The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-30
Continued from Yesterday

Then, gentlemen continued Fred
orally now know. hat Mrs. Webb has
left me the greater portion of the money
of which she died possessed. have
never before acknowledged to any one,
not even to the good man who awaits
this jury's verdict on the other side of
that door, that she had reasons for this.
good reasons. reasons which up to the
very evening of her death l waA myself
ignorant. Why then, 1 should have
thought of going to her in the great
strait in which / found myself on that
day Lean hardly say. | knew she had
| money in her house. This | had unhap-
PLY been made acquainted with in an
accidental way.
Il was Obliged to have moncy-a
great deal of money-and ] had to have
1t at once, and it is the only explanation
! can give you for leaving the ball at
my ather's house and hurrying down
secretly and alone into town to the H.
tie cottage where. az / had been told
early in the evening, a small entertain
ment was being given which would in
otAS ~ otAAhh OA&iA 49, ~
Page has taken pains to declare to you
that In the expedition she herself made
into town that evening she followed
some persons steps down hill. This Is
very likely true, and those steps were
probably mine, for after leaving The
house by the garden door ! came di-
rectly down the main road to the corner
of the lane running past Mrs. Webb's
cottage.
Il had expected to find a jovial group
of friends in her little ground parlor or
at least hear the sound Of merry voices
and laughter in the rooms above. but
no sounds of any sort awaited mo,
Seated at a table set with untasted
food | saw the master of the house,
with his head sunk forward on his
larnh, asleep.
This was a condition of things for
which ! was not prepared. Mrs. Webb,
whom | wished 10 see. YVES probably
up stairs. and while ] might summon
her by a sturdy rap on the door, be-
side which / stood. | had SO little desire
to wake her husband that could not
bring myself to make n loud noise
within his hearing. | slipped up the
staircase and confronted her before she
tbUl1 lllbkG -
which She was sitting, counting over
a large roll of money.
: My lock tand 1t was doubtless no a
3 comomn look, for the sight of a mass
of money at thai moment, when money
was everything TO me. reused every
lurking demon IN my breast) seemed to
~appall. If it did not frigllten. her, for
she cried out: /:
"'No, no, Frederick! You don't know
what you are doing. If you want my
money. take it: If you want my life, l
will give it to you with my own nand.
Don't stain your-dont-
II did not understand her. | did not
know until | thought 1t over after
ward that my hand was thrust con-
yulsively into my breast In a way
which. taken with my wild mien, made
me look as If / had come to murder
her for the money over which she was
lowering. My hand went out toward
IT. not toward her, but she mistook the
action. md, with q heart-broken cry.
to save me from the worst crime
of which humanity is capable, she
caught up a dagger lying only too near
I her land In the open drawer against
which she leaned, and in q moment or
fathomless anguish plunged against IT.
Her blood and Batsy's shrek from the
adjoining room swan through my con-
seriousness, and hen she fell, as sup
posed, dead upon the floor, and l., in
scarcely better case, fell also.
This, as God lives. is the truth con-
corning the wound found in the breast
of this woman
when came to myself, and Mat
must have been very soon. | found that
the blow J. had been such a horrified
witness 20 had not yet proved fatal.
The eyes / had seen close, as ! had sup
posed. forever, were now open.
"'There is 10 blood on You she
murmured. you did not strike the
blow. Was it money only that you
wanted, Frederick? If SO, you could
have mad it without crime. There are
81, 900 on that table and half as much
again in the closet over yonder. Taks
them and let them pave your way to
u better life. My death viii help you
to remember DO these worGf, his
action of hers, seem incredible to you,
sirs? Alas, alas! they viii not when
! tell you''-and here he cast one
anxious. deeply anxious, glance at the
room in which Mr.. Sutherland was
hidden-"that, unknown to me, UNI
known to any one living but herself,
unknown to that good man from whom
it can no longer be kept hidden, Agatha
Webb was my mother. | am Philemon's
son and not the offspring of Charles
and Marietta sutherland"
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