Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1900 — Page 3

Twixt Life and Death.

BY FRANK BARRETT

CHAPTER IX. “My dear, dear Nessa —alive and safe! You sweet, sweet girl!” exclaimed Mrs. Redmond between her kisses. “Where am I?” asked Nessa, bewildered by these caresses, by the dim perceptions of awaking consciousness. “Where are you?” echoed Mrs. Redmond, fiercely. “Look!’’ o > And raising the candle from the floor, she held it in the doorway over the black pit, where it flared and fluttered in the current of air. < Nesfea, resting against Mrs. Redmond’s breast as she knelt beside her, lobking round in wonder—at the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the open door, and the black void beyond; then suddenly recollecting past events, she shrank closer to Mrs. Redmond, with a cry of horror, and looking aghast at the opening beyond the sill. The next moment she burst out laughing, and by an imperceptible transition fell tQ crying and sobbing, until, exhausted with the outburst of emotion, her head dropped back on Mrs. Redmond’s arm, her eyelids dropped heavily, and her breath faded away in a long! fluttering sigh. Either she had fainted again, or was falling asleep. “Wake! wake, dear Nessa! for heaven’s mke wake!” cried Mrs. Redmond in a new agony of fear, as she remembered what Dr., Shaw had said about the possiaction of chloral. No mother over her child could have shown more earnest Solicitude. When she succeeded in rousing the girl to a state of semi-consciousness, she tried what fright would do to overcome her lethargy. Taking the candle, she held it again in the dark shaft of the tower, and purposely let' it fall from her hands. The light went out instantly, leaving them in complete 'and a hollow ring, like the fall of a stone in a deep well, came up as the metal candlestick struck the bottom. “That is what you have escaped,” she said. The poor girl moaned in horror, cramping her hands upon the floor, as if to save herself. "Help me! save me!” she murmured. "Youmustsaveyourself.” £mdMrs. Redmond, retreating from the rffen door, herself terrified by the darkness. Nessa caught at the skirt that touched her. springing to her feet, clung convulsively to the woman’s arm. as she made her way rapidly along the passage and down the stairs. In the hall'faintly lit by the light from the sitting room, Mrs. Redmond pointed to the open door. "He went out there. I saw him. He may come back to finish the work he begat*. We must shut the door,” she said. Her dramatic tone and gestures, her pallid face and disordered hair, were well calculated ■ to stimulate Nessa’s alarm and overcome the effects of the narcotic. Indeed, the girt, who had never before known fear, was now wrought to such a pitch of nervous excitement that her trembling fingers were powerless to push home the bolts when the great door was slammed to. “We are safe for the present,” said Mrs. Redmond, turning the key. “Now come in here. There, sit down and be calm; we have no time to lose. We must settle what we are to do at once. He’s not likely to half do his murderous work If he gets another chance to murder you.” “Murder me! who wonld do that?” asked Nessa, with a piteous quaver in her voice. “Who?—my husband. Who else would?” "Why should he?” “To save himself from ruin. He must go to the workhouse or the jail if you live. A man would kill himself to avoid that fate; do you think he would hesitate to take the life of a girl instead, if he found a safe opportunity?” It seemed to Nessa impossible—incredible. She had read of such things; but < she could not realise that she had l>een destined to such n fate. “Don’t you believe me?” nsked Mrs. Redmond, with sharp impatience. “It all Seems so strange,” faltered Nes--80. .“He came into my room and asked about you. I told him what had happened to you last night—like n fool. I repented it the moment he left me. for I know what he is. I was uneasy about it, and after lying awake an hour I slipped on my clothes and came down here to see x if it were true That he had letters to write, ns he told me. The lamp was here, where it stands now, but there was no sign of bis having written letters, and he was gone. While I stood over there in the shadow, he passed on tip-toe through the hall and went out by the door as white as a ghoet. Then I knew he had been doing wrong, and I went up to your room. You were gone, but just outside your door—toward the door in the tower—your shoe lay on the ground. At that moment I heard your cry. As you know, I found the door bolted upon you. Now have you any doubt?” Nessa shook her head. “He had not the courage to murder you outright; but he put you where you could not move without destroying yourself. He went away that he might not hear your cry, intending to come back and open the door when all was over, that it might appear you bad opened it and passed through in your sleep. I told him of our visit to Dr. Shaw yesterday: that would have supported the conclusion, and freed him from suspicion. He’ll come back presently, when he thinks the thing is •one. If you want any further proof, you can open the front door, and watch him from here go up those stairs to the passage again.” She rose as she spoke. Nessa caught her arm and held her, glancing at the window, almost expecting to see a white, sinister face looking "through at her. “No, no,” she faintly articulated under her breath, “don’t—don’t open It!” “Not F! He’d kill me to hide bis crime —kill us both to save himself. Why shouldn’t he shoot us through that win-

