The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-06-06
A RwEPENTANT THIEF.
How he is Compelled by Fear to
Confess His Guilt.

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All that had happened more than four
| years ago.
Strange that no suspicion had fallen
ON him! It is true, he enjoyed the conf
dence and favorof his employer, but also
a happy chance had a good deal to do
with il. It happened that just at that
time an Office boy had been detected in
some m~isdemeaner and forced to leave.
Naturally, of course, he was suspected
Of having committed the theft likewise.
An able young lawyer had been retain
ed to Investigate the case, and he was
not q little chagrined at his failure to
discover the perpetrator.
Hartman experienced a moment of re-
lief, but only a moment, as a burden as
Of lead seemed to weigh on him.
Might not some new clew be found,
some unforeseen occurrence throw light
ON the matter? The torture lasted for
four horrible years. The very thought
Of it made the perspiration start on his
forehead in the coolest days.
Why did he not invent some pretext
for going abroad? He was often on the
point Of doing SO, but the fear Of arous-
ing suspicion by any singularity of con-
duct prevented him from putting this
idea into execution. So he lived on with
this threatening specter ever before his
eyes, unable to dispel it or to hide him
self from it.
THE othess"-he would not even to
himself use q more definite expression
"arein Jail for their wrong they
suffer mores They are deprived of free
dom indeed; the blow has fallen heavily
upon them with the sentence of the
court; but afterwards there is peace
around and within them"
To accuse himself? That would be
foolish. Chance had favored him hither-
to-; why should it not continue to do SO?
So more hoping, more trembling.
Hartman had become by his misde-
meanor, strange to say--a dilettante in
matters of law. He had furnished him
self with a book on the criminal code
and the criminal procedure, together
with various commentaries. These books
formed his favorite reading after shut
ting his door at night. With a hasty Gag
erness he devoured their contents.
AS a chess player would treat an in
teresting problem, so he treated his case.
Mitigating circumstances, the chances
IN a trial, everything possible and impos-
sible that q layman could extract from
this j~uristic material, were brought into
action. More than once he caught HIM
self declaiming a brilliant defense in a
loud tone, and then he would listen
~anxieusly; somebody might have heard
him.
Hartman had also his favorite chapter,
which treated of the statute Of limita-
ton. There he read: 1.-THE prosecution
for crimes that are punishable with no
more than three months imprisonment
must begin within FIVE years, etc"
Although ne knew the passage by
heart, yet he read it again every day, as
if its contents might have changed In
n night.
-Four years and a half have passed; six
months more. and he will be free, legally
free. The voice of conscience would
soon learn to be silent when the pressure
Of anxiety should be removed. Six
months-why should they not pass as a
moment; why might not a miracle hap
pen, and time for once, just once, make
a leap?
The almanac became, from that time
on, his best friend. he could sit bent
W. it for hours, counting first the
months, then the weeks, then the days
again and again. In the middle of the
night the thought would strike him that
he had made a mistake in counting; the
lamp was quickly lighted, and his work
began anew.
Time never passes slower than when
n counts the minutes. 1t seemed to
Hartman sometimes as If 1t stood still, or
as if the minutes grew maliciously to
hours, the hours to days.
II he only could spend a few hours in
sleepl The thought led him to buy
opium, and now many q day and almost
every i int was passed in artificial slum-
Der. = moment of relief came, when he
awoke and realized that so and SO many
hours had passed.
The continual excitement could not
fail to undermine eve such a powerful \
constitution as Hartman possessed. With
every day that brought him nearer to the
longed for goal, he grew feebler and
paler. It seemed to him as il his limbs
were lead, as if his head were too heavy
to bear. He dragged himself heavily
from the sofa to the chair, from the chair
TO the sofa. When pain in the back
seized him he called a physician.
"You are going to have q severe sick
ness" was his decision.
"Of what kind2 Be perfectly frank, I
am alone in the world, and must make
nay arrangements"
"Wen, thesymptoms look like typhus. !"
Hartman's face became even paler
than before; his eyes stared with the ex-
preston Of horror upon the speaker.
ga slow fever, in which one does not
lose consciousness; is it not so, doctor:
Certainly SOP
sIf my fears are likely to be realized,
] could wish the contrary. The fever
begins violently, you arc delirious at the
crisis, and the worst is over, when you
recover consciousness"
To be deliious! Hartman shuddered.
To be delirious, not to be master of his
thoughts and words. to betray his secret
motives, in spite Of himself to reveal
that with which his mind had -incessant-
ly occupied itself-no, for heavens sake,
~ 1870 A a n = n