The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-03
THE MYSTERY
OF TURKENTYNE,
Author Of -sebastin strome Fortunes Fool, etc.
Copyrighted. Is55. by Julian Hawthorne.
BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE,


I drank weak cup Of black tea with his
Z lunch, and at half past one we took the
| train. We hadn't been aboard ten minutes
/ when he began 10 show signs Of liquor.
His face flushed a little. and he talked
Z Voluhly and foolishly / should have said
. df / hadn't known to the contrary that
I he had just swallowed a stin horn of
I brandy. To make a long story short. he
l grew more and more noisy and boisterous
I all the afternoon BY the time we got
Z back 20 New York he was drunk-there's
I no other word for IL. His eyes were waver-
! ing. his speech was thick, and he was I'M
/ steady in his gait. He proposed all sorts Of
| things. as drunken men 10; I had some
| trouble getting him TO my house. There
he became so bad as TO make me uneasy.
I though 7 knew all the tins that there was
/ absolutely no cause for his condition. At
midnight he suddenly jumped out of his
chair. his skin cold and clammy. his eyes
staring. his body trembhng-well. If
| you've ever seen man with the mania
a-potu" YOU know how he appeared. l
! applied the same treatment as II he really
| had the disease. But he grew rapidly
worse; IL was a terrible night. | had to
call assistance at last, and put him in
strait-jacket. TO prevent his doing himself
or some one else an injury. At 10 o'clock
this morning he grew very weak; we re-
moved the jacket, and got him into bed
| He lay there mutteTing TO himself and oc-
casionally shivering. for half an hour or
more Then he suddenly sat up, reached
out with his arm. gave a gasp or two. and
fell back dead. That's all there is to tell
gentlemen; but what it means, / can't pre-
tend to guess
During the silence which followed the
doctors narrative, Jerry Wallace, the dra-
matte critic, a clever man. but rather
pone to dissipation, entered the room. He
looked pale and dishevelled. and he shud-
dered nervously as he dropped into
chair and ordered a glass of absinthe.
Poor Tom Greenwood Is gone. boys.
he said, in a husky voice. "Pegged out
this morning. a few minutes before IL.
I was with him all night. It's been a
siege, ! can tell you. I'm as limp as
rag. Poor old Toni
Tom Greenwood dead, too? What allied
him?" demanded Mason.
Snakes replied Jerry, briefly, and
shuddered again
How long was he ill?" inquired Dwight
He'd been drinking ever since before
2 O'Clock yesterday; started in with cham
payne and by 6 o'clock was working the
brandy bottle. / kept with him, though
l couldn't keep up with him-he was drink
ing two to my one. We made the rounds
but a little before midnight managed to
get him home to his rooms He
went right TO the cupboard, pulled
out quart bottle Of brandy
and took drain at it, The
next thing I knew he'd got 'em! and he
had EN- bad can tell you! 1 tackled him
the best l could and tried 70 quiet him
down; but he wore me out after while,
and had to call up the folks and send out
for a doctor. We tried everything, but
it was no use. At 10 this morning it was
plain he hadn't much further to go. He
lay on the bed quivering and mumbling
and along toward II he raised up and
cried out: Look out for Ned Turkentyne!
BY -, l forgot him. Those were the
last words he said. In five minutes he
was dead. The doctor called it heart-fail-
ure."
What an extraordinary coincidence"'
murmured l to Dwight, who was sitting
near me. From start to finish it's Turk
entyne's case over again. But what could
he have meant by that last remark of
his?"
Dwight seemed much agitated. at re-
calls to my mind something l had forgot
ten" he said, in a low voice. Several
times during his last hours Turkentyne
cried out: Tom has forgotten-Green-
wood has forgotten.r l had no idea what
he meant, and took it for part of his
rawlings But now 1t seems to look as if
there were something behind it. Do you
know of anything in the nature of a
compact or understanding between the
two mem"
l shook my head They were on friendly
terms, and that sort of thing. l remember
Turkentyne enjoying Toms power of dis
posing of liquor, and once he said joking
", that he would be willing to pay him
a good salary to acquire his faculty. That
was the night we three went together to
Prof Blades seance."
BLADE, the spiritualist. you mean?"
BLADE the spiritualist, you mean?"
"Spiritualist. or magnetizer, or conjur-
or-whatever you choose. 1t was the
anything of the kind before, and was a
good deal interested, especially with the
hypnotic experiments The professor took
| a swallow of port wine, and the subject
smacked his lips; you know the kind of
humbug."
And -fterward he said that to Green
wood, did hep
er. Greenwood, believe, was something
! of hypnotizer himself. 1 recollect his
| answering that maybe he could earn that
salary after all, or words to that effect.
But it's of no consequence"
WAS that all that either of them said
about it2''
That's more than can tell you. I left
them on the next corner, and they went
off together"
How long ago was that?' inquired
! Dwight, after a pause.
"A month ago, or more, I should think -
ALI and IT'S about month ago that
| Turkentyne began to go on the barmecide
| sprees; and since Tom obtained the means
to pay for champagne and brandy"
| why. what have you got in your head
now"
| And there's another point that didn't
mention before" continued Dwight. not
noticing my interjection. The other day,
when I was al Turkentyne's rooms. and
we were talking together, picked up a
check book of his that was lying on the
| table, and unconsciously, as it were, began
| to read of the stubs. There were four or
4 FIVE of them with Greenwood's name, and
| for a hundred dollars each. The date OF
the first was about a month back When
I realized what I was doing 1 put the
book down.
Il must confess, doctor. 1 don't see
/ quite what you're driving at
Il don't quite see myself. But here is a
! series of facts. First, Turkentyne ex-
presses a willingness to pay Greenwood a
salary if he can acquire his power of hold
| ing liquor. Secondly, from that time on,
/ Greenwood comes into some money, which
he spends on liquor, and Turkentyne be-
gins his barmecide designations. Next
from that time on, Turkentyne pays
money to Greenwood. at the rate of about