Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-01-12

argued with himself, till his fears for
the latter drove him to Mr.. Ramsdelps
house.
The night was a stormy one. The
heaviest snow Of the season was
falling with high gale blowing down
the Sound. AS he approached The
the modern ones in the Riverside dis
trict, he felt his heart fail him. But
as he came nearer and got the full
effect OF glancing lights, seductive
music, and the CHEEKY hustle Of crowd
Ing carriages, he saw in his minds
eye such picture of his beautiful mis-
tress, threatened, unknown to herself,
in quarter she little realized, that he
lost all sense of what had hitherto de-
TERED him. Making then and there
his great choice, he looked about for
the entrance, with the full intention
of seeing and warning her.
But this, he presently perceived,
was totally impracticable. He could
neither go to her nor expect her to
come to him; meanwhile, time was
passing, and il his master was there
The thought made his head dizzy, and,
situated as he was, among the car
riages, he might have been run over
in his confusion if his eyes had not
suddenly fallen on lighted window,
the shade of which had been inadvert-
emily left up.
Within this window, which was only
a few feet above his head, stood the
glowing image of woman clad In
pink and sparkling with jewels. Her
face was turned from him, but he rec
ol5nized her splendor as that Of the
one woman who could never be too
gorgeous for his taste; and, alive to
this unexpected opportunity, he made
for the window with the Intention of
shouting up to her and so attracting
her attention.
But this proved futile, and, driven
at last to the end OF his resources, he
tore out slip Of paper from his note
book and, in the dark and with the
binding snow in his eyes, wrote the
few broken sentences which he
thought would best warn her, without
compromising his master. The means
he took to reach her with this note
have already related. AS soon as he
saw it in her hands he fed the place
and took the first train west. He was
in pitiable condition, when, three
tion from which he had originally set
out. The haste, the exposure, the
horror of the crime he had failed to
avert, had undermined his hitherto ex-
cellent constitution, and the symp-
toms of serious illness we're begin
ming to make themselves manifest.
But he, like his indomitable master,
possessed a great fund Of energy, and
will-power. He saw that If he was to
save Abner Fairbrother (and now that
Mrs. Fairbrother was dead, his old
master was all the world to him) he
must make Fairbrother's alibi good by
carrying on the deception as planned
by the latter, and getting as soon as
possible to his camp in the New Mex
leo mountains He knew that he
would have strength to do this and
he went about it without sparing him
self.
Making his way into the mountains,
he found the guide and his horse at
the place agreed upon and, paying the
guide enough for his services to In
sure quiet tongue, rode back toward
Ell Moro where he was met and sent
on to Santa Fe as already related.
Such is the real explanation Of the
well-nigh unintelligible scrawl found in
Mrs. Fairbrother's hand after her
death. AS to the one which left Miss
Grey's bedside for this same. house, it
was, alike in the writing and sending,
the loving freak of a very sick but
tender-hearted girl. She had noted
the look with which Mr. Grey had left
her, and, in her delirious state,
thought that line in her own hand
would convince him of her good condt-
ton and make 1t possible for him to
enjoy the evening. She was, however,
too much afraid of her nurse to write
it openly, and though we never found
that scrawl, it was doubtless not very
different in appearance from the one
with which had COMPOUNDED it. The
man to whom it was intrusted stopped
for too many warming drinks on his
way for it ever to reach Mr.. Rams
dell's house. He did not even return
home that night, and when he did put
In an appearance the next morning, he
was dismissed.
This takes me back to the ball and
Mrs. Fairbrother. She had never had
much fear of her husband till she re-
ceived his old servants note in the Pc
culiar manner already mentioned.
This, coming through the night and
the wet and with all the marks Of
hurry upon it, did impress her greatly
and led her to take the first means
which offered of Kidding herself of her
dangerous ornament. The story Of
this we know.
Meanwhile, a burning heart and a
scheming brain were keeping up their
deadly work few PAGES off under
the impressive newly-hired waiter. Alb
ner Fairbrother, whose real character
no one had ever been able to sound.
unless it was the man who had known
him in his days Of stuggle, was one Of
those dangerous men who can conceal
under still brow and a noiseless
manner the most violent passions and