The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-24

started back with scared face and
brushed past her
Stephen Musgrave was in the same brood
ing attitude. With a loving caress she
babe him come to the table, which was
laid for tea. She had to tell him twice
before he heard her, and when he rose.
she saw his face was white and drawn,
his eyes wild and staring.
Stephen
Her voice died away in her throat, frozen
with horror The man was swaying back
wards and forwards his trembling right
hand straight out before him. a rafting
noise came from his throat, he seemed
TO be struggling with some words his pal
lid lips refused to utter. Then she saw
he was pointing to the dish of mustard
and cress on which his frenzied eyes were
fixed
Good heavens!" he screamed That"
And Keeling past the frightened girl he
dashed out of the room. For minute she
stood paralyzed with a strange fear, sin
lister foreboding Then she ran TO the
door-it was locked. She ratified the handle
and hammered the panels with her clenched
hands No came, yet she could hear
rapid footsteps. After that all was still.
Twenty-four hours later man was found
wandering some thirty miles from Hods-
| bourne and taken into custody one not
fitted TO be at large. He was without
hat, his dress was torn and muddy, his
hair disheveled, his face convulseS with
nameless fear, in his eye the glare or mad
ness. This man was stephen Musgrave
For some days no light could be thrown
on the mystery. Then it was noticed Herne
and his wife had disappeared from Mus
graves house, and this set people thinking.
The garden was dug over, and beneath
the bed of mustard and cress was found
the body of Farmer Hurst.
The hue and cry was raised, and the
Hernes captured in a distant part of the
| country. The woman doggedly held her
tongue. but the man, to save his neck,
confessed how Stephen MUsgrave had
| schemed to murder Hurst
A couple of stable buckets tied together,
with a yard or so of loose rope between
them, placed in the ford, sufficed to throw
the horse blow from bludgeon as Hurst
lay floundering stunned the rider and
drowning completed the hideous work.
Then the body was brought to Herne's
| garden and mustard and cress seed sown
over the grave, to cover the freshly turned
soil rapidly possible and avert sus-
picion in anybody came prying about.
Hernes confession did not save him. He
was hanged, and his wife sentenced to
twenty years penal servitude. No sus-
picion rested on Janet. She had never been
seen with Stephen Musgrave, and Herne
was mercifully silent about her visit to the
house from which she escaped by the win
dow after Ralph and his wife, fearing dis
covery was impending, locked her in to
gain a start for their fight.
prematurely aged woman, with the
light gone from her eyes, her once tawny
hair of a rusty white, she will bear her
secret with her to the grave.
Stephen Musgrave, detained" at Broad
moor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, never re-
covered his sanity. All day long, and some
times far into the night, his hands perpet-
ually went through the action Of sowing
seeds; every now and then his eyes glanced
furtively, and those nearest heard him NUT
Ter: 1T will grow quickly-quickly. They
will never find out, and then we will be
married"
One day the attendant, taking Musgrave
along of the upper corridors had his
attention diverted for a moment. Some
thing leaped past him into the air and
dropped over the stair rail forty feet on to
the stone pavement below.
Stephen Musgrave's mad brain would be
tortured by conscience no more.
ICOpyright 1927