Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-03-28
..rhi u,ar Gerald y she said.

W }
The Young man put out his hand to-
ward Brenda while he fixed hard and
cold stare at Natalie.
~ have a paper" he said. written
day or two before his death by your late
husband. In that paper he accuses you
of trying to poison him. He detected
you, but said nothing. He preferred to
die by your hand, since he had loved you
SO well that to live on would have been
a horror. Iquote almost his exact words
And there is no doubt about the anthem
ITCHY of this paper that he left Bren-
da, here, received it from him and
placed it secretly within his breast after
he had been laid in his coffin found
it there. In it he also states that not
long ago he forced from you certain
confession regarding man named Ar
chibald Clay, and that he has reason to
believe you hide at the present time
packet Of letters from this man and
one or more bottles of poison as we'll
within particular cabinet upstairs
have secured search warrant and must
therefore,
darted toward the door. Gerald followed
her. after swift sign through the wide
piazza window He sprang up stairs,
knowing the house SO well that the cab
met to which his friends letter had al
luded and the apartment in which 1t
stood were both well remembered by him.
But quick as he had been, Natalie
| II. l.. Lafo Il, III
her kneeling at one of its open drawers.
The next instant he saw her lift some
thing to her lips. Almost Immediately
after that she fell heavily backward.
There had lain a swifter poison here in
the cabinet than that stealthy one which
had doubtless wrought her husbands
death.
She was quite lifeless when they picked
her up. Afterward, when rigid exam
nations were made as to her previous
life, it seemed slight wonder that such a
woman should have preferred to end by
suicide the final collapse of her evil hopes.
She had undoubtedly been the wife of a
certain disreputable Englishman called
Capt" Clay, and one of whose aliases
was Leveridge, long before her marriage
with poor infatuated Louis Bond. From
some of the letters from this man found
in the cabinet it was only too evident
that she had planned Louis murder with
his full knowledge, and that the two ex-
pected at some future day to enjoy the
wealth which would thus vilely have
been secured.
During the following autumn occurred
Gerald's marriage with Brenda, greatly
to the delight of Mrs. Ravelow, whose
health had now regained its usual gentle
state of invalidism. Some time before
this event Brenda had visited the vault
where her brother lay, and had first or
dered with her own hand what disarray
had been caused by Gerald's weird visit,
and afterward quietly obtained aid for
the restoration of the injured coffin.
But Gerald could never be induced to
accompany her ON either of the several
little pilgrimages which her task in
volved. mo, Brenda" he would say,
there are memories connected with
that place which will haunt me till
die. No need of making them more
vivid than they are sure to be already.
But once Brenda said: perhaps you
are quite wrong in believing, Gerald,
that anything supernatural really oc-
Cured that night. In my hurry and
agitation, Selling moment when she
was not present. thrust the paper with
in poor Louis breast. It may be that
lodged it insecurity, and that the move
ment of the coffin afterward displaced
it still more When, as you say. you
disparted the flowers that lay on the
breast of Louis, the paper may have
been half concealed by these, while its
whiteness correspondent to that of the
flowers themselves all being seen in a
dim light, Hence, when the candle
fell"----
"Fell?' interrupted Gerald. why
do you state that it fell?"
Brenda smiled. ever so family. BE
cause you had set it, in its sconce. at the
edge of one of tho stone inches. That
it should fall would have been nothing
remarkable. And when, as it seemed
to you, the paper was almost put into
your outstretched hand, this may merely
have been the natural result of its hay
ing slid to the floor like some of the
flowers that l found there"
Gerald listened intently, and then
shook his head with an unwonted
gravity.
mo, Brenda" he said. Nothing can
ever shake my faith that the dead man
miraculously made me an agent of his
vengeance beyond the grave"
perhaps he did," answered Brenda;
II don't deny it. I'm not attempting to
explain any deep spiritual truth; I'm
only seeking to account for material
facts. The last-who knows?-may often
be but the blind, obedient servants of
the first"
81 dare say that is true" returned
Gerald, musingly. But for many years
afterward he adhered to his own private
opinions, nevertheless.
THE END.
| Window Shades.
Don't" counsels woman, who speaks
I