Wichita eagle., 1888-11-06

swearer, but always appeared so engrossed in
his fish selling that he would have been the
last l should have connected with such a
crime. He was devout Roman Catholic,
too, and attended chapel and confession regu-
larly, so, on the whole, ! was inclined to put
aside the statement Of Slider as utterly alb
surd.
How did he come to try such things"
asked with marked skepticisr.
Il don't know-a sudden temptation, !
think; and p'rhaps he's been in the line be-
fore"
thought for little, and decided that, as
l had seen Twomey about the town only for
a few years, and he was man between 40
and so, it was possible that tho last sugges-
ton at least was sound
Iwaited, expecting Slider to say more, but
when be did not gently observed:
You don't say how you learned thisF
"No, nor don't mean TO. | won't say en-
other word about it, but l could take my
oath on the truth Of what have told you"
And SO, with "rnake what you please Of
it" look at me, he moved OF and left me- I
followed and stopped him
''Did Twomey tell you hirlselfT asked,
desperately, ''or did you only hear of its"
''Twomey wouldn't tell that to living hu-
man being, believe" was the astounding
reply, mot even to the priest"
''He didn't tell it, and be did it alone-did
you, then. see him ct lt~
mo, l knew nothing about 1t till last
week." and away he went again, leaving mo
thoroughly mystifcd
The mention of the priest, however, had
prompted me to a queer course. did not
expect to get from priest anything confded
to him IN confession, nor could descend to
even try to surprise look or hint In that
direction out Of one. But thought it could
do no harm to get the priests opinion Of
Twomey as man. OF corrse, such plan
as going and charging Twomey with the
crime never occurred to me; knew him to
be too acute to betray himself, however sud-
denly bounced upon.
not far from Twor-,y IS place. when CHANGED
to see Father Bradley passing along on the
other side and hailed him cheerily.
you know the fish man, Chick Twomeyf'
l said, knowing the priest too well to insult
his intelligence by beating about the bush.
"Yes"
''He goes to chapel regularly, doesn't heg"
''Yes pretty regularly"
There was no change in the priests face,
but he was cycling me keenly.
''ls he good, straight man, think you?" l
said, giving him az keen a look as he was
showeTing upon me-
The priest continued to stare, but uttered
not 4 word for full minute.
Mr.. McGovan," he said at last, ''if yoN
want me to betray any one, you've come to
the wrong man; but if it's to lift up any poor
boy out Of sin or misery, ask me what you
please. Ii knew anything to hurt any one,
even though it did not come to me in confes-
sion, you might hack me to pieces, but it 'ud
never pass my lips"
81 know ali that" returned, respectfully;
''buG there's surely 10 harm in asking you
what you think of Twomey"
Il only think that he is a man working
hard to raise himself and pay his way" he
shortly replied. "Have you anything against
him.
l could only stammer out that l had not
and then the priest deity changed the sub
jcct, chGtted away for few minutes, and
then went on his way While we were chat
ting thus, L saw Twoney pass down the
street on the opposite side, but he could not
possibly have known that he was the subject
OF our conversation, though he saw and
recognized us BOTH At least, my impression
now is that neither of us by look or tone gave
him the slightest hint in that direction, yet
tho meeting was to be q memorable one for
him.
Somehow, though tho priest had betrayed
nothing. his response had not been heartily
in favor of TwOuey, and the first real doubt
Of the man settled III my mind Yet tho
more l considered the case in my quiet mo-
nents the more pulling it became. If
1womey would reveal his secret to no ono,
and no one had seen him commit tho crime,
how could Slider have como by the informa-
tioni 1t was an utter ilnpossibiity. Again,
l felt sure that if there were any ugly secrets
III Twomey's life, Father Bradley ct least
would know OF them through the confessional.
Slider said DO, but that was only his opinion.
Even if that were so l knew that tho secret
was as safe In the priests breast as it could
possibly be in Twomey's, and hoped nothing
from that L was III perfect despair of max
ing anything of the case, when Mr.. Sanford
came over one forenoon, and burst in on me
with the agonizlng words:
My fenich-lny magic fenichw
"Your fenichl And what, pray, do you
mean by tLatf'
at hos been taken, believe, among the
silver that night when my place was broken
into he answered, and than he explained
that pfennig was a German coin of the
value Of one-tenth of q penny. but that this
particular one was TO him Of the value Of
some thousands of pounds He had been in
Germany some years before, and had had O
few of the smaller coins over when he got
back TO Scotland. TIE magic pfennig was
QUO ~ fha.sa opI ba Ind oplv iiScor,craI no
magic properties when using it in tossing,
for 10 matter what the stake, the losses Of
the pfennig always won, though the two sides
of the coin were quite different
The lawyers excitement over the loss Of
this miserable half-farthing was comioal in
the extreme, for it was evident to me that
he really believed most firmly in its magic
powers, but when he graveiy asked me if
thought I could recover it, lost patience
altogether.
you viii never see it again" snappishiy
answered, angry ct having had 50 much Of
py time wasted in listening to bis story of
the wr,etcned coin. If il had been q gold
watch or anything worth carrying OF, which
you could identify out of thousands, it would
have been different"
Il could identify my magic fenich out of
thousands" he Plaintively and eagerly re-
turned, "for there's a notch on ono side which
I put on TO represent tails
And is that ali you came aboutF saw
aseiy exclaimed
He admitted that it was, and again e1-
pressed o hope that l would get the small
copper coin, and then l said something to
him which sent him away believing that
was the most Ill tempered man in creation.
After he was gone l was little sorry had
been so cross; but every little while would