Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1884-04-12 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

FROM THE DEAD MAN'S FIT. Oxs bright morning, toward the close of Septem or, Arden strolled to a nook, a mile above the fall, filled with rocks and water plants ; and ha became no absorbed in transferring them to his sketch-book, that time passcd insensibly on. The hours from dawn till eleven he reserved to the claims of his art; the remainder of the day was devoted to other 1-as entrancing labours. It was his mual custom to bring with him a bmket containing his frugal breakfast, but this morning he had forgotten it, and toward ten o'clock he dacm ered that he was very hungry. Reluctantly closing his portfolio, he turned his loitering steps towards the cottage, pausing every now and then to catch some new beauty in the flitting shades of light upon the hint sidos._  Soddenly there was a noise- a rumbling of the earth around, andlragmenta of glass and wood were thrown into the air. One wild glance showed him that the domed roof was blown from the cat ,go, I ana, casting down all that impeded his steps, he ran • with wild speed towards the scene of the disaster. But he was half a mile distant, and many momenta elapsed before he reached the entrance of the -Ot. tage. Swifty passing throueh the hall, he found the door which separated Carlyle's laboratory room from the body of the house thrown from its hinges, and with inexpressible anguish he saw his cousin lying amid the wrecks of his apparatus, utterly lifeless. To raise him up, scan his lineaments, and sink down in utter hopelessness, was the work of a , moment for he who had studied every phase of death soon artist, saw its unmistakable impress upon the features of the fallen man. Yet there was an enI premien of resistance and anguish upon them, which forbade the idea that he had perished from the effects of the explosion. I In his wild agony, Arden called loudly on Carlyle's ammo ; but, alas! on earth he would never more respond to that call. He lifted him up, and placed him upon a large chair ; as he did so, he saw with dilating eyes, that a stream of blood welled slowly from his throat. A brief elimination satisfied hiss that his couein had not perished from the explosion, but that a sharp weapon had severed the jugular vein at one blow. Then he knew that he had been murdered, and a sickening sense of self-accusation overeame him. Be had brought him there, in spite of all the warnings whi.h should have turned him from his purpose. A sudden tremor came over him, and cold drops gathered on his brow : for he remembered that he had lured his kinsman to that lonely spot ; he was next heir to property which many thought had been unjustly bestowed upon i Carlyle to hie own injury; they were alone in the house, end he might he accused of having corn( patled his death._  Ile lookid wildly around tor help. His eyes fell upon the box containing the plates which Carlyle had shown him a short time before. Their Conner' sation dashed upon his mind ; and he rushed to his own room, to remove the instrument with which he took the daguerreotypes, in the faint hope that he might gain • clue to the murderer, by taking a picture of the eye of the dead men. Those orb., which scarcely yet had begun to glaze in death, might be made to shadow forth the form on which they had last gazed, and thus reveal the dread secret of his tragic into. With incredible speed, Arden Paced the lens at the proper focus, took the prepared plate, and adjusted the figure of the dead man. The light from above fell upon the ghostly form, with the I fe. strt am slowly welling over the snowy linen of his shirt bosom, and he could have cried aloud in the agony of his metal that fearful sight; but this was no time to give way to emotion . he most to work to save himself from the foulest suspicion that ever darkened the fame of a man. Magnifying the eye to its utmost extent, with trembling hands he toed the aperture, road awaited the result. Twenty was count d more from the rapid pnlsatinns of his heart, than Ir.o any effort of his own, and he removet the plate.  13;eited as ho was, he submitted the idle. to tba usual chemical testa with extreme care, though he scarcely hoped for any successtd results to the experiment. It was alone suggested by the desperate