Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-16

1t formulated Itself as concfete
idea. If by any means could
contrive to relieve my uncle of portion OF
his superhuous wealth should merely be
claiming, after a fashion of my own,
modicum of that which would doubtless
have come to me in due course, haa l, as
Horace Sperkinson, outlived the old cur
mudgeon. I was still as much my uncle's
nephew as ever I had been, and why should
the whole of his wealth 60 to endow some
charity, or otherwise to enrich that harpy
horde of cousins and half-cousins who were
waiting, with ill-concealed impatience, till
the breath should be out of his body? But
the question was, how to bring my idea
within the range of practicability. The
necessity which it involved was by no means
q pleasant one to contemplate; all my in
stincts took arms against it; recoiled from
the prospect with shudder. And yet, on
the other hand; was 1 to run the risk of los
ing the only woman 1 had ever loved
and three thousand year to boot,
for lack OF few. paitry
pounds? The thought was intolerable.
There was nothing for it tlbut to whistle my
scruples down the wind and seize the oc-
acsion boldly by the hilt, regardless of what
might follow.
Without troubling the reader with unnec-
essary details, it Is enough to say that on a
certain night, or morning rather, between 2
and 8 o'clock, found myself in my uncle
dressing room, built into the wall of which
was the safe in which he kept his money
and other valuables.
As soon as my uncle's peaceful snoring
had assured me that he was asleep, stole
forward into his bedroom, in which night
light was burning. and possessed myself of
the key of the safe, which was always placed
overnight on a small table within reach
of his hand. On getting back to his dress
ing room opened the slide of my dark
lantern and went down on one knee in front
of the safe, thinking to open it without diff
Guilty; but, much to my disgust, 1 found
that the lock was covered by brass flap
which fastened with catch, and a couple
of minutes passed before found out the
trick of it and succeeded in laying bare the
lock. After that the rest was easy.
The bolts yielded noislessly to the key,
after which the door opened almost of its
own accord. Ny hand was in the act of
grasping bag of money when slight noise
caused me to turn my head. Framed by
the doorway, and glaring at me with eyes
like those of wolf robbed of its cubs, stood
my uncle's long, lean figure clothed in his
nightshirt
"Robber-double-disti scroundrel-
thiefl' he shrieked in his quavering. high
pitched voice. 'You shall not escape me. "
Speaking thus. he made dash for the bell
rope, but was too quick for him.
Next instant we had closed in desperate
struggle, his object being to rouse the house,
and mine to hinder him from doing so. The
old man was very wiry and much stronger
than could have believed possible. One
of his arms encircled my neck in grip
which half choked me, while he painted and
snarled in my ear like some wild animal.
To and fro we reeled, I forcing him, foot by
foot, further from the bell rope. The only
light was that shed by my lantern, which I
had placed on the floor close by the safe.
Then all at once my uncle's strength
seemed to unaccountably desert him, it may
have been from failure of the heart; in any
case, his legs gave way under him, and he
sank to the floor, dragging ME with him.
We were close to the fireplace, and in fall
ing his head struck against sharp point of
one of the steel "dogs" inside the fender.
When l had succeeded in loosing his grip
of me and had risen to my feet, saw that a
thin stream of blood was trickling from
under his head. I stopped and felt his
pulse, and as it was still futtering, con-
cluded that he had merely tainted and
would presently come round. must do
what had come to do, and get away before
he recovered consciousness.
In the safe found bag of sovereigns,
which pocketed without scruple, but be-
yond that there was nothing save heap OF
documents, which would have been value
less to me. Stay, though; in one corner
there cleaned a ring-a splendid cats eve
set with brilliants-which had occasionally
seen my uncle wear, but never without COW
citing it had weakness for jewelry, and
without more ado thrust the ring into my
waistcoat pocket. After last look at my
uncle, in whose limbs I noticed a tremor
which took to be an indication of return
ing consciousness, I rang peal on the bell
loud enough to rouse every sleeper in the
house, then hurried from the room BY way
of the French window, and dropping from
the balcony to the ground I stole through
the shrubbery and thence to the outlying
fields. A couple OF days later quietly re-
at the George" with NV bag and
umbrella. had previously given out, both
to the hotel people and the inmates of Fern
side, that had been called away to London
for few days on matter of special i'm
portance.
But before getting back to Dereminster I
had read in the newspapers an account of
the burglary at Briarfeld, and was mex
pressibly shocked to learn that my uncle
had died without having ever recovered con-
sciousness, and that the coroner's jury had
brought in a verdict of "wilful murder
To me such verdict seemed utterly pre-
posterous, knowing, as I did, that my
uncle's death was purely the result of acci-
dent. felt sorry for the old boy, although
he had so often rasped me cruelty with his
tongue in days gone by. The bag taken by
me contained ESQ in gold and few pounds
in silver. 1t was a miserably inadequate
haul to have run such a risk for,
and to have resulted in consequences so
tragic; but even so. it was the only portion
OF my uncle's wealth which would ever
accrue to me.
Now that was in funds again there was
no reason why I should not seize the first
opportunity which might present itself of
to Ida. Consequently it was not
without sense of disappointment that, on
reaching Fernside, 1 found she had gone on
a visit to some friends. Her uncle and aunt
received me as cordially as ever, which went
some way toward consoling me for her
absence A ew days later something hap.
pened which, not only annoyed me greatly,
but had far-reaching consequences such
as it was impossible at the time to foresee.
The smaller OF my two portmanteaus was
stolen by some one who had obtained access
to my room during my absence from the
hotel. Fortunately there was no money in
it, having changed the greater part OF my
gold Into notes, which, for safety, I carried
about my person. Due notice was given
of the robbery to the police, and there, as
far as was concerned, expected the mat
ter would end. A week had passed, when
one afternoon was waited on by two police
officers, one of whom, producing the cats
eye ring which had been my uncle's, de-
manded to know whether it was not my
property.
No sooner had he put the Question than it