Stories with a Vengeance — page 71: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A GHOST IN THE WITNESS-BOX. are aS old as the hills, and yet will form the groundwork of a score of such life- dramas to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to- morrow. Ah! whisk aside your skirts from such contamination, good madam, and let her pass by! May no temptation ever cross your path to lead you astray! Go home to your good husband, and your good children, your good servants, good dinners, good income, daily duties, rules, regulations, and family prayers. Go home and be happy ! In the verbatim account of the trial of this village beauty’s cold-blooded assassin, I find it stated by the counsel for the pro- secution “that an unfortunate step ruimed the character of the young woman,” and there are also records of a “ second mishap with a gentleman of fortune residing in the neighbourhood,” and “a third liaison with the man who became her deliberate murderer.” This third man alluded to was the son of @ rich farmer in Polstead, then dead, but whose widow carried on the farm. With him the molecatcher’s pretty daughter fell really in love, and the dream of her life was that he would marry her. It is un- certain whether or not he himself had any such intention, but he made belief that he had, and was only anxious that during his mother’s lifetime, or until he could manage to obtain her consent, it should be kept a secret. To this end elaborate precautions were taken. They were to be married by license instead of by banns, and she must disguise herself in a suit of his clothes, and meet him in the evening in a barn on the outskirts of the farm, where she could exchange them for her own, he promising that he would have a gig in readiness, in which they would, without delay, travel together to Ipswich. t was surely a strange proposition; but the girl readily agreed to it, as did, after some hesitation, her mother; and Maria’s future husband strolled away, to be met presently by Maria’s brother carrying a pickaxe, an odd thing to be doing just at that moment, it was afterwards agreed. But of the unfortunate girl herself nothing was ever afterwards seen or heard during her life except certain messages which the - young man who had taken her away de- livered. Her return had been looked _ forward to by the mother within a day or two of the time of her departure; but as she had ever been extremely erratic and irregular in the duration of her outings, and as, besides, there had been some kind of understanding that her husband was to take a lodging for her for a while at Ipswich, nothing much was thought of her lengthened absence. Yet it was somewhat Google 67 odd that he himself was still, day after day, seen hanging about the village. In about a fortnight, however, the mother began to question him closely, and then he stated that he had removed his young wife secretly to a place at some distance, to avoid the discovery of the marriage by his family; and so the weeks rolled on from the month of May, when Maria left Pol- stead, until the harvest had been got in, and the barn, the scene of her fanciful masquerading, had been stocked with golden-hued grain. Then, having in Sep- tember got through his autumn’s work, and feeling, he said, in ill-health, he left Suffolk, with the avowed intention of proceeding to the Continent, taking with him about four hundred pounds. : From this time several letters were re- ceived, not only by the girl’s family, but by his own mother, in which he stated that he was living with Maria in the Isle of Wight, although again, oddly enough, the letters all bore the London post-mark, and no other. And still the weeks passed slowly away, whilst the father and mother of the girl grew more and more uneasy, until, six months later, an extraordinary event occurred, which but too soon led to the discovery of an atrocious crime. Three nights running the mother, awaken. ing in terror, clutched her husband by the shoulder, and trembling and gasping for breath, explained as well as she was able that she had had a horrible dream; that she had seen her daughter’s ghost; that her daughter had been decoyed and brutally murdered; that the form of the murderer had been distinctly visible to her, and that it was the man who had taken her away! Nor was this all. The barn where the crime was committed, and the interior of which she had never set eyes on, was distinctly revealed to her in the vision, and a corner indicated where the remains of the murdered girl would be found. The father listened to the story in amaze- ment, and, passionately implored by the distracted mother to visit the barn and make a search, reluctantly complied, and obtained permission to examine the interior, from which the grain had by this time been removed. Easily enough he recog- nised the spot the mother had described, and he set to work. In but a few minutes he came upon a piece of a shawl, which he knew to be his daughter’s, and at no greater depth than eighteen inches, dis- covered a portion of a human body. Horror-stricken, he rushed screaming from the spot, the ‘whole neighbourhood was aroused, and a hue and cry for the mur. derer began. CY, JOO S CO)