St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-07-14
WITNESS TO
THE DEED
By NJ. QUAD
Copyright. 1914. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.l

! thief was the parlor maid. / knew it
| from her actions. and three months
after 1 left the house she was caught
| in similar offense and owned up to
the first theft However, the crime
was laid on me, and because l made
| indignant and perhaps impudent pro-
| test ] was flung out Of the house at
half an hours notice and refused
character L was idle for the next
three months. The first thing demand
ed when l applied for place was a
character. AS soon as it was learned
that 1 had none it was useless to talk
further. 1t was for this reason that 1
finally paid a fee to an intelligence
Office in Margate street and was at
| length sent for to take a place at gen
eral housework. 1t was an old man
named Dyson who wanted me. He
was willing to take me without a
character because he would have to
pay less wages and because, as he
grimly asserted. there was nothing ly-
ing around loose in his house for me
to steal. AS we sat face to face l
sized him up as mean and penurious,
but did not see any evil in him. He
had an aged and infrm wife, he told
me, and 1 would be the only servant.
1t was not for me to pick and choose.
1 must have a place and hold it long
enough to get a character again.
went with him miles and miles out on
the HolbOrn road. and we at last ar
rived at the cheaply built and cheap
looking cottage he occupied. 1t was
place devoid of almost all conveniences
and had been selected for its cheap
rent. 1 found the old wife deaf. almost
blind and palsied, and it was apparent
that she had no care whatever.
1 soon had evidence that he was in
love with widow in the neighbOrhood,
or at least he desired to be free so that
he could marry her. My natural i'm
pulse on finding out how he felt toward
his wife was to flee the house, but
have explained how 1 was situated.
In the course of a couple of weeks
he declared that the cellar was full of
rats and gave me money and command
ed me to buy arsenic. He recommend
ed me to go to a store miles away and
| to say that l wanted it for my COM
plexion and to give my own name.
went to a drug store only two blocks
away and gave his name, and when he
discovered this he was highly indig-
nant for day, and l rather expected
| to be thrown out. However, in the
course of three or four days he devel-
oped another plan. After coaching the
old wife he left me alone with her for
the first time, and she begged me to
| get her some laudanum for toothache
and not to mention tie matter to him.
| 1t was easy to tel that she had been
coached what to say. and L refused to
buy the drug. A few days later as I
was preparing her a soup had to leave
the kitchen for a minute. When re-
turned the soup was giving out
strange odor, and being satisfied that
her husband had poisoned it /. Of
course. threw it away. He scOlded
about my waste, but when 1 looked
him squarely in the eyes he dropped his
! and had no more to say.
had been with the DysOnS five years
when the climax came. The old wo-
man was holding her own if not get
ting better. and the husbands impa-
tience had a savage edge to it. Their
! bedroom was on the north side of the
house. All along on that side was a
deep excavation for a factory.
At 10 o'clock one night lay wonder
| ing if he really meant to take her life
and how he would finally accomplish
| it, when | heard a half suppressed
scream from his room. l got softly out
of bed and went to the farther door,
and, looking through crack, I saw
that the window was up and that he
stood before it with his wife in his
arms. She was hanging on to him with
fingers of steel and making a great
struggle. heard him breathing heav-
| lily and snarling and growing as he
tore her fingers loose, but l did not
know what he planned to do till OF a
sudden he staggered to the open win
dow and flung her out She screamed
as she went to her death. and in my
fright / echoed the scream. l remem-
Der the man rushing across the room
at me, of his dashing open the door, of
his striking me down, and then came
darkness which lasted for weeks. He
/ had struck me with a piece of iron and
| fractured my skull. He then carried
my body downstairs and bore it a
! quarter of a mile away and flung it
into another excavation. Before tax
ing me from the house he put on my
hat and cloak, and thus it appeared to
those who found my unconscious body
next morning that l had been coming
home the night before and fallen into
the pit. AS to his wife. he gave the
alarm and brought the police and made
out that it was a case of suicide. While
he was fast asleep. as he claimed. she
had stolen to the window and leaped
| to her death.
His story went. and it was several
months before there was any contra
! diction i had a fractured skull, brain
| fever and pneumonia and for weeks
and weeks lay as one dead. When l
hended my memory was confused. and