The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1907-01-04
THE
BrangWyn Mystery
CHAPTER xxvi.-contInued.

40 the writer Of 1t in expression of ar
fe~ctionate sympathy and deep regret.
He recalled the waiting for the bank
er's draft which never came. He went
| IN TO the next document in his sheaf:
Dear Mr.. Aloysius: | regret TO be
the bearer of Ill news. My poor, dear
Did master has disappeared. | had
been away on three days leave to bury
my brother, and when ! got back your
poor uncle had not been seen for more
than forty eight hours. Mr.. Alexis is
quite i'll and seems distracted. Master
had lost his temper with Mr.. Alexis
and went out about 9 O'Clock at night,
taking his latch-key with him. Mr..
Alexis. being not wishful to see him
again that night, went to his own
room early. The woman who had been
called in for service took masters cup
of tea TO his room at 9 O'Clock. She
s'seping out on a journey or at a
friends house. She said nothing, and
master was not missed till afternoon.
Since her we have moved heaven and
earth to find him, but there is no news
and no sign. You must excuse me TAX
ing the liberty of enclosing a five
| pound note, Mr.. Aloysius, for know It
has not been your uncle's habit TO keep
keep you very flush, and you are want
| ed here so badly that you must not
lost one hour in coming. With affec-
tomato respects and deep sorrow,
Robert Sewar."
A!oysius, reading this, recalled all
the old anxieties and fears of the
| dreary journey Londonwards, and one
horrible suspicion which would in
trude Upon him in spite of all the rea-
| son he brought to bear against It,. He
fought it down loyalty and he stIS ngled
it. But it sprang to life again, in
to him made it improbable. He feared
lest Alexis should have been in some
way responsible for the old mans dis
appearance. Alexis might be weak.
| He had often ~reproached him for want
Of stability, but it was madness to
| suppose that he had done anything de-
l%iberately. A chance blow. perhaps,
| elNSH III Il llOlllCIlt " llllCLSC
and despair!
1t might we'll be that so full a life
may have ended thus. And then the
horror lest in fear the hapless victim
I of his own rage should have
striven to conceal the body, and so
have given himself over beyond RENE
dy into the hands of the law. But
l Al.., ,o% 0ro oorrnr Nf tho old
Georgian house in which his uncle had
lived which would not be %ransacked by
the police. n the dread were VOL
founded, detection was certain.
And then, on the other side-on the
right side, so Aloysius protected him
self-Alexis was not a man of strife
| or violence. He had had a genuine re-
spect for his relative and protector.
And il the old man had threatened
him with disinheritance Alexis would
know quite clearly that it would make
no difference to him, and that Aloysiui
was not the nan to profit at his cous'
| ms cost, even though the cousin had
beer guilty of an act for which he
would bitterly reproach himself
l Ills lllSLlilAC iIo Wv W
thing between his Maker and the sin
ner's conscience-not a thing for Alloy
| sius Brangwyn to reap a profit out OF
Alexis would know all that with
| instructive certainty. But the chance
blow suggested itself over and over
| again. Aloysius seemed to see it in
ficted in a dozen ways. The horror
-. - @1,a,o 1,t IN tho thO1phj ri
concealment. In that matter of the
girl whom he had betrayed the unpar
.donable part of the whole business
was that he had run away from the
consequences of his wrongdoing. Anf
here he might-he misht-he might
have acted on the same impulse, ane
so have converted accident into con
structive murder. If he had played the
coward and the mailman there they
would find the body soon or late, ant
would hang Alexis or send him into
penal servitude for life.
All the old fears thronged into hi!
mind. He lived that journey from
Paris over again, as he sat musins
with the letter in his hand. He re
lived the arrival at his uncle's house
the hurry and confusion which pre-
vailed there, the search carried on b
the police-so minute that not a ca
could have been concealed about it
the hubbub in the press, the excite
ment of the public curiosity and won
der, the false scents on which tn
search was started, the drowne
bodies, the starving vagrants-neithe
one nor the other bearing the remotes
resemblance to the missing man
Alexis's outbursts Of wild grief an
self-accusation.
"The old man and l ~quarreled," h
admitted, "and that quarrel sent hir
to his death. He flung out Of tn
house in a rage, and from that hou
was gone. He carried money. H
wore a valuable diamond on his finge
and another in his scarf-pin. Hi
gold watch was worth fifty pound.
There has been foul play, and II I ha
not provoked him the thing woul
never have happened"
1t vas plausible. 1t was the mos
l probable thing to think, and Aloysiu.