The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-08-28

endless, his courage undaunted, and he
triumphed. No, not Gideon West, but the
weapons of science triumphed in his hands.
Disease and death were driven from the
field; as they fled they shot one last bolt at
their victor-it glanced off 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 hope of his life was
dead. Yet he never spared himself
ceased work for day-never hesitated at
any sacrifice. He lived, he said, for only
one object-it was to "wear out his life" "
The old home knew him to the end, and one
faithful and devoted woman gave all her
years to cheer the one hero of her life, the
poor struggling surgeon, the great physician
the man who for pure love had married
her only child-Gertrude'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 di-
rection did it give way. Years of never
ceasing brooding over his dead wife and
child did its work; and as the sad anniver-
sary of his wife's birthday, her marriage
and of her death once more approached,
the strain overpowered him. A mania
seized him; he must offer her the most costly
treasures. Yet they must not appear to
come from him, but from others, from those
who owed their health, their life to his skill.
They must be proofs of his fame-proofs
to the dead wife of her husbands triumph.
The mania grew upon him. Wherever he
saw anything that was of peculiar value
he seemed to claim it as his own, fully per-
suaded, as l believe, that it was willing
offering to the memory of his dead wife.
And SO those once inexplicable disappear
ances were explained. No one suspected,
would dream of suspecting, the great doc
tor; and sane in everything else, yet with
his brilliant intellect already ripe for decay,
the unhappy man for weeks past had been
the victim of a mania he neither compre-
hended nor was able to resist learned
afterward that medical conference had
taken him to the house where the Countess
diamonds were lost on that particular morn
ing, and he must by accident have entered
the room where the diamonds were momen-
tarily left unguarded, and at once he had
been led, by an irresistible impulse, to pos
sess them.
Before 1 left that strangely haunted
house at Chelsea on that Christmas morn
ing the twice-stricken mother led me to
the dread bedside and placed my hands on
the cold face. L looked at the mother, and
then 1 felt the white hands that lay clasped
before me- The woman read my thoughts
"No," she whispered; ''it is not the flesh
of mortal 1t is but fearful counterfeit
of death. 1t was modelled from the dead
wife and child, and was to have been re-
produced in marble fer Gertrude's tomb.
But Gideon West would not have it re-
moved, Call it morbid fancy or pas
sionate love, which you will; but for years
he has spent the hours of his solitude be-
side this poor image of his wife. Now, tell
me, was yonder dead man a thief, or was
he the victim to unconquerable mania p
For Gideon West was dead, and his
secret died with him.
We laid him on his own bed, and when
the coroner's jury said next day that he
died sby the visitation of God" they spoke
the truth.
owners with the simple explanation that
he who had taken them was beyond the
reach of human justice.
For my part in the restitution l was
generously rewarded, but it was the last
investigation I ever undertook. Many
years have passed, and the world soon for
gets, but I thought it would interest some
10 learn what knew concerning the great
jewel robbery.