The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-02

tocra;ic features livid with rage
Il must DO something" he said. 'or j
shall go mad myself
He flung the French windows of the il
brary wide open. so roughly and nerceiy
that a great pane of glass shivered and
fell in fragments TO the ground. Then he
stepped out upon the lawn. II was
splendid August afternoon. Above him
the sun was shining gloriously: around
him lay the lovliest gardens in England.
He was surrounded 10y all that was beau
tiful in nature and art. Wealth and good
taste had made TemplecOmbe one Of the
show places of the country; and not its
least famous features were its splendid
park and gardens. The grounds Of Tenn
plecOmbe were open TO the tourist and the
visitor on certains days every week. and
the TemplecOmbe Arms hotel, which stood
at the park gates. reaped a rich harvest
during the season from the constant flow
of well-to-do British. Continental Amer
lean and colonial tourists. who came to
inspect the beauties Of the earrs ancestral
seat.
But standing in the glorious
grounds to-day the great noble
man to whom everything be-
longed found no pleasure in his posses
sions. The beauty of the scene Knocked
him. The very sunbeams which flooded
the land seemed to him an insult and an
outrage.
He lifted his arms wildly above him,
and blasphemous words rang from his
lips. Then he flung himself down upon
a great stone seat. banked round with
beautiful flowers, and burying his face IN
his hands. sOhbed like a child.
Presently there
lawn a tall neatly dressed man, of about
90, with the unmist akeable professional
look of the physician about him. But
there was no professional smile on the
clean cut, closely shaver face.
The earIs visitor was Or. swanson,
specialist in insanity, and himself the head
OF a small private lunatic asylum for the
care of mad members Of the aristocracy.
DR.. Swanson came to where the earl
was sitting and touched him gently on the
shoulder. Come, come" he said kindly,
this won't do. If anyone could see you
II would be sure to lead to gossip, and you
know how important it is that there should
not be the slightest suspicion anywhere
of what has happened"
''You are right" replied the earl, but
the shock was so terrible, that If l had
not given some vent to my feelings / be-
leve should have gone mad"
Il quite understand but now we have
TO act, and, therefore, you must look
You feel sure that no one but yourself
and the countess has any suspicion of
who the real Culprlt lSF
"Quite-quite or L must have heard of
II. Several of my people have spoken
about the affair this morning TO me. one
of them saw the girl herself at her IA
theirs cottage. being intimate with the
family and she herself. 1t seems, was quite
unable to give any description of her as
sailant. The night was dark and the
lane is a very lonely one. 1t skirts the
corner of the park yonder. Look, you
will see that there IS not a sign of
house or cottage anywhere near IT,"
And this servant Of yours-did he hear
Not from herself, but from her father
The girl is too weak and i'll to talk much
Tell me the story as the father tells IT,"
He says that his daughter, who Is a
fine, well grown girl Of II. had been Wis
iting a married sister in the next village,
about two miles away. 1t was about 10
O'Clock when she left. and it would be
about half-past ten when she came TO the
lane where the occurrence took place"
'She was walking quietly along when
she heard a rustling in the hedge, and it
being pitch dark she was nervous, and
gave a little cry. The next moment she
was aware that some one was walking
behind her She turned sharply round,
saw something glsten, and instantly she
felt herself stabbed in the chest. Her as
sailant gave a peculiar laugh-a laugh that
the girl herself describes as 'unhuman'-
and disappeared in the darkness.
las soon as she had recovered from the
shock she ran as fast as she could along
the lane, and never stopped till she reach
ed her fathers cottage, which Is quar-
ter of a mile away. Directly she got in
side the door. she tainted. She was smotn-
cred with blood from the wound and
her father went off at once for the doc
tor. The wound was found not to be
dangerous, a stay-bone having broken
the force of the blow, and turned the
point of the weapon aside, but the girl is
suffering severely from the shock"
AND now about your sons movements
him last previous to this occurrence"
about 8 o'clock-immedatelya after din
u TO- l~I 81
wife not being very well had kept her
room. He was silent and moody, as he
has been of late-complained of a head
ache, and said he would go for a stroll,
saw nothing more of him until II o'clock,
when happening to go to the library win
dow-the French window you see open
now-l saw him STOPPING down on the
lawn near one of the flower beds, and as
II appeared to me, digging the ground up
with his hands. went out and asked
him what he was doing. He jumped w
from his knees, laughing in a peculiar
way, and said he had dropped some money
and was trying to find it l thought his
manner extremely odd, and advised him
to go to bed. / was under the impress
sion he had been drinking.
This morning / heard of the attack
on the girl in the lane from my groom
when | went out for my early morning
ride. Immediately had a presentiment
that my sons curious conduct the preVi-
Gus evening had some connection with il.
but tried to persuade myself that such an
idea was preposterous. But I came back
asleep, his clothes were lying about In
a moment my worst suspicious We're con-
firmed. The right cuff of his shirt was
stained with blood.
Il put the shirt in drawer. locked 1t.
and put the key in my pocket Then
] went out on to the lawn to the flower
bed near which had seen him on his
hands and knees, and l noticed a spot
where the mould had been disturbed |
turned the ground over with my stick,
and presently / struck something hard
thrust my hand in and drew out an
old Spanish knife, one that ] had brought
back with me years ago from Madrid.
and used as a paper knife. There was
no longer any doubt that my son was the
author of the outrage. and l had found
the weapon with which it had been com
mitted, where he had buried il the pre-
vious night.
"Horrifed almost beside myself, I went
back to his room and awoke him. Hard
" master of myself l accused him OF
the crime He appeared TO be aston
ished. He stared at me and declared
that he didn't know what l was talking
about. l showed him the knife and he
said that he recognized it; it was the
paper knife from the library Then |
went to the drawer and showed him the
blood upon the shirt cuff. He looked at
1t curiously, and said that he could not
account for it. He appeared to have no
recollection of anything that had hap