The Opelousas courier., 1891-03-21

Secretary stared in there, gasping. Her
spotted lace veil chung to her damp fore
head. When would the gas be lighted?
Why did nobody Gomez Where was
that subordinate the employe who an
nounces the trains-of whom the Secre-
tarT enthusiastically thought as the
'scS+Ered annunciator"?
The first gas-light now sprang from
the remote end of the long room. A
motherly woman moved her seat under
it, and uneoncernedly began to darn her
husbands stockings. The colored man.
carrying his ladder to the next jet, care
fully picked mis- way among some children
playing with paper dolls on the station
floor. The Secretary sighed with relief.
Surely, she thought, the internal plot
must yield before such sacred domestic
influences.
"It must be done so that it seems
exactly like an accident. The police
must be thrown completely off track"
Thus the man unused upon his villanous
problem.
sI1l help you all / can; I'll do my
share. Had you thought of electricity"
"Ah, just the thing!" Then, after
an ominous pause, ssDidn't you mention
the fact that he had a burglar-proof mat
before his bedroom door?"
"Of course he has. I put it there.
Can you make any use of that9"
The voice sounded SO sweet, the sug-
gestion so murderous, that the Secretary
was appalled, at the depth of this psyche
logical anomaly.
81 have it. I'll eonnectit with a dead
wire. 1t is the most popular way of
dying just now. The electric companies
will have to pay the damages"
care you sure it won't hurt?" cried
the woman, anxiously.
"He'l never know what. struck him."
Excellent" The accomplice clapped
her gloved hands softly.
ssBy this hour tomorrow night he will
be no more
With this melodramatic and baleful as.
sertion the assassin buttoned up his over
coat, rose to his feet, and stamped them
with determination.
Flash, flash, fash! hissl ali! The
lights leaped along the waiting room,
and chased the darkness as it had been a
malefactor. The colored man, preceded
by his ladder, now came into the ante
room in a matter of-fact way that seemed
to the Secretary forced and incredible.
The room blazed. In the moral infu-
ence of light, the man and woman sepa-
rated instinctively. The Secretary looked
at them fercely. All she saw to aid
Identification was a blue barege veil
closely drawn, and a black sombrero
dipped to a ragged beard.
Before the Secretary could make tip
her mind what to do or how to do it, the
couple, with the boldness of habitual
crime, had walked through the ladies'
waiting room and had disappeared.
"Oh, what shall ! do?" cried the Sec
rotary, Lelplessly. She knew how to
educate remote Cherokees, she had taken
high honors in the Browning Club, but
before the commonplace crime of her
native city her highly attenuated mind
dropped.
fare you i'll, madam" inquired the San
nunciator, " with a lordly; ~patronizing,
attentive, and courteous sidewise motion
of his head.
Hstcp those two personsi They are
murderers. I don't know what to do
about it, "gasped the Secretary, pointing
with one hand and gathering up her seal
skin coat with the other.
But that most excellent Of employees
folded his ladder and smiled ineredu-
lousy. IT guess, madam, they're not
a-murdering, but accounting"
perhaps so," said the Secretary,
YEARLY. "You ought to know But
she was not at ali convinced. With the
necessity which rests upon her sex for
confiding in somebody, she hurried out
to the main room and consulted with the
II don't believe it, said the flower
woman, charitably. "The man that
just come out of there bought a dozen
pinks Of me yesterday"
But the janitress, with the experience
thirty-nine years, shook her head. Ell
saw q fellow once in the depot give his
girl q buttoneer, and he beat her brains
with a Ratchet that very night. /
think, madam, that / had better take you
to the police
With a beating heart the Secretary ap-
preached the station policeman. She
had never had occasion to consult an Of
hcer before, except when she wished to
get from Summer street to Winter street
Christmas week. She felt almost like
} murderer herself. She trembled yisi-
oly.
"There are two murderers in this de-
,ot, began the Secretary, with a heroic
fort after self-possession. III over j
leard the whole plot. The deed is to be
lone tomorrow night" :
The officer reused himself and respect !
ully asked for the details, which the {
secretary told as quickly as she could. !
he officer felt for his abilly," and asked I
( they took a train. The Secretary shook {
Ter head helplessly. /
II could point them out If / observed I
She was almost ready to cry. !
he whole situation seemed to her so I'M /
cultivated. She saw herself testifying q
'efore a common police court, and re-
'orted in the penny paper. q
ssAs you mentioned a reservoir, t
! think we'll search the circuit !
The policeman left the Secre- :
for q moment and consulted the tall t
atekeeper with the fine beard. The j