Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09

Mary's hand slid away from the key after
sending that and the always faint tint In
her cheeks faded out, and her eyes fiickered
up in scared way to the stern faces in front
of it. The shock of the news that man
had been slain, and that he was a man who,
only the previous day, had profered his love
to her, was for moment disabling. But
the habit of her employment controlled her,
and she awaited the further dictation.
'sHis body was found this morning in the
furnace of the steam boiler" O'Reagan re-
sumed deliberately, "where it had evidently
been placed in vain attempt to destroy it. I"
A shudder went through Mary, and she
convulsively wrung her small hands to-
gether, as though to timber them from a
cramp. But her fingers went back to the
key:
detective slowly continued, and the operator
kept along with his utterance, word by
word. "He killed Ravelli for revenge. 1t
was love affair" Here the girl grew
whittier still, and the clicks became very
slow, but they did not cease. O'Reagan's 8
voice was cold and ruthless: "The motive of
the murderer was revenge His name was
Gerald Heath.
All but the name flashed off on the wire.
Mary WARMERS power to stir the key
stopped at that. She did not faint. She
did not make any outcry. For moment
she looked as though the soul had gone out
of her body, leaving a corpse sitting there.
A grievous wall of wind came through the
trees and streak of lightning zig-zagged
down the blue-clouded sky.
$50 on" said O'Reagan.
'I will not" was the determined re-
sponse.
"Why not?"
because it is not so. Gerald Heath never
murdered Ravelli."
Gerald had stood motionless and silent.
Now he gave way to an impulse as remarka-
BILE as his previous composure had been sim
gular. If there had been stagnation in his
mind, it was now displaced by turbulence
He grasped Mary's hands in a fervid grip;
then dropped them, and faced the others.
81 did not kill the Italian, he said. "He
attacked me with my knife. which he had
stolen. In the struggle his hand was cut,
but took the weapon away from him. He
Quilted me alive and unhurt. 1 never saw
him again. You don't believe it? Mary
does, and that is more than all else."
"The circumstances don't favor you," the
detective retorted; "they convict you. You
both in love with this young lady"
"1sn't it the rejected suitor who kills the
other for spite?" This was in Mary Warri-
ner's voice, weak but still steady. "Ravelli
loved me, 1 know, and 1 drove him away.
Mr.. Heath loved me, believed, and 1 had
not repulsed him. II I were the cause of a
who killed Gerald"
"You detested Ravelli?" o Reagan asked,
with strange bitterness.
eyes,"
"And you love Heath?"
The answer was no more hesitant than be-
fore: "Yes."
"Send the rest of my message" and the
detective was boisterous. "Send the name.
Gerald Heath is the murderer"
He roughly seized her hand and clapped
it on the key. She drew it away, leaving
his there. A binding fash of lightning il
lumined the place, and what looked like a
missile of fire flew down the wire to the in
strument, where it exploded. O'Reagan
fell insensible from the powerful electrical
shock. The rest did not altogether escape,
and for minute all were dazed. The first
thing that they fully comprehended was
that OReagan was getting unsteadily to his
feet He was bewildered. Staggering and
reeling, he began to talk.
Mary was the first to perceive the import
of his utterance. He was merely going on
with what he had been saying, but the man.
ner, not the matter, was astounding.
He spoke with an italian accent and made
Italian gestures.
"You-a send zemes-sage," he said; "Heath
eez ze murder-are. Send-a zee message, I
say"
Tonic Ravelli had unwittingly resumed
his Italian style of English.
His plentitude of hair and whiskers was
gone, and in the face thereby uncovered no
body could have recognized him in Detec-
tive O'Reagan, but for his lapse into the for
eign accent; and he said so much before dis
covering his blunder that his Identification
as indeed Ravelli was complete.
Who, then, was the dead man? Why, he
was Eph.
Nothing but the fear of being himself
condemned as a murderer of the maniac, as
a part of the scheme of revenge against
Gerald, induced Ravelli to explain. He
had found Eph lying dead in the path, after
both had parted from Gerald. The plot to
exchange clothes with the corpse, drag it to
the furnace, burn away all possibility of
recognition, and thus make il seem to be his
murdered self, was carried out with all the
hot haste of jealous vengeance. Ravelli
was not an italian, although very familiar
with the language of Italy, and able by a
natural gift of mimicry to hide himself
from pursuit for a previous crime. Over
look had been refuge, until his passion for
Mary Warriner led him to abandon his dis
guise. Thereupon, he had turned himself
into Terrence O'Reagan, detective, whose
malicious work wrought happiness for
Gerald Heath and Mary Warriner.