Show < < + = n t fNIr tr1illl 4 THE FATAL REQUESTOR REQUEST-OR FOUND OUT By A L Harris Author ot Mlno Own Familiar Friend etc Copyright 1891 6y 0 a 11111 1ublittilng 0 omp any C o p y r i g h t 190J bV B f r e f d Smith CHAPTER CHAPTER XXI Continued Before ho could reply the housemaid house-maid put In another word Begging your pardon for speaking after being told to hold my tongue but Its something beginning with a Das I saw It myself In a prayer book I camo across accidental So that IB how you came by your Information said her master Something Some-thing beginning with aB Is It Suppose Sup-pose you let me see the book Which I Intended to have showed ft to you at the first she said fumbling fum-bling In her pocket and producing the well worn little volume which she was about to hand to her master when A sudden darta long arm stretched stretch-ed out and a powerful hand wrested it from her This Is my property exclaimed its owner sternly The name written writ-ten within may be mine or anothers but so long as 1 choose to keep I It a secret secret It shall remain This Is most extraordinary conduct con-duct exclaimed Mr Ferrers most extraordinary I Under the circumstances circum-stances only one course Is pen tome to-me It Is Impossible for me to harbor I under my roof ono who has obtained admittance under a false name and I absolutely refuses any explanation I must therefore assuming his severest se-verest expression while the young man seemed to hold his breath as ho waited for the sentence to ho pronounced pro-nounced upon himI must therefore there-fore discharge you at onde and with a months wages In lieu of tho ordinary ordi-nary notice It was all up Whenwhen am I to leave inquired In-quired Ted with eyes fixed upon tho floor and heart beating furiously This question seemed to take the person to whom It was addressed unft wares When ho answered whyoh 1 1l tri ii i r 1 ly + l t I This Is my propertyl as soon as you can orwlth a slightly more lenient tone as be reflected re-flected that after all as the fellow himself had said there might bo reasons rea-sons not necessarily bad for tho concealment con-cealment you can remain until tomorrow to-morrow If you like Victory Another night which was all ho required Ho could scarcely prevent himself from showing some signs of exultation exulta-tion Ah perhaps by this time tomorrow to-morrow the situation might bo changed chang-ed He might be the Judge and another an-other Stay ono moment Mr Ferrers continued This time ho addressed the woman Perkins who had cached tho door As I have also a strong objection to persons who pry Into other peoples concerns and Interfere with their private pri-vate property you may as well take a months notice at the same time That will do you can go Tho biter was bit Sho had not a word to say for herself Sho had succeeded In wreaking her spite upon him who had despised her attractions and repulsed her overtures but sho had done it at too expense of a good situation Moreover the man whoso disgrace she had labored to secure laughed In her face as ho passed her CHAPTER XXIII The Envelope With Three Seals It was twelvo ocock on Friday night The clock In tho hall below had struck the hour Another half hour ticked slowly by and at the end of that time a uoor In the upper part ot the house was opened softly and by imperceptible degrees Tho room within was In darkness and tho figure of the man who cautiously I cau-tiously emerged was barely visible in tho general glotm Ho crept lightly on his stockinged feet past tho doors of the rooms on tho upper floor and began to descent tho stallcast It was much In his favor the stairs being so well and so massively constructed con-structed that there was no startling and treacherous creak to betray tho feet which trod them secretly In the dead of night And so ho made his way slowly and safely to tho floor on which the room was situated into which he was minded to penetrate After careful and noiseless search ho succeeded In laying his hand upon a candle and a box of matches wh11 I earlier in the evening ho hod sot ce in a convenient but outoftheway corner I 1 He struck a match and lighting the candlo advanced towards the door of time apartment into the lock of which he Inserted his duplicate key Ho entered and closed the door behind be-hind him without however completely i com-pletely shutting It Ho put his candle down on the writing writ-Ing table while he considered what was to be dune next The wastepaper waste-paper basket first attracted his attention atten-tion as being at once the nearest and the easiest object on which to exercise exer-cise his powers of investigation It was about a quarter full of torn fragments which ho promptly emptied out before him A rapid and cursory examination was sufficient to prove that theso were of no importance import-ance So ho swept them back Into their original receptacle The next thing to be done must be to tackle the writing table How was this to be accomplished Shocking to relate he produced from his pocket nothing less thana bunch of skeleton skele-ton keys To hid great disappointment one after another of the drawers upon the right hand prove 1 to be empty Ho turned his attention to those on his leftHo Ho put his hand to ono and pulled out tho tightly wedged contents Ho spread It open yes It was a newspaper news-paper some months old What could be the reason for preserving It A sudden thoughthe looked at the date and thenYes there It was on the inside In-side sheet