Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-03-17

''Who on earth are you!' I ex-
claimed.
now remembered having seen the
fellow lowering about during the fu-
neral and subconsciously taking him
for the undertaker's head man. He
had certainly that appearance, and
even now 1 could scarcely believe that
he was anything else.
My name won't help you," he said
pityingly, "but you will guess where L
come from when 1 tell you 1 have u
warrant for your arrest
My sensations at this announcement
may not be believed, but 1 solemnly
declare that have seldom experienced
SO fierce satisfaction. Here was a
new excitement in which to drown my
grief; here was something to think
about, and 1 should be spared the in
tolerable experience of solitary re-
turn to the little place at Ham. 1t was
as though i had lost a limb and some
one had struck me SO hard in the face
that the greater agony was forgotten.
1 got into the hanson without q word
my captor following at my heels and
giving his own directions to the cabman
before taking his seat. The word sta
ton" was the only one / caught, and 1
wondered whether it was to be Bow
street again. My companions next
words, however, or, rather, the tone in
which he uttered them, destroyed my
capacity for idle speculation.
Mr. Maturint' said he. 'Mr. Ma
turin, indeed,''
"Well," said /, what about him?"
,frnI- Il ON Inn no
he was?"
"Who was he?" asked defiantly.
You ought to know" said he. "You
got locked up through him the other
time too. His favorite name was Raj
f1es then"
1T was his real name" 1 said in
dignantly. 'And he has been dead for
years.
My captor simply chuckled.
Hes at the bottom of the sea, tell
your
But 1 do not know why L should
have told him with such spirit, for
what could it matter to Rallies now?
1 did not think. Instinct was still
stronger than reason, and, fresh from
his funeral, had taken up the cudgels
still alive. Next moment 1 saw this for
myself, and my tears came nearer the
surface than they had been yet, but
the fellow at my side laughed outright.
.'Shall 1 tell you something else?"
said he.
'As you like"
Hes not even at the bottom of that
grave! He's no more dead than you or
l, and sham burial is his latest piece
of villainy,'
1 doubt whether 1 could have spoken
if had tried. l did not try. 1 had no
use for speech. l did not even ask
him if he was sure, 1 was so sure my
self. 1t was all as plain to me as rid
dies usually are when one has the an
swer. The doctors alarms, his unscru-
pulous venality, the simulated illness,
my own dismissal-each fitted in it's OBJ
vious place, and not even the last had
power as yet to mar my joy in the one
central fact to which all the rest were |
as taperS to the sun.
''He is alive!' 1 cried. Nothing else |
is alive.'
At last l did ask whether they had |
got him too. But, thankful as 1 was |
for the greater knowledge, 1 confess |
that did not much care what answer |
1 received. Already / was figuring out |
how much we might each get and how |
old we should be when we came out. |
But my companion tilted his hat to the |
back of his head, at the same time put |
ting his face close to mine and COM |
polling my scrutiny. And my answer, |
face of Raffies himself, superbly dis |
guised (but less superbly than his |
voice., and yet so thinly that 1 should |
have known him in Il trice had l not |
been too miserable in the beginning to |
give him a second glance.
Jacques Saillard had made his life |
impossible, and this was the one es-
cape. Raffies had bought the doctor
for n thousand pounds and the doctor
had bought a nurse" of his own kid
ney on his own account. Me, for some
reason, he would not trust. He had
upon my dismissal as an es-
sential preliminary to his part in the
Here the details were half
humorous, half grewsome, each in turn
as Rallies told me the story. At one
ged indeed, and, in his own words, "as
dead as a man need be- but he had
left strict instructions that nobody but
the nurse and my devoted physician"
should LAY a finger on me" afterward,
and by virtue of this proviso a library
of books. largely acquired for the oc-
casion, had been impiously inferred at
Kensal Green. Rallies had definitely
not to trust me with the
secret and but for my untoward APP
pearance at the funeral, which he had
attended for his own final satisfaction,
I was assured and am convinced that
he would have kept his promise to the
letter. In explaining this he gave me
the one explanation 1 desired, and in
another moment we turned into Praed
street, Paddington.
"And thought you said Bow streetm
said /. "Are you coming straight down