The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-08-23

private business of my own, and WIS in
London andin my comrades of1lcon ut the time
you called upon him. hoard all you had to
say, and the description you gave OF your
wifes personal appearance aroused my ouri-
osity. You left o portrait OF her with my
comrade, and when you were gone looked
at the picture, and was surprised TO find that
it was woman whose face was acquainted
with. She had occupied position as kind
of govorness and companion in the house of
rich gentleman In Sevenoaks, where was
stationed when in government service, and
understood thnt she was a s1ngle woman. A
Frenchwoman, too; she went by the name Of
Mdlle. Rosalie Your statement to my COM
rade that she was your wife, and an English
woman proved to me that In Sevenoaks she
! had been sailing under false oolors l made
| proposition to the officer you engaged, and
we agreed to go partners in this affair, and to
share and share alike whatever was got.out of
| it. There was more depending upon 1t than you
were aware of at the time. In the house in
which Mdlle. Rosalie, your wife, was en-
| ployed, murder had been committed. An
| old gentleman, Mr.. Wilmot, was found
strapgled in his bed, and a large sum o
| money was missing-no less than five thou
sand pounds, five hundred OF which was in
gold, and four thousand five hundred in
Bank of England notes. Don't miss word
| of what l am saying, gentlemen; you will
soon see the importance Of it. Now, there
was mystery in connection with this muir.
dor. A man whose name was Samuel Fleet
| wood, who all his life had borne the best of
| characters, and had been employed in the
service OF Mr.. Richard Pardon, the gentle
mar in whose house the murder was COM
mitted, had disappeared on the night OF the
murder. Suspicion naturally fell upon him,
and at the coroner's inquest verdict OF
| guilty was pronounced against him. OF
| course that was not conclusive. Before he
was found guilty he had 10 be tried; before
he could be tried he had TO be caught. We
could not catch him, but eventually he gave
himself up at tho polce-staAon In Sevenoaks,
and confessed TO the murder. He was In
dying state, and In point OF fact he died in
| the police-station u few hours afterwards
| having first made a written declaration Of
his guilt, which he duly signed in the pres
ence OF clergyman.
"On the following morning the town was
startled, not only by the publication OF the
news of this confession. but by the mysteri-
GUS disappearance of Mr.. Pardon and Mdlle.
Rosalie. They had both been seen the night
before by Mrs Pardon, the lady of the house,
| Mdlle. Rosalie at about eleven o'clock, and
| her husband at one or two o'clock In the
morning Her husband was then in his
study, and by cunning questioning Il myself
went to see Mrs. Pardon, at her request, to
cndeavor to find the missing gentlemanl-by
cunning questioning, l say, learned from
Mrs. Pardon that when che last saw her hus-
| band In his study, at that late hour In the
night, he appeared to be greatly disturbed in
his mind She ascribed this to his having
been completely upset by the dreadful muir
| der which had taken place In his house; /
did not agree with her, but did not tell her
80. was greatly put out by Mr.. Pardon's
| disappearance, because he had offered q large
reward for the apprehension OF the muir
derer of Mr.. Wilmot, and he had promised
me, notwithstanding that Samuel Fleetwood
had voluntarily given himself up, that this
reward should be paid. Up to this moment
1t has not boon paid, but live still in hopes.
"Of course the natural conclusion people
arrived at was that there was something not
exactly proper between Mr. Pardon and
Mdlle. Rosalie-begging your pardon for
speaking so of your Wife"
"Not At oil, said Stanmore, blandlyi II hap
pen to know the lady"
"The natural conclusion, then, was that
those two had run off together, and that they
both were no better than they should be. AS
did not agree with what Mrs. Pardon told
me about her husband, so now 1 did not
agree with the general verdict pronounced
upon the missing pair. However, / kept my
opinions to myself. for the reason that had
an idea that the reward offered by Mr.. Pardon
for the discovery of the murderer OF Mr.. vii.
mot would ono day find its way into my
pocket. How is that, perhaps.you will ask,
when Samuel Fleetwood had confessed to the
crime, and the gentleman who offered the re-
ward had disappeared, partly because he
wished to save his money! Well, now, you
will think it strange when tell you that
had my doubts as to the genuineness of
Samuel Fleetwood's confession. 1t seems
that he had given the clergyman private
letter, which he implored should be conveyed
to his master, and that he had placed most
extraordinary and unnatural Importance
upOn the safe delivery of this document. Tho
clergyman informed me that Mr.. Pardon had
called upon him in the evening in state Of
great agitation, and said that the letter had
not reached his hands Now, the Clergyman
was positive tina. he had enclosed it in q
packet, containing, besides, n letter from
himself and a copy of Samuel Fleetwood's
confession, which he had delivered to Mdlle.
Rosalie. I kept thinking TO myself, What
could be in this missing letter. and l was not
at all satisfied with things as they stood. I
was confident that there was mystery which
II might pay me to clear up. Another circum-
stance led me to this conclusion. man of
the name OF Redwing, who had been taken on
by Mr.. Pardon for few weeks to assist the
gardener, had also disappeared. What was
thore singular in that2 you will ask. Well
begging your pardon again, Mr.. Stanmore-I
had seen enough to convince me that Mdle
Rosalie and Redwing were lovers. caught
them more then once in Ivybush Lane kiss
ing and embracing. There was but one con-
clusion to draw from that
This, gentlemen, is how matters stood on
the day of the disappearance Of Mr.. Pardon,
Mdlle. Rosalie. and Redwing. The first thing
to be done was to track them.
"But here found myself at fault The
fact is. l did not feel myself quite justified in
spending large sum Of my own money in
the search, and it was, dare say, because Of
this that I did not suecaed Altar soma TINA