Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1898 — PAYING THE PENALTY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAYING THE PENALTY

CHAPTER XV.—(Continued.) “Pray excuse me if I am intruding,” said the physician; "but I am the bearer of a letter of introduction from one brother to another, and as my stay in yonr city will be but a few hours, I must deliver it at once. I ean see at a glance, sir, that yon are the elder brother of my townsman and friend, Amos Kellogg,” and the doctor presented his missive., Stephen hurriedly drew from its envelope and perused a closely written sheet of paper. “Well, well, I am glad to see you, doctor. You follow closely a letter I have this morning received from my brother. Dr. Hewit, allow me to introduce Dr. Strong of Wilmington, North Carolina, the family physician of my brother Amos. This young man is my son, Robert. Draw up a chair for the doctor, Robert.” After grasping the bands of the three men present, Dr. Strong seated himself in the proffered chair with the remark: “Yes, my departure from Wilmington was very sudden. Your brother informed me that he had but just written you, but he desired me to bring his nieces back with me if the invalid could undergo the journey. My business here is not of a nature to detain me for an hour. It was merely to place a son in your medical college. I desire to return on the evening train. I have left patients at home who will need my attention.” “We were just discussing my daughter’s unhappy condition,” said the banker. “Dr. Hewit pronounces her unable to take the journey. He regards her case as almost hopeless.” “My God! Is it so bad as that?” exclaimed Dr. Strong. The banker himself was surprised at the physician’s vehemence. “I have little hope for the patient,” said Dr. Hew’it. “I had just stated to Mr. Kellogg that in my opinion Janette could not survive the journey. Of course I did not then know that a physician would attend her.” “I am extremely glad to have met you here, doctor. If the patient is not utterly beyond hope and we can give her a complete change of atmosphere and surroundings, the result might justify the risk of the removal.” * “True! The case has thwarted me at every turn. I shall be glad to have you visit the sufferer with me.” “Let us go at once,” said the Wilmington physician. “I will accompany you,” announced the banker. Robert, who was greatly gratified over the arrival of Dr. Strong, accompanied the party to the carriage, and took a seat beside the newcomer, at that gentleman’s request.

But a short time elapsed before the banker and the two physicians stood by the bedside of the patient. The widow had been greatly surprised at meeting the Wilmington physician on the floor below, and she followed the party perhaps with no little apprehension as to what might be the result of the doctor’s visit. No sooner had Dr. Strong's eyes rested on the wan, pain-drawn features of the sufferer on the bed, than involuntarily the words escaped his lips. “Very like! Very like! The cases are identical.” “This gentleman is Dr. Strong, dear,” said Mr. Kellogg. “He is from your uncle’s home in North Carolina and has called to see you.” “I am very glad to see you, doctor,” Janette said faintly; “but—but—l think I am beyond help.” “Beyond help! Not a bit of it, my dear girl. Not a bit of it!” said the doctor as he raised one white hand and placed a finger on the pulse. “Why,” he continued, “doctor, her pulse is much better than I would have expected. Her condition, with such care as she will receive, will justify her removal.” “You will agree with me, I think” (these last words in an undertone to Dr. Hewit) “that it is a last resort. Certainly there is no hope otherwise. God helping me, I will save this girl.” “Your will is mine, doctor; I place her in your hands.” “Removal?” moaned Janette. “Oh, doc-

