear now.
"My dear sir, let me remove any difficulty
that may now lie in your way. If l had not
heard from you of tho discovery Of INV
cipher, and if, instead of writing this letter
comfortably to you OH board our beautiful
yacht, l had been in Jail just now on the
charge of murder, should have been COM
PEELED in self-defence to put you and all your
friends to an moun Of trouble that l thinl
would have far o~utweighed tho object you
were seeking to attain. Moreover, l should
in all probability have bafflcl the whole OF
you. But your appeal to me last night,
coupled with the fact that I shall certainty
not now be permitted to gather the fruit for
which l have waited SO long, has caused me
to como to a conclusion of which l think you
ought to hear with gratitude. l do not
mean to fight. ] am leaving you forever;
but shall do what I can in departing Ia
smooth your way, and to leave you and