The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-01-31

streets, until to my astonishment, we
found ourselves back in the terrace in
which he had boarded. could not
imagine what his intention was in re-
turning there; but | went on aud
pulled up my cab hundred yards or
so from the house. He entered it and
his hanson drove away. Give me u
glass of water, if you please. My
mouth gets dry with the talking"
handed him the glass and he drank
it down.
"rhat's better" he said. swell, /
waited for a quarter of an hour or
more, when suddenly there came
noise like people struggling inside the
house. Next moment the door was
flung open and two men appeared, one
of whom was Drebber, and the other
was young chap whom had never
seen before. This fellow had Drebber
by the collar, and when they came to
the head of the steps he gave him II
shove and kick which sent him half
across the road. You houndr he cried,
shakinghis stick at him; IN teach you
to insult an honest girlp He was SO
hot that | think he would have
thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only
that the cur staggered away down the
road as fast as his legs would carry
him. He ran as far as the corner, and
then, seeing my cab, he hailed me and
Jumped in. Drive me to Halliday's
private hotel said he.
when | had him fairly inside my
cab my heart jumped so with joy that
feared lest at this last moment my
aneurism might go wrong. | drove
along slowly, weighing in my own mind
what ii was best to do. might take
him right out into the country, and
there in some deserted lane have my
last interview with him. had almost
decided upon this, when he solved the
problem for me. The craze for drink
had seized him again, and he ordered
me to pull up outside Il gin palace. He
went in, leaving word that | should
wait for him. There he remained un-
til cloSipg-time, and when he came out
he was 50 far gone that | knew the
game was in my own hands.
Don't imagine that | intended to
kill him in cold blood. 1t would orlv
have been rigid justice if had done
so, but | could not bring myself to do
it. l had long determined that he
should have show for his life if he
chose to take advantage of it. Among
the many billets which have filed III
America during my wandering life, l
was once a janitor and sweep-out of
the laboratory at York college. One
day the professor was lecturing on
poisons, and he showed his students
! some alkaloid, as he called it, which
he had eXtracted from scme South
| American arrow poison, and which
was so powerful that the least grain
meant instant death. l spotted the
bottle in which this preparation was
kept, and when they were all gone |
helped myself to little Off was a
fairly good dispenser, so worked this
alkaloid into small, soluble pills, and
each pill l put in a box with similar
pill made without poison. ! deter
mined at the time that, when had my
chance, my gentlemen should each
have draw out of one of these boxes,
while ate the pill that remained. 1t
would be quite as deadly, and good
deal less noisy than firing across a
handkerchief. From that day had
always my pill-boxes about with me,
and the time had now come when /
was to use them.
1T was nearer one than twelve, and
wild. bleak night, blowing hard and
raining in torrents. Dismal as it was
outside, | was glad within-so glad
that | could have shouted out from
pure exultation. If any of you gentle
men have ever. pinsd for thing and
longed for it during twenty long years,
and then suddenly found it within
your reach, you would understand my
feelings. lit u cigar and putfed at IL
TO steady my nerves, but my hands
were trembling and my temples throb-
bing with excitement. As | drove, /
could see old John Ferrier and sweet
Lucy looking at me out of the dark
ness and smiling at me, just as plain as
see you all in this room. All the way
they were ahead of me, .one on each
side of the horse, until pulled up at
the house in the Brixton road.
There was not soul to be seen, nor
sound to be heard except the drip
ping of the rain. When looked in at
the window l found Drebber all hud-
died together in a drunken sleep. !
shook him by the arm, It's time to GO
out said.
"'All right, cabby,' said he.
II suppose he thought we had come
to the hotel that he had mentioned, for
he got out without another word and
followed me down the garden. had
to walk beside him tokeep him steady
for he was still little top-heavy
When we came to the door opened il