tor, I shall soon be removed—but ” “Certainly you will be, dear; I am not going back to North Carolina alone, and don’t you believe it, little girl. I shall have company. Do you know who will accompany me? I do. Two sisters, Laura and Janette are their names. They are going to visit their North Carolina cousins and find fresh sea breezes that will bring back roses into pale cheeks and strength Into weak limbs. Oh, it is all settled. We shall leave on the three o’clock train this day.” “Why, it cannot be possible!” exclaimed the widow. “In her condition she could not ” “Madam,” and Dr. Strong’s voice, firm and decided, silenced her, “two physicians have decided what is best in this case.” Elinor’s handkerchief immediately found its way to her eyes. “Oh, doctor,” exclaimed Laura, “I thank God for this! I know that our dear friend, Dr. Hewit, has done all that could be done for Janette in this climate, and aunt and I have nursed her night and day. There must be a change. Papa —you ” “It is already decided, my child. You must now make haste and prepare for the journey. Take nothing but what you will need at once. On your arrival at your uncle’s we can forward all else.” “See, see!” cried Laura. “Janette seems bright and hopeful already. Are you not pleased, sister?” “I am content,” said Janette. “I am willing to go if it is best. I—l live. I dislike to leave dear aunt; but—” “It is for the best, my child,” Dr. Strong said, stroking her soft hair. Elinor Kellogg had repaired to her apartments, sobbing. “Robert,” said the banker to his son, who now entered the room, “you had best remain at the house and assist Laura and your aunt in packing what is needful. Your sisters start South at 3p. m. I will go with the doctor and engage sleeping car accommodations.” “Gladly, father, gladly!” “Let us go at once,” Dr. Strong said. “There is one other matter I wish to attend to. But first” (here the doctor produced a phial from one of his pockets, filled a glass one-third full of water, first rinsing the glass, then into the-glass dropped ttventy drops of a fluid), “here, my dear;” and Janette, resting her head on the doctor’s arm, drained the glass. The physician handed the phial to Laura. “Twenty drops in one-third of a glass of water,” he said, “each hour until we return. It is now eleven o’clock.” The doctor lingered behind as the others descended the stairs. Robert and Laura were standing beside him. “I can and will save the life of your sister,” he said; “but one of you must be constantly at her bedside until she is removed from the house. Allow nothing to pass her lips save these drops. Nothing! If she evinces a disposition to partake of food, you, Miss Laura, must prepare it personally. Your aunt, I fear, is too sympathetic. She is so anxious for your sister’s recovery that she might desire to give her wine or something she should not have.” “Aunt gives her some every day,” said Laura. “I have given her some. Dr. Hewit prescribed it in small quantities.” “She must have no more until we are

ea route for the South. Nothing, save as I have informed you. Your failure to see that these instructions are carried out to the letter will cost Janette her life. Say nothing to your aunt of what I have told you unless she tenders something to Janette, then state that I bade you allow nothing save the drops in that phial to pass her lips. Can I rely on you?’ “You can, doctor,” said Robert. “Certainly,” Laura said. "Remember, not an instant but one of you must be at her'side. The servants might tender her something.” Five minutes later Thou as was driving the party rapidly from the banker’s residence. Dr. Hewit left the carriage at his office, while the others went on. A half hour later a private compartment In a through sleeper was secured. At one o’clock Mr. Kellogg re-entered the bank, where the doctor was to meet him an hour later. The physician himself was conferring in a room at his hotel with the man who had accompanied him from Wilmington —Mr. Sellars, the Southern detective. For thirty minutes they sat in close conversation, at the end of which time the doctor arose and, taking the detective by the hand, said: “I must go now, Sellars. Have you everything needful? Everything you require?” “Yes,” was the reply, “everything. You will certainly see the young man?” “Yes; he will be waiting for me.” “All right. I will take up the case tomorrow.” At 2:10 the carriage containing the doctor and Mr. Kellogg was again before the Dearborn avenue residence. The doctor was first to ascend the stairs to the invalid’s room. He glanced anxiously at the figure reclining on the conch. “Oh, you are ready, my girl!” he exclaimed. “You have improved fifty per cent already. Miss Laura, she has had nothing ” “But as you directed, doctor, though aunt three times ” “Never mind—you can relate that after we are started. You are ready?” “All ready, doctor.” “Oh, a minute with you, Robert,” the doctor said. And walking to a window facing the street, he handed the young man a letter. “You will find the gentleman whose name appears on the envelope at the place stated. I wish you to call there at ten o’clock to-morrow morning and present it. He is my friend and will state to you his desires. You may trust him implicitly. You may be able to aid him greatly.” “I will present the letter at ten o’clock,” said Robert, as he glanced at the superscription on the envelope. The name ‘that appeared there was of one unknown to him. The envelope bore this address/ “John Thorn, Esq., “Sherman House.” The widow accompanied the party when Janette was borne to the carriage. She appeared greatly disturbed. Evidently her heart was near breaking over the peril her dear niece was about to be subjected to. She khised her a tender farewell as she did so, also Laura, and entered the house sobbing as the carriage was driven away.

At three o’clock an iron horse exhausted a volume of steam as it pulled its laden cars from beneath the depot shed. A happy Wilmington physician sat in a private compartment of one of the sleepers. His eyes rested tenderly on the features of a sleeping girl in a berth before him. A smiling young lady was seated by his side. “Oh, doctor,” she suddenly exclaimed, “I feel that you have rescued Janette.” “From a peril, my dear, of which you little dream. In twenty-four hours she would have been a corpse.” “And now’?” “Safe, thank Oovl, safe! We baTe left peril behind us and are southward bound.” CHAPTER XVI. At ten o’clock on the morning of the sixteenth, Robert Kellogg repaired to the Sherman House, w'here his first step was to scan the hotel registered arrivals of the previous day. He soon found the name, “D. M. Strong, M. D., North Carolina,” and directly beneath it in bold letters was that of the gentleman to whom he was to present his letter—“ John Thorn, Georgia.” “Is Mr. Thorn of Georgia in the hotel?” he asked of the clerk. “In his room, I think,” was the reply. “Please send up my card.” The porter was immediately dispatched wfth it. He soon returned, and Robert accompanied him to the second floor, where he was ushered into the room occupied by one who, for many years in his particular line, was one of the most remarkable characters that the South has ever produced. The man to whom he presented his letter was Lang Sellars of North Carolina, alias John Thorn of Georgia. Sellars was at this time in his fortieth year. He was of no ordinary physique, being six feet two inches in height, strong and compactly built, and almost as upright when standing as the long-leaf pines of his native State. “I was expecting you,” he said as he motioned the young man to a chair. “Dr. Strong and your sisters left the city at three o’clock yesterday, I suppose.” “They did, I am happy to be able to state that my father this morning received a telegram from the doctor, saying Janette was bearing the journey well.” Sellars w r as presumably reading the doctor’s letter. In reality he was studying the features of the banker’s son. Features, the contour of the face, the shape of the head, the expression of the eyes, the appearance of the individual, in fact all these combined, were to the Southern detective an index of the character of the man.

“The doctor,” he said presently, “did not inform you as to the nature of my business in Chicago?” “He did not,” was the reply. “He merely requested me to present the letter you hold in your hand. Whatever your business, if I can in any way aid you, I shall be pleased to do so.” “Thanks, young man. many thanks. My friend, Dr. Strong, has saved the life of your sister, and I feel that I can rely on you. I shall therefore be candid. First, then, I am not John Thorn, neither am I from Georgia.” “Why, then, my letter is not in the hands it was designed to reach. You should not ” “Rest easy, young man. Your letter has reached its destination. But John Thorn was a name borrowed for an occasion. Throughout the South I am known as Lang Sellars, and am, by profession, one of that unfortunate class known as detectives.” “Is it possible?” exclaimed Robert. “I have often heard and read, of the mysteries unraveled by that wonderful man. I am glad to have met you, Mr. Sellars. But why, pray, the name, ‘John Thorn,’ on the hotel register?” “Oh, with some ffctectives it is often necessary to record on hotel registers other names than their own. Somehow, I find that Lang Sellars has become known outside the confines of the ‘Old South State.’ For certain reasons I do not wish it known that I am in Chicago. The morning journals, as you are aware, publish a list of-arrivals at hotels. I had no wish that the name, Lang Sellars, should appear in that list.” . “I see.” “I should probably be visited by- your police officials, who, in the matter I propose to take in hand, have so far failed. And there may be others in your city whom I wish kept in ignorance of my presence here.” " “It is perfectly plain to me now, Mr. Salla rs.” “Yes? Well, I thought I could make it so. I am here for a double purpose. Partly to bring to the bar of justice the man, or

men, who assaulted and robbed the col. lector of the Union Express Company; partly, well, of that hereafter.” “If I could but be of aid to you. But I think you will find it a difficult matter to even obtain a clew.” “Oh, as to clews—clews are sometimes very obscure. A general knowledge of the facts as they occurred and a certain intuitive perception has before now led to the detection of the perpetrators of grave crimes. I shall not wait for clews in the matters I have'ln hand, though in one of them ■” “What can I do,Mr. Sellars?” “There is one young man I desire to have a conference with. On yesterday I visited the offices of the express company and interviewed Collector Elsworth, with whose statements in regard to this robbery the detective force of your city are familiar. He yet adheres to his statement that the man he believes to have assaulted and robbed him bore a striking resemblance in form and features to Earl Newberry.” “Earl Kellogg now.” “Yes, I understand. Well, later in the day I paid a visit to your father’s bank. I saw, of course, both the cashier and the teller. Earl I have seen many times on the streets of Wilmington.” “Oh, then he recognized you.” “Not at all. I was John Thorn when I entered the bank. I presented little the appearance that Ido now. I had no,wish to be recognized.” “You saw my father?” “As he entered the carriage before the door of the bank with Dr. Strong. You were of the company. I desire that your father be kept in ignorance of the fact that I am here, or have taken up the express case, or ” The detective did not finish the sentence. “My father kept in ignorance? And why, pray?” “Oh, for several reasons. But one will suffice —I prefer to co-operate with younger men, those more matured and of your years.” (To be continued.)