dow? He took his gun. Who is to save us# What is there to prevent him?” Nessa snatched at the blind and pulled it down. Mrs. Redmond, whose dread was not all simulated, moved the lamp that their shadows might not betray them on the window. “What shall we do?” asked Nessa. “What can we do?” “That’s it—what can we do? Two women against a fiend like that?” “Are you going away?” Nessa faltered. “I should think so! Why, you don’t suppose I’d stop another day—to say nothing of another night—in this ghastly place with a murderer. My life’s as much in danger as yours now.” “You won’t leave me here?” "It isn’t likely. Do you think I’m as i-bad as my husband?” “Oh, forgive me! I don’t know what I say: lam quite unnerved. It was wicked to think you would abandon me—you whom I owe my life to!” “That’s all right, don’t cry. We’ve got to think. As soon as it’s light we’ll wake the servant and get the trap out. We shall be safe enough then. Once outside this place I shall feel safe. But what am I to do with you? You can’t go back to the school. He would find you there. You’ll never be safe where he can lay hands on you." “Where are you going?” “Oh, F shall go to London.” “Will you let me go there, too?” “What money have you?” “None. But I could earn my living there, surely!” "That’s all you know about it. Who would employ you without a reference? Why, no one would take you as a servant without a character.” “But if I explained how it was I game to need a situation — “If you came to me with such a story I should say: This good-looking young woman has done something foolish, and run away from her friends to escape the consequences. I should ask for the name and address of your wicked stepfather, and tell you to call again to-morrow. Then I should telegraph to him under the impression that I was doing you a kindness in restoring y’oif to your family; and when you called on me for a reply, you would be met by Mr. Redmond, who would whisk you off to Grahame Towers by the next conveyance. Why, you poor, simple child, without some sort of protection you would find yourself alone in this house with your worst enemy, and at his mercy, in less than twenty-four hours from the time yon escaped. It isn’t a day or a week or a month that you must keep out of his reach: you must keep out of his reach for three long years if you value your life. And you may reckon on -this, every day of those three long years will be employed in getting you back—back into the grave you have slipped out of.” "What shall I do?” murmured Nessa in despair. “Three years.” said Mrs. Redmond, turning her back on Nessa. and speaking in a slow, meditative tone that encouraged the anxious girl to hope—"three years! It sounds a long while, but three years soon pass. At the end of three years we could snap our fingers at him!” She stood silent a moment, keeping the girl in feverish uncertainty of hope and fear, and then, turning abruptly on her. she said: “Nessa, if I give yon three years of my life; if I abandon house, home, position—all that a woman values; if I jeopardize my own existence to preserve you from such a fate as this you have escaped from—perils that must beset you till your fortune is beyond the reach of that wretch—may I depend on your gratitude afterward?” “Oh, if you knew me!” exclaimed the girl, clasping her hands, unable to find words for her feelings. But I don’t know you. I know nothing about you. You look as if you were to be trusted, but when the danger is past will you feel as you feel now?” “If you never do anything more for me tllan you have done to-nigjit I must yet be always—always grateful.” “And will you be obedient to mv direction?” “Oh, yes—yes—yes! In all things." Darting forward, Nessa threw her arms about the woman, and pressing her burning lips upon the soft, pallid face she murmured her love and gratitude in foolish, broken sentences. “You are a little goose!” said Mrs. Redmond, patting her shoulder playfully. “A little goose." she added to herself, “that shall yield me many a golden egg.” • And recalling the fable she blessed her stars that she bad not succeeded in killing her goose.

