Year: 1877

connect him with it. But have always
suspected, and so have many, that he
knew more than he was willing to tell. y


Ralph and were sitting at one ex-
tremity of the two parlors. A large
mirror was near us, and exactly oppo-
site this mirror in the other parlor was
another.


AS Ralph said these words, looked
round the rooms involuntarily in search
of Mr.. Byers.


He was nowhere to be seen, but glanc-
ing accidentally in the glass near me,
as / turned to address Ralph again, my
words froze ON my lips. For there,
staring at me from the mirror, was the
very face whose reflection had scared
me so in the drawing-room of the sleep
ing-car year bofore. The very same
handsome, wicked, sneering-in the
eyes the same expression of mingled
fear and threatening, on the face the
same livid and horrible whiteness, and
as our eyes met in the mirror he knew
me again, as knew him.


1 could not look away. thought I
beheld q vision. 1t was only by su-
preme effort that kept my senses, so
strongly did the old horror and terror
of that face, which had held me once,
hold me again now.


"Ralph," said in low voice, "look
where I am looking, and tell me if you
see anything"


Ralph obeyed.


81 see Cecil Byers glowering at us
like a Demon" he said. "He hates
me for loving you, l suppose f; and let
him, only don't you marry him, Lou.
1 could bear to lose you myself better
than to see you the wife of that devil" |"


Cecil Byers | Odd as it may seem, I
had not recognized that awful face in
the glass as his, till Ralph named him.
1 put my hand in Ralph's arm.


"Take me away out OF this room,
quick" / said "I never want to meet
Cecil Byers again. / am sure shall
scream or faint, or do something dread
full if do"


Ralph got me out of the room by the
nearest door, one which led out upon
the terrace, and then 1 quietly tainted
away, thing which L never did before
or since. AT the moment recognized
the face in the glass as the face of Cecil
Byers, that moment the whole circum-
stances of the strange story Ralph had
just told me seemed to rise before me
like monsters. / was back in the draw
ing-room of the sleeping-car again. 1
was watching in the mirror opposite me
that section half way down the car from
which / had beheld the palest and love-
iest of faces look with anxious eyes. L
was recalling the figure of tie man had
seen go gliding toward her, and L re-
membered now, though it had scarcely
occurred to me at the time, and never
been recalled since, that as l left the
car at Twenty second street, that very
section remained shut in by its draping
curtains, just as it had all night. Sud
denly the awful conviction burst in
upon me that Cecil Byers was a murder.
er, and that 1 had almost seen him do
the deed.


Was it any wonder / fainted9 The
next day went with my father before a
magistrate and told my story. I had
to do it. The angel face of that poor
murdered girl haunted me till 1 did,
and would have haunted me till died,
if 1 had not, for believe she had been
murdered. My story seemed very lit
tie when it was told, but when it was
proved that I was on the car that very
night, or rather morning, on which the
dead girl was found, and when swore
positively that it was Cecil Byers saw
go to her berth and come away from it,
the matter began to look worthy of in
vestigation.


1t was found that Byers had been seen
both in Chicago and Detroit before and
after that poor girls death.


He must have scented danger, for he
had left Chicago, they found, when
they went to arrest him for the murder.
They followed him, however, and cap.
tured him in New York. He was very
bold and defiant at first, but ultimately
confessed the cruel deed.


He had met the unfortunate girl
out walking, and had persuaded her at
last to consent to o secret marriage.
She had always been firm enough in
her refusal before, but now she had not
seen him in long time, and he was
very eloquent, and she did love him,
and she was of age. Besides, he prom
ised never to claim her as long as her
father lived, unless by his consent; 30
she yielded. They went on the cars
separately, he joining her afterward.


lie watched from the upper berth till
she fell asleep, and then creeping
dcwn, smothered her by holding plas-
ter of thick wax over her mouth and
nostrils. No wonder her eyes wore
such look of agony and horror even in
death. When Byers was asked why he
killed her, he answered almost coolly:


CT needed the money, and knew it
might be long time before l got the
handling of it If she lived"


But when she was your wife you
could have claimed it."


"Ah, that was just it. She could not
be my wife, because was already mar
ried. It was my wife who engaged the
section in the sleeping-car for her,"
"Where is your wife nowY"
"Dead," was the sullen answer, "as
she deserved to be-"


He deserved TO be hung, but he was
not. He sickened with some kind of
fever in the prison, and died there, with
out ever having shown much signs of
repentance. Such natures as his are
incapable of true repentance, 1 believe.