The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-05-22

away, out Sne Dent anu kiSSeu Hiih
Confess everything everything"
she whispered. "The good father will
give you dissolution"
But she quilted the room, and John |
Blake was left alone with the dying |
man whose breath came in quick spurts
as he gasped out his horrible story and
made confession "for the ease Of his
soul" Three-quarters of an hour later,
sick at heart, John Blake left the room,
where an old woman moaned over the
dead body of the man who had CON
fessed", man whose hands were
stained with blood, and who, overcome
by remorse, perhaps half-demented by
fear, had in a sudden fit Of passion
attempted his own life. Now he lay
dead, slain by his own hand, and the
mother "keened" over him, as. though
he were still son over which a moth
er might feel sorry of losing.
By the time he had reached his
chamber, had bath, smoked a cigar
cite and changed his clothing, John
Blake began to look back on the
strange episode as a dream. By the
putting DC of the soutane of the priest
he became himself again, and with
that remembrance of his own pain
swept back upon him. He groaned
| and hid his face in his hands.
All that day and the next Blake
brooded over things; but brooding
brought him no relief, and he began
to regard it as part of the inevitable;
then on the morning of the third day
he got shock. Cathcart had been ar
rested for murder, so the newspapers
| told him, the knowledge of the night
before not reaching Blake owing to
his seclusion of the two last days. He
read over the sordid details, and again
that sense of detachment seized him
ing a picture in which he himself is
one of the figures.
The story was of nauseating type
and the newspapers had not scrLpled
to gloat over the details. The murder
ed girl was reported to have heard Of
Cathcarts newly announced engage
ment and had become troublesome; he
had been seen to leave the fiat on the
night of the MURDER neighbors spoke
Of hearing high words between them
They knew him we'll by sight, and the
| case looked black against him. TheI
something sprang up and took Blak,
by the throat.
That strange confession he hat
heard! How the details tailed!
"She was my gal, father, till tina
ere bloomin' toff came along wi hi
wheedlin' ways an his money"
How the wheezy, death-haunte,
voice came back to him now!
81 watched i'm out knitted
'er." 1t was the letters that gave tn
police the clew
''Thort she was straight
lied to me got her marriag
The marriage certificate shown,
that Cathcart had indeed legally mar
ried the murdered girl was the mos
damning bit of evidence against him
The curious thing seemed to be tina
he had not secured this, for in tn
search the police came upon it easily
John Blake sat there with his hear
pounding away like a sledge hammer
face to face with the biggest problem
OF his life. Cathcart, BLACKBURN,
though he might be, out-and-ou
scoundrel that he was, coward, an,
worse than coward, as he had beel
proven to be, was accused of murder
and John Blake, his rival, was the onl.
man in London who knew the trutl
and could prove that he had beel
wrongfully accused.
The struggle was soon over H
went to Cathcart's counsel with hi
story, the old woman was quickl.
found. and the rest was easy.