CHAPTER X. “No one has received so many rewards and commendations from her Majesty's judges, magistrates and bankers as F. Griffiths!” He has said so himself, and hia statement has appeared daily in the newspapers without being disputed by any other private detective. F. Griffiths was seated in bis highly respectable office writing a letter when the door opened, and a gentleman entered, with a certain reluctance that characterizes the person who seeks help for the first time at a private inquiry agency. F. Griffiths rose to his feet, nnd stood bolt upright behind his desk. He was a square man, with a military cut of hair and whiskers, n trace of the policeman in the redness of his neck, and a suggestion of the lawyer in the twinkling depths of his eyes. He looked capable and honest. “Mr. Griffiths?” said the visitor “Yes, sir; that’s me. Take a seat, sir." The visitor was a tail, elderly, grayhaired gentleman, with a shaven face, a fair skin, and blue eyes, dressed with particular neatness in a well-fitting traveling suit of gray. Griffiths would hnve taken him for an Englishman but for bis pronunciation. “My name Is Petersen. I live in Copenhagen. and I nm in great trouble," said the gentleman, giving bis card with a sigh. "People generally are in trouble when

they come to see me,” said F. OrWßthx, cheerfully. “It’s my business to get ’em out of it.” “You have a great deal of experience." “Experience, sir! Ff I could show you all the cases I’ve got in this book/" laying his hand on a thick folio with a lock" ed clasp before him, “you’d be surprised. There’s no sort of trouble that ain’t got its history here. I may say there’s scarcely anything in the private inquiry line that I find it impossible to do. Now, I dare say it’s something in that way you want me to do for you, sir?” “Yes; it is that. I will tell you all.” “That’s right, sir. Don’t be afraid of giving me too many particulars. Look upon me as a kind of doctor,,who must know all about his patient before he can do him any good.” “That is so,” Petersen said, gaining confidence. “I am a widower, and I have one daughter and one son—one son, Eric. He is very dear to me, for he is a good son in all things. He is twenty-one! and we three have been traveling through Europe since the spring, because my son has come to manhood ahd it is well he should see something of the .world and people. It was the dearest wish of his heart and of mine-that we should make this journey together.” “Spe a bit of life like. Yes, sir.” “We have been staying in London two weeks—it is the end of our journey; and to-morrow we were to go back to our own country. I was glad, for my son has been unlike himself since he came here, and I could see he had some trouble in his heart that he dared not tell me. He has left us often to go out alone, and when with us his thoughts have been away from us.” “Altogether he’s been carrying on somewhat sort of mysterious.” “Yes; he has carried on so. This morning when I said to him. not without fear in my heart, ‘This is the last day of our holiday, Eric, to-morrow we go home,’ his face became quite white, and coming to my side, he took hold of my hand, trembling very much, and said, ’Father, you must leave me here. I cannot go home,’ and then he told us what has made him so strange; he has fallen in love with an English girl. My son is no longer a child! I cannot make him go back with me; yet in many ways he is so simple that I dare not leave him in this vast city alone.” “You don’t feel like settling down here yourself?” “I have my business. I must return very soon.” “You don’t see your way to taking the young female?” “I do not want my son to marry yet; he is too young. But that is nothing. If she is a good girl, and fit to be my sou’s wife, he shall marry her. even if she refuses to come to our country. But I must know that; I must be sure that she is good before 1 leave my poor boy ” “Ah, now I'm getting into it. I see what you want, sir; you want me to find out what sort of a character this young party is.” “Yes; I must know that.” said the old gentleman, emphatically. “I must know if she is good or bad. If I show my son that she is not good, then I think respect for himself—respect for bis sister and mo—will lead him to break away from this terrible infatuation.” "Quite so, sir. You shall have a full and true account of her. All you have to do is just to tell me her name and address." Saying this, Griffiths fished out a notebook, and prepared to write in it with business-like alacrity. “Unfortunately. I do not know the name or address,” sid Mr. Petersen. “Well, I suppose we can get the information from your son." “No. He knows no more about her than I do, except that he has seen her more often, and settled in his mind that she must be good because she is beautiful." "But am I to understand that the young gentieman has fallen in love with the party without knowing her name or where she lives?” “It is so. He has never spoken to her.” . (To be continued.f*

Secret of Hetty Green's Seccess.

Hetty Green was recently induced to talk to a writer for the Ladies’ Home Journal of her business methods that have won her sixty millions of dollars or more. The secret of her success is worth knowing: “I don’t believe in speculation as a rule," she says, "and I don’t speculate as much as people; think. When offered so many shares of stock at so much I buy one share and then send.out to see what it will bring. If it’s a good advance 1 buy the rest. If not, I don't. This was my plan when I used to deal in horses. I would get a day's option on a horse, and see what It would bring before buying it. I attribute my success chiefly to the rule of always buying when every one wants to sell, ami selling when every one warns to buy. There's a price on everything I have. When that price is offered 1 sei). I never buy anything just to hold on to it Not much! And I try to steer clear of \\ all street. Any one who hasn’t a whole fortune to back his deals had better do the same. I do everything with all my mind. If there Is a lawsuit on band I go into every detail of it with my lawyer. It’s the same with everything else.”

