Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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CHAPTER XIII—Continued. ”1 don’t know; not long. I left my horse a mile from here in the old barn and walked the rest of the way. A, lit tle while ago some one passed me—I think it was John—riding back. I thought something must have happened, and I saw a light here and found the door ajar, so I came in." “I wish you had come at any other time,” said I, for I could not help per ceiving that her presence in the neigh borhood so near the hour of the murder might prove an awkward circumstance hereafter. “It wonld be best that no one should know of it. Are you afraid to go back to where you loft your horse?" "‘That is what I am going to do," she replied. “It is almost sunrise." “It will probably beat least two hours before the others are here,” I went on. “I advise yon to stay near the barn un til you hear them coming. Then nde to meet them and give them to understand that you lost your way in the woods. They will be too much preoccupied to take any special notice, and the whole thing will probably be forgotten.” “Why should there be any conceal ment?" she demanded, drawing her brows together. “Because,” said 1, “there has been a murder, and murders are followed by inquests. Everybody who can be sup posed capable of giving any information will be examined. If you were put on the stand, you might be asked questions that you would not wish to answer. There are things which yon have not told me. F ufire. Would you wish to tell them to the world?” “Nobody could make me say anything I did not wish to,” replied she, but after a little thought she added: “I suppo. e your advice is good. I won't be impru dent. But nothing seems of much con sequence compared with this.” The last words were spoken in a lower voice and with a sort of momentary drooping of her whole figure. But she pulled her self together promptly and faced me with a smile. “Goodby,” she said, hold ing out her hand. I took her hand in mine. “I’m not myself now, Sinfire,” I said. “I can’t be for some time to come. There are hard things to be done yet, and 1 must keep myself hard so as to do them. But when it is all over 1 shall have something to say. Meanwhile goodby." She went out, with her light, vigorous step, and I was alone again. It was now daylight. I put out my lamp and threw open the shutters. I went into the la boratory and drew aside the curtain of Saprani’s cage. 1 tapped on the glass and called to her. She came out from beneath her blanket, glided forward and reared herself up. She knows me well now and will allow me to take any respectful liberties with her. For my part I feel an affection for the beautiful, deadly creature that would seem absurd to any one else. This world is the heaven of animals. There is no past or future to them, no memory or hope, nothing but the full ness of the present. They are born into their sphere of life, and they fill it com pletely, whether it be mischievous or beneficent. But man, poor fellow! is little more than a striving, a regret, a folly and a disappointment. He never becomes what he is capable of being, and he is never satisfied with what he is. If it were not for this effortless self fulfill ment that we see In animals, the world would be a grim place indeed! And so it was a comfort to me to play with my qneen of cobras, knowing that she was untroubled and content, and that no rumor of the grief and dread and evil that made the day hateful to the rest of us would ever pass the portals of her consciousness or alter the serenity of her demeanor. I could hold her in my arms and let her coil around my neck; but, though she could feel the beating of my heart, no knowledge of what stirred it could ever cross the bottomless spiritual gulf between animal and human. Were I the wickedest or the most faultless be ing that ever lived on earth her relation to me would remain unchanged, pro vided I treated her with the same atten tion. The denunciations of my bitterest enemy would leave her as unmoved as the eulogies of my dearest friend. No one but myself can disturb her confi dence in me; the whole world would be powerless to shake it. Such an attitude has in it something of the sublime safety of eternity itself. Presently I heard noises and voices without, and I left Saprani with a mind once more composed. Tom had re turned, bringing the coroner and the vil lage doctor with him. They made their examination and took my deposition, and by the time that was over the wagon with mother and the rest had arrived. Sinfire rode up to the door on her horse and gave me a look as she dismounted to say that all was well. CHAPTER XIV. Death, as I have always believed, is no evil to those who die, but distress re mains behind them. It seems as if one calamity had a tendency to breed others, and when the sufferer most needs peace and repose he is most certain to be con fronted with fresh hostile influences. There is only one sure consolation to look forward to, and that is that the day will come when you, too, will die and in your turn leave all behind you. Mother’s condition gives me anxiety. John managed his mission clumsily and allowed her to discover too abruptly that her favorite son was murdered. A species of hysterics immediately seized upon her, accompanied by a tremor of the whole body that has remained ever since and yields to no treatment. She is old and for years has led an indolent and in some respects self indulgent life, and her vital energy is at a low ebb. She insisted npdu seeing the body before it had been properly arranged, and this made her worse. Knee then her mem orjr seems partially impaired. She ever aeon forgets what has happened and then again remembers it, and her anguish begins anew. If she does not soon recover, there Is a probability of her sinking into complete forgetfulness, and that perhaps wonld he easier for her than to continue in her present state. Snflre is constant in attendance on. hffl and bas taken charge of the household routine, much to the benefit of us all Sinfire is constant In attendance on her. The examinations and investigations are still proceeding in full vigor. John has eugaged the best detectives that are to be had, and there is little reason to fear that the burglars, if they were the murderers, can escape. It is a singular circumstance, however, that as yet no traces of the gang, later than three days before the fatal night, have been discov ered in this vicinity, nor do the detect ives agree with onr theory that the bur glaries were the result of local enter prise. They think they were the work of experienced and scientific profession als and are apparently at a loss to un derstand why they should needlessly have compromised themselves by staining their trail with blood. Such men kill only in the last extremity. John is restless and irritable and is constantly having speech with one or other of his detectives and making all sorts of crude and impracticable sugges tions. He sleeps badly, he tells me, and has fearful dreams. He is looking hag gard and ill and smokes from morning till night. He will accept no advice as to the care of his health. “If I can only catch the scoundrel that shot him,” he says, “1 don’t care what becomes of me.” He avoids Sinfire more than ever —1 presume because he hates to remem ber that he and Henry were in the posi tion of rivals for her favor. I don't know how he would feel if he knew as much about that matter as I do. I do all 1 can '• keep up his spirits, but nothing appeases him. “The only medi cine that will do me good is to see a hanging,” he declares. But, though 1 do not tell him so, it begins to look as if that comfort would be indefinitely post poned. The burglars have proved an alibi They were captured yesterday in Chi cago. There are three of them, all known already to the, police. They had in their possession some of the property stolen in this neighborhood and have confessed the robbery. But their move ments since three days before the mur der have been traced, and it is perfectly clear that they were all in Buffalo at the time it was committed. John is thun- derstrnck and bewildered, and I am greatly disappointed, though I must con fess that I was not entirely unprepared for this turn of affairs. There was a strong prima facie proba bility that the burglars were guilty; but, on the other hand, apart from their sup posed presence in the neighborhood ft the time, Ihere was every reason why they should have abstained from any capital crime. If Henry bad cornered them so that they could not escape, it wonld have paid them better to surren der than to get away by the sacrifice of his life, and the fact that Henry’s pistol was found undischarged in his pocket is evidence the more that he could not have put them in peril of either life or liberty. He was attacked unawares, and so far as can be seen unprovoked—that is to say, by some enemy who had been cherishing a grudge against him and had improved this opportunity to satisfy it. There was one circumstance, too, which struck me at the time, bnt which I mentioned to no one. that may have had something to do with his being sur prised in the way he wss. This circum stance was a flask of brandy, nearly empty, in a side pocket of his coat. 1 know that the flask was full just before he started for the lake, because he pro duced it in my room when he and John looked in to say goodby and took a pnll at it As he had already drunk a good deal, even for him, dnring the day, it is fair to surmise that he most have been somewhat overweighted by midnight. John, it is tme, does not seem to have noticed anything especially distraught in his behavior, bnt then John is a man who has room in his mind for but one thing at a time, and just then it was full of burglars.' Moreover, he could have seen but little of Henry after they took up their allotted stations in ambush. Tom, the groom, would be a more ex pert witness if I chose to interrogate him, bnt 1 did hear him observe, as if recalling a consolatory circumstance, that “Master ’Enry was a-feelin mighty good the night it ’appened.” It is even possible that he may have dropped asleep, Bnt these speculations are unimpor tant. Since it Is proved that he was not killed “in the way of business," as the detectives put it, it follows that he was a victim to some enemy, and the next step is to find out who bis enemies were. At first sight this would not seem diffi cult, for Henry was a man to make friends with everybody, and therefore his enemies should be few. Bnt, upon second thought, no one can be said to know ronch about Henry's real life, and it is often the good natnred, easy going men whose enemies, when they have any, are the bitterest and most unrelent- ing. Who can say into how many desperate scrapes Henry’s lax ways with women, for instance, may have led him? Some revengeful husband or brother may have been following him half way round the world, waiting hi* opportunity to strike his Wow. Manifestly we could hope to apprehend snch a person only by the merest chance. He might buy a house here and settle down tomorrow, and we should never recognise or even inspect H«u. A habit of secrecy and reticence may be all very well so long as a man lives or gets into no trouble, but then it is liable to react against him. Henry has prevented ns from knowing how to avenge or help him. M ean while the detectives, as their man ner is, seem disposed to exhaust what ever material may be at hand before go ing on to the region of speculation. In other words, they are aiming to find out what Henry’s relations were with the people with whom he was in contact here at home. This list wonld include practically no one besides John and my self, Tom, the groom, and Sinfire. We saw little company dnring his stay with us. and that only in the most formal way. Noone expects, of coarse, that the inquiry will result in anything. None of the persons named is likely to be seri ously suspected of any share in Henry’s death, bnt it is no donbt right and prop er that the form of investigation should be gone through with. It will leave the field dear for further investigation. John agrees with me in this, and as soon as the idea was suggested to him. he expressed himself as anxious to have it carried out. “If I shot him, I want to know it!” he said, with a touch of sav age humor. "You're not in it, yon know, Frank,” he went on; “your gouty toe, that yon found such fault with, served you that good turn at least. So it lies between Tom and me. And, upon my word,” he added after a moment’s thought, “either he or I might have done it, so far as opportunity goes! We can’t prove an alibi like the burglars and you!” I laughed, but the fact is I felt a little uncomfortable, not so much on John's or Tom's account as for another reason of which John as yet knows nothing. He thinks, as ever}-body else does, that Sinfire was miles away at the fatal mo ment But in truth no one but she her self knows exactly where she was after 13 o’clock that night. Should this leak out it might lead to disagreeable com plications. Something might be discov ered of the reasons she had for hating Henry. Indeed were I to tell all that bas come to my knowledge it might ac tually endanger her life. People have been hanged on circumstantial evidence no stronger than that. Of course I know os certainly as I know anything that I cannot prove that she is utterly incapa ble of such a deed, but of course also this certainty is based upon my intimate personal knowledge of her character, which would be of no value as evidence in a court of law. If my testimony is called for, I am resolved to profess ig norance of anything bnt the most exter nal acquaintance with ber movements or motives, and for the rest she is am ply able to protect herself if she chooses. I have just said that my knowledge of her character is intimate, and yet it is not, for 1 do not know whether or not she will choose to protect herself. It is impossible to foretell where a woman's notion of independence will begin or end. It is more than conceivable that Sinfire, out of mere wanton defiance or way wardness, might tell in the witness box the whole story of her previous life, which she has permitted even me only to guess at. \ jury might see in that story motive enough to warrant a conviction. Fear of that same waywardness with holds me from speaking to her on the subject. If I were to tell her that she is in danger, che would be as likely as not to go deliberately off and thrust her head into the lion's month. If, on the contra ry, she discovers her danger herself, the instinct of self defense and of justice may prompt her to repel it. If hers were a nature that I could control, I would put forth my power without hesi tation and give her a lesson to repeat by rote, only that if I could control her I should care nothing about her, and she might do what she liked. Fortunately or unfortunately neither she nor I have any leisure to pass iu each other’s society. Her hands are full with household cares and nursing mother, and I am sufficiently employed upon other business. But in the evenings after the work is done I retreat to my library and write or play with Saprani. I have an idea that I should like to put on gypsy attire and wander off on foot through the world with Saprani and Sinfire. Saprani’s performances would earn us a living, and Sinfire and I would make each other happy. It would be a truer and sweeter life than all the wealth and resources of civilization could give us, for we possess all we care for iu our selves. A few months ago I thought my highest happiness would consist in gov erning mankind; now I know that my only happiness is to be found in serving this mysterious girl. But shall I ever realize that happiness? I say, yes. But I have my doubts for all that I have never asked her, she has never promised, and all may turn out a dream. [TO BX COimifUBD.) Adviced For HU Good* They are neighbors on Second avenue, and as they walked down town the other morning one of them observed: “My wife is crazy to have me bny a new milk cow. What do you think of the idea?" “Magnificent! Yon