The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-27

| confidence queen and at one time pose,
in Spokane. The demand was made OF
! old John Randall. and as he would
have had his arm cut off an inch at
time rather than have a single wore
get to the girls ears that would inform
her OF her birth. he readily consented
10 pay the money. An engagement wa.
made with the woman and her para
mour to meet him late one night at hi:
house, where he would pay her the
money. Something disturbed the sleep
ing of the girl that night, and getting
up, she threw on a light wrapper and
slipped down stairs. The door to hei
father's bed room was a little open and
she heard voices. Quietly she slipped
in and then up to the heavy curtains
that divided the bedroom from the par
Tor. There she saw her father deathly
white. arguing with the man and wom-
an. She stood there and heard words
that made much clear to her. Instinct
lively she stepped back to the bureau
where he always left his revolver. and
again to the curtain. They wanted
more than old John had brought. The
man raised his hand as IL to strike.
Quick as lightning the trembling girl
fired, and the man fell dead to the
floor. Then the girl tainted. II was
some time before she regained con-
seriousness, but when she did the
told her that her father had killed his
brother, her husband; that years be-
fore. in the East, they had quarreled,
and that her father had taken money
belonging to his brother, fed to the
West, and here, under another name,
had been living. This was the story
also that was told the police, and the
pretended wife shed many tears over
the dead husband. but was too sick
even to attend the funeral, for she was
watching closely her charge, for fear
perchance, she knew too much and
might tell II. old John was arrested
and charged with the crime The ac-
cuser was the woman. None of his
friends could believe II, but II was soon
found that he had been living under an
assumed name, and, as for John, he
would not say a word for fear of hurt
ing the girl, though he did not know IT
was she who fired the fatal shot. Eta
in the meanwhile was closely watched
by the pretended aunt, and this aunt
somehow or other managed to keep the
girl weak and confined to her bed. At
last the day of trial came. A few
friends stayed by old John, but his ac-
ton confirmed in their minds the truth
of the accusation. He refused to go on
the stand. and with head hung low,
never looking up and apparently TAX
ing no interest in the proceedings.
Witnesses testified against him. The
woman too graphically told the whole
story. How the prisoner at the bar was
not the man he pretended to be; how
he had stolen the money of his brother
and fled TO the coast. How they had
hunted him up. and instead of keeping
his promise that night to pay IL back.
he got them in his house and there
killed his brother. There seemed moth
ing else for the jury to do but convict.
They were out but a few minutes, and
the clerk had just read the word guilty,
when there ran up the aisle the figure
of a girl wearing only light wrapper.
She had no hat on her head, and with
blanched cheeks and tangled hair down
her back, she dropped down on her
knees in front of the judge, lifted her
hands as If in prayer. and cried:
No. no. judge, not that. Take 1t
back. / pray you take ii back. 1t was
not he that killed the man; IL was l.
The dead man was not his brother. but
the paramour of that blackmailer, my
mother.
with these words she threw her
arms about the old man, who sat as If
dumb, and together they cried. Then
she arose, and in trembling voice. told
the whole story as she heard it on that
fatal night, emitting no details, bitter
ly referring to the woman that had
borne her. and with deepest affections
to the old man who had been both a
father and a mother. The judge set the
verdict aside and told old John that he
might go a free man. But higher
court had sat in judgment as the girl
told the story. old John Randall was
dead. The woman had flown"
And the gambler who told this story
had tears in his eyes. He leaned back
from the table. and as IL to wipe his
lips, he brushed away a tear with his
napkin and said:
I'm a hospital not so very far from
Spokane there is a sweet-faced nun. |
Her very word is sweet to hear, and |
her presence is cheering to the sufferer. |
Her whole life has been consecrated to
caring for those who know no home. |
That nun is Eta Bradley Randall, or |
as she is now only known as a sister of
charity"
He arose from the table. bowed me |
to the door. and after politely lifting |
his hat he walked slowly down the
street Helen Florence.