Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1894-02-15

OUT In a dreary London louSlnS' LOU
men are all the same"
We'll, ma'am. since you know Sc
much, you probably know also that
have sold my pension. How am to live
if do not turn my hand to work."
Mrs. Westmacott produced a large
registered envelope from beneath the
sheets and tossed it over to the old sea-
man.
THAT excuse won't do. There are
your pension papers. Just see if they
are right"
He broke the seal, and out tumbled the
very papers which he had made over to
McAdam two days before.
But what am l to do with these now?
he cried in bewilderment
You will put them in safe place, OF
get friend to do so, and if you do your
duty you will go to your wife and beg her
pardon for having even for an instant
thought of leaving her."
The admiral passed his hand over his
rugged forehead. This is very good of
you, ma'am," said he, very good and
kind, and / know that you are stanch
friend, but for all that these papers mean
money, and though we may have been
in broken water of late we are not quite
in such straits as to have TO signal to our
friends. When we do, ma'am, there's
no one we would look to sooner than TO
you"
Don't be ridiculous" said the widow
"You know nothing whatever about it,
and yet you stand there laying down the
law. I'll have my way in the matter,
and you shall take the papers, for it is
no favor that l am doing you, but SIM
ply restoration of stolen property"
"How's that. ma 'am?'
81 am just going to explain, though
you might take lady's word for it WITH
out asking any questions. Now, what l
am going to say is just between you four
and must go no further. have my own
reasons for wishing to keep it from the
police. Who do you think it was who
struck me last night, admiral:'
''Some villain, a'am. l don't know
his name"
But do. 1t was the same man who
ruined or tried to ruin your son. 1t was
my only brother, Jeremiah"
..Ahr'
81 will tell you about him-or little
about him, for he has done much which
would not care to talk of nor you tc
listen to. He was always a villain.
smooth spoken and plausible, but dan
gerous, subtle villain all the same. If /
have some hard thoughts about man
kind, l can t race them back to the
childhood which 1 spent with my broth
er. He is my only living relative, for
my other brother, Charles father, was
killed in the Indian mutiny.
"Our father was rich, and when he
died he made good provision both for
jeremiah and for me- He knew Jere-
miah, and he distrusted him, however,
so instead of giving him all that he
meant him to have he handed me over a
part of it, telling me with what was al
most his dying breath to hold it in trust
for my brother and to use it in his be-
half when he should have squandered or
lost all that he had. This arrangement
was meant to be secret between my
father and myself, but unfortunately his
words were overheard by the nurse, and
she repeated them afterward to my broth
er, so that he came to know that ! held
some money in trust for him. suppose
tobacco will not harm my head, doctor!
Thank you; then shall trouble you for
the matches, Ida" She Lit a cigarette
and leaned back upon the pillow, with
the blue wreaths curling from her lips.
81 cannot tell you how often he has at
tempted to get that money from me. He
has bullied, cajoled, threatened, coaxed
done all that man could do. l still
held it with the presentiment that a
need for it would come. When heard
of this villainous business-his flight and
his leaving his partner to face the storm
above all, that my old friend had been
driven to surrender his income in order
to make up for my brothers defalcations
Il felt that now indeed had a need for
it. sent in Charles yesterday to Mr..
McAdam, and his client, upon hearing
the facts of the case, very graciously
consented to give back the papers and
to take the money which he had ad-
vanced. Not a word of thanks to me,
admiral. l tell you that it was very
cheap benevolence, for it was all done
with his own money, and how could
use it better?
II thought that l should probably hear
from him soon, and did. Last evening
there was handed in a note of the usual
whining, cringing tone. He had come
back from abroad at the risk of his life
and liberty just in order that he might
say goodby to the only sister he ever had
and to entreat my forgiveness for any
pain which he had caused me- Hewould
never trouble me again, and he begged
only that l would hand over to him the
sum which | held in trust for him.
That, with what he had already, would
be enough to start him as an honest man
in the new world, when he would ever
remember and pray for the dear sister
who had been his savior. That was the
style of the letter, and it ended by i'm
ploring me to leave the window latch
open and to be in the front room at in
the morning, when he would come to re-
ceive my last kiss and to bid me farewell.
bad as he was, l could not, when he
trusted me, betray him. l said nothing,
but l was there at the hour. He entered
through the window and implored me
to give him the money. He was terribly
changed-gaunt, wolfsh, and spoke like
a madman. / told him that had spent
the money. He gnashed his teeth at me
and swore it was his money. told him
that had spent it on him. He asked
me how. ! said in trying to make him
an honest man and in repairing the re-
suits of his villainy. He shrieked out a
curse, and pulling something out of the
breast of his coat-a loaded stick,
think-he struck me with it, and re
member nothing more"
THE blackguard" cried the doctor,
"but the police must be hot upon his
track"
81 fancy NOT (" Mrs WpstmacOtt an