Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 363 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

‘whom he har risked all his worldly prospects, was about tou repay him by assertiag that she knew him not. It was a terriblo blow to fall upon him after ‘all these years of patient watchfulness and un- tiring search, _ i asked you if it was possible that you have forgotten me?" he said, his voice st<ady and ‘strong, without the least sign of emotion. The lady hesitated before she answered, her brows contracted as though she was in deep thought. ‘Sir,’ she said at last, ‘‘I perceive you are laboring under a misapprehension which, possi- bly, I may have difficulty in removing. “You are the second person who has addressed me by a name which does not belong to me, and { presume [ am not far from the truth in my ‘suspicion that to the information furnished you by the wretched old man who intruded upon me this evening, I am indebted for this visit.” ‘Yes, that is correct,” Crowningshield re- “plied. ‘‘Hoe was very angry when he found that I ‘would not admit I was the person whom he took me to be, and went away vowing vengeance, and he threatened, too, to send some one here who would be certain to give me a great deal of trouble. I presume, sir, that you are the per- son,” and she looked Crowningshield straight in the eye as she finished the sentence, and there ‘was a slight air of defiance plainly perceptible. ‘Madam, I do not come to you in any such mood as your words indicate, nor am I a man dikely te act as the tool of another. ‘*I do come, though, to demand an explana- tion—it is my due—[ am fully entitled to it, and I must have it. ‘‘It is useless for you to attempt to deceive me, nor can you hope to gain anything by fol- lowing such a course. 38! ose that you are the woman who, some ‘ten years ago, called herself Roxanna Merivale. You are the woman whom I married—the wo- man who fled from me, deserting both husband and child without a word of explanation. ‘*T have sought for you, without tiring, ever since, for I had faith enoughin you to believe ‘that you could not be guilty of such a crime without being compelled to the act by circum- ‘Stances over which you had no control. ‘*T surmised that there wassome dark mys- tery connected with your life before the period when you and I came together, for such a thing . alone could explain or excuse your conduct.” The lady had listened to the speech with a face utterly devoid of expression, but when Crowningshield had finished she shook her head, as much as to say that she despaired of attempt- ing to argue with aman so set in his opinion, ‘“*T perceive that the task before me is a more difficult one than I had anticipated,” she said, after pausing for a moment as if to collect her thoughts. ‘** Have the kindness to be seated, please,” and she motioned him to a chair. ‘*The explanation which you have forced up- on me will bea long one and I trust you will give me a patient hearing.” ‘“* Certainly, madam,” Crowingshield replied as he seated himself, a look of inflexible determin- ation shining in his eyes. ‘It is my earnest hope that you may be able to explain this matter and justify the act which seemingly cannot be justified.” ** Listen to the the story which I have to tell and then you can form your own conclusions. I shall not attempt to conceal anything from ae 3 the plain, unvarnished truth alone, will I relate. ee = CHAPTER XVI. . THE STORY OF ROXANNA, CROWNINGSHIELD simply bowed his head and then the lady began. ; ‘‘T am going to tell you a very strange story, sir—a story which is more like a romance than reality. The heroine of the story has been near and dear to me, yet I shall not on that account attempt to find excuse for her conduct. ‘‘ T will merely raise the vail from the mys- tery that now enshrouds Roxanna Merivale. [I will allow you to sit in judgment upon her, but I shall take pains to fully explain to you the motives which impelled her to take the course “she did.” ‘Excuse me, madam!” exclaimed Crowning- shield as she paused at this point. ‘**Do I understand that you begin by asserting that you are not Roxanna Merivale?” _ ‘* Most certainly!” she replied, immediately. ‘* But the assertion is a useless one, for | know ‘that you are she.” She made an impatient gesture, as though to beg him to keep silent. “Wait until you hear what I have to say before you decide so positively upon that point. ‘**T presume you are aware that there has been ‘plenty of instances in this world where two peo- ple have looked so much alike that it has been impossible for their dearest friends and nearest relatives to tell them apart?” ** Oh, yes, I have personal knowledge of some- ‘thing of the kind. en I was a boy at school would not work if he could possibly avoid it; | rowningshield, the Sleuth. actly alike that no one was able to distinguish one from the other.” ‘* In that case then, you should be willing to accept as truth, the story I am about to tell, ‘* In the first place allow me to say that the re- cital is an extremely painful one to me, and that if I did not recognize that you had a right to know tho truth, no power in this world would induce me to betray the secret that has so long been hidden from every one but myself.” “If any one in existence has the right to know the story of Roxanna Merivale, I think it is ig ewe Crowningshield remarked. ‘*T admit that right, and therefore I speak. Luckily all of the story is known to me, and so I can lay bare to you the secret springs which are at the bottom of this mysterious affair. ‘*That [ bear a striking resemblance to Rox- anna Merivale is not wonderful; I am her twin sister. My name, before I married Judge Jones, was Rosello Merivale. My sister and myself were born in Maine, but when we were twelve years old my father decided to try his fortunes in the Far West, and we moved to Kansas. ‘*Our mother was one of the best women that the Creator ever put on earth, but our father was one of those unfortunate men who are of no good to any one, ‘‘He was a man with a good trade, but he then, too, he was dissipated, and when he did work, squandered his money as fast as he got it, ‘* For the sake of us two children, mother bore with him, and did everything in her power to bring us up in the right way. ‘‘ Father became worse and worse though, and soon became notorious as being one of the greatest scamps in the town; and then at last, when we were sixteen years old, there came a blow which broke our mother’s heart, and hur- ried her into an untimely grave. ‘‘In a drunken quarrel in one of the low drink- ing-saloons of the town, father used a knife upon one of his companions, and although I am sure he did not really mean to seriously harm ' the man, for he never had any more heart than a hare, yet the wounded man died, and my father was dragged out by the infuriated crowd and lynched upon the spot, ‘‘ When the news reached my mother, the shock almost killed her. ‘* As soon as she rallied sufficiently, she hast- ened forth to gain assistance, so that the re- mains might be given decent burial: but even this poor consolation was denied her, for the avengers who had in so summary a manner put my unfortunate father to death, afraid, ap- parently, that the authorities might take it into their heads to look into the matter, with tho idea of punishing the men who had so wantonly | taken the law into their hands, carried away and secreted the body, and so thoroughly was the work performed, that no traces of it was ever discovered. ‘*Mother only survived this tragedy a few months, and then when she had gone to her long rest, we found shelter with a lady who carried on the dressmaking business, and who took us to learn the trade. ‘But the lady and Roxanna did not agree very well together. Roxanna was a strange girl, with some very odd ideas. She hated work, and the slavery of the needle was some- thing she could not endure. | “Tike the caged bird she panted to escape, and she took advantage of the first opportunit that offered. By chance she made the acquain ance of a young man, a stranger who came to the little village where we resided. He wasa handsome fellow, dressed elegantly, and said he was a manof wealth from the Kast, traveling for pleasure. ‘** Roxanna and he fellin love with each other at the first glance, and although there wasn’t any one to interfere in the matter they deter- mined to elope and did so, Roxanna leaving be~- | hind a letter saying that she had gone to St. | Louis to be married to the man of her choice. ‘* All the village gossips shook their heads when they heard: of the elopement and predict- | ed that no good would come of it, but that was to be expected of course, for few in the village had a good word for the daughters of drunken | Solomon Merivale, who had dipped his hands in _ the blood of a fellow-man and then been hung by an infuriated mob. ** But they were both wrong and right. ‘The man whom Roxanna trusted kept his word and when St. Louis was reached they were married, but he had deceived her in regard to his real station in life. ‘*He was not a gentleman of fortune with money enough to make him independent of the world; on the contrary, he was an adventurer, a gambler, who depended upon the shrewdness of his wits and the quickness of his hands for a living, ite gee But for all that Roxanna was _ perfectly happy and contented. At heart she was a Bo- hemian—a vagabond and this wild life suited her exactly, and in time she became so used to it that she aided her husband in his raids on the purses of the rich young flats whom he so skill- TT 13 hard-drawn breath escaped from _ between Crowningshield’s lips. The revelation astounded him, for the blow had descended upon him as suddenly and with as little warning as the lightning’s flash when it breaks through an unclouded sky. The idea was gall and wormwood to him that his Roxanna—the pare and spotless maiden, as he had so firmly believed—the girl whom he had loved so well that for her sake he had put in peril all his worldly prospects—had been the wife and willing accomplice of a miserable wretch of a gambler who managed to secure a precarious living by fleecing unsuspecting fools with more money than brains, He would not have been willing to give the tale credence had there not been something in the woman’s manner which convinced him that she was telling the truth. His idol had been rudely shattered and by merciless hands. ‘‘from St. Louis the pair went to Chica and then to Boston and there their life-path glided into the shadows which so often darken the gamester’s life,” the woman continued. ‘* In Boston Roxanna played the siren’s part as she had done in the West, but on one fatal night three rich young men were enticed into the trap; ga ot treated with liquor, but for all that they had sense enone: to see that they were being fleeced and that Roxanna’s husband was not winning their money fairly. “The gambler had not thrived since comin to Boston; his money had run out and impell by his urgent want of funds he was making a desperate effort to secure a rich stake, ‘**The young men accused him of cheating, and a quarrel arose, Weapons were drawn, the gam- bler was forced to draw his in self-defense, for his foes were upon him, swearing that they would have his heart’s blood. ‘“There was an exchange of shots, One of the young men was badly wounded, and Rox- anna’s gambler husband shot right through the temple, was killed on the instant. ‘‘ His death though was quickly avenged by Roxanna. ‘‘She always carried a small revolver, and had been taught by her husband how to uso it. ** The moment she saw the effect of the death- dealing shot—saw the blood gush forth from the little round hole in the forehead, through which the leaden ball had penetrated to the brain, in a transport of rage, she drew her weapon and without mercy, shot down the other two young men. How badly they were wounded, she knew not, but she had fired to kill.” CHAPTER XVII. HOW SHE ESCAPED, CoLDLyY and mechanically she had related the story; any one listening to her recital without being aware that she was the heroine of the tale, would never have suspected from her man- ner, that she had aught to do with it. It was as if she had merely recited some tale of fiction in which she took but little interest, and which she was anxious to finish as soon as possible. The effect of this disclosure was to turn Crowningshield seemingly into a man of stone. He sat motionless and gazed with dilated eyes upon the woman as she rehearsed the story. Mentally the question flashed across his mind: ‘Can it be possible that I have heard aright? Have not my senses deceived me, and is not this tale all the trick of a feryid imagination? »Can it be reality?” A momentary pause, and then she again pro- ceeded: ‘When the deed of vengeance was accom- plished, the sound of footsteps and of voices in the hall without, warned her that the neighbors were aroused, and if she did not wish to be dragged into a police court, she must make her escape without delay. ** So she passed into the rear room, caught up her hat aa cloak, and by a back staircaso gain- ed the street. **She was not troubled by the thought that she was forced to fly without taking her valu- ables with her, for about all she had in the world, was upon her person, ' ‘One by one she had parted with everything: of value that she possessed, raising money om therh at the pawn-shops, so that they could live. **Once in the street, she hurried away from the ill-fated house where the tragedy had oc- curred, as rapidly as possible. She did not stop to think in regard to the direction in which she should go; all she desired was to get so far away, that there wouldn’t be any danger of her being apprehended by the police. : ** She hurried on, and at last found herself on the Cambridge buege. ‘** The cool breeze from the water felt grateful to her feverish brow, and she walked out on the bridge. ‘* And now that she had time for reflection, she began to consider what was best for her to do. She was literally penniless; not a single coin of any description did she possess, and the only article wpon which she could stand any chance of raising money at the pawnbroker’s, 4 —————— = 8 gee eee ee ee eee ) _ fully picked up.” | ‘two of my playmates, twin brothers, were so ex- The lady paused for a moment and a long, was the well-worn coat which shielded 5 ree zl form, JOO Geom (C