LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5190, 22 December 1884, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MY PARTNER'S CRIME. (Concluded.) After a casual inspection of the room I turned to a massive door on my right hand, and, turning the handle, found, greatly to my surprise, that it opened freely and without noise. As I crossed its thresfchold it closed behind me with a loud bang. The next instant the very marrow in my bone 3 seemed to turn to ice! Great heavens ! It was the ro^m of my thrieerepeated dream! I reeled from side to side like a drunken man as the vivid realisation of my horrible vision rose before me. Yes, there it was — real, tangible! No mere resemblance or coincidence, br.t : the very room itself ! Correct not only in its outlines but even to the minutest detail?. There stood the heavy antique ! bedstead, with its funeral hangings and — { hark ! What is that cry that strikes my ear ! The low, anguished, despairingmoan I had heard in my sleep ! At that sound an unnatural calmnefg came upon me ; my pulses ceased their wild throbbing, my nerves hardened, and with a strong ! step I walked straight to the bed, whilst ! with a firm hand I drew aside the curtains, • and my eyes fell upon a sight such as I • pray God I may never see again, a sight : that at once dissipated all superstitious j dread, and filled me with the keenest grief, • the tenderest pity. i On the bed lay an old woman, with Jong f white lock ■ floating over pillow and ! counterpane. The face was turned towards me, and oh ! what a face it was. Tie j shattered v. reck of what must once have ; been a rare and winsome beauty. I saw that at a glance. Sorrow and suffering had driveff their double-shared plough deep into the pliant loveliness, and had made awful havoc of their work. The once graceful form was thin and emaciated, and from the large blue eyes the sweet light of reason had gone out. Their wild, hunted expectant look would have melted a heart of stone, " What ghastly mystery have I happened upon ?" I asked myself, as I stood there, transfixed. Again that sad, heart-broken moan. I stooped and smoothed back the silvery hair from the broad, wrinkled brow. The action seemed to rouse the sufferer, for the restless, eager eyes sought my face, and as they did so there stole into them the glow, of an unspeakable fondness. Seizing my hands, she cried in glad tones — " Ah, you've coice at last darling ! I knew you would ; but it has been, oh, so weary, waiting — waiting ! They told me onee — ever so long ago — that you were dead ; and that I had killed you ! Ah. ! they were only trying rue ; they wanted to see how niueh I loved you, husband mine ; didn't tliej' ? But I knew yo :t would come, love — 1 knew you would come ; •;h, it's been weary, weary waiting." The poor, demented creature laid my hp.n«l under her hot shrivelled fuee, and looked up at me with an infinite tenderness of expression. " Kiss me, love !" she exclaimed pathetically, lifting her ,face towards me. What could Ido ? I knew that the poor disordered brain was feeding the heart upon delusive fo"d : memories of a shattered past. Thotojfoobied intellect traced some fancied resemblance in me to a lost love of the hapy-y lon:» ago, but there ires such yearning in voice and look that 1 yielded to nn irrepressible impulse, and, stooping, pressed my lips upon the ciuaviated oheek. I hastened from the rooiK, and out of the house as though my very life depended upon my escape. Jumping upon my horse, I galloped „11' of the tip of his sliced, to the Grange. Sir Gideon Franklin was in the library, where I hurriedly told Tr." ~tr«nge story. The incredulous look on his face clian »•<:-•! to one of absorbing interest, and 1 hr.il hr.vlly finished before ho rr\:: - the VvH and

ordered a dog-cart round to the library. " Honkstone and you had better come with me, without saying a word to the others," ke cried excitedly ; "good Godi fancy one lining near to some awful mystery, for years perhaps, and treating the whole tiling aa a silly superstition ! The ghost of Eedcott is accounted for now ; by heavens ! if there has been any foul play going on, I'll get to the bottom oi it, if it coste me all I possess." The baronet left the room ia great perturbation ; but returned in a few minutes equipped for the journey, and accompanied by Lord Monkstone. The cart waa at the window, and we stepped into it. and got away unperceived. When we reached Eedcott we dismounted cautiously, and leaving the groom in charge of the horse and trap, made our way to the side door by which I had entered, and which was BtiJl unbolted. Once inside, Lord Monk3tone produced a lark lantern from his pocket and lightei. it. I went first as guide. "We soon form! our way to tho room, and drew near tlu* bedside of its poor mad occupant. She lay with her face to the wall, moaning piteously, and took no notice of our presence. Just as Sir Gideon Franklin laid hk hand softly upon her shoulder, the door by which we had gained admission "was suddenly pushed open by a wretched old hag, -whom I had never seen before. For a moment she stood dumbfounded, her cunning cruel face convulsed with a paroxysm of rage and malice. She hobbled briskly towards us, until she caught sight of the baronet's stern face, when her expression turned to one of abject terror, and she stood stockstill aa if rooted to tho spot, whilst an ashen hue spread over her forbidding features. The first to speak was Sir Gideon, who called the old creature to the bedside, and, pointing to the helpless victim, said gravely and sternly — "What is the meaning of this, Kitty Farkes ? Who is this poor woman, and how comes it that she is here in this condition ? Tell ma the whole truth now ; don't attempt to deceive me on your peril. How long has she been here ? Who left her in your care, and why has , iter presence been concealed from everyone? Answer me the3e questions at one, and that you keep nothing back." The cunning, tteep-set eyes v/andered uneasily from her questioner's face to those of his companions, and when the old sinner caw that she was hopelessly entrapped she volunteered to make a clean breast of it all. And here it is in substance, abbreviated from the shorthand notes which I made in my pocket-book at the time. Some 20 years ago the husband of Kitty | Parkes had been tried in a distant county for the murder of a gamekeeper, but through the skill displayed by the solicitor who conducted the case, he had been acquitted of the graver charge.