The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-03
CHAPTER XVII.
a Fresh start.

Fresh Start.
was far from being good company InaI
night. / knew this without being told.
My mind was too busy. was too full Of
regrets and plans, reasonings and counter
reasonings. In my eyes Miss Tuttle had
suddenly become innocent, consequently
victim. But a victim to what? To some
exaggerated sense of duty? Possibly; but
to what duty? That was the question, to
answer which offhand / would. in my
present excitement, have been ready to
sacrifice a months pay.
FOR was moved, not only by the admit
ration and sympathy which all men must
feel for beautiful woman caught in such
| deadly snare Of circumstantial evidence,
but by the conviction that Durbin, whose
present sleek complacency was more of
fensive to me than the sneering superior
| ity OF week ago, believing her to be
guilty woman, and as such his rightful
| prey. This alone would have Influenced
me TO take the opposite view; for we never
ran along together and in case where
| any division of opinion was possible, al
ways found ourselves, consciously or UNI
| consciously, on different sides. Yet did
| not really dislike Durbin, who Is very
fine fellow. only hated his success and
! the favor which rewarded it.
know that have some very nasty fall
1 1ngs and I do not shrink from owning
them. My desire is to represent myself
| as am, and must admit that it was not
entirely owing to disinterested motives
| that now took the secret stand did In
Miss Tuttle's favor. To prove her inno-
cent whom once considered the cause OF,
| II not the guilty accessory to her sisters
murder, now became my dream by nignt
and my occupation by day. Tho seemed
| to have no sympathizer in this effort and
tho the case against her was being pushed
Very openly in the district attorneys Of
nee, vet chung to my convictions with an
almost insensate persistence, inwardly de-
| claring her the victim of circumstances
and hoping against hope that some clue
would offer itself by means of which
| might yet prove her so.
But where was to seek for this clue?
| Alas, no ready answer to this very i'm
portant query was forthcoming All pos
sible evidence in this case seemed to have
been exhausted save such al
withheld. And SO the m nene
strous accusation stood, and before it all
Washington-my humble self included.
stood In daze of mingled doubt and
compassion, hunting for explanations
which failed to appear and seeking in in vain vain
for some guiltier party who evermore
sllpped from under our hand
| Had Mr. JeHreys alibi been less COM
plete ne could have stood up against the
| suspicious which now ran riot But there
was no possibility of shifting the actual
| NsASAA
OF SO frank and trustworthy a man as
Tallman. If the stopping of Mrs. Jeffrey's
watch fixed the moment of her death as
accurately as was supposed-and I never
heard the least doubt thrown out in this
regard-he could not by any means OF
transit then known in Washington have
reached Waverly avenue in time to fire
tnat shot. The gates of the cemetery
were closed at shutdown; shutdown took
place that night at one minute past Z.
ana the distance into town is considerable.
His alibi could not be gainsaid, So his
name failed to be publicly preached In
connection with the shooting, tho his In
huence over Miss Tuttle could not be for
gotten, suggesting to some that she had
acted as his hand in 1.-THE deed which
robbed him of an undesirable wife But
this l would not believe. I preferred to
accept the statement that she had stopped
snort of the library door in her suspicious
, visit there, and that the ribon-tying,
which went for SO much, had been done at
nome. That the facts, especially the lat.
Ter called for more than common creddl
lily, L was quite ready to acknowledge; and
had her feeling for Francis Jeffrey shown
less unselfshness. should certainly have
Joined my fellows In regarding these as
sertfons as very lame attempts to ex-
7 plain what could only be explained by q
, confession Of guilt.
So here was a tangle without frayed
, end to pull at, unless the impervious ego
tism of Uncle David afforded one, which I
doubted. For how could any man with
:. frightful secret in his breast show that
unnixed delight in his new equipage and
suddenly acquired position, which had 50
plainly beamed from that gentleman 8
calm eye and assured bearing? When he
| met my scrutiny in the sacred precincts
| where the one love Of his heart lay bur
| Ter, he did so without CULVER or any
sign of inner disturbance His tone to
| Caesar as he drove off had been the tone
| OF man who can afford to speak quiet
| ly because he Is conscious of being SO
| undeniably the master; and when his foot
rose to the carriage step it was with the
| confidence Of one who had been kept out
Of his rights for most of his natural life
but who feels in his present enjoyment OF
them no apprehension of a change His
e whole bearing and conversation of tina,
| day were, as I am quite ready to admit
s an exhibition of prodigious selfishness
4 but 1t was also an exhibition of mental
n poise incompatible with a consciousness
a Of having acquired his fortune by any
- means which laid him open to the posi-.
q bility Of losing it. Or SO I Judged.
- 10 be continued tomorrow.