Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-04-22

and, besides, she might very easily be
afraid of him. for a man has but a blow
for the suddenly detected witness of his
crime unless that witness is his confidant,
which from every indication SWeetwatsr
felt bound to believe AmabeI was not.
Her flight to the label cottage after an
experience which would madden most wo-
men has truer explanation now than any
she gave ii. She was still following h3r
lover The plan for making this wretched
friend of Agatha's amenable for her death
originated with him, not her. 1t was he
who first started for the label cottage; 1t
was he who left the bill there. The fact of
the dagger having been seen in the old
mans hand was a mystery, but Sweetwater
thought he could solve that too, without
involving any contradiction to this new
theory. The dagger having been thrown
out of the window, possibly because the
assassin knew that this old man was ex-
pected there that night fell on the grass
and was picked up by Amabel, only to be
flung down again In the brightest part of
the lawn. 1t was lying there then, when,
a few minutes later, and before either Fred
erick or Amabel had left the house, the old
man entered the yard in a state of misery
bordering on frenzy. He and his brother
were starving, had been starving for days.
He was 600 proud to own mis- want, and too
loyal to his brother to leave him for the
sake of the food prepared for them both at
AgaIha's house, and this was why he had
hesitated over his duty till this late hour
when his own secret misery, or, perhaps,
the hope of relieving his brother drove him
to enter the gate he had been 'accus toned
to see open before him in glad hospitality.
He finds the lights burning in the house
above and below, and encouraged by the
welcome they seem to hold out, he StaggerS
up the path ignorant of the tragedy which
was at that very moment being enacted
behind those lighted windows. But half
way toward the house he stops, the cour-
age which has brought him so far suddenly
fails and in one of those quick visions
wi ri nltl VII mo in emit
he foreseas the astonishment which his
emaciated figure is likely to cause in these
two old friends, and bUrying his face in his
hands, he stops and bitterly communes
with himself before venturing further.
Fatal stop! fatal communing! for as ne
stands there he sees a dagger his own old
dagger, how lost or how found, he proba bly,
did not stop TO ask, lying on the grass and
offering in its dumb way suggestions as to
how he might end this struggle without
any further suffering. Dizzy with the new
hope, preferring death to the humiliation
he before him in Agathas cottage he
dashes out of the yard, almost Lpsctting
Mr.. Crane, who was passing by on his
homeward way from an errand of mercy.
little while later Amabel comes upon him
lying across his own doorstep He has
made an effort to enter but his long walk
and the excitement Of this last bitter hour
nave been too much for him. AS she
watches him he gains strength and strug-
giles to his feet, while She aghaSt at the
sight of the dagger she had herself flung
down In Agatha's yard, and dreading the
encounter between this old man and the
lover she had been following to this place,
creeps around the house and looks into the
nrSt window she finds open. What does she
expect to see? Frederick brought face to
face with this desperate figure with its up
lifted knife. But instead of that she be-
holds another old man seated at a table
and-Amabel had paused when she reached
that, and SWeetwater had not then seen
now important this pause was, but now he
understood 1t. Now he saw that if she had
not nad subtle purpose in view, that if
she mad wished to tell the truth rather
than produce false differences in the minds
OF those about her calculated to save the
cflmina! as she called him, she would have
competed her sentence thus: Il saw an old
man seated at a table and Frederick Suth-
erland standing over him" For Sweet
water mad no longer a doubt that Frederick
was IN that room at that moment What
Iurther she saw, whether she was witness
70 an encounter between this intruder and
James or whether by some lingering on
the latter's part Frederick was able to
leave the house without running across him
was matter of comparative unimportance
w NAT Is OF Importance is that he did leave
IL ana that Amabel, knowing IL was Fred
erick, stroye to make her auditors believa
II was label who carried the remainder of
tina money into the woods. Yet she did rot
say SO, and II her words on this subject
could be carefully recalled one would see
that 1t was still her lover she was following
ana no old man, tottering on the verge Of
tne grave ana only surviving necauss If
the task he was bent on performing.
Amabel $ excuse for handling the treas
ure. and for her reburial of the same come
now within the bounds of possibility She
hoped to share this money some day. and
her greed was too great for her to let such
an amount lie there untouched while her
caution led her to bury 1t deeper, even at
the risk of the discovery she was too mex
perienced to fear.