Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-07-30
THE
WOMAN IN BLACK
BIZ EDMUND CLERIHEW BENTLEY
by the Century Company.

corpse and giving an account of my
self, boggling with sheer same over
the absurdity of my wholly unsup-
ported tale as | brought charge
of mad hatred and hendish treachery
man who had never, so far as I
knew, had a word to say against me.
At every turn the cunning of Man
derson had forestalled me. His care
full concealment of such hatred was
a characteristic feature of the strate-
gem; only a man of his iron self
restraint could have done it. You
can see for yourselves how every
fact in my statement would appear,
in the shadow of Manderson's death,
a clumsy lie. | tried to imagine my
self telling such story to the coun-
sci for my defense. | could see the
face with which he would listen to
it; could read in the lines of it his
thought, that to put forward such
an impudent farrago would mean
merely the disappearance of any
chance there might be of a COM
mutation Of the capital sentence.
True, | had not fed; | had
brought back the body, l had hand
ed over the property. But how did
that help me? 1t would only sug-
gest that I had yielded to a sudden
funk after killing my man, and had
no nerve left to clutch at the fruits
of the crime; it would suggest, per-
haps, that | had not set out to kill
but only to threaten. and that, when
| found that had done murder, the
heart went out Of me. Turn it which
way | would, could see no hope of
escape by the plan of action.
The second of the obvious things
that | might do was TO take the hint
offered by the situation, and to fly
at once. That too must prove fatal.
There was the body. | had no time
to hide it in such way that it would
not be found at the first systematic
search. But whatever l should do
with the body, Manderson's not re-
turning to the house would cause
uneasiness in two or three hours at
most. Martin would suspect an &C
cident to the car, and would tele-
phone to the police. At daybreak
the roads would be secured and in
quiries telegraphed in every direc-
ton. The police would act on the
possibility of there being foul play.
They would spread their nets with
energy in such big business as the
of Henderson. Ports
and railway termini would be
watched. Within "a hours the body
would be found, and the whole
country would be on the alert for
me-all Europe scarcely less; did
not believe there was spot in
Christendom where the man accused
of Manderson's murder could pass
unchallenged, with every newspaper
crying the fact of his death into the
ears of all the world. Every stran-
ger would be suspected; every man,
woman and child would be detec-
tive The car, wherever | should
abandon it, would put people on my
track. If | had to choose between
two utterly hopeless courses, de-
cided, | would take that of telling
the preposterous truth.
But now I cast about desperately
Tor some tale that would seem more
plausible than the truth. Could |
save my neck by lie? One after
another came into my mind; | need
not trouble to remember them now.
Each had its own utilities and perils;
but every one split upon the fact
or what would be taken for fact
that l had induced Henderson to go
out with me, and the fact that he
had never returned alive. Notion
after notion | swiftly rejected as |
paced there by the dead man, and
doom seemed to settle down upon
me more heavily as the moments
passed. Then a strange thought |
came to me.
Several times had repeated to
myself half-consciously, as sort of
refrain, the words in which | had |
heard Henderson tell his wife that |
had induced him to go out. Mar
lowe has persuaded me TO go for a
run in the car. He is very
urgent about it, All at once it
struck me that, without meaning to
do so, was saying this In Mander |
sons voice.
Continued Tomorrow.