Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-26

Nonsense, Reginald, you are dreaming.
81 am not, he said vehemently, "I had
thought it all out over and over again. I
was always thinking of it. wanted to put
an end to this Curse. It's been going on
too long, and it troubled me. I had made
up my mind TO kill her long before, but I
might not have done it then if / had not
heard. my cousin Ronald threatening her,
and another man heard it, too. This was a
grand opportunity, you see. 1t was as
much as could do to sit quietly at dinner
with that naval fellow, and to know that 1t
was all right. 1t was glorious, for it would
be killing two birds with one stone. I
wanted to get rid of Ronald as much as I
did of her, so that the Curse might come to
an end, and now it was all so easy. had
only to drop the glove he had left behind
him on the grass close below her window,
and alter that quarrel he would be suspected
and hung. Nothing could have worked
better for me; and then, TOO, thought it
would puzzle them to give them another
scent to work on. There was another man
had a grudge against Margaret; that was
Forester, the poacher had picked up
his knife in the wood just where he had
killed my keeper. and afterward I heard
him telling his sweetheart, who was Mar
garet's maid, that he would kill Margaret
for persuading her to give him up; so
dropped the knife by the side of the bed,
and I thought that one or other of them
would be sure to be banged; but somehow
that didn't come right. believe the girl
hid the knife, only didn't dare question
her about it. But that didn't matter; the
fellow would be hanged one way or the other
for killing my keeper. But the other was
the glorious thing, and chuckled over it.
1t was hard to look calm and grave when
was giving evidence against Ronald, and
when all the fools were thinking that he
did it. when it was me all the time. Didn't
1 do it cleveriy, Volkes? hid her
things where the gardener was sure to
find them the first time he dug up the bed
They let Ronald off, but he will not come
back again, and don't suppose will ever
marry; SO there is an end Of the Curse as
far as he's concerned. Then waited bit,
but the devil was always at my elbow, tell
ing me to finish the good work, and last
night did it. put the candle to the cur
tains in all the rooms downstairs, and stood
and watched them blaze mp until it got too
hot to stay any longer. II was q grand
sight, and could hear the Spanish woman
laughing and shouting. She has had her
way with us for long time, but now it's all
over; the Curse of the Carnes is PLAYED out.
There, didn't cheat you nicely, Volkes,
you and all the others? You never srs-
pected me, not one Of you. used to keep
grave all day, but at night when was in
my room alone laughed tor hours to think
of all the dogs on the wrong scent"
His three listeners looked at each other
silently.
'It was grand thing to put an end to
the Curse, I" Reginald Carne rambled on. ut
was no pain to her; and if she had lived the
trouble would have come upon her chill,
dren."
'sYou know that you are hurt beyond
chance of recovery, Carne, the magistrate
said, grayely. "It is a terrible story that
you have told us. I think that you ought
to put it down on paper, so that other people
may know how it was done; because, you
see, at present an innocent man is sus-
pected."
"What do care? That is nothing to me
one way or the other. ] am glad / have sue
ceeded in frightening Ronald Mervyn away,
and hope that he will never come back
again. You don't suppose am going to
help to bring him homeI'
Mr.. Volkes saw that he had made mis-
take. "Yes, quite understand you don't
want him back, he said soothingly. IT
thought, perhaps, that you would like peo-
pie to know how you had sacrificed your
self to put an end to the Curse, and how
cleverly you had managed to deceive every
one. People would never believe us II We
were to tell them. They would say either