The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-26
CHAPTER XVII.

a half hour ter these men were all
closeted with DR.. Talbot in the label
kitchen. Abel had rejoined them and
Sweetwater. was telling his story with
great earnestness and no little show of
pride.
Gentlemen, when I charge a young
woman of respectable appearance and
connections with such a revolving crime
as murder, | do so with good reason, as
I 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.. Sutherland's hallway. From the
place where 1 sat L could see what
went on in the parlor and also have
clear view of the passageway leading
down to the garden. AS the dancing
was going on in the parlor I naturally
looked that way most, and this is how
1 came to note the eagerness with
which, during the first part of the
evening, Frederick Sutherland and
Amabel Page came together in the
quadrilles and country dances. Some
times she spoke as she passed him and
sometimes he answered, hut not al
ways, although he never failed to show
he was pleased with her, or would have
been if neutrality-suspicious. it was his
lack of confidence in her, Sirs-had not
stood in the way of a perfect under
standing. She seemed to notice he did
not always respond, and after awhile
showed less inclination to speak, her
self, though she did not fail to watch
him, and that intently. But she didn't
watch him any more closely than l did
her, though l little thought at the time
what would come of my espionage.
She wore a white dress and white shoes
and was as coquettish and seductive as
the evil one makes them. Suddenly I
missed her. She was in the middle of
the dance one minute and entirely out
of it the next. Naturally, 1 expected
that she had slipped aside with Freder-
lex Sutherland: but no, he was still in
sight, but looking so pale and so alb
stracted 1 was sure the young miss
was up to some sort of mischief. But
what mischief? Watching and waiting,
but no longer combining my attention to
the parlor. | presently espied her steal
ing along the passageway. 1 have
mentioned carrying a long cloak,
which she rolled up and hid behind the
open door. Then she came back, hum
ming a gay little song, which didn't
deceive me for a moment. 'Goodp
thought l. She and that cloak will
soon join company. And they did. AS
we were playing the Rarebel mazurl1a
I again caught sight of her stealthy
white figure in that distant doorway
Selling the cloak, she wrapped it
around her. and, with just one furtive
look backwards, seen, [ warrant, by
no one but myself, she vanished in the
outside dark. Now to note who fol-
lows herr thought l. But nobody fol-
lowed her. This struck me as strange
and, having a natural love for detec-
tive work, in spite Of my devotion to
the arts. l consulted the clock at the
foot of the stairs, and, noting that it
was half-past II, scrubbed the hour on
the margin of my music, with the in
tention of seeing how long my lady
would linger outside alone. Gentlemen,
it was two hours before | saw her face
again. How she got back into the
house I do not know. 1t was not by
the garden door, for my eye seldom left |
it; yet at or near half-past l, / heard
her voice on the stair above me, and |
crowd as if she had not been absent |
half-hour later / saw her with Freder-
lex again. They were dancing, but !
not with the same spirit as before and |
even while I watched them they sep
arated. Now, where was Miss Page
during those two long hours? I think |
I know, and it is time l unburdened |
myself to the police.
But FIRST / must inform you of a |
small discovery l made while the dance |
was still in progress. Miss Page had |
come downstairs, as / have said, from |
what l now know to have been her |
own room. Her dress was, in all re- |
spects, the same as before with one |
exceptiosl-her white slippers had been