The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-04-16

l 49,
10 - Nc
"it goa. soant 1ay lite, 4 euttl gtve 1t to you
aOtta ing oacal hand. !"
here swear, of the effect which my un-
expected presence would have on the
noble woman overhead, slipped up
the narrow staircase and, catching
at that moment the sound of her voice
calling out to Batsy. stepped up to
! the door saw standing open before
me and confronted her before she
could move from the table before
which she was sitting, counting over
a large roll of money.
my look iand it was doubtless not a
common look, for the sight Of a mass
of money at that moment, when money
was everything to Inc. reused every
lurking demon in my breast) seemed to
appall. if It did not brighten. her, for
shesro and meeting my eye with'a
gaze in which shock and some strange
and poignant agony totally incompre-
hensible to me were strangely blended,
she cried out:
No, no, Frederick! You don't know
what you are doing. If you want my
money, take it; if you want my life,
will give it to you with my own hand.
Don't stain -yours-donf-
II did not understand her. did not
know until thought it over afterward
that my hand was thrust convulsively
into my breast in way which, taken
with my wild mien, made me look as
If l had come to murder her for the
money over which she was lowering.
1 l was blind, deaf to everything but
that money, and, bending madly for
ward in a state. of mental intoxication
. awful enough for me to remember
4 now, l answered her frenzied words by
some such broken ordinations as
these:
I Give, then! Iwant hundreds-thou-
sands-now, now, to save myself! Dis.
i grace, shame, prison await me if I
don't have them. Give, give! And my
i hand went out toward it, not toward
her; but she mistook the action, mis-
4 took my purpose, and, with heart
broken cry, to save me, me, from
manity is capable. she caught up dag
ger lying only too near her hand in the
open drawer against which she leaned,
and in a moment of fath6mless anguish,
which we who can never know more
than the outward seeming Of her life
can hardly measure, plunged against it
!, and-l can tell you no more. Her blood
and Batsy's Shrek from the adjoining
Z room swan through my consciousness,
. and then she fell, as supposed, dead
upon the floor, and l, in scarcely better
case, fell also.
| This, as God lives. is the truth con-
corning the wound found in the breast
Of this never to be forgotten woman"
: The feeling, the pathos, the anguish
: even. to be found in his tones made this
! story, strange and incredible as it SEEM
} ed, appear for the moment plausible.
: And Batsy?" asked the coroner.
!. Must have fallen when we did. for
t never heard her voice after the first
. scream. But shall speak of her again.
z What must now explain is how the
Y money in Mrs. Webb's drawer came
: into my possession and how the dagge.
e she had planted in her breast came t.
Y be found on the lawn outside. When
t came to myself, and that must have
: been very soon. found that the blow
e l had been such a Mortified witness te
+ had not yet proved fatal. The eyes
d had seen close, as had supposed, for
e ever, were now open, and she was look
y ing at me with smile that has never
+ left my memory and never will
S There is no blood on you.' she muir
g INJURED. You did not strike the blow
n Was it money only that you wanted
|, Frederick? If so, you could have hat
II it without crime. There are $1,000 O,
G that table and half as much again il
d the closet over yopder. Take them an,
d let them pave your way to a bette
life. My death will help you to remem
p ber.' Do these words, this action 0
II hers, seem incredible to you, sirs? Alas
IS alas! they will not when / tell YOU
1t and here he cast one anxious, deepi
4 anxious, glance at the room in whic
1T Mr.. Sutherland was hidden-"that, VI
l. known to me, unknown to any one liz
1t. ing but herself unknown to that goo
d man from whom it can no longer b
d kept hidden, Agatha Webb was m
4 mother. | am Philemon's son and nc
lie the offspring of Charles and Marriott
N Sutherland
fro BE CONTINUED