The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-06-14
The House of the
Whispering
Pines

which might have carried this object
with it?
Sand the bit of broken bottle found
in or near the defendants own stable!
Is he to be convicted on the similarity
It offers to the one known to have
come from the clubhouse wine vault,
while a reasonable doubt remains Of
his having been the hand which car
ried it there? No. Where there is a
reasonable doubt no high minded jury
will convict, and claim that my client
has made it plain that there is such q
reasonable doubt.
"My distinguished opponent would
have you believe that the defendant
did not fly at the moment declared,
but that he waited to fulfill the foul
deed. which is the only serious matter
in dispute in his so nearly destroyed
speaking the attack which he will
make upon my client when he comes
to review this matter with you. Let
me see if I cannot make you hear
those words too And, with daring
smile at his discounted adversary,
Alonzo Moffat launched forth into the
following sarcasm:
arthur Cumberland, coming up the
kitchen stairs, hears voices where he
had expected total silence, sees light
where he had left total darkness. He
has two bottles in his hands or in his
large coat pockets. If they are in his
hands he sets them down and steals
forward to listen. He has recognized
the voices. They are those of his two
sisters, one of whom had ordered him
to hitch up the cutter for her to es-
cape, as he had every reason to be-
neve, the other. Curiosity-or is it
some nobler feeling?-causes him to
draw nearer and nearer to the room In
which they have taken up their stand.
He can hear their words now, and
what are the words he hears? Words
that would thrill the most impervious
heart, call for the interference Of the
most Indifferent. But he is made Of
ice, welded together with steel. He
sees (fOr no place save one from which
he can watch and see-namely, the
dark dancing hall-would satisfy any
man of such gigantic curiosity Ade-
laide fall at CarmePs feet in recogni
ton of the. great sacrifice she has
made for her. But he does not move;
he falls at no ones feet; he recognizes
no nobility, responds to no higher ap-
there and watches and watches, still
curious Or still feeding his hate on
the sufferings of the elder, the for
bearance of the younger.
"And on what does he look? You
have already heard, but consider it.
Adelaide, despairing of happiness, de-
cides on death for herself or sister.
Both loving one man, one of the two
must give way to the other. Carmel
has done her part; she must now do
hers. She has brought poison; she
has brought glaSseS-three glasses for
three persons, but only two are on the
scene, and so she fills but two. One
has only cordial in it, but the other is,
as she believes, deadly. Carmel is to
have her choice. But who believes
that Adelaide would ever have let her
drink the poisoned glass?
"And this man looks on as the two
faces confront each other-one white
with the overthrow Of every earthly
hope, the other under the stress of suf-
fering and fascination of horror sufh-
cient to have laid her dead without
poison at the other ones feet. This is
what he sees-a brother-and he makes
no move, then or afterward, when, the
die cast, Adelaide succumbs to her
fear and falls into seemingly dying
state on the couch.
Does he go now? Is his hate or his
cupidity satisfied? No. He remains and
listens to the tender interchange of
final words and all the late precau-
tons of the elder to guard the younger
woman's good name. Still he is not
softened, and when, the critical mo-
ment passed, Carmel rises and totters
about the room in her endeavor to full
fill the tasks enjoined upon her by her
sister he gloats over a death which will
give him independence and gluts him.
self with every evil thought which
could blind him to the pitiful aspects
of tragedy such as few men in this
world could see unmoved. A brother.
''But this is not the worst. The aw
full cup of human greed and hatred is
but filed to the brim. 1t has not yet
overflowed. Carmel leaves the room.
She has a telephone message to de-
liver, She may be gone a minute; she
may be gone many. Little does he
care which. He must see the dead,
look down on the woman who has
been like a mother to him and see if
her influence is forever removed, if his
wealth is his and his independence for
ever assured.