The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-01-10

WIG. res, ne SdlO, Will 1ctSu .
glass" He was almost astonished by
the huskiness of his voice; his lips and
his throat had become suddenly dry.
He went into the dining-room and
pok wine glass from the sideboard.
he had only to do Intentionally what
Instance of an awful but unfortunate
h not uncommon mistake. The jury
would offer their sympathy; the cor
,ner would call attention to the fact
hat poison should always be put up
a blue-ribbed bottles. so that even in
| the dark such mistakes would be i'm
| possible; and he would be free, and
The woman he hated would be dead.
! He made no attempt whatever to re-
| est the impulse. On the contrary,
when reason and conscience tried to
protest he deliberately refused to
listen. With fairly steady hand he
poured into the glass full dose from
.he bottle labeled poison. He carried
It to the bedside, and touched his wife
| lightly on the shoulder. Here" he
aid, this is what you want" She
aalf sat up in bed, opened very sleepy
eyes, and drank of the liquid. lie
took the glass, and she sank back on
| the pillows without word, her eyes
closing again.
| Andrew Thirdly hurried back into
the sitting-room and shut the door. He
had seen the two prescriptions, and he
knew what would happen if anyone
Crank the wrong one. Very soon
there would be a violent CONFUSION,
perhaps some screaming. He did not
want to see or hear. He took out
his watch, put it on the table where
be could see it, and covered his ears
with his hands. His nerves were all
unstrung now; his knees shook. 1t
was just five minutes past eleven; he
made up his mind to wait five min
ntes; then all would be over. He was
IN an agony of excitement, and every
minute seemed to be an hour. He tried
10 look away from the watch, but
he could not. The secondhand crept
slowly on, round and round; some
times for second he had the illusion
that it had stopped, but on it went,
until at last the minute-hand marked
ten minutes past the hour. He sprang
up and stepped to the bedroom door,
Then he paused, and felt unable to open
1t. He went back and sat down again,
trembling all over. 1t was half-past
eleven before he could steady himself
sufficiently to enter the bedroom.
He had left the candle there burn
Ing. BY the light of it he could see his
wife. Her face was towards him, her
pretty mouth just opened. He could
hear her regular breathing, as she
slept peacefully. He expected TO find
her dead. He stood for one moment in
decisive, and then picked up the bottle
labeled Poison" He took it into the
sitting-room, stepping 2oiselessly SO as
not to wake his wife. Under the lamp
he looked at the bottle carefully, smelt
the contents, and finally tasted them.
He saw at once what had happened.
The man who made up the prescrip-
tions had labeled them just wrong,
putting the poison label on the harm
less medicine, and the medicine label
on the poisonous liniment. Had he not
intended to kill his wife that night
Andrew Thirdly would accidental
ly have caused her death. Less than
Tn hour before he had wanted to kill
her. Now he said fervently and sim
cerely: Thank God she's safel''
1t occurred to him in his quiet re-
morse that he might now, with the
poison bottle in his hand. sentence
himself to death. He might But he
would leave his wife without provision
of any kind made for her. His suicide
would bring her misery. He had
undertaken responsibility in marry
ing her, and had no right to shirk it.
Besides, the punishment of the law for
murder involved infamy as we'll as loss
of life. Suicide would bring him pity
rather than contempt. He thought
over the problem as calmly and impas-
sively as if it concerned some third per-
son, and came TO no solution of it.
But he came unexpectedly, in one
mental movement, upon the solution of
al entirely different problem. 1t was
a mechanical difficulty which had SO
far rendered an invention OF his almost
useless. He had spent hours in trying
to overcome it, and in vain. Now,
when he was thinking of nothing of
the kind, when it was late at night,
and his emotions had so far been dis
turbed that he would have considered
himself unfit for work. light suddenly
flashed in upon him. Sitting down to
the BILE, he made few memoranda
on a sheet of paper, and the thing was
practically done. A few hours ago the
perfecting of his invention, meaning,
as he knew it did, wealth and comfort
for the future. would have caused him
the greatest pleasure; now it caused
him none. He had frequently heard of
the tortured feelings of the condemned
murderer; he now envied them. For he
was murderer, and uneondemned, and
IN consequence the more tortured
Sir Andrew Thirdly. knighted in ac-
acknowledgement OF his wealth and serv-
ices to philanthropy, survived his wife
by one year. Lady Thirdly had been