Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-01-15
THE HOUSE BY THE LOCK
By MRS. C. L. WILLIAMSON.
Author of tThe transformers The Woman in Grey fortunes
Sport" "Lady Mary of the Dark House, &C., &C.,
(
Continued from Last Weekly
Copyright.

standing as though frozen with horror,
by an overset table; a large bowie
knife, common to the country, appar-
emily fallen from his right hand to
the floor.
At the door itself an older man, who
had followed the victim, no doubt with
the intention of keeping him from
making an cutlery Or escaping into the
hall. But he had been too late, and
the expression of his face as he met
our eyes was hideuos. Though the
knife had to all appearance been used
by his companion, it was at him that
the murdered man had pointed before
he fell and died.
He was the one apostrophised as
that devil" by the death-stricken
wretch, and though he had a high
aquiline nose, red hair, and bristling
auburn brows that met across his fore
head, the eyes had been those of Car
son Wildred.
They were eyes not easy to forget,
especially as they blazed defiance into
those of the men who sprang forward
to lay hands upon him. There stands
the murdered, gentlemen, as you see, "
he had said, making gesture towards
his young companion, boy of elgh-
teen or nineteen, who seemed too as
toniShed and Mortified to move. De-
spite the evidence of the fallen knife,
however, not one among the men who
witnessed the end of the scene believed
that the youth was guilty. Murder was
in the eyes CT the other, and must have
betrayed him, even if the last words of
no
California was somewhat wilder in
those days than it is at present, and
men were more ready to act upon i'm
pulse. So it was that, as two of us
gripped the fierce red-haired fellow,
another of the party flung some wills
pered word to the boy. who had only
spoken to murmur the four potent
words: God knows I'm Innocent"
What that word was no one knew
save he who spoke it and he to whom it
was addressed. But whatever it might
have been. it seemed to rouse the
young man to life and a realization of
his position. With a leap he was at
the long window and had sprung out
on to a verandah which ran round three
sides and three stories of the house.
The room was on the first floor, and it
was easy enough for an active young
fellow to let himself down by one of
the twisted pillars which supported the
verandah of the lower story.
1t could not have been so easy to es-
cape those who half-heartedly follow
ed; but the boy must have found some
safe sanctuary near by, for not only
did he evade his pursuers, but was
never found or brought to trial.
The other. an Australian, calling
himself Willis Collins. known as a
gambler suspected as a card-sharper,
was less fortunate. But for the cry of
the dying man he might have cleared
himself; but his reputation was against
him to begin with; it was proved that
the other was young Englishman who
had lost his money through Collins,
and been duped by him, and altogether
matters went hardly with the elder of
the two cOnfederates. He was tried
and condemned mot for murder, as it
happened, but manslaughter), and sem
fenced to Imprisonment for twenty
years.
The incident had passed out of my
mind until, on a visit to America six
years later flour years previous to my
present One), man who had been of
our bear-shooting party in the Rocky
Mountains had CHANGED to mention that
the fellow had very cleverly succeeded
in making his escape from the prison
where he had been confined.
| had had no personal interest in the
affair, and though it had made consid-
cradle impression upon me at that time
through being called at the trial as a
witness, | do not suppose | had sum-
moned it to my recollection for many
a long day until now, at the mention
of the Santa Anna Hotel.
1t was no wonder, | told myself, that
l had not been able to decide where and
vious to the night when Farnham had
introduced us to each other at the
theatre. Unless | could collect proofs
not at present in my possession, it
would even now be useless to instil my
conviction into the mind OF anyone
else.
Carson Wildred had peculiarly fat
nose; Willis Collins had had a partic-
ularly high one. Carson Wildrer's
hair was inky black; Willis Collins's
had been a bright auburn. The for
mer's face was smooth: the latter's
mouth and chin had been concealed by
heavy though close-cropped red
beard. SO far as knew there was but
one man living who could have effected
so radical a change, not only in the
appearance but in the actual conforma-
ton of features, in the countenance of
any human being, and that was an
old fellow in Paris, who had gained
reputation and a fortune among men
who had reason to cut loose from the
moorings of their past. l had met this
famous Cor infamous) person in a cur
iouS way, and had heard some strange
stories from his lips. If l had made
his acquaintance. why should not Col
Inns have done SO, and profitted by the
friendship, as fortunately, l had Meth
err the desire nor need to do?
determined that, unless my present
researches were more successful than I