Influence of Dress in Business Life.

“Adequate and becoming apparel makes a stronger impression on the person It clothes than ou any who observe it," writes Thomas B. Bryan. “If every business man now going about his affairs lu garments which are a little below the reasonable standard of presentableness could be clothed with those which fully meet this requirement the business world would feel a sudden and unaccountable Impulse of no mean proportions.”-Baturday Evening Post.

I[?]jury in a French Duel.

“While I was abroad 1 witnessed * duel In France.” “Anybody hurt?” “Yea"; one of the principals had a rib broken embracing the other after the eombnt was over.”—Philadelphia North American,

Ceils In Honeycomb.

There are 9,000 cells In a square foot of honeycomb.

PLAN OF THE CITY OF PEKIN.

The heavy black lines show tiie walls which surround the city ami “Trs _ suar' divisions. A is the south gate, which is guarded by 100,000 imperial Chinese soldiers, while other armiivs surround the city on all sides. B is the railway station at Machiopo. the terminus.of the railway from Tien-tsin, r y The followings chart indicates The~<diter Toil its in Thecity:!, Imperial Palace; 2, gate of Great Purity; 3, Buddhist Monastery; 4, Monastery of Eternal Repose; 5, Marble Bridge; <>, the Golden Lake; 7. the Gate of Heaven: 8. Academy of Han Lili; 9. the American and other Legations; 10. Temple of Glorious Devotion; 11, Examining College; 12. Observatory Tower; 13, Monastery of Lung-fu-tse; 14, Great Buddhist Monastery of Yung-ho-knng; 15, Temple of Confucius; U>, Imperial University; 17. Clock Tower; 18, Drum Tower; 19, Temple of Ancient Dynasties; 211, Pc-ta-tsc; 21, Catholic Church; 22, Temple of Heaven; -23-. Altar of--the -Earth: ”4, Buddhist Monastery.

RIOT RIFE IN PEKIN.

Fire, Fiuhtinjr and Dissension Mark Rule of the Allies. Fires, fighting and dissension are apparently following in the wake of the relief of Pekin. The London Daily Mail publishes dispatches from the Chinese capital declaring that a great fire was raging in the imperial city. The Russian commander had declined to accept the decision of the other generals not to trtohrtw the nnperia.l precincts. and street fighting was going on. Gem Chaffee, so it is asserted, maintained that the Chinese had been adequately punished already, and that it would be unwise to take the imperial palace. This explains the withdrawal of the Americans after breaching three gates, as cabled by the correspondent of the Associated Press. The Russian general maintained that his Government had declared war against China, and that therefore there was no reason to prevent him carrying hostilities hito the sacred precincts. The tires appear to be incendiary and to be caused by the Chinese themselves. A report from St. Petersburg says the Japanese legation there has received a dispatch from Pekin with the news that the legationers are all liberated, but that the allied forces are powerless to quench the terrible fire which is making great Inroads in a thickly built portion of the city. The soldiers are too fatigued to master the disastrous Hames, iwhich are threatening the whole of the capital. The leaders of the rebels, Prince Tuan, and others, are still in the city, but-too securely concealed to be found, although they are being carefully sought. The Dowager Empress has fled in an unknown direction. A report from Pekin says that Gen. Llneviteh Ims been given full authority to guard and defend the city. Fierce fighting is nlso said to be still going ou inside the Walls. Gen, Lineviteh’s Siberian army corps has become practically inoperative on account of the* warm weather. All the dispatches point to the fact that the commanders were somewhat at sea regarding their future action, all awaiting instructions from their governments. The foreign residents tippear to have been sent to Tien-tsin, although the St. Peters-

TYPES OF CHINESE SOLDIERS.

burg correspondent of the Daily Mail says the ministers will not leave Pekin until negotiations for indemnity are under way. Berlin learns that there has been further fighting west of Tien-tsin, whieh creates the impression that the province of Pe-Chl-Li must be effectively occupied before peace negotiations will become feasible. CHINESE USE TORCH. Mob at Amoy Attacks mid Barns Jap* unrse Temple.’ United States Consul ‘ Johnson ut Amoy, Chiun, cabled the State Department Friday that a motj burned the Japanese temple at that place. Marines were landed to protect Japanese officials nnd restore order. Pekin advices stated thnjj the allied troops had surrounded the imperial city and stationed sentries at the gate*. They refrained from entering pending instructions from their government*.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY. PEKIN

The inner stronghold was the asylum of the Empkror and Empress Dowager.