- A few months later that solicitor had removed to London, and before a year had passed away he wrote to the convict's wife, asking her if she was at liberty to undertake a responsible po3t at a liberal salary. The woman jumped at the offer at once, as she had led bat a hard life since her husband's committal to penal servitude. She was instructed to proceed on a certain day to Beechcroft, where she would meet her employer, and learn the nature of her occupation. Ai the appointed time she arrived at her destination, and was met by the solicitor, with whom she proceeded to Eedcott House. There her duties were to be unfolded to her. She was told that in a few days a lady would be placed in her care, who was to be watched over night and day. She was never to be allowed to leave the house on any pretext ■whatever, and no one wa3 to enter the premises for any purpose. These and other conditions were laid down, and it was added that the lady in question had been guilty of a terrible crime which necessitated her whereabouts being kept a profound secret, for some considerable time at least. Moreover, it. was stated that her fearful position had so far shaken her reason as to render her completely oblivious of the event referred to. On all other points she was perfectly sane. Mrs Parke3 was further given "to understand that on her fidelity to these instructions the continuance of a handsome remuneration would depend. The greed for gold was the dominant passion of this wretched "creature's nature, so that the bait offered was irresistible. Tti due time the patient arrived (at . night), and was placed, unwillingly on her part, in the care of the cruellest gaoler that ever held key 3. At first she treated her unhappy prisoner with as much kindness as her coarse nature was capable of, and it wa3 during this time that she discovered the true facts of the case. Her charge wa3 the wife of the lawyer who had opened the negotiations. He had married her without the knowledge of his friends, and in an assumed name. Whilst travelling on the Continent her beauty and grace had attracted general admiration. One or two male acquaintances were foolish enough to arouse the mad jealousy of the husband, a stern and pitiless man when anything crossed hi 3 purpose. A terrible domestic storm ensued^ On one side threats and taunts that weTe altogether undeserved ; on the othe •, defiance and wild reproacK The innocent wife, too proud to explain, knew little of her jealous husband's real nature. A lifelong imprisonment in the gloomy house of Eedcott wa3 her punishment, whilst the newspapers of the day contained an announcement of her death in Italy. In a short time the horrora of her helpless condition did their fatal work in the dethronement of her reason. So we found her, a harmless imbecile, aged J>ef ore her time! For nearly twenty years she had looked upon no human face but that of her grim custodian, and there she would have died but for the strange accident of my entering Eedcott, during Aihe temporary absence of old Kitty Parker, who had gone shopping to the town, and had forgotten to secure the small side-door. Horror and disgust filled our minds during the recital of this inhuman tragedy, it would be hard to say who felt his position most keenly — Sir Gideon Franklin or Lord Monkstone. The former, that he should have spent twenty years in the locality of such a crime without having discovered it. The hitter, that his tenement should have been the scene of its perpetration. All attempts to obtain possession of the name of the incarnate fiend j who had subjected a loving, innocent, and beautiful wife to such torture, proved ] unavailing, until we threatened the depraved old woman with the utmost rigour of the law. Then the truth came out. The blasting, awful truth, which, for the nonce, turned two of her hearers into stone. ! Even at tMs distance of time I shudder at the recollection of my emotions on that dreadful Christmas eve, when the terrified I wretch who cowered before us pronounced j the true name of her villainous employer to be — Jonathan Harehfield. When we had recovered in some measure j the first shock of harrowing amazement, we turned our attention to the sufferer on j the bed, who had made no movement during the tiiao we were listening to the melancholy story of her incarceration. As we approached the bed-side we were struck by the stillness of the occupant. " She sleeps," said Lord Monkstone, in a whisper. "Never to wake again in this sinful world I " solemnly answered Sir Gideon, as he bent over her. Te3, it was all over. All the grief and madness, all the infinite agony of the broken heart, and in the place of them was — Best ! * * * After a hurried discussion, the groom was ordered to remain in possession until further help arrived, and he was cautioned not to let old Kitty Parke3 out of hi 3 sight, whatever he did. Oa our return journey to the Grange it v<a3 determined that Sir Gideon Franklin and I should proceed to London by the first train leaving LHtle Kibton, and interrogate my partner • -i the subject of our frightful discovery. V.'c were both unwilling to believe him capable of the enormous sin which Kitty Parkes Laid at his door. Lord Monkstone undertook to keep an oye \ipon things at Kedcott in our absence. Christians morn broke calm and bright, and sweet with all its hallowed mo uiorioc, as we alighted .it King's Cross. It wo.? a long cab drive to Mr Marshfield's private residence, but we reached it at last. Only to find that the bird had fiown! The hotisefcssc-er informed us that her master ii-dr- •••I~t U?~ to>:cr;iai la f e the prc-vi-?v.-»

niglit, and had gone from home for a few days, so he said. I asked to be shown into the library, under the pretext of having to write a note, really to discuss with my companion our next move in the sickening game. Just as I was about to seat myself at the side of the table"" nearest the empty fireplace, I noticed the half -consumed remains of a telegram in the embers of yesterday's fire. I stooped and picked it up. One glance told me that we were too 'late. Someone had warned him .' I passed the charred paper to my companion. It contained the words "Beechcroft" and "discovered." The rest wo were able to infer. Next morning's papers contained the startling intelligence that a passenger by one of the Dover boats to France had, shortly after midnight en Christmas-eve, deliberately jumped overboard in the Channel. His valise was found later on in the saloon, and bore the initials "J. M.," but contained no clue to the identity of the unhappy suicide. Some three days later I saw that valise, and knew beyond all doubt that my partner had expiated his crime. — Howell Da vies, in Diprose's Annual (abridge!!) .