The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1889-10-10
THE DISCOVERED PLOT.
A Honeymoon Closely Followed
by q Poisoned Potion.

A Honeymoon Closely Followed
by q Poisoned Potion.
"Jac!. dear, who is Sir Robert Bal
.antyne?'
''Ballantyne? o, he's great analyst
and writer on chemistry, but better
known as the highest authority on the
treatment Of affections of the brain.'
And what have you been writing to
him about?'
How do you know l have"'
II happened to look at the letters
you left on the hall table this morning."
"Well?''
"Well, only asked. wasn't aware
that you knew him.
80. yes Ballantyne and l are very
old friends"
But never heard you mention his
name before"
"Indeed!'
This dialogue had been conducted
with an evident anxiety on the one
side, and reserve on the other, by no
means characteristic of the speakers.
Jack Rivers had always been frank
ness itself, and Dolly the most light
hearted and unsuspicious Of wives.
Their married life. indeed, had been
one of unalloyed happiness. though
undertaken against the advice O; all
tilCir friends and relations.
DOlly's futher had been furious at her
engagement to a ''beggarly bankers
clerk, and had refused to attend her
wedding, or to give any assistance
toward the young peoples housekeep-
ing expenses.
Jacks relatives. too, after his neg
lect Of their solemn warnings against
marrying n penniless girl, when Miss
Argent. with her 100000, might have
been had for the asking, had washed
their hands, as they put it, of the
whole concern
In spite. however, of poverty and
isolation, the young wife had never re-
GREETED her marriage, nor considered
herself other than the happiest of
women, till within the last few weeks
preceding the above conversation.
The last few weeks!
When and how Dolly's misgivings
were first aroused, she scarcely knew,
but at the time when she put the ques-
ton to her husband about his letter to
the specialist, they had already as
sumed definite form.
She felt convinced that Jack had
something on his mind, and she, more
over. suspected tho cause of his trouble.
1t was not only that his habits and
manner had gradually changed; that
he omitted the customary little atten-
lions to Lis wife; that he sat at meals
drumming with his fingers on the table,
md starting or staring vacantly when
suddenly addressed; not only that he
lisplaycd II strange irritability; that
ne locked himself up in his study after
dinner, or won't out late, with the I'M
satisfactory explanation that he wanted
TO read at the club. It was not alone
that he came to bed at irregular hours,
only to toss and tumble through the
weary watches. All this was nothing
10 the revelation made one awful night,
when Dolly, listening breathlessly at
his side, overheard his muttered words.
She knew he was awake and not
dreaming. Why. then, should he talk
Of murder and poison, and seem to be
balancing in his mind the imperative
merits OF alternative modes of death?
What could it mean? Could the ter
rible explanation which had previously
crossed her mind be true, and were
this irritability, this abstraction and
this sleeplessness the symptoms of q
weakening mind, of approaching in
sanity?
Such being the suspicion already en-
lertained, the result of Dolly's discov-
cry that her husband was in CORE
spondcnce with brain doctor may be
imagined. Evidently. she thought,
Jack knew his danger and was asking
Tor assistance, and what was the duty
Of a wife in the circumstances? Surely
to ascertain the nature of the advice
given in reply, and to carry it out with
oil the discretion and devotion possible.
There was no difficulty in the first
pnrt Of this programme. A letter, OBJ
viously from Sir Robert Ballautyne,
was delivered during Jacks absence
from ho,ne. and the nature Ut its con-
iSnHn scs.s,lH IA nosl1v aSanAvAx>a >S4AAk: