The Argosy — page 221: what you’re looking at

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

: 4 ~ 2 Li Cathy was ordered to give her account more clearly, and didso. She © had been suffering from illness, accompanied by neuralgia, and a doctor — at Tewkesbury had prescribed some pills for it, one to be taken occa- sionally. The chemist who made them up told her they contained - arsenic. He was about to write the directions on the box, when Cathy, who was in a desperate hurry, snatched it from him, saying she could not wait for that bother, flung down the money, and departed. This box of pills she had brought with her on her visit to her father’s, lest she should find occasion to take one ; and she had put it on the shelf of the’ press, side by side with the other pill-box, to be out of the way of the children. Upon leaving, she took up the wrong box inad- vertently : carrying away Abel Crew’s pills, leaving hers. There lay the explanation of the mystery of the fatal mistake. Mrs. Reed had not known that Cathy had any pills with her, the girl, who was just as light- headed as ever, not having chanced to mention it: and Cathy had the srace to dust the room herself while she was there. ‘‘ When father and his wife sent me word about the death of the two little twins, and that it was some pills of Abel Crew’s that had done it, I never once thought o’ my pills,” added Cathy. “ They didn’t as much as come into my head. But late last night I had lent to me last Saturday's Worcester Herald, and there I read the inquest, and what Crew had said about the marks he put on his pill-boxes, and mother’s evidence about never having shifted the pill-box from its place atop o” the press. Sure and I couldn’t have changed them boxes, thought I to myself; and upstairs I ran in a fright to look at the box I had brought away. Yes, there it was; Abel Crew’s box with the marks on it ; and I knew then that I had left my own pills at home, and that they had killed the babies. As soon as I could get away this morning—which was not as soon as I wanted to—I started to come over here. And that’s the story—and the blessed truth.” Of course it was the truth. Abel’s beautiful face had a glow of light . upon it. ‘I knew I should be cleared in God’s good time,” he breathed. The Squire pounced upon him, and shook both his hands, as if he’d never let them go again. Duffham held out his. So that was the end of the story. _Cathy got a reprimand from the coroner for her carelessness, and burst into tears in his face. “ And thee come off home, wi’ thee,-and see me chuck that there powder into the fire; and don’t go making a spectacle o’ th’ self again,” cried Dovey sharply in his wife’s ear. “‘ Thee just let me catch thee a bringing in more o’ the dratted stuff; that’s all.” “JT shall never look ata black beedle again, Jack, without shivering,” she answered ; going in for a slight instalment of the shivering there and then. ‘ It might ha’ come to hanging. Leastways that’s what I’ve been a dreaming of.” oon JoHNNY LUDLow. — Gomicbooks.com 206 A bel Crew.