Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-23

cold barrel against his temple was only
short poker and would have been in
vited to spend the evening with the
lightest hearted lot Of scamps in Paris
But he did not defy them; he agreed to
their plans
"Or pretended to-" Any man would
have done the same.
$50 they kept mp the joke. One or
two were well connected, and they in
troduced him TO n good SGT Of people,
and pretty girl was chosen for the
victim, a girl so gentle that they knew
the blacklist hearted, foulest minded
brute could not have raised finger
against her Then they sent him notes
and letters urging him to do the deed. "
Numbering him by inches, " Astray
cried, trembling with suppressed rage
"Goading him to despair. A good joke
They must have been a merry crew in
deed Go on. What more2'
"There is no more. Presently they
tired of their joke. The girl left Paris,
so did your father, and the whole affair
only became a good after dinner story
how they fooled the Englishman "
"But the tracking through Europe7"
"Your father imagination only. 1t
never existed. This is the cruel point,
the pitiless part of that practical joke
Cant You imagine the feelings of a
man who thought he was being shad-
owed through Europe; that the day
must inevitably come when sharp
thrust would end his life2 In every
shadow he saw an assassin, in every
face spy. The fear was always in his
mind that perhaps he would not SEQ
that evenings sun set that he had en-
tered upon his last day. Kept from the
woman he loved for fear Of carrying
danger to her, always on the alert, al
ways suspicious. always with the fear
of death hanging over him, to sensi-
tive man there could be only one end
ing He lost his reason, lost it hopeless
ly on the day he heard Of your mother 8
death. "
"Of her death ?"
eyes, her death She died suddenly
and lies buried in n country churchyard
in small Michigan village, the church
yard of the village where he hid her
from the fear of their enemies.
But the abduction told in the
diaryY'
THAT account was written after her
death She was not abducted He sent
her away himself Haunted by the
dread of assassination, they lived apart
after his visit to Paris he going TO the
/ Michigan village once or twice in six
months for day | heard this part of
1 the story from one of the clorgymen OF
the village. Your mother fell i'll and
died suddenly, very suddenly. No one
/ knew where to send for your father
and she was buried
1.-TWO days after telegram came T.
your mother asking her to come to Chi
cago. No answer could be sent, and st
they waited for him. Tie rector brok,
the news to him and has since repeated
the story to me, told me how your IA
Their listened without a word walkej
to the churchyard, gazed at the gray,
without tear and then returned to tn,
house and found the telegram which h'
had himself sent the day before.
Then his reason left him In a par
oxysm Of madness he charged them al
with deceiving him; swore that sh
had not died but had been lured away
that they We're all party to it an,
that she had been murdered; swor
that "a life for life should be the onl,
object of his existence and left the vii
lage with madness in his eye foamin!
for revenge. That is the whole story
Your mother sleeps in her grave; you
father has been murdered, but by IL
gang Of assassins for none existed.
"No gang of assassins, Astray cried
rising - his feet. and struggling witt
rage; emo gang of assassins, when the.
drove man to madness for the salts
faction of their own humor! My bit
terest curse be on each and every on
who had hand in the torture of III,
father and blight what yet remains o
his life-for each and every one VIII
took part in that night devilmen
shared in the murder! They robbie,
him of his reason and left him an cas-,
prey to the one who took his life
The murderer is yet to be discov
cred. " Darrent answered quietly. "W
have found nothing from this diary
and we must begin at the beginnin
again. and time presses.
! "What do you mean by time presses
The law dare not hang me in the fac
of the statements in that diary. | shaI
be released in few days, and then tC
gether we will seek the murderer an
never rest until he is brought to jus
=, tice "
1--WE will hope for the best y was n
that Herbert Darrcnt could say as h
shook Astrays hand and left him.