The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1886-06-03

worked at his guastly business With the
energy of giant and the vigor OF looter
on battlefield. Once Or twice he refreshed
himself from the spirit decanter, and wiped
the perspiration from his face.
when the changes had been made be-
tween the living and the dead, which the
living considered sufficient, then came the
no less difficult work of removing the
body; but the murderer was equal to the
occasion. He carried it out into tho yard
and thrust it into the brougham, which he
had already dragged out of the carriage
house for the purpose. There was not
single detail that he had not thought out on
the lines of his own proposed suicide.
He had not permitted himself, SO far, to
change q single item of his original plan
except this incident Of driving to Hamp-
stead; for he had argued that if his scheme
was simple and had no hitch in it, all he
had to do was to fit his substitute into the
plan. The only change was the brougham.
His own idea had been to walk to the
scene Of his own death, favorit resort in
life, and there take his fatal dose. The in
PRODUCTION Of tho brougham had necessi-
tated the absence of the servants These
supplementary incidents had worked out
so far to his satisfaction, the most tremen-
dous Of all of them, the discovery OF tho
substitute, having been in Needham's opin.
ion little less than miraculous.
Having deposited his ghastly load in tho
brougham, he leaned, gasping, against the
coach house; for though be had carried his
load with something like the grip of an e1-
pert at such work, balancing the weight Of
the difficult and awkward burden so as to
make it bearable, he could hardly stand
erect for some minutes. Presently, how
ever, he went back into the house, straight
ened his room, washed and laid aside the
extra coffee cup, placed in his pocket the
phial Of poison, carefully removed all traces
Of his visitor; then going into the hall and
putting on Norbury's light oEercoat, taking
his own on his arm, and his crush hat in
his hand, he returned to the sta bles and har-
messed the cob to the brougham. Opening
the gates steal thily he looked out No one
stirring, the night dark, steady rain fall
ing; everything still favored tho criminal
and his work: He led the horse through
the gateway, put out the Ian tern, placed it
inside the doors, whichhe carefully closed;
and then, mounting the box seat, drove
quietly through tn, News and out into
Marylebone road.
The rain fell in steady downpour. The
perfune Of roses and stocks from adjacent
gardens filed the dripping atmosphere; but
in the imagination Of the solitary driver Of
the silent passenger the gas lamps pointed
their short arms at him. The long, glaring
reflections of the lights on the wet pave
ments seemed to follow him. He drove on,
nevertheless, and to his troubled fancy the
wheels of the brougham made an awful
noiso. His horse clattered over the stones
as if with the design Of calling attention to
the awful thing be was dragging. "That
is why they walk the horses in hearse,
and the mourning coaches that follow creep
along" the driver thought, "the noise is so
great" He pulled the cob into walk.
''Yes," be thought, 'that must be it; there
is more noise attending the removal of the
dead than the living-a kind OF sympathy,
as if the stones spoke, as somebody has,
think, suggested. But now that his horse
only walked through the rain, he noticed
that as cabmen ratified by they turned to
look ut him. He had not lighted the lamps
of his brougham, so that the light of pass
ing vehicles seemed to fash upon him and
try to unnerve him. He therefore urged
the horse once more into trot and ratified
over the stones with the rest Of the traffic.
He turned into the Allsopp News, and
would have gone through Clarence gate into
the park, but he dared not risk having to
pull up for gates to be opened and shut; SO
he kept to the road, turning into Upper
Gloucester place, now at a walking pace,
now at q trot, the gas lamps pointing at
him as before, and the blood-red glare of a
druggists lamp that fell sheer across his
path making him shudder. But on he went,
round Park road, past Primrose hill, and
now skirting its western side, and 80 into
Haverstock hill, finally climbing the steep
ascent to Hampstead. Passing the last
lights OF house and lamp the driver plunged
with his silent passenger into the darkness,
made visible at intervals by sharp flashes
Of lightning, the impressive stiffness Of the
night being heightened by thunder that
rolled over the hill and into the distant val
leys, leaving behind it long listening
pauses of silence.