Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-26
CHAPTER XVII.

half hour later these men were all
closeted with DR.. Talbot in the label
kitchen. Abel had rejoined them and
Sweetwater was telling his story with great
eagerness and no little show Of pride.
Gentlemen, when l charge young
woman of respectable appearance and con-
nections with such revolving crime as
murder do so with good reason, as hope
presently to make plain to you ALL
Gentlemen, on the night and at the hour
Agatha Webb was killed l was playing with
four other musicians in Mr.. Sutherlands
hallway From the place where sat I could
see what went on in the parlor and also
have a clear view of the passageway leading
down to the garden door. AS the dancing
was going on in the parlor ! naturally
looked that way most, and this is how
came to note the eagerness with which,
during the first part of the evening, Fred
erlck Sutherland and Amabel Page came to-
gether in the quadrllles and country dances
Sometimes she spoke as she passed him and
sometimes he answered, but not always, al
though he never failed to show he was
pleased with her or would have been IL
neutrality-suspicious. 1t was his lack Of con-
fdence in her, sirs-had not stood in the
way of perfect understanding. She seemed
to notice he did not always respond, and
speak herself though she did not fail to
watch him and that ntently. But she didn't
watch him any more closely than ! did her.
though I little thought at the time what
would come of my espionage. She wore a
white dress and white shoes and was as CO.
quettish and seductive as the evil one makes
them. Suddenly l missed her. She was in
the middle of the dance one minute and en-
tirely out of 1t the next Naturally | ex-
pected that she had slipped aside with Fred
erick Sutherland, but no, he was still in
slight, but looking so pale and SO abstracted
was sure the young miss was up to some
sort of mischief. But what mischief? Watch
ing and waiting, but no longer combining my
| attention to the parlor, l presently espied
her stealing along the passageway. / have
| mentioned carrying long cloak which she
rolled up and hid behind the open door.
| Then she came back. humming a gay little
song which didn't deceive me for a mo-
| ment. Good! thought /, she and that cloak
will soon join company And they did. AS
We were playing the Harebell mazurka l
again caught sight of her stealthy white tig-
| ure in that distant doorway Selling the
cloak, she wrapped 1t round her, and with
| just one furtive look backwards, seen, | war
rant, by no one hut myself, she vanished
| In the outside dark. Now to note who fol-
| lows her!' thought |. But nobody followed
| her. This struck me as strange, and, having
| a natural love for detective work, in spite of
] my devotion to the arts, l consulted the
| clock at the foot Of the stairs, and, noting
that it was 1880, scribbled the hour on the
margin Of my music, with the intention of
seeing how long my lady would linger out
side alone, Gentlemen, it was two hours
before / saw her face again. How she got
back into the house l do not know. 1t was
not by the garden door, for my eye seldom
left II; yet at or near 80 heard her voice
on the stair above me and saw her descend
and melt into the crowd as II she had not
been absent from II for more than five
minutes. A half hour later l saw her with