The Penn's Grove record., 1894-04-27

A. talh WIN YOu SshO
away. Can I see you tonight when tae
people have gone int Very respectfully
Richard Burns" ,,,.
Relf shuddered OF this note With its bio
81 blood almost as he had shuddered
gears before when in the pink and gray
light of early da Nn he stumbled over tue
dead body OF a servant on the deck Of
his uucle's yacht. The shock had Deon
4 horrid one. The gruesomeness OF un.
,xpectedly fading some one for whom
ae had o liking, dead, with his mead
battered In, was more than Reit ieis ne
,ould ever quite recover. from; aud row
ihance and a fog had placed tho muir,
ierer in his hands when the police ana
, vast expenditure of money had ialiea
10 do so. Relf had often pictured to
himself a noiseless struggle in which
Henderson had succumbed to the hhe
youna stoker-the stealthy tip.toe across
The deck, the soft splash, and the long
cold swim to ward the lights oil the dis
tant watering-place. He saw 1t now 50
clearly, so intensely, that 1t made MS
heal ache, and quite forgetting that the
Bishop was telling him al %anecdote, he
left the table suddenly and went on
deck, where, except for eight or ten
indies dining on lemonade, he found aim
self alone.
| II was not because Relf was in douol
: ,s to his duty that he felt the need OF
some one wiser than himself in whom he
! could confde. What he had to do ha
realized quite clearly; it had flashed
through his mind the moment he saw thu
signature of the note. But how to %
about it without becoming undeslrabl,
! conspicuous was another matter. He had
but vague ideas as to how q crlm'na
was brought to justice OIL land. GA thu
high seas it was probably a totally difer'
! cut proceeding, and among all the people
on board vita whom he had discussed
the run, and the pools, and Hudyard
. Kipling, and the collision. there wat
no n whose advice he cared to ask
The Bishop was SO utterly impractical
that Relf doubted whether he even be-
l.eved in arrcsting people at all; anu az
for the Rabbi-Relf smiled.
! OF course he would not see Burns, hi
effected. To arrange a rendezvous with
a murderer, in ~mid-oceau, after every
one had gone in, was not exactly Il
subtle thing for a young man with no
particular taste for athletics to do. Tnen,
after thinking it over for some time, h1
decided that 1t might be-well, rather
Unfair to pay 10 attention to the man .
-equest, and decided to met him.
it was clear and cold when Rel4
stepped on of the smoking room latd
that night. Elk ,ept for d fair compatrios
and a college man the deck was deserted.
He took up his position in front OF the
music room, and stood looking into the
black depths of the Storage until there
was a sudden CLEAN of light there,
against which q inau's figure stood Out,
for an instant, and he felt that Richard
Burns was waiting for him.
ais that you, Burns2" ne called soft
", and then, without waiting for an Al.
swer, added: "Come up here, please
He neither had anything to say, nor did
be know what the man wished to say to
him, so he leaned against the rail and
waited for the other to begin. During
The silenc, that followed, his dislike OF
,eeing any one ill at ease almost forced
him to speak; but he resisted the i'm
pulse and waited. When the man
finally plunged desperately into the mid
die OF what he had to say, Rslf drew
nearer that he might not lose aLy OF the
slowly spoken sentences.
81 never meant to kill Henderson"
Burns begun. at was him that had
the grudse against me. He USED to g,
out of his way to devil me-we never
would have seen each other if he ha Int,
because" He broke of abruptly ani
added 10 a hopeless tone, "rhat wasn't
what | WAS going to say fest, for yol
won't believe that, If you're sharp, like
they used to say you were. A knowing
char don't believe what's true"
siPlease 90 on" said Relf, dryly.
'.He worrie ! me like cat until tina,
hight l couldn't stand it, and hit him.
You remember Henderson whea hi
blood was up, Mr.. Relia He jumped al
me with his knife, and-well, icollda'
let him stick me, and how would it ha
looked if I'd ha' made II row II i
hadn't ba' been him it would ha' beer
me. But I never meant to kill hin.
got his knife aad raped him over ta'
head with the handle to make him lei
go-his teeth we're sunk in my hand
you can see the marks OF them yet"
Rels looked with some interest at tn
great paw that was thrust into the streau
of light from the music room port
hole.
~":1e locsei his grip" continued
Burns, ''and l let him down easy.
didn't know he was dead, but l couldn'
set him on his feet again and his hear
wasn't working. Well, l mi ;ht ha
STAYED there, aud sail then what lu
saying now, but I didn't. Ny peopl,
are Woodworking and I was wei
raised, if 1 do saysit. Tn only Older
than you by two years. Tn a common
kind of a man, but everything is before
me like it is for you. / couldn't give il
all up. l can make something out o
my life If no one knows who lam" Hi
face showed an instant in the light, and
Relf, who had always remembered it as
something diabolical, streakei witt
sweat and coal dust. noticed that it was
cleaa aud brown and eager almost a:
useful as hI3 own.
Burns talked on and on, but Ref had
ceased to hear the words, only the earn
est tones of the mans voice came to him
Under its influence he was seeing hi
own praiseworthy intentions in an en-
tirely new light. He realized that he hat
in his power a creature like himself;
young and vigorous life that he wa
about to-if not quite kill, at least Grip
pie as e~ifectually as the limbs of a Nea
politan beggar that are tortured int,
hideous shapes in infancy. Exactly VIII
he was doing this he didn't know. Oh
viously it was not for the mans owl
good. Perhaps it was for the good o
the public. Then he reflected that til;
was %''rot," as a~bstractly he did not il
the least care for the good of the public,
and at any rate an honest life was of in.
initely more good to the world than an,
number of ignoninious deaths. Was i
thirst for reyenre2 Was il merely IA