The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-27
THE JUDGMENT.


Jagged for anything more than thieving
till he met with a cleverer chap than him,
and together they did more than one bad
nights work, I know. Well, this other
chap he found out somehow that there
was something about a certain village
that made it worth while for him 60 hang
around there above a bit.
Its first class job, p says he to our
man here. If we pull it of, it's idleness
and the fat of the land for the rest Of our
born days. Are you ons"
m on, = says our man like the brute
he is, never so much as asking what it is
he's on in.
The house was called ChudIeigh abbey.
and it seems it was an old house, all over
ivy and creepers, and an old lady lived
there with young nephew and a pretty
niece OF course you guess there must be
some sort Of lOvemaking when a young
man and his pretty cousin live under one
roof So there was, so there was And
their sort of lOvemaking was the marry
ing sort The question was popped. and
the day was named, and then my Young
sir must needs get the family diamonds
out of the bank to see how his sweetheart
looked In them.
He thought she looked sweet in them,
you may be sure, and he gave them to her
to Keep just telling her not to let any one
know she'd got them till he'd got a safe
to keep them in. So she takes them up
TO her rooms and she hides them. Now,
he thought and she thought no one knew
about them diamonds, but don't need to
tell you, sir, that valuable stones don t
change their addresses without it's being
known somehow to more than one and
more than two And among those that
knew were our man and his mate.
Well, they meant to have the diamonds.
and they laid their plan, and there was
two things that made their plan to easy
to work. First, the young lady slept IN
room at the far end OF a long passage, with
no one near her.
Tt was the oldest part of the house, and
she liked it because it was SO romantic. -
You know what young ladies be, sir \
Next the young gentleman, what always
slept at home, was to sleep at the inn the
night before the wedding. You know, SIR
it's a custom with gentlefolks. So the
plan was that on the night before the we'd
ding, when there was only the women in
the house. our men was to climb up the ivy
and creep into our young lady 5 room and
take the diamonds
- I'll take me some time to find where
she hid Them he says to the other chap, !
d better make the girl safe first. .
It was decided that our man was to 20
right away for a week, SO that there
mightn't be any suspicion, and when he /
came back his mate would meet him at a
certain place and hour and tell him If any |
change was wanted IN the plan. If his /
mate didn' meet him. he was to 60 to the |
house at once
So he elm bed W one night and filed the /
window bars nearly through and got all /
ready, and then he went away.
After a week he came back.
1t was d very dark night. He waited 4 !
quarter Of an hour by the old wall, but no
one came so he took his knife in his teeth !
and climbed up the Ivy, going very slow |
and quiet The bars We're just he had /
left them. He took one out very gently /
and laid it down and got into the room
It was very, very dark and smelled of 1
scent and camphor, like chemists shop.
He listened for the girls breathing to /
guide him to the bed, but he heard moth I
ing Presently, feeling about, his hand /
red cotton handkerchief round his hand to /
put over her mouth, and he takes his knife |
IN the other hand and feels for her face /
and pulls the sheet of her neck. She !
never moved, and it was done in a minutel /
Then he lays down his wet knife on Ike
bed and strikes match quite at his ease
to look for the diamonds.
He lights candle that stands by the bed /
head and then sees the bed and what's on /
it, and he gives a yell that fetches every /
soul in the house awake, and he goes off
then and there, stark, raving, screaming /
mad. The sight of what he meant all /
along to do? Not it Conscience? Not a
bit Of it, Sheer fright at the sight of what /
he'd done and hadn't meant to do.
The candle showed him the bed-aI I
mass of white fiowers-and what was ly
ing on it under the white sheet had laid /
there dead long afore he come anigh the
place I've heard say as corpses can't
bleed. Well, all / know is-Well. I won Z |
say any more about that part of it, sir if
you don't like it. It ain pleasant even to
hear about, and the sight of it sent i'm
clear off is head.
1t was a corpse's throat he'd cut the (
laundering, numbering villain, and when
the servants ran in with lights they found /
him lying across the bed foot, foaming at
the mouth and mad as a halter. IF he'd I
had any sense left for thinking, he would
not ha' known what to think but this is
what really had happened. The other chap |
once our man was out Of the way
thinks to have try for the diamonds of
his own bat, but meanwhile the young /
lady at the abbeyd found out the fled /
window bars and when he tried it on the /
young master and the under gardener was
ready for him and took him with the knife
in his hand, bending over the empty bed
Thinks he, tother chap shan get of.
then, neither, so of he goes TO JAIL leav
ing his mate to- be COPIED when he comes
back to try it on according to agreement
And in jail he turned funky and choked
himself with his belt for there was other
things against him, besides their having
found out he was the Peckham mystery.
"a nd no one in the abbey expecting any
more visitors through the window they I
didn't have the bars mended. but a silly
maid who's frightened out of her wits /
sticks them up again to look like they did \
before.
And how come the young lady to be
dead already? Why, bless your soul, sir
didn't I tell yOus It WASH the young /
lady at all Tt was the old housekeeper,
as had been ailing this long time and had 4
gone of sudden with the turn the first
chap gave her when he screamed as he was
took. And they laid her out IN that room,