Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-03-13
The Writing on the Wall.
By Thomas G. Harbaugh,
~N~N~N~1aAN/

| was arrested on SuS1clOn. Ih1S did
not astonish me after what the pig
headed constable had said the might
before. Nobody believed the young
man guilty, though he did not express
any sympathy for Durivage, and after
a nearing he was discharged. He was
strangely non-committal during the ex-
animation, and when it was over he
came into my office and took a char.
| Doctor" said he, leaning toward
me with smile, they didn't ask me
to tell what saw, did they?"
Il believe they did not, Steve" I
answered, wondering what he knew.
Il saw the man that did it!'
l looked strangely at him, wonder
| ing if he was not losing his wits.
Il saw him, but not till after the
shot," Steve went on. Il was up to
| the house last night. went there to
| ask Brant Durivage to listen to me
for a minute, though l don't expect
he'd have done it. Just as l was en-.
tering the garden, for I knew l would
find him in the library with the win
dow up, l heard sharp cry, and the
next moment there passed little man
| carrying in one hand a box. This is
as true as gospel, doctor! He never
saw me though l could have touched
him while he was passing; but 7
would not because l thought he had
finished Durivage.
Morgan then went on and described
the man with minuteness that as
tonished me. He did it so we'll l
thought | could see him before me,
and at the end of his story he declared
his intention of repeating his adven-
ture to no one else, not even in the
interests of justice.
"'If he gets well, he'll marry An
ME- said Morgan, savagely, "and if
he dies, let him rot without being
avenged"
| watched Durivage closely for ten
days. | could see that the secret
poison was at work, and the case was
queer study that opened up to me
new field for Investigation. During
those ten days the wounded man
seemed to suffer a thousand deaths
On the afternoon of the eleventh
day | was hurried over to the house
by the butler, who said that Durivage
was writing on the wall before his
cot. At the foot of the stair we We're
met by the nurse, who with blanched
face cried that all was over.
Bounding up the flight two steps
at time l rushed into the bedroom
and found Durivage lying on his face
on the floor.
You should have seen and heard
him. said the frightened servant.
He awoke and called at the top of
his voice for a pencil. | ran and got
him one, thrusting it into his hand
when l came back. AS his fingers
closed on it he laughed like fiend.
and rising in bed, wrote what you see
on the wall yonder, and then fell back
and writhed till he pitched out upon
the floor
Before this | was at the cot and with
burning eyes was looking-nay star
ing-at the writing on the wall.
"K'AA-K'AA-k'AA."
Here was another mystery.
What did he say after that?" /
asked, turning to the two servants,
while 1 pointed to the writing on the
wall.
"He pronounced three times some
thing that sounded like 'kile' or 'Kala
haetlwe, was the nurses answer
Before | could reach him he was
dead"
was more than ever mystiied.
have never heard of the written or
spoken words. They were all Greek"
to me, but | felt that they were con-
nected with the awful death Brant
Durivage had died. During the next
few days there ran through my mind
nothing but "K'aa, K'aa, K'aa." |
had the nurse repeat "Kala haetlwe"
until had mastered it, and until left
the Shropshire village and located in
London. an event in my career which
took place a year later, l did not let
the singular words escape me.
During this period Steve Morgan did
not go back to Annie. He wrote me
that he would not do SO until the mys-
terry conected with Durivage's death
was solved and l felt that the solll-
ton would never come and bring the
two young hearts together.
One evening I was called to attend
a man who had been run over by a
butchers cart near the Strand. He
lad been carried to his lodgings near
BY. and lay bloody and gasping on a
PALLET Of dingy rags. The moment l
saw the man strange thrill took pos
-,S~ 80 IAl
Morgan's description of the owner Of
the poisoned arrow.
When l had dressed the wounds
made by the heavy wheels of the cart,
and had my patient sitting up with
hot drink before him and his lCng
dark fingers encircling the glass, l