Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1910-09-07


But this is not so easy. Marie fol-
lows up her letter with a personal
cali She comes again and again.
Her demands are more insistent, her
words more violent. Finally she an
nounces with bitterness which should
carry its hideous warning-"If ever
any one made me miserable, l would
poison him. 1t would not be diff.
cult"
THAT is abominable. Never come
to see me again." Is NJ. Doudieuxs
stern response.
And the now prominently respect
able husband returns to his home,
dismissing Marie from his mind. But
Marie. though unseen, is still very
much in his life. And Marie is plot.
ting, contriving, scheming.
A year later, October 10, 1909, a
servant finds in the Doudieux garden
packet which he carries to his mis-
tress. She opens 1t and finds several
drugs inclosed, antipyrine powders,
camomile flowers and salts of vichy,
each packet carefully labeled. She
decides that they have been left by
mistake, and a druggists clerk will
call for them. She lays them away
on shelf and forgets them.
A week later. M. and Nine.
Doudieux are invited to dine at the
home Of neighbor. A guest Of honor
Is M. GODDARD, the tenor Of the Opera
House. the idol of fashionable Paris.
who has just signed contract to
sing six months in America for
$4,000.
After dinner. the guests are taken
to Juyisy to see the aviation expert.
ments. The motor ride against the
wind causes NJ. GODDARD to suffer from
severe headache. He asks the privi-
lege of remaining over night in the
Doudieux home at Vezinet. feeling too
Ill to return to his residence in a dis.
| tant part of the city.
The Innocent Victim.
At once Nine. Doudieux recalls the
unclaimed parcel from the chemists
shop. She suggests an antipyrine
powder, but NJ. GODDARD declines. He
will be better by morning. At 4 a. m
he wakes the household. He is suffer
ing intensely. He accepts the powder
and takes two Of them.
At the pain has become intolera
BILE. At 8 in the afternoon, he goes
into commissions. Acute Indigestion
the physician pronounces 1t. At he
Is dead. His death is certified as be
ing due to acute uraemia.
No one connects the powders, with
his death and the body is sent to
Belgium for interment.
No one connects Marie with the
powders or with the death. In fact
the volatile M. Doudieux has forgot
ten her very existence. But Marie
Bourette has not forgotten, and the
death Of NJ. GODDARD represents only
| frustrated vengeance.
In November M. Doudieux receives
a basket Of mussels, sent, according
to its tag, from an old friend, M
Larue of Caen. For several years the
two friends have not correspondent
and M. Doudieux turns suddenly
alarmed, turns suspicious Just in time
to save his life. He communicates
with M. Larue and learns that the
mussels were not sent by his friend.
The gift is taken to the city labora
tory. Each mussel is found to contain
enough arsenic to kill man.
Now 1t is time for M. Doudieux tt
summon the police. They trace the
parcel to messenger office in the
Rue st. Petersburg, where 1t was left
by Marie Bourette. Marie Bourettea
apartment is searched and yields up
all sorts of poisons, in papers, bottles
and boxes, treatises on the admins
tration of poisons. and scraps OF
anonymous letters, hideous thoughts
which only an abnormal mind could
conceive.
And. caught in the web of circum
stantial evidence. Marie Bourette
faces trial for numbering a man who
has never crossed her path. All
through that trial she denies every
allegation. every statement made by
every witness. She has an answer for
every question hurled at her by the
presiding justice. That these answers
contradicted each other matters moth
ing to her. And always she smiles
smiles. the broad. placid. empty smile
which for years has cloaked the riot
ing of the blood beneath her calm
exterior. She is fat now, with the
pasty fairness of oncoming old age
Her small eyes seem lost in her
pudgy cheeks, her tip-tilted nose il
coarse, her mouth is perpetual
smile.
At the End Of Il All.
Life Imprisonment at hard labor 4,
the sentence and 100 1000 francs are
awarded to the heirs Of her victim
Mar,e,s small estate amounts ia IN
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