Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-03-13
CHAPTER xxi.

ed to turn Guilford Berton to stone,
and as he knelt leaning. shrinking as
far back as he could from the still
body, it almost looked as if the hand
of death had touched him too.
The silence was terrible; the very
dimness of the room. in which the
only light was that of the murky Ian
tern, lent an additional terror to the
moment
He had not intended to murd er
, her; he told himself so over and over
again in those dreadful minutes. He
had intended supplying her only, and
so preventing her leaving the house
until he had hit upon some plan Tor
stopping her from carrying out her
| threat OF denouncing him. At college
he had dabbed in chemistry, and the
science, especially in its relations to
subtle poisons mad strange fascina-
ton for him. He loved power, anu
| to possess a drug the very efiuvta or
which should be sufficient to over.
power an adversary had a strange
weird charm for him. He was proud
of the discovery of the drug which
could do this horrible work so SWIFT
ly, silently, and surely.
He lad not meant to kill her; and
now she lay lead at his feeti
Gradually the )enumbed feeling
passed away, and he began 70 shake
in every limb, and a terrible craving
to look at her face possessed him.
Crawling on his hands and knees,
he lifted her head-shuGdering as his
hands touched her-and looked at
her
Her facet-he face ned had once
/ thought so pretty, which ne had once
and so short a time ago. almost per
suaded himself that he loved-seem.
| - to look up at him reproachfully,
1t was white with the whiteness OF
death, but so placid so peaceful that
it might have been the face of a per
son asleep.
| With a cry that was scarcely a cry
SO much as wall he put the head
down and staggered to his feet.
No man is born bad, no man IS
wholly wicked. At that awful mo-
ment Guilford Berton would have re-
hnquished all his ambitions. if by 50
doing he could, bring Becca to life
again. He threw himself into 4
chair. and, finging his arms out upon
the table let his head fall upon them,
and surrendered himself to the de-
( mon of remorse, not penitence, which
is very different thing.
Presently the dead heavy silence
began to weigh upon him like a heavy
weight; CHASTITY desire to leap to
his feet and break the stiffness with
yell assailed him; and feeling that
his reason was going. he staggered
clumsily to the decanter, and, lifting
it to his lips with shaking hands
Grained it to the last drop.
The wine steadied him little ana
he tried to think. For some time his
brain spun round to the dull. sicken-
ing tune of She's dead, she's dead,"
but presently his mind grew clearer
How long she had been lying there
he did not know-it seemed hours to
him; but he knew that the daylight
would be peering through the holes
in the window shutters directly and
that the old woman who waited upon
him would be coming down
The deed was done beyond all IN
doing, and if he did not want to be
caught like a rat in a trap he must
! get rid of the body.
He got to the further end of the
room, as far away from it as possible
and, clasping his forehead which was
cold as ice. with his hands that burn
ed with fever heat he tried to think.
What should he do? For one mo
ment wild idea occurred to him of
sounding an alarm, and accounting
for the presence of the dead girl by
saying she had fallen down in a fit.
But the strnge oder still chung about
the room. and even the village doc
tor would be possessed of sufficient
knowledge to contradict such an as
sertion.
He tried to recall all the stories he
had read of men who had been placed
IN similarly dreadful position. but
he could think of no case parallels
with his own.
AT last he seized the lantern and,
carefully avoiding the still form. he
went out of the house by the back
way and crossed the garden. He felt
better, more composed in the open
air and away from the silent re.
proach of his dread handiwork and
he could think
At the end of the garden was
heap OF leaves which had been swept
up In the preceding autumn and al
lowed to remain, He got a spado
from the Toulouse and, screening
the lantern behind some bushes. he
carefully scraped the leaves aside
and began to dig.
And all the while he was at work.
and he worked with the furious frenzy
OF man digging for gold-he plan
ned out his precautions against de-
lection. All sorts of possibilities
tortured him and turned the sweat
that roed down his face into drops
OF ice, Some one might have seen
her standing outside the gate. and
when she was misseI that some one
would come forward With the slew
She might have told Soma ono NV a.. =,