The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-05-15

for my crime, and that man the very
one who saved me-who had screened
me from justice.
Without a moments pause quilted
my Alpine retreat. had plenty of
money still.
Oh, that horrible journey through
the continent of Europe The rafting,
roaring of the trains sounded like the
voices of demons rushing through my
! brain. So slow, so slow Should |
ever reach there!
All Paris at last, the gay city that
! had once so dearly loved, but the
looks of all things We're changed to me
now. l was speeding onto my
death
The channel, Dover, London; bus
Ting, noisy, smoky Charing Cross, an
other spot fraught with pleasant mem
cries.
Eyes, cabman, the Old Bailey
Drive like wildlire, and you shall
have sovereign
rush wildly into the gloomy, sol
eInn old court, where the sensation
loving crowd are gazing at the pris-
oner, whom they think the guilty one.
And now that | have come to the end
of my fearful journey | feel sick,
dizzy; the place, the sea of faces swim
round about me.
What shall do? What shall say?
If | come forward and tell my strange
story, | shall surely be put down as
mailman, but it must be done. Sud
denly my attention is arrested by the
man in the witness box. He is a short,
thickset fellow, with a cunning face.
fancy | remember dimly to have
l. .,.-I,n hafnrA 10
answering questions, making Il state
ment, and his evidence is creating a
profound sensation. OF so much !
am conscious.
My name is Ebenezer Startup," he
is saying. Il was Il publican by trade
and kept the Fighting Cocks at
Rotherhithe. | have known the
prisoner for some time, and lie knowed
my 'ist'ry. | remember Mr.. Lesson
too. He were young gent in some
sorter trouble. His right name was
Clayton" l started. This was my
wife's maiden name. Prisoner came
one night with another gent. Mr..
Lestrange, who was mad drunk. They
was in the clubroom. Then Mr..
Leeson comes, and there was Ugh
words tween i'm and Mr.. Lestrange-
leastways Mr.. Lestrange did most O
the talk. Tother one seemed sur
prise like. They locked themselves
in, but there was a ole in the door for
Buff meetin's, and | saw all that
passed. Prisoner knows | did and
paid me to keep quiet, but oof became
irregular, my conscience prompted Inc
to turn queens evidence. | was IA
heyewitness O. the crime. Prisoner
KEEP in the background and 'ardly
opened his mouth, but he showed a
barker into Lestrange's land, and
Lestrange didn't use it. l b'lieve e
were too drunk and too wild with
passion to notice, and Grimston fired
it over his shoulder and shot Lesson
dead,''
What hoppened after this l cannot
tell. was innocent, thank God, inno-
cent, and so overwhelming was the joy
that | swooned.
When returned to consciousness,
found myself in strange room, being
watched over by-my own wife, who
gazed down anxiously and tenderly
into my face. 1t was as though the
last three ears had never been and
we had simply taken up again the
broken threads OF our lives.
There werc yet more discoveries in
store for me. My suspicious of my
The hapless Leeson, or Clayton, was
her own brother, who, fleeing from
Justice for forgery, l believe, had
sought for help from his sister.
Clement Grimston had been an arch
enemy from the first under the guise
of friendship, There had been some
old family quarrel between him and
Clayton and while numbering him he
had made me the victim of his crime
"Oh, Adela,' said, ''how | have
wronged you. Will you ever forgive
me? Toward you | am guilty"
But | knew l was already forgiven.
My wrongs and sufferings had plead
ed for me, and the past was wiped