The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-08-07
WAS TT A CRIME?

Hou hiWnyefDtcD feGuInr Duu ones NO
had, and tho Lord knows what no bodnt
dono I'm his time, but he'd never been lag
god for anything more than tbioving I'LL
he mot with clevercr chap than him, and
together they did more than ono bad
nights work, ! know. Well, this other
chap, no found out somehow that thore
was something about ccrtnin village
that made II worth while for him To hang
around there above "a bit.
"It's first class job," snys no to our
man horc. "If we pull 1t of, It's idlcncss
and tho fat Of the land for tho rest OF our
born days Are you onY'
"Im on" says our man, like tho brute
no is. mover so much as asking whnt u IN
hos on In.
The house was called ChudIcigb Abbey,
and 10 seems 10 was nm old house, all over
Ivy and crcepers. and an old lady lived
there with young nephew and pretty
niece. OF course you guess there must be
some sort Of lovcmaking when a young
man and his pretty cousin live under one
roof. So there was, 80 there WINS. And
their sort Of loycmakiDg was the marrying
sort. Tho question was popped, and the
day was named, and then my young sir
must needs get the family diamonds out
Of the bank to SEQ how his sweetheart look
cd In them.
He thought she looked sweet In them,
you may 10 sure, and 10 gave thcm to her
To keep, just telling her not TO let any one
know she'd got thcm till he'd got safo To
keep them In. So she takes them up To
her room, and she hides them. Now he
thought and she thought no one knew
.hn hn, hn a
tell you, sir, that valuable stones don't
change their addresses without its being
known somehow to more than one and
more than two and among those that
| knew were our man and bis mate.
Well, they meant TO have the diamonds,
| and they laid their plan, and there was
| two things that made their plan so easy
| to work First, tho young lady slept In "a
| room ut the far end Of q long passage,
I, with no one near her.
| It was the oldest part OF the house, and
she liked 1t because it was $50 romantic" ;"
You know what young ladies DO, sir!
Next, the young gentleman, what always
slept at home, was to sleep at the inn the
night before the wedding. You know,
sir, it's custom with gentlefolks. So the
plan was that on the night before the wed
ding, when there was only the women In
the house, our men was to climb up the
ivy and creep into our young lady's room
and CAKE the diamonds.
TItll take mo some time to 1nd where
she's hid them, ;" he says to tho Other chap.
$50 I'd better make the girl safe first"
1t was decided that our man was to GO
right away for week, SO that there might
not be any suspicion, and when he came
back his mate would meet him at q GER
tain place and hour and tell him IL any
change was wanted in the plan. II his
mate didn't meet him, he was to 60 to the
house at once.
So he climbed up one night and filed
the window bars nearly through and got
all ready, and then he went away.
After week he came back.
1t was q very dark night. He waited .
quarter of an hour by the old wall, but
no one came So he took his knife in hi
teeth and climbed up the ivy, going yer.
slow and quiet. The bars were just as h
had left them. He took one out yer.
gently and laid 1t down and got into tli
room.
1t was very, very dark and smelled o
scent and camphor, like chemists shop
He listened for the girls breathing Il
guide him to the bed, but ne heard moth
ing. Presently, feeling about, his hant
touched the bedpost Then he wraps hi
red cotton handkerchief round his hand Il
put over her mouth, and he takes his knit
In the other hand and feels for her fac
and pulls the sheet of her neck. Sh
never moved, and 1t was done in a min
ute. Then he lays down his wet knife OF
the bed and strikes match quite at hi
ease to look for the diamonds.
He lights a candle that stands by tn
bed head and then sees the bed and what
on it, and he gives yell that fetche
every soul in the house awake, and h
goes off then and there stark, raving
screaming mad. The sight of what h
meant all along to do? Not it! Con
science? Not bit of It! Sheer fright q
the sight of what he'd done and hadn'
meant to do.
The candle showed him the bed-all |
mass of white fiowers-and what was lyins
on it under the white sheet had laid ther
dead long aforo he come a-nigh the place
I've heard say as corpses can't bleed
Well, all know is-well won't say an.
more about that part of it, sir, IL yol
don't liko it. 1t amt pleasant even t.
hear about, and the sight Of it sent iii
clear off is head.
| III was COrpsoS JnrOaJ ne u CuU, tn
laundering, numbering villain, and wher
the servants ran in with lights they fount
him lying across the bed foot, foaming n
the mouth and mad as n halter. II ho't
had any sense left for thinking, no would
not ha' known what to think, but this i
what really had happened: The othe
ohap-oDce our man was out of tho way
thinks to have try for the diamonds of
his own hat, but meanwhile the young
lady at the abbey'd found out the file,
window bars, and when he tried 1t on th'
young master and the undergraduates wa
ready for him and took him with tho knif
In his hand, bending over the empty bed
Thinks he, t'other chap shant got of
then, neither, so of he goes to Jail, leaving
his mato to bo copied when he comes bacl
to try IL on according to agreement, ant
In jail he turned funky and chokod him
self with his belt, for there was otbel
things against him. besides their having
found out he was the Peckham mystery.
And, no one In tho abbey expecting an!
| moro visitors through tho window the,