Year: 1877

l had parted from my cousin Charles
lightly and merrily, as people part who
expect to meet again in few days. II
l had thought of him at all, it was as
one who had been enjoying himself
while l plodded on in the duh city
counting house, when there came to me
one morning, a telegram from Rivers
dale, where he had been stopping.
had no idea, as L leisurely seated my
self TO open the message, that there was
anything more serious within than a
request that would send him his dress
ing-case, which he had left behind him,
than l had that any impossible thing
could happen.


Since then a telegram has always
given me thrill of horror. You can
fancy the shock the one 1 had just re.
ceived gave me, as, with careless Curl
osity, L east my eye over the paper to
read these words:


CHICHESTER HOTEL, RIvERsDALE-


Charles Beldee died last night Come at
once.


II. CHICHESTER.


Charlie had been my cousin and my
very dear friend Although not like
each other in any way, we had been
very intimate. We told each other our
love affairs, our little adventures. We
talked freely about other fellows, and
about the girls we knew. Indeed, we
were more frank than any but brothers
usually are with each other. The night
before we parted he had said to me, 81
shall be married before the year is out"
and he had let me look at picture he
wore against his heart. He was full OF
youth, and hope and beauty-dead. Oh,
no, it could not be! The telegram was
a cruel, practical joke, or some mistake
had been made. Charlie might be i'll,
wounded perhaps; but he was not dead (!


Quivering with horror, yet at every
instant doubling that the message told
the truth, i hastily crammed some linen
into my portmanteau, and drove in
cab TO catch the train. i had so far
failed to realize the truth when /
reached the station that half expected
10 see Charlie waiting there for me;
and when l was at the very door of the
hotel at Riversdale, | said to myself
that | was mad or in dream, that in
moment more l should be Knocked at for
my easy credulity, or should awaken
and find myself at home or in bed.


l was brought to full sense of the
awful truth in moment when 4 stout,
gentleman, with a round rosy face, on
which its present expression of anxiety
and trouble looked utterly unnatural,
advanced towards me, and said, in
something of the tone in which people
speak at funeral, ''Mr. Ross, be-
lieve. My name is Chichester"


"You telegraphed to me-" / gasped.
"Is it's it true?"


"I grieve to say that il is only too
true, Mr.. Ross" he answered. ''Come
into this room. There is a painful
curiosity in the house about the event,
and we must secure privacy"


followed him, growing faint and
dizzy as / went on, and fell, rather than
sank into chair which he had moved
toward me. | looked at him, without
being able to speak, and he, after
pause, broke the silence.
alt is very horrible thing. The
mystery is the most awful part. You
know that your cousin was in excellent
health when he left you. He was in
good spirits, also. His intended wife is
at the hotel with her parents. They
spent the evening together. He seemed
very happy. Do you know of any rea-
son why he should commit suieide?"


"why he should commit suicide?" l
gasped.


The landlord answered: "It Is either
suicide or murder. He was found dead
in his bed this morning, with great
wound over his heart. A knife was
living loosely in his right hand. His
left was so tightly clenched, that the
nails are buried in the flesh. Something
seems to be clutched in it-what we
cannot tell Mr.. Ross, / fear very much
that il is murder-that in my house
your COUSIN lile mas ocoh eoASn v
some enemy or robber. In my house
1 can never forgive myself for sleeping
so soundly that night-for feeling no
presentiment of danger. Many night,
doubtful of my Waterman, have stolen |
out of my bed and gone in my slippers
from door to door, anxious about gas,
anxious about fire, fearful that the valu-
abes that some of my guests bring with
then might prove temptation to burg
lars. My wife has often laughed at Inc
for m, nervousness. And that night
slept-hat night when murder was
being Smmitted under my roof?'


The ans trouble was so genuine,
that In Se midst of my sorrow SYM
pathiz9 with him. remember saying