The herald., 1895-04-03
Roebuck's Strange Romance
Unknown Woman Lured Him Ambuscade That
Ended in the Taking OF Two Lives

s.do. That suited mo we'll enough, so the
woman went on walking pretty fast, and
l came along about two rods behind her.
Il tell you 1t gave mo chill to go into
that narrow, dark street. You see, have
been afraid Of it for going on to 90 or 20
years. Besides the place was cold, for
don't believe the sun ever got down ir,o
it, tho houses were so high and so close to-
gether. Nobody met us, and l didn sec
tho least sign of life in tho street. We
went, ms l should judge, pretty near an
eighth of a mile, aud tho only street light
wo passed was an oil lamp hung out from
one of the houses Oh an iron bracket.
Tho woman stopped at tho door of
house Oh tho left and waited for me in tho
shadow. When cnmo up, she said, Take
my hand, for thcro isn't any light, and
tho stairs are long.
1T was great big room, with queer,
old fashioned furniture. and not much OF
that. In one corner there was figurein in
armor standing leaning on it's sword. The
chairs and sofas were covered with elegant
velvet, but 1t was thrcadbarc and in places
hung in rags. The tables had had their
logs gilded whom they were new, but the
gliding was mostly gone, and the marble
slabs were stained ard cracked. There
were two tall candles burning on the
mantelpioce, where there WAS an old fash
ioned clock which said i5 was 11:20, though
probably 1t lied.
"'Sit down., said the woman, taking
off her hnt and throwing 1t On chair. ]
noticed then that she spoko with some sort
of foreign accent, and it came into my
mind that she wasn't English after all.
"'Where is your sister, l asked.
"'My sister! Oh, you shall SEQ her pres
entity. Meanwhile sit down and be oom-
Portable
"This made me pretty mad, for was
pretty sure now that she hadn't any sister,
and that she had brought me into trap.
didn't stop to ask myself what her mo-
tive WAS, though for the life Of me can't
see any point in laying trap for a poor
artist.
What had to do was to get out Of
that room and that street as soon as pos
sible. So said: That'n do, ma'am. You
can't play any game ON me- And turned
to the door. just then two men burst into
the room, making as much noise as lot
Of medical students coming into q sick
room to see an operation. One of them
was big, red faced fellow, who was sure
enough an Englishman. He even had top
boots, such as men used to wear in Ho.
garth's time though I don't pretend to
know when that was. The other man was
smaller, but deal wickedcr looking, and
judged that he was low GLASS French
man.
Tho big man had a drawn sword in his
hand, and as soon as he was In the room
he called out to the woman, L have caught
you at last, and I'll attend to you when
have killed this scoundrell' The woman
shrieked and fell on her knees. The man
paid no attention to her, but came toward
me, cursing like an alderman, while the
other man kept crying out: Down with
himl Down with him!'
Now comes in what is to me the queer
est part of the whole business. Consider
ing wasn't armed and considering that
neither of the men had pistol, what I
ought to have done was clear enough Any
man brought up as / was in a community
where rough and tumble fighting was the
national amusement as you might say,
would have thrown the first thing that
came handy into the big mans face and
then knocked him and his companion
down before he could have used his sword.
But / didn't do anything of the sort. 1
sprang into the corner of the room where
the figure In armor stood and snatched the
sword that it had in it's hand. Then put
my back against the wall and pulled one
of the marble topped tables in front Of me
and said very quietly to the man, Unless
you beg this lady's pardon and mine on
your knees shall do you the unmerited
honor of killing you.'
"Well, the big man came on, and for the
next five minutes we had some of tho pref
tiest fencing you ever dreamed of. / told
you had never had sword in my hand
before, yet there l was fencing as If had
been at it all my life, and felt just as
confident that the fellows sword would
never touch me, and that should kill
him, as / ever felt of anything since
was born. Good gracious, how did en-
joy that flght Presently tho man stopped
to get his breath, and / bowed very polito-
ly to him and said that perhaps hi COM
rade would take his place while he was
resting. However, the little man didn't |
seem to banker after fighting, and he kept
In the background and confined himself to
belling the other to cut my heart out,
which was an easy line of policy for him.
I'VE went to fencing again, and 1 could |
zee in tho mans eye that he was getting