Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-02-27
THE BANKERS CRIME
Diamond Cut Diamond.
By NATHAN D. URNHR
CHAPTER vJI.-tContinued.I

The steps paused at the end Of the
hall. There was heard the opening Of
the back door communicating with the
bank, more footsteps crossing the narrow
passage directly outside the partition, and
then, as the door itself opened, stranger
entered.
He was rather poorly dressed man,
who might have been q seafarer, and be
looked at the banker rather curiously
from under the brim Of q slouch hat,
which he did not take the trouble to re-
move.
sWho the deuce are you2" was his first
outburst. And what do you mean by
sneaking into my house at this hour2"
Il have business with you, was the
surly response.
-Business-at nine o'clock at night2
Come, give IN account of yourself, and
be quick about It'll Wasn't the gate locked,
as well as the street doorf"
-Of course; but have keys for both"
.Impossiblei Or you must be thief.
then. Hal skeleton keys!"
NO, no; good. honest, rightful keys,
and have carried them for more than
eighteen years Look at me well, Gilbert
Marlowe. and say that you do not recog-
nize me if you darel'
He reached back his hand, closing the
door behind him, and then slowly removed
his hat.
Gilbert Marlowe uttered a hoarse, as
founded cry. The ruler dropped from
his nerveless hand into the mass of hud-
died papers ON the table, and he reeled
back against the money-vault. where he
/. partly crouched, shivering, pale, painting,
while gazing upon his visitor with start
ING ewes.
sCan the earth give up its dead?" he
managed to articulate. "Jasper--Jasper
Marlowei No, no; it cannot be!
But it certainly is, though, coolly OBJ
served the intruder, seating himself at the
round table. ~Its me, and no one else
but me, and alive and kicking at that.
All for the obvious reason that have
never been dead, or otherwise than alive
and kicking"
Gilbert Marlowe was bad, but no cow
ard, and we have seen that he was man
Of powerful resolution. With his first
reeiing sense Of the supernatural dissi-
pated, in 10 measure, by these matter-of-
fact words, Gilbert Marlowe slowly
Strengthened himself up, and clasped his
hands for an instant over his face and
eyes. When he removed them his visor
was down, the helmet of his self-posses-
sion reassumed.
@The deucei" he exclaimed, with his
harsh laugh. Il have been superstitious
from boyhood, | am ashamed to say;
there is Just the ghost of resemblance
between you and my dead cousin, Jasper;
and-and-wen you asserted that miser-
able fiction SO solemnly by your manner
that really was fool enough to take
momentary stock in it.
D.zk MnrIOuva 0s,6 xynT-
know II, /" said the other. 4YeS, you do
that iron mask with which you are ac-
customed to hide your emotions has
thickaned and hardened with the years
but I can penetrate it, as Of old. YoJ
recognize me; know you do"
BY heaven! do not" and Gilbert ad-
vanced, threateningly. Course your i'm
pudence! get out Of this house-maks
tracks at once, or I'll have you hurled in
to prison.
The stranger was slender man, ap.
parently mot in rugged health, notwith.
standing that his bearded face wal
bronzed and his hands calloused ani
tanned, as though from many seasons o,
rough work, but he was not in the leas
daunted by the bankers tone and man
ner.
aTo prison, eh? So be it, said be, will
laugh. Come, should like nothing
better, as preliminary. We shall see i
Justice Of the peace will be as incredu
ious as You are, or as you pretend to be.
What do you come here for, anyway
First, to demand my rights the none,
of which you defrauded me. Next, II
learn the whereabouts Of my wife, if sh'
be still alive.
Come, the sublimity Of your assurance
in thus parading in dead mans shoes
interests me-I'll consent to talk will
you. Supposing, for the joking instant
that you are Jasper Marlowe, are you no
rather dilatory In demanding your rights
as you call them, after eighteen years O
silence?"
Yes; but my health is at last perman
emily breaking--I am out-wearied ant
out worn with fortunes abuse.
Ha! the ordinary adyenturers plea
Well, still in this hilarious suppo
sition that you are what you pretend tx
Il be, would be compelled to inform you
first, that you have neither rights no
money to demand of me. Secondly, tina
know nothing Of your wife's where
a abouts; that she disappeared from thi
h neighborhood soon after the death Of he
little boy, Cuthbert-which occurred il
less than year after her husbands crue
and cowardly abandonment. Of both wit
and child; and that have never seen o
heard Of her since.
i have for year been aware OF our boy
death, said the stranger. not withou
emotion. -But was in hopes Of dndin
some traces Of Isabel. You must knoN
Of her whereabouts.
4 tell you, 4 do not. I could not IN