The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1881-12-24 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

CHAPTER 111.  The unfortunate Edward Brougham—described in the preceding narrative as Ned— remained for days in a comatose state, unable to give any amount of what had happened. His recovery was despaired of; and there was a general howl of indignation against his supposed assailant, John Smith. But Edith Brougham declined to believe in the latter's guilt, asserting that, however damning appearances might be, he was the victim of a combination of circumstances. So positive was she that she sought him out, heard all that he had to say, and, kissing him, promised to love him to the end. She asked help and sympathy from her friends, but they gave her little of either. To them the guilt of John Smith was clear. Had not his own pistol been found by the side of his murderous hand? and had he not been suspected by the police for some time? It was trim that he made wild accusations against hi old friend—the respectable Mr. Brown—and that the money which he said had been left in the safe was not to be found there, but all that did very little except show the cunning of the deeprate criminal. Her soul, however, rose equal to the emergency, though she had been deemed weak-hearted and fragile. She paid a visit to the philanthropic Mr. Brown, who received her with that gentle courtesy which was his most beautiful characteristic, and pathetically assured her that he mourned siacerely over the offending and hallucinations of the young man whom he had loved as a son; while the fascinating Alice sadly declared that she had lost for ever her dearest friend—doing BO in such a meaning manner as to cause a pang of jealousy to shoot through poor Edith's heart. Still, Edith was not satisfied of the innocence of the philanIhropist ; and, as she gazed round the room, discomfitted and disconsolate, she noticed a line on the floor where the carpet had appal% ently been accidentally turned up. She thought little of it at the moment, but after she had been bowed to the door, and her hand had been tenderly shaken by Mr. Brown, who cordially urged her not to hesitate to come to him whenever she thought he could do anything to assist.her in the melancholy affair, a light seemed to flash on her, and she impulsively went to the nearest magistrate, whom she urged to grant a search warrant for the cottage. The justice treated her with courtesy, but he assured her that what she asked for it was impossible to grant, as there really was not the smallest foundation for her suspicions, nor any reason why a respectable man like Mr. Brown should be subjected to the annoyance she desired. He evidently thought that her trouble had somewhat affected her reason, and addressed her in the aggravating way which such Scions invariably adopt towards those whom they suppose to be of weak intellect. The rebuff humiliated and discomposed her, and, for a while, she was crushed, but her spirit rose again, and she bravely determined to make one more effort. She went to a private enquiry agent, and laid her' case before him. He, being feed, showed a disposition to huthour her whims; and suggested that tho best thing to do would be to set a watch on the cottage and the movements of Mr. Brown; but nothing of any importance resulted from the adoption of that course, the spies reporting that the philanthropist seldom went abroad, and that when he did he was invariably accompanied by his daughter and.by the treatise on maggots, and rarely walked beyond the common or further than the naturalist's shop in Big,town. Several days having been thus fruitlessly  spent Edith Brougham despairingly asked the detective if there were no means by which a search could be made of Mr. Brown's cottage, for she still clung, with strange tenacity, to the hope that beneath the peculiar line on the floor would be found something  which would throw a fresh light on matters. The detective replied that he knew of no such means unless, he facetiously added, she chose to go into the burgling business herself; and there the matter ended so far as he was con cerned. But his clumsy joke set Edith thinking. She went home and devoted herself to the study of locks, springs, and mechanical appliances generally, and, under the guidance of a brother, whose genius had led him to become associated in, business with a celebrated manufacturer of such things, she became quite an adept in the use of chisels and other tools. She also learned the prin-' ciple on which a floor spring might be made and worked.