SCENE IN LEGATION STREET. PEKIN.

Section of the Chinese capital, where the foreigners held out against' the Boxer hprdes.

TORTURED BY FIENDS.

Horrible " nfferinsts of Women Missionaries nt Hands of Boxers. Further details of the brutal treatment of the members of the American inland missionaries who lied from Hankow have been ascertained. Miss Rice was beaten, knocked down and a heavy cart drawn repeatedly over her body, after which slip was clubbed to death. Miss Huston, also of the American mission, bad her skull fractured by a blow which exposed part of her brain; after suffering this horrible injury she was starved and tor Hired for twenty days. Her injured brain uioi'tificd and she died in awful agony. Mrs. Cooper of tiie British inland mission was divested of her clothing, tied to a stake and left under the blistering sun and at the mercy of tiie flies. After several days of agony and starvation death came to her relief.

This and That.

Two submarine boats will be built at San Francisco. Fire in a Begonia, Spain. Church caused a panic, and two were killed. Evidence accumulated that several accomplices aided Humbert’s murderer. The Kansas wheat crop this year has been officially put nt 78,081,000 bushels, breaking the record. A Chicago woman attempted to stop gambling by throwing acid on the players und tables. bl A. F. Mamroev. at one time private secretary’of W. 11. Seward, died suddenly in New York. Dennis Coughlin, “the wealthiest man in Toledo ivnd northwestern Ohio,” died in Toledo, aged 80 years. For participating in a triple lynching W. B. Brooks war sentenced to life imprisonment at Palestine, Texas. The royal arsenal at Woolwich .has been ordered to send 30,000,000 pounds of small arm ammunition to Chin*.

VALOR OF AMERICANS.

Sixth Cavalry, with Others, Boats Tea Thuosand Chinese. Advices from Chefoo, dated Aug. 21, state that the allied forces have completely routed the 10,000 Chinese soldicrt

who mussed near Tien-tsin for the purpose of cutting comm unieijtions. At the head of a force of "the Sixth cavalry, U. S. A., 375 Bengalese and Punjabs and 200 , Japanese cavalry, , Col. Theodore J. Wint charged upon the Boxers, who fought desperately.

CAPTAIN REILLY.

Four hundred were killed, 300 prisoners taken and six towns burned. The allies’ loss was four wounded. Captain Reilly of Battery F, Fifth United States artillery, who was killed before the Imperial Palace, was buried in the legation grounds. Gen. Chaffee, the British and Japanese generals and many civilians were present at the in- - terment. : The Japanese troops have relieved the Pei-tsang cathedral, where fifteen French nuns and forty French and Italian soldiers have been isolated and besieged two months. They found that five had been killed.

CHINA ARMY TO AID. Force of 7,000 En Route to Be Diverted to Manila. No more United States troops are to be sent to China unless future developments necessitate such action. Even those now ou the way or under orders for service in China are to be diverted from their destination and sent to Manila. Such is titc order promulgated by the War Department Thursday. It marks, says a Washington correspondent, as far as tiie United States is concerned, the close u£ military activity in Chimtr un- -- less an unexpected crisis arises. Having secured its principal aim—the rescue of Minister Conger and other Americans at I’ckih the Government. in order to obtain its other demands, will, aa far as possible, substitute diplomacy for force of arms. t ■_ 1 China will now be asked by the United States to insure to her these three desiderata: 1. Restoration of order throughout the empire. 2. Securing for the future safety for American missionaries and protection for American commercial interests. 3. Indemnity for the outrages suffered

CHEAT GATE IN PEKIN WALL.

Showing the point ot attack by tb.' allied forces and through which entrance was gained to the cltv.

by .Vmoricans during the Boxer troubles. I'hese granted, the United States military force will be gradually reduced until. comparatively speaking, only a mere corporal's guard is left in the Chinese empire. Secretary Boot said that no more troops would be sent to (’liina, because they were not needed. With the arrival nt Taku of the Hancock nnd the troops she carried Gen. Chaffee will have 5,000 available mon. which is deemed sufficient for all present purposes. Storehouses for Chino. The United States Government will build within the next four mouths thirty large storehouses nt Taku, China, for the accommodation of a vast supply of commissary und other goods which have been and will be transported to that point for the maintenance of the troops. The main provisions of the moot law recently enacted by the German Government, effecting among other tbinga the absolute prohibition of American canned meats and sausage*. will take effect Oct--1 next