The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-04-08
And wherever he looked he saw the

And wherever ne looked ne saw CnO
hing.
All right" said Kelly, "just laugh
all you want. Seems as if you had
joke. too. Nothing like a joke"
The skull nodded
played good joke on my wife,"
said Kelly, sit isn't every one that
can carry out thing like that. Shut
up in greenhouse with her lover all
highland that night the most wonder
full flower on earth bloomed-a flower
containing a strange juice, marvel
GUS anaesthetic. They were suffo-
Gated. Had joke on me, though. for
they smashed the plant-and that was
all lived for, the fame that plant
might have brought to me-"
The skull looked expectant and kel.
ly looked sorrowful.
'But didn't mean to kill the other
woman. You see. l was to blame, in
measure. Picked her up in the red
light district. You know, when l mar.
ried l thought l had plucked a little
white flower from a garden of lurid
beauties. l grasped a loathesome net
tie. So when had destroyed the net
tie, 1 said, I shall search among nox-
ious growths and the thing pull can
not be disappointment because
will know it, Well, / transplanted
the weed-a sorry one it was and un-
der my care it sprung into a rarely
beautiful blossom. lovely beyond my
widest desire.
Then a man, sort of mower OF
weeds, who had known the weed.
pulled it from the soil and held 1t be-
fore my eyes SO that its distorted,
earthly roots were dangling there.
him have it; but the agony and the
humor of it wrangled in my brain and
held my heart in a terrible grip. A
plaything of fate. had been. Oh.
it was bitter-and funny. Say. 1t
makes me laugh even now. Why even
you are grinning!"
The skull seemed to crinkle up with
silent laughter. and it looked gray
faced like Kelly.
"The rest of it was in the papers.
L, man and a woman and bottle OF
beer Great mystery! Murderer es-
capped. Police gave it up as bad job.
A lot of trouble that bottle of beer cost
me. 1t taxed my nerves and my clev-
erness. In the first place the man and
woman were hard to trace, for they
had pretty well covered up their
tracks. think they were afraid Of
me. I found them. AS l had made
such ripping success of my wife.
knew could handle the game.
After bought the beer, it took me
days to copy the seal and label of an
other firm. Then I went way off and
bought the poison. and went to an
other place to dope the beer, and to
yet another to have the package sent.
From a distant western town | wrote
a letter to the coroner, that suspicion
might not fall on an innocent person.
and by the time he got the letter,
was in Mexico.
"In order to dope the bottle, l had
to open it. and that took the life out
of the beer. somewhat; so l wrote a
letter explaining that this was new
brand of beer especially put on the
market for medicinal purposes and the
company was sending out trial bottles
to the leading physicians of the coun-
try. Would the esteemed doctor be SO
kind as to sample the beer and favor
us with a criticism? l knew he would
bite at leading physicians'-egotisti.
cal chump!
''It was very good test he gave
that beer as the papers stated.
81 am sorry she died. l did not
mean that she should. She was too
anxious to help him test 1t. l shall
always be sorry for that. AS say,
wrote to the coroner, stating the cir
cumstances, even to the firm names
and towns and my motive. l told him
l was sorry for the woman, as l was
to blame for her. but it was probably
the best thing for her after ALL AS for
the man, l wished l could have killed
him with my hands. That was ten
years ago. l am clever man-for l
am still free. The dead keep the Sc
cret for me. They are kind-the dead.
Il shall pluck no more flowers. They
all spring from filth. I am done, and
1 have the satisfaction of knowing
did it well, It is but strange mem
ory that you have made more clear.
Well, l am too clever for even you.
for tomorrow am going to leave this
room-and the next one will have cal
cimined walls-walls without red
roses and white. that look like my own
face mocking me with a grin like a
gaping wound. Damn you!"
He fell back exhausted; then he
raised his eyes to the white face of
the nurse. who had been sleeping on
the couch back of the screen