Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-09-26

II was ON the second day of our stay In
the hotel that l received the following let
ties from the arch william who had so nearly
nv his crimes marred the lives OF both
Daisy and myself. The letter had been
posted at Scarborough on the very day on
which the Golden Hawk for its unknown
mort. But, strange to say, it had been d.
rooted to me. not at York, where the doc
tar Knew that l was staying, but at Great
Torton Hall, from which place it had
reached me, after some delay, at Scarbor-
ough.
OFF SCARBOROUGH, Dec. l6.
"DEAR Mr.. FENToN: l promised to let
Won hear from me within twenty-four
Ionrs, and / mean to prove myself a maj
of nv word. 1 said that when you dld
hear of me again 1 should probably cause
YOU to think less hardly of me, ana stii
trust that it may be so.
''You are a young man who Is not wholly
lacking in discrimination, though in your
"reminiscences you make some very greap
mistakes. You are probably now cursing
what YOU may regard as the blunder you
made last night when you revealed to me
the telegram from that detective with the
foreign name on the subject OF my diary.
PRAY console yourself. Even from your
and Daisy's point of view, you dlu not
hlundcr there, as | shall soOn prove to you,
EVERY man, great or small has some
weakness. Mine has been q very simple
one. Ihave had no confederate allthrougf
nv life; even Flinter, and one or TWO more
in Australia who have been permlttea 10
understand something Of my sche mes, nave
never really been in my confidence. L am
n social being, as you know. could con-
fde in nobody else; Imade q conhdant OF
myself. Don't suppose that l dld not
knoy there was a risk in doing 1t, even
with the cipher l had adopted. l was
well aware of that fact. But there must
ne an element of risk in all things human
and the chances were certainly a thousand
to one against any harm happening 10 me
through the indulgence of this little ioiDie.
Now. of course, all your petty morailstS,
from YOUR detective upward, Will preach
their little sermon about the
with which Providence atiilcts all criihlnais
and will prove entirely to their own Satls-
faction that, if / am a great william, l "nn
still a greater fool. I deny lit. l am no
fool; and even after the lesson lhaVe now
had, | should not hesitate once more 10 re-
peat-of course, under different conditions
the indiscrefion which has cost me so dear
now. ,.a
"My dear sir, let me remove any dilh-
GUILTY that may now lie in your way. III 1
had not heard from you of the discovery OF
nv cipher, and if, instead OF writing thls
letter comfortably to You on beard our
beautiful Yacht, | should have been III jail
lust now on the charge of murder, shouiu
have been compelled in selt-delence 10 put
YOU aud all your friends to an amount OF
trouble that | think would have lar out
weighed the object you were seeking to at
tain, Moreover, l should in all probaolli-
ty have bafled the whole of you. But
your appeal to me last night, coupled wltn
the fact that | shall certainly not nov DE
permitted to gather the fruit for which
have waited so long, has caused me tOcome
to a conclusion of which think you ougnt
to hear with gratitude. / do not mean TO
fight. | am leaving you forever; but l
shall do what | can in departing to smooth
your way, and to leave you ana DAISY "
think not unkindly of me.
81 acknowledge, therefore, IN the most
formal manner, that the diary IS literally
tr.e, murdered Mr.. M%auleverer in the
manner therein deScribed-by substituting
a powder of strychnia for one of bromide OF
notassium. | had no accomplish in my
crime save Benjamin Flinter. Daisy Is
absolutely innocent; and; though Fosdyke
nav have had his suspicious, he knew
nothing. Fosdyke, my dear Mr.. Fenton,
il n very commonplace OF rogue. L shall
do nothing so absurd as to attempt to JUS
tify or ~pailiate my conduct to you. | have
nv own justification, and assure you 1t
is altogether satisfactory to myself. My
digestion is excellent; / sleep perfectly; II
I know no more of a reproachlng conscience
than ola disOrdered stomach
'There is one point on which, by the
way, should not like you or Daisy to lie
under any misrepresentation. Though IT
was necessary in case of need, to place
Daisy under suspicion of being the real
murderer of Mr.. Mauleyerer, there was
not the slightest intention of putting her
life i'm jeopardy. That was your doing, my
dear Mr.. FentOn, and you remember the
hot Indignation which Flinter-who al
WAYS had a sneaking kindness for the dear
giri-showed when he heard of what l
must say was your ~ineXcusable rashness at
Trondhiem. We wanted to create evidence
against her, not that we might fling her
into the dock to take her chance against a
Jury, but in order that we might have some
means ofcOunteracting the influence which
unfortunately YOU seemed to have obtained
over her, and of keeping both her and you
in our power. But then, the best lald
schemes etc. | am no rouge, however,
even though on this occasion my plans have
gone agley.'
Daisy is the daughter of a gentleman,
n man of birth, refinement and education,
a clergyman of the Church of England, who
died ut Melbourne in Is. know moth
ing of her family history, save that her
name is Sheldon; but you may depend
upon it that she is, in every sense OF the
word, n lady.
And now, nothing remains but that l
should say, Bless you, my children and
and let the curtain be rung.dOwn upon the
play! You will have Mauleverer's mill
ions upon which to enjoy yOurselves-ml-
nus the comparatively trivial sum which
nv necessessities have compelled me to ap-
propriate; you will have youth, beauty,
good conscience, etc, etc. Really, my
dear Fenton, | envy you. Pray, when
you are happy, bear the fact that you W
your wife to me.
and now, farewell! This is the last
time you will ever hear of your sincere but
unrepentant. FRANCIS BRANKSOME."
This extraordinary letter, which left the
mans character almost as much of an enig-
ma to me rs it ever had been, did some
thing to clear away any remaining mys-
terry connected with the tragedy; and it
confirmed my darling in the intention
which she had formed that under no cir
cumstances would she touch the money of
the man who had taken her as his child,
and loved and benefited her, under the in
huence ofthe fraudulent delusiOn impressed
upon him by Branksome. Legally, she
was full mistress of all Mauleyerer's wealth
the amount of which we soon found had
been greatly exaggerated. She made use
of her powers over it to transfer the whole
sum to trustees for the execution of the