The Adair County news., 1915-04-21
WITNESS TO
THE DEED
By M. QUAD
t('opyright. 1914. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.l

Ny mistress in GainSboro road had
lost rs note in the house. and the
thief was the parlor maid. l knew it
from her actions. and three months
after left the house she was caught
in a 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 a
character. I was idle for the next
three months. The first thing demand
ed when applied for Il place was a
character. AS soon as it was learned
that | had none it was useless to talk
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 nose in his house for me
to steal. AS we sat face to face |
sized him up as mean and penurious,
but ] did not see any evil in him. He
had an aged and infirm wife. he told
me, and | would be the only servant.
1t was not for me to pick and choose.
l must have Il place and hold it long
enough to get 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 found the old wife deaf. almost
blind and palsied. and it was apparent
that she had no care whatever.
l soon had evidence that he was in
love with a 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 l was situated. o
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 | wanted it for my COM
plexion and to give my own name. l
went to drug store only two blocks
away and gave his name, and when he
discovered this he was highly indig
nant for a 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 be left me alone with her for
the first time. and she begged me to
get her some laudanum for toothache
and not to mention the matter to him
1t was easy to tell that she had been
coached what to say, and l refused to
buy the drug. A few days later as
was preparing her soup l had to leave
the kitchen for a minute. When 1 re
turned the soup was giving out a
strange odor, and being satisfied that
her husband had poisoned it l, of
course, threw it away. He scolded
about my waste, but when l 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-
thence had savage edge to it. Their
bedroom was on the north side Of the
house. All along on that side was a
deep excavation for 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 I heard q half suppressed
| scream from his room. l got softly out
Of bed and went to the farther door,
and, looking through crack, l saw
| that the window was up and that he
stood before it with his wife in his
arms. She was hanging onto him with
fingers of steel and making a great
struggle. heard him breathing heav-
fly and snarling and growing as he
tore her fingers loose, but l did not
know what he planned to do till of q
sudden be staggered to the open win
dow and flung her out She screamed
as she went to her death. and in my
fight echoed the scream. remem
Der the man rushing across the room
at me, of his dashing open the door. OF
Il