The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-18
MURDERER's MASQUERADE
BY EpGAR FAwCETT.

| tCopyrfght, 1905, Dy Josepn ID. boWles-l l While a visiting physician at the = asylum for the criminal insane, I found myself more and more attract ed by one particular case-that of the young earl of Thornbourne. l believed l (and other fellow practitioners, tool l that Lord Thornbourne was utterly
 blameless for the deed he had done. 1 It had made an immense talk two years ago. Left at an early age under | the guardianship of his maternal un- I ole, the celebrated chemist. MT. Holme Dyott. he had never liked this kins- man, and frequent auarrels had occurr- ed between them. During one of these | tas evidence on tke trial brought ouD MT. Dyott had stRuck his nephew a ter l rible blow on one temple with the | butt-end of his riding whip. The earl, 1 then about three and twenty. was un- | conscious for two days. Afterward | long illness had ensued. He had re- covered for a certain period (about six | months in alb. and then his mind be- | gan to fail him. No one but certain 1 servants at Thornbourne Park, in De- | vonshire, had known of his uncle s l brutal blow. q except. of course, the l inevitable eossiping between them- 1 selves and folk in the near village.) The physicians who attended Lord | Thornbourne were told by Mir Dyott | budI utpHcW WOuhd hdu ACSNAtNN
 from a mis-step while descending one | of the stairways of his residence. They never thought of disbelieving this .
 MT. Doyott's reputation was fawless. | His fame as a chemist of exceptional power had grown greatly during the past ten or twelve years.
 l At the trial 1t will be- remembered, | witnesses made us aware, for the first | time, that Lord Thornbourne's quarrel | xxyffh crfaa rd had haAn hr0nRnt about by the formers avowed inten- I ton of marrying Margaret Boyce. This girl though the daughter of small | nefghboring farmer. had received a l fair education. She was also striking | ly pretty and graceful To Hubert wyndham, earl of Thornbourne, and posse@-ar of several titles besides, the | idea of marrying Margaret privately 1 had been repellant in the extreme. | On recovering from his illness. the earl, as I have said, seemed for six l months to be in a wholly normal state of health Between himself and his uncle (who still resided at Thorn | bourne Park relations of distinct re- l serve existed, though they often dined I in one another's company, and now and I then drove out in the same carriage. Meanwhile Margaret Boyce had van ! ished. Early oe June evening she had | left her fathers house, and had never been seen again. It was clearly under l stood and much gossiped about the | village. that she had suffered fiercely from the tidings tha Lord Thornbourne was in peril of death. While he lay unconscious she had disappeared. Her father had caused a wide search to be made for her, but without the faintest tangible result.
 fortnight after Lord Thornbourne's second and final collapse the murder had been committed.
 The earl had crept into his uncle's library and stabbed him. with great suddenness and dexterity, three times In the back. His weapon was long, slender knife-an oriental family relic. At the third blow, with great cries, MT. Dyott had fallen. When the nurse. mortified by these sounds, entered the library, he had found the elder man in his last thFoes, if not already dead. Lord Thornbourne, with his face dis
 torted by impish leers and his tremu- lous lips chatterins wild things. crouched in a corner of the room. I never saw Lord Thornbourne until I met him at Z- asylum. He had some slight ailment which I had been requested to relieve-a throat trouble, rather obstinate, though by no means serious At first our conversations
 were brief and of a kind purely pro- fessional. He then appealed to me as a singularly handsome man. After my second visit to him I said to brother physician that there could scarcely be doubt of his present sanity.
 Not a doubt" came the reply; he's as sane as we are"
 ''Then, why-?" But I paused, and we exchanged glances.
 "A life sentence, you know" said my listener.
 "Ah. true" reminded myself. audi ply. And he bears well the thought of it."
 'Yes. Do you notice that peculiar look of sadness on his handsome face? Examine 1t a bit closer and you will find a curious resignation there"
 I did examine it closer, and agreed with this judgment Gradually we be- came in a way intimate. I felt myself touched at first with the poignant pity for him. This man (who had done a frightful murder while completely
 irresponsible for the act) must live out the rest of his life in dreary dur ancei The thought of 1t all fretted me like an eczema I had almost made
 up my mind to present myself in per son to the home secretary, whom had known years ago fairly we'll as co-disciple at Harrow. And one morn ing, while I was with my patient, an unwonted impulse to express this feel ing tthough I am usually what Is termed a very self constrained person, took me. as 1t were with great lack of ceremony quite by the throat.
 Something stopped me dead short. however, after had got through three or four sentences. A hardness catae over the delicate features: the scst brightness of the eyes lessened fs'h-d
 Perhaps the home secretar: rfght do something, doctor. He Is q S'"' of remote cousin to us WyndhSr1- But, mol I don't want his-his ticket of leave. I really don't"
 He sighed a little as he spoke, and can see now, though I did not sec then. that thoroughly missed the meaning of the sigh.
 But you are still so yourg."
 q am a thousand--in hidCcus ex- perience. And l'bert;s? With my mo- toriety 1t would be only a burden"
 Don't call it experience" I ven- tured. with sympathy given full rein. Your mind was not then as now You"
 He interrupted me by a gesturJ slight and brisk. It acted on me like the tap on a marble table.
 My mind was gone once, that Is all, It came back after my long illness it came entirely back"
 Of this I did not believe a word. He might be sane now. but of all au- thorities on his mental condition he himself was undoubtedly the worst. Still, while his ice-blue eyes held me.