The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-08-29
CHAPTER FOURTEEN. Continued


velope with an eager hand. His
first glance at the pages of writ
ing which it contained made him
give a sta1.
"Oh, the villain, the villain!''
he said. "How was it possible for
such a monster to EXIST What a
loathsome brute!"
In a jerky voice, which became
almost ihaudible at times owing
to his amazement, he read:
The end is reached. My hour is
striking. Put to sleep by me, Edmond
is dead without having been reused
from his Inconsistencies by the fire
OF the poison. My own death agony is
beginning. I am suffering all the tor
lures Of hell. My hand can hardly write
these lines. I suffer. how l suffer!
And yet my happiness is unspeakable.
This happiness dates back to my
visit to London, with Edmond, four
months ago. Until then, l was drag
ging OF the most hideous existAuce,
hiding my hatred Of the m who
detested me and who loved another,
broken down in health, feeling myself
already eaten up with an ~unrelentfng
disease, and seeing my son grow
daily more veal and languid.
In the afternoon l consulted a great
physician and I no longer had the least
doubt left: the malady that vas eat
Ing into me was ancer And I knew
besides, that, like myself. my son Ed
mend was on the road to the grave,
in >urably stricken with consumption.
That same evening / conceived the
magnificent idea Of revenge. And such
a revenge! The most dreadful of &C
cusations made against a man and a
woman in love with each other!
Poison! The assizes! Penal servi-
tude, The scaffold! And no assistance
possible, not a struggle. not a hope!
Accumulated proofs, proofs so formid-
able as TO make the innocent them
selves doubt their own innocence and
remain hopelessly and helplessly dumb.
What a revenge! And what
o punishment! To be innocent and
to struggle vainly against the very
facts that accuse you, the very GER
tainty that proclaims you guilty.
And l prepared everything with q
glad heart. Each happy thought. each
Invention made me shout with laugh
ter. Lord, how merry / was' You
would think that cancer hurts; not a
BIT of it! How can you suffer physical
pain when your soul is %quivering with
delight? Do you think l feel the
hideoGs Turning Of the poison at this
moment?
l am happy. The death which l
have inflicted on myself is the begin
ming of their torment. Then why live
and wait for n natural death which to
them would mean the beginning of
their happiness? And as Edmond had
to die, why not save him a lingering
Illness and give him a death which
would double tho crime of Marie and
Sauverand?
: The end is coming. l had to break
off: the pain was too much for me.
Now to pull myself together. .
How silent everything is! outside the
house and in the house are emissaries
OF the police watching over my crime.
Al no great distance, Marie, in obedi-
ence 10 my letter, is hurrying to the
TRUSTING place, where her beloved will
not come. And the beloved is roam
ing under the windows where his dar-
ling will not appear.
OH, the dear little puppets whose
string ! pull! Dance! jump! Skip,
lord. what fun they are! A rope
round you neck, sir; and, madam, a
rope round yours. Was it not you. sir,
w!ia poisoned Inspector Verot this
anorn.ns and followed him to the Cafe
du PoIt-Nuef, with your grand ebony
walking stick? Why, Of course it was!
AMI at night the pretty lady poisons
Gic and poisons her stepson. Prove ii?
Well, what about this apple, madam,
this apple which you did not bite into
pnd which all the same will be found
10 bear the marks of your teeth? What
fen. Dance! Jump! Skip!
-And the letters! The trick of my
letters to the late lamented LANCER
nault! That was my browning tri-
uraph. Oh, the JOY of 1t. when / in
vented and constructed my little me-
Chalical toy! Wasn't it nicely thought
out? Isn't it wonderfully neat and ac-
cu:ate? On the appointed day, click,
tie first letter! And, 10 days after,
click, the second letter. Come. there's
NJ hope for YOU, my poor friends,
you're nicely done for. Dance! Jump.
SKIP.
Ind what amuses me--for / am
laughing now-is to think hat nobody
will Lnow what to make of IL. Marie
and Sauverand guilty: of that there
Is not the least doubt. But, outside
THAT. absolute mystery.
Nobody will know nor ever will know
anything. In a few weeks time. when
tho TWO criminals are i~rrevocabiy
doomed. when the letters are in the
hands Of the police. on the 25th, or.
rather, at 8 o'clock on the morning OF
the oGth OF May, an explosion will de-
s.roy every trace OF my work. The
bomb is in it's place. A movement en-
tirely Independent Of the chandelier
will explode it at the hour aforesaid.
/ have Just laid beside 1T the drab