Terrible Railway Accident Acci-dent The 430 train from Dover wrecked and partially consumed Thero was a full account of that ghastly affair with minute details of all tho horrorsa recollection of which returned to him most vividly as he scanned the column Ho replaced re-placed the first and took down another an-other and another I Further detailsnumber of bodies found distressing scenes the Inquest In-quest tho verdict mysterious discovery dis-covery with regard to a first class passenger pas-senger foul play suspected Verdict of Wilful Murder And so on and i so on ho retraced his way through tho whole of that dark tragedy wasting what ho felt to be precious time but unable to tear his attention away from these records of the past At last ho rammed tho paper back into its pigeon hole and turned his attention again to tho drawer beneath be-neath When it at last yielded to his efforts he was rewarded by the sight of a flatly folded packet of parchment tied with tape tho Identical Iden-tical last will and testament which he had heard spoken of so often by tho cook But this though of Interest In one way was not that ot which ho was In search and ho began to feel a qualm of fear lest after all his quest should prove useless His eye roaming restlessly about was caught by the gleam of brass In a dark corner Tho candle which was sufficient to light him at his task still loft the greater part of tho room In semidarkness and thero was something some-thing over there In that corner which he had not taken into account It was an old fashioned piece of furniture fur-niture tho only shabby and evidently second hand article In the room It was an upright article and was divided divid-ed into tio portions tho lower containing con-taining drawers and tho upper being shut in with doors which wero fitted with a brass lock and fastening It was old and much scratched and had apparently seen considerable use but must have been a good article originally Ho took tho taupe In his hand and crossing tho room Inspected Inspect-ed it closely There Is a look about It holding tho candlo up higher as though it might have a history attached to It It looltswlth a sud den hnpuscas though It might bo trusted to keep a secret Ho put tho candle upon the mantelpiece close by and again resumed his burglarious operations I shall soon be able to pass muster as an experienced house breaker nt this rate he remarked to himself with grim Irony as the torte turned traitor and the door swln 3 open revealed a number of dra t within each garIrld with a look and brass han vlilch should he attack first i i time had already litcn wasted n at t t moment as tbrnrjh In answer tin lock on the r telnli 3 chivied three while the It In tho hall without ropeated the hour after it TT n n I will try tho third first hand h-and inserted one of his skeleton Into the lock This drawer third in order from tho tOllon l opened showed Itself stra enough to contain three article of a widely different character These wero a large and bulks al volope a revolver and a small olv of colorless hum Tho young row could not repress an exclamatlci Fiv surprise and triumph as his 011r lpi jof upon these ttl shl The secret he had been In sear f till fil so long lay ready to lila hand et v proofs of the crime were there tlI1 ing for hm to grasp them piel 1 n tlam It and yet hesitated The ShlJ < l tthr the discovery seemed to paralynlht unhand un-hand so that for an instant htl ea unable to stretch forth and take cti session of what ho belleed vC ck make him master of a mans fa it itd At last he put out his hand t nd trembled as he did so and too II i ra ratl revolver It was a chamber tl ver and a glance showed that hon h-on of the chambers had been t charged o A fierce hungry look came ova as face as he rotlced this and lay It weapon down ho searched for t thing which ho always carried himthe conical shaped bullet t z4 had been discovered in the stuff tho fourth carriage from tho en Ho dropped It Into the empty eMber eM-ber which It fitted exactly Proof number one he said grim Joy as he felt the dreadful I for blood return upon him with former strength lie laid the rev down and took up tho small stop bottle What was this and what Ing had Its contents upon the mHo m-Ho removed the stopper and InW the contents carefully A strong unmistakable odor of bitter aim greeted him Prussia acid be doubt What did this point to Ti 1 spomed to bo only one answer f a bt slble Suicide A means of e 1l em provided in case of the worst lmap l t1 Ing He replaced tho stopper sl placed the bottle by tho side ef e revolver while he took up the I 1 and last article This was tho en a ope before mentioned It was and thick and sealed in no less 1 hi three places On It In place of n address were written tho straJoysgcf words To be burned unopeJlhtiBjK e after my deat feetjel r To be burned unopened after In deathwhat did that mean If It were to bo burned unopened the at t-he put himself to the pains of writ e It For that tho envelope conta ro tho completed copy of the true utj ad tlvo and confession of the str o tragedy ho had not the least do C But why had he described it as estrange e-strange tragedy Cowardly and a testable it might well bebut om strange eAt e-At any rate so far from its buj g burned unopened he said i oudt a will now myself iv Ho held the letter In ono hand th with the other ho was about to br tt tho seals when a voice cried u er Stop or t To bo continued 4v 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