The Argosy — page 220: what you’re looking at

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

—Sasa ee ———eeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEOOOEOEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeeeeeEeEeeeEeEeEEeeeeeEeEeEeEeEe——eEeEeEeEe—eeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEe—e—v—e—eeeee|e eee — A bel Crew. 205 box not having what he calls his private mark upon it,” he went on to the jury, “that in my opinion tells little. Because a man has put a mark on fifty pill-boxes, he is not obliged to have put it on the fifty- first. An unintentional omission is readily made. It appears to ) me “AmTintime? Isit all over? Is Abel Crew found guilty?” This unceremonious interruption to the official speech came from a woman’s voice. The door of the room was pushed open with a fling, considerably discomposing those who had their backs against it and were taken unawares, and the room was pushed right and left by the struggles of somebody to get to the front. The coroner looked daggers ; old Jones lifted his staff; but the intruder forced her way forward with resolute equanimity. Cathy Reed: we never remembered to call her Parrifer. Cathy in her Sunday-going gown and a pink bonnet. “How dare you?” cried the coroner. ‘‘ What do you mean by this? Who are you?” ‘‘T have come rushing over from Tewkesbury to clear Abel Crew,” returned Cathy, getting up her breath after the fight. ‘‘ The pills that killed the children were my. pills.” The commotion this avowal caused in the room was beyond de- scribing. The coroner stared, the jury all turned to look at the speaker, the crowd trod upon one another. ‘* And sorry to my heart I am that it should have been so,” went on Cathy. “I loved those two dear little ones as if they were my own, and I’d rather my pills had killed myself. ie look at that, please, Mr. Coroner.” The ease with which Cathy spoke to the official gentleman, the coolness with which she put down a pill-box on the green cloth before him, took the room by surprise. As Ann Dovey remarked later, “ She must ha’ learnt that there manner in her travels with young Parrifer.”’ ‘What is this ?”’ questioned the coroner curtly, picking up the box. ‘Perhaps you'll ask Crew whether he knows it or not, sir, afore I say what it 1s,” returned Cathy. The coroner had opened it. It contained seven pills; just the size of the other pills, and looking exactly like them. On the lid and on the box was the private mark spoken of by Abel Crew. “That is my box, sir; and these—I am certain of it—are my pills,” spoke Abel, earnestly, bending over the shoulder of the topmost jury- man to look into the box. ‘‘‘The box and the pills that I gave to Mrs. Reed.” “And so they are, Abel Crew,” rejoined Cathy, emphatically. “The week afore last, which I was spending at home, I changea the one pill- box for the other, inadvertent, you see,”—with a nod to the coroner— “and took the wrong box away with me. And I wish both boxes had been in the sea afore I’d done it.” GomilGoooks (SO)