Year: 1878

looked up in surprise as we entered, and the
light falling strongly on his face, while all the
rest of the room was in darkness, l thought |
saw paleness come and 60 on his gloomy fea'
lures but that might have been fancy.


"What is your business?' he began but
Mr.. Barnes, the chief constable, cut him short.


II am sorry to inform you, Mr.. Parkway"
he said, chat hold warrant for your ar
rest, and you must consider yourself in custo-
dy."


Parkway stared at him, mechanically
closed the book he was reading, and said
"On charge of what, sir?"


"For murder" says Barnes; and then was
sure Parkway did turn white. "For the
murder of Miss Parkway, at Combestead, in
1885,"


Parkway looked from one to the other of
us for few seconds without speaking; at
last his eyes settled for an instant on Lyther-
ly; then turning to Barnes, he said, pointing
strait to Lytherly; "It was that man, have
no doubt, who set you on"


"You had better not say anything, Sir"
said the chief constable, "but just give your
servants what orders you wish, and come
with US, as we cannot stop"


II dare say it was be-" continued Park
way, not answering Mr.. Barnes, but seeming
to 20 on with his own thoughts. 81 fancied
he was dead, for what took to be his ghost
had been seen in my room every night tor the
past month. Where is my wife p


We told him she was not at home, and that
we were anxious to spare her as far as pos.
sible; but he gave such bitter smile, and
said: "She will certainly be vexed to have
had a. husband that was hanged but she
will be glad to be widow on any terms"


We didn't want to hear any more of this, so
we got him away not without some little
trouble though and if there had not been so
many of US, we should have had scene; as
it was, we were obliged to handcuff him.


"Don't insult the man, now he's down." I
said in whisper, while Parkway and the
two officers got into a carriage Lytherly
and were to ride outside and drive.


"IDsult him the wretch |" she said: "You
don't suppose he has any feelings to hurt He
has been trying to drive ry poor young mis-
tress, that I nursed when q baby, into her
grave, and be would have done it if had net
been here. The only excuse is, he is and al
ways has been, dangerous Iunatic."


We drove of, and 1 saw no more of her,
and never heard how Mrs. Parkway took the
intelligence


The lady was present at the preliminary
examination and to her great surprise her
carbuncle brooch was taken from her and
used against her husband. This examination
was on the next morning, and we obtained
more evidence than we had at first expected.
Not only was the carbuncle marked as Lyth-
erly had said it would be, but had been up
at the station, being unable to shake off old
habits and had made some inquiries there
Strangely enough, the man who was head
porter now had been ead.porter there five
years ago Git is a very sensible way railways
have of keeping good man in the same posi-
ton always; promotion generally upsets and
confuses things and he was able by seconda-
ry facts, to fix the dates and to show that not
only did Mr.. Parkway 60 to Combestead for
the funeral, but that he went to London and
back just before from London, of course, he
could easily get to Combestead, and bis ab.
sence left him about time to do 80. We pro-
posed then to have remand and get evidence
from Combestead; but it was never needed.


Parkway had been expecting this blow for
years, and always kept some deadly poison
concealed in the hollow of his watch-seal.
This he took on the night after his examina-
ton, and was found dead in his cell by the
officer who went the rounds. He first wrote
very long and minute confession, or rather
justification, showing that his motive had
been to prevent his cousins marriage with
Lytherly, whom he seemed to hate very much,
although the young man had never harmed
him. He said he went expressly to Combe-
stead to get possession of the money his mis-
guided relative had drawn, and to kill her.
He felt that if he left her alive she would
carry out her scandalous plan, and therefore
it was his duty to kill her; so in doing this he
felt he had committed no crime, but had only
been an instrument of justice. So 1 suppose
he was, as the housekeeper declared, dan
gerous lunatic.


However, the reward of e100 had never
been withdrawn, and I got it; it was paid
out of Parkwayss estate too, which was about
the strangest 60 l ever heard of. Lytherly
and bis wife are great friends with Mrs. Rob-
inson and myself; indeed, we have usually
one of their young ones staying with US when
we haven't one or two from my married
daughter. Mrs. Parkway, l heard, sold off
at the Mount, and went away and some time
after I saw by the papers that she was mar.
to some one else. l hope she made better
match the second time.


On the whole, on looking back l am in
clined to think that of all the clues by which
ever found anybody out, this was really the
...-.,. 0Ln~Io..j To,,n,oJ