couldn't invest |40 in a way to bring you better returns." "Much bother and expense?” "Hardly any. Your milk won’t cost yon over a cent a quart, and it will be pure milk too. _ If I had a barn, Pd keep two cows.” “Two or three of my friends have rather discouraged me.” "Don’t listen to 'em. Rich cream for strawberries and coffee—pure, sweet milk for the children and kitchen! Pve often wondered that you didn’t keep • cow. No care, no trouble, no expense. I’ll •guarantee you'll never regret it. In fact, it is really your duty toward your children.” “Yes, I suppose so. I guess I'll go over to the hay market and bay one and send her ifp. Ten minutes later the man who ad vised was telephoning to a carpenter shop; "Say, y.nl One of your men was np at the house yesterday measuring doors and windows for fly screens. I told him to go ahead at $42, bnt I want to coun termand the order. Sold ont? Oh, no! My neighbor’s going to keep a cow, and that lets eight or ten of us ont on the fly questionT—Detroit Free Press. It is said to cost less to send the prod uct of an acre of wheat from Dakota to England than it does to manure an acre pf land in England so that H can grow good wheat. Qneen Victoria is superstitions about precious stones. She invariably wears a i chrysophrase in one form or another I and thinks it brings her good luck. OB’S TURKEY had to lean against the fence to gobble—You can gobble a great bargain by buying this 'suit of ten pieces for $35, and lean upon our guarantee that you have gotten big value. We believe in variety. Now designs please better than old. Strong Furniture is better than poorly made. The stylish and neatjbetter than the common. For all good kinds come to us. We have it that is beautiful, durable, stylish, new and at prices that are extremely low. g&*P. S.—You will find me next to the Jail.*i©« . I 1 I—< Z_A ^ -w • ■ I —' • ■ ^ M. m. A. M. m*. ■ t The Darlington Shoe Store We are receiving daily our stock of Shoes for the Fall and Winter! [MEN’S, LADIES’, MISSES and CHILDREN’S] And beg an inspection of the same when in need of nice Footwear. Our stock is bought in large quantities direct from the very best manufacturers, which ensures new fresh goods, and we propose to sell them at a very small margin. We call special attention to our $3.00 Shoe for Men, made by the ROCKLAND Company; genuine calf, Goodyear welt, all styles in congress and lace. Rubber Goods of every description, consisting of Mackintosh Garments for Ladies and Men, also a complete line of Rubber Shoes for Men, Boys, Ladies, Misses and Children. We sell the MARVEL RUBBER i^ o r u f l e d c e t d r r u u 0 b b 1 e r r TRUNKS, VALISES, SATCHELS, UMBRELLAS AND SHOE FINDINGS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION. NEWEST STYLE HATS. Sep 14 4m tSO IBLdTllli Tl SHNTH CLHUS’ Headquarters. IS NOW A complete line of every thing usual to a first-class Hardware Store. Also a full line of Mm M STORE. With much pleastre we partly enumerate a list of the articles to be found in our stock. Our line, usually very complete, is much larger and more varied this season than ever before, em bracing chiefly novelties of the American and Foreign markets. ipM Implement!, Eiprs' Supplies, Mietaj, Stem A-ISTID TIITWAIRE, And will sell at the very lowest prices for cash. Wood. Leather. Metal. TOILET, MANICURE, ODOR, JEWEL, COMBINATION, SMOKER, CIGAR, GAME SETS, FHOLO CASES, TOILET VND HAND MIRRORS, GLOVES AND HANDKER- Tinning, Roofing & Plumbing _A_ SE^EOX-A.XiX'Y'. Oct6—tf CHIEFS, FRAMES, KNIFE AND FORK, PEPPER AND SALT, AFTER DINNER SPOONS, AUTOGRAPH, PHO TOGRAPH AND SCRAP ALBUMS, ALBUM EASELS, LAP TABLETS, PORT FOLIOS, TRAVELLING SETS, POC KET BOOKS, CARD CASES, PURSES, BILL BOOKS, LETTER CASES, PEN TRAYS, ASH RECEIVERS, INK STANDS, PAPER WEIGHTS, PAPER CUTTERS. BOOKLETS AND XMAS CARDS, CALENDARS. PRAYER BOOKS AND HYMNALS, BIBLES, TESTAMENTS, M’LAUGHLIN’S BOOKS, GAMES AND BLOCKS, JUVENILE BOOKS, POEMS, TOYS, DOLLS, WAGONS, VELOCI PEDES, BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, VASES, AND CHINA GOODS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION. We are headquarters for So’tool Books and School Supplies, and in every department may be found all the latest novejties that the market affords. Call aad see. , BOOK STORE. Nov 30—tilX Insure Your Property WITH IT. E. IltfOEiMiEiITT, Who represents the un fi um ms n m mi \ Satisfaction Guaranteed. Represents Twelve First- class Companies. September 11,1890 A Profitable Investment. The following is self-explanatory: “On the 14th day of October, 1892, we insured our lives in the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, of Newark, N. J.. for 115,000. When our second preuiiams fell due, we re ceived over 26 per cent, dividends on our monev. We can safely say to all wanting insurance that this is the safest and most profitable and liberal company in the United States. “8 Marco, “t Lkwkxthal.” Call on G. W. YOUNG, Agent, Dar lington, S. C. Oo6—8m W. WITCOYER Wishes to inform the public that he has opened in the ALEXANDER BUILDING next door to Sanders’ butcher shop, where he is prepared to pay the high est cash prices possible for all kinds of CoDDtry Produce and Furs of all kinds, sneh as Otte Coons, Foxes, W Opossums, as well as Co Kid, Goat and Deer skins, Beeswax and Wool. Minks, ' ts. Highest prices paid for poultry, eggs, mid all country produce, 018—8m