The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-25
THE LIFFEY CASE.

l am q barrister. At thcr risk Of appear
ing egotistical l will add that i am q sue
cessful one. Partly due Ia luck, partly to
hard work. The knowledge that / had nc
rich relative to make me his heir, no in
fiuential friend to give me a ''leg up" in
the legal world, nothing to depend on but
my own ~exertions, spurred me On.
Yet IL cannot be denied hat my being
retained as junior to Plump, Q. C., in the
notorious Liffey case was q slice of good
fortune.
You will understand that I was in GRIM
inal practice and that the Liffey case,
though about as vulgar a story of murder
as il could be, attracted a great deal of
public attention. And Plump, q. C., was
counsel for the prosecution. Liffey, by
the way, was being tried for the murder Of
his sweetheart. Fortunately for me, on
the day Of trial my senior left me to con-
duct the case alone. The press kindly re-
ferred TO my speech as eloquent, and
prophesied good things for me In the
future; and the murderer flor such he UNI
death.
That was my first step up the legal lad
der, and before | was 30 i had every
reason 10 be sanguine of reaching, IL lot
the top, at least a respectable height.
Matters were thus. when a rather cur
ious circumstance attracted my attention.
Whether i was in court, or in the street,
or at the theater-everywhere, In fact, but
in my chamber or visiting-I was shad-
owed by q man. Not deliberately followed
you understand, or annoyed in any
marked way; that would have given me a
pretext for complaint; but Swallowed.
This is the most suitable word ! can think
of to describe the mans persistent watch
fuiness. Yet he never appeared to be
taking the least notice of me-; he never
looked in my direction. He was n short
man, in a tweed shooting coat. He always
wore the same coat, even in old weather.
There was nothing very remarkable i'm
that-butt there was in his eyes. More
peculiar eyes were surely never set i'm
living head. Dull gray in color, absolutely
without light, absolutely without express
sion.
They made me shiver, yet their owner
apparently looked at me. He might
have looked through or past me-, but at
me never. His expression was n OF
absolute darkness. After a few weeks
this constant surveillance began to I'M
nerve me. I could not fix my attention
on my brief for thinking of the man at
the back of the court. i shrank from the
streets, because he was always patiently.
unobtrusively dogging my footsteps.
One evening l was engaged out to din
ner. i felt unusually elated as l dressed,
and ! bestowed an extraordinary care on
my white tie. My host would be Sir Jervis
Plump, q. G.. He had q very pretty daugh-
ter named Nellie, IN law had not rem.
dered me blind to beauty. Nellie's hazel
eyes haunted me, though in a different
way, as persistently as did another pair
of unpleasant gray eyes. And this brings
had enough of him." muttered, vic
lously, as I slammed my ''oak" and went
down my staircase. IF he shadows me
tonight I'll ask him what he means by it,
With this resolve / turned into the
Strand-not q sign Of my tormentor.
my very careful toilet had left me a margin,
of three-quarters of an hour before dinner.
The Strand was crowded-it was Just the
hour Of the theaters, and there was a new
piece at the Lyceum. The traffic was
great. Al CharingC rossi narrowly escaped
being run over by a ~furiously driven han
som. / escaped, butan unlucky pedestrian
Immediately behind me was not so for
tunate. There was q deep roam. and a
little mot Of people instantly gathered
around the sufferer. i pushed my way
forward in the hope Of making s~erviseable
the slight medical knowledge i possessed
Judge of my establishment when i'm the
prone figure before me ] recognized the
man I'm the tweed coat!
Though / had no suspicion Of his pres
ence, he must have been close behinu me
when / dashed from the curbstone across
the road. He was terribly injured; even
my superficial knowledge told me that
Very tenderly we lifted him into n cab
and prepared to drive across TO the hos
pital. But before starting there was
another surprise in store for me
At q little distance from where he had
lain was found a long w~hite-handlet
knife. II belonged TO no one i'm the crowd
the cabby disclaimed all knowledge of il
Presumably IL must be the property ol
the unfortunate man who had beer
knocked down by the hanson. I exam
med Il closely-iong-pointed knife, with
glittering, perfectly clean blade.
Looking down at the ash-white face, n,
the light of n gas lamp flashed across II,
strove TO break through its hexibility-t'
find, IL I could, the reason OF the stranR'
interest he took in me. i looked there
in the drawn face OF an apparently dyinl
man-for an answer to the question
which haunted me. Had the knife Ia
carried been pointed at me- Clearly
was unnerved contact with the practical
tiles of life would speedily put me RICH,
/ jumped from the cab. and followe,
the unconscious figure as IL was carries
into the hospital.
The house surgeon was a Cambridg
man and a slight friend of mine. ! waite
lent ward and gave his report on the me-
patients condition.
"A bad case" he said. gravely: "a YER
bad case. One leg must he amputatet
That is not necessarily serious, but the u