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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1889)
470 WEST SHORE. He wondered, in a half awake way, that his mem ory wag so good, for he was an old man. He shook himself, and with trembling hands untied the package. How well he knew the pars! Ye, hi. memory was wonderful, and with such a straining at his head. The two spots of red in hi cheeks grew and grew till they covered his far. As he continued the search, his hands shook so perceptibly that it caused him some alarm. He felt his hot forehead, then on the next pa per read: " Marshficld estate." The lines of rigid tension in his face softened. How foolish and weak to doubt! He drew out the pa r and ojiened it. With stooping shoulders, a face as colorless as that of a corpse, he stared at the first word. There was a buzzing in his ears. His hot breath came through lips that were parched almost to bli.-tering. He was so numb in his limbs that he could not have moved for his life. Save his restless, scheming brain, he was dead. but the mind was so alive to the misforture which had befallen him, that it seemed to be strug gling for eseaj?. With a mighty effort he forced his wild, staring eyes to read, and his treacherous brain to construe these words Ftiui : When you see this you wi'l know the bandwrit In and your cuns be hurled at your own nVh and blood. What I am. I wat born. Itm if at any tiro there ha been a glimmer if that honesty and purity of pu-poe that gives to one womanly grace, it ha been rruehed by yonr taunts and jeers. K member that she who wriu-s tliU ban been schooled in hy pocrisy, the volume of which will won at.ish that sorie'y in which yoa have an vainly tried to eetaM.eh youreelf. As for me, I am out of it tower. I hate ii ! My p.th is downward, marked put at my hi th. Aa for yoa, if too turvive the scan dal and humiliation which ninM now befall yon. that same lack of higher Mptrationa so evident in me will.oncw your jring pride it broken, bring yoa to my level. II every !an to long nurtured by yoa is fruntrated, do not attribute it wholly to me. Had I never Un born the result would have hern, to you, the name. I have only hurried the t. , It. Ri" thro0h J"tb yoa expect to own the Mawhfirld properly is alive. I have urn her, have held in my hand a atone ehe wear which ia the eiact counterpart of the one yoa have so Jealou-ly guarded. ii w TT cr?'unw ,llrh induced yoa to conceal f -om me all knowledge of a aobjnt of such interret to us both, induced me to cover the fact that I have lorn known the content of the papers yoa eipe. ted to find here. You have plaved your game, and have lot Had we worked togrther.yoo would never have beer, obliged to acknowledge the lo-s. Hie papers are of no further nm to yoa. oi are eafer without them, for they are evidence of your crimes. 1 take them to pro'ect your dugh Wr. ou may r. at aured Uiat the probity will not go from your familv. t nder my manaicement tin-re will be little fear that the rrl will ever prove her own. She will toon be lower than 1 ran ever icome. for the can mtTer. I thank you that I can shut my eye to her sufferings. What matter to me if her heart breaks! If when she finds her position, she Ukes her own Me where ehe will die there are no mournera. After yoa are oVad, shall claim my property. Yoa will be pleased fiat yoor daughter will profit by your patience. If yoa were kneeling to me, judge by your own heart how mtu sympathy 'there is in mine. You once taunted m, myfalL Ooud-bye, lorever. He did not move. The torturing brain smiied baf- flifcjl Ilia! flSaatfctt t-ad . , t . . ! en his head. hnM h! M then daggering blindly, rushed out into the M Hullo, Mr. (ioldthurst!" a voice said. It was Mr. Griilis. " You won't thank me fur cumin' down at this time o night," regarding the staring face with rather a foolish expression on his own, "but I caw you crossin' the bridge. There's a little matter I want fixed. I want some kind of a paper on that Marsh, field property!" Quite unconsciously Mr. Griilis had allowed hi voice to take a peremptory tone. He showed he had come to stay, for he took a seat and looked at the white face. " Tain't often a man can find you. now-a-days,"he went on. He mistook the stare for the cold contempt for which the face was noted, and it angered him. " Why don't vou speak, man? " loudly. " Don't think you can set there 'n' look me out o' face! You've gut my money, Y I want somethin' to 6how you mean to do the right thing by me, V I'm goin' to git it! " In the silence which followed, he wished that he had not gone into it so abruptly; he began to think that something was wrong. The white head staring at him looked queer, almost awful! All at once a con vulsive movement showed in every feature, and a dis cordant rattle issued from between the chalky lips. " There is no property." Mr. Griilis leaped from his chair in a rage. Every thing he had seen he attributed to the hypocrisy of the man. " Ye lyin' villain!" he shouted, "what did ye en courage me to wait for? D'ye think forty thousand dollars nothin', ye thief? Dam ye, if ye go out of this house ye'll go a disgraced man before the world!" Mr. Griilis stopped, for the form was slowly rising, the stare had grown so ghastly that he became nerv ous, and started toward the door. A singular noise reached him, a noise quite unlike any that could be made by human being. He turned to see Mr. Gold thurst's arm reach out and grasp the lamp. For an instant there seemed a circular flame about the awful fan, then there was a dull thud, and Mr. Griilis fell senseless. e e e e There was not a sign or sound to tell the patrol as he went through Summit avenue, that a human life was hanging in the balance. On the floor of the ioldthurst library lay Mr. Griilis, his knees drawn up, his right hand pressed to his head, from which the blood ran down the face and stained the grizzly beard. The ghastly scene was lighted by a flickering' fire, tiny fire, which crept along the floor as though with cunning stealth, that it might not startle its prey. On it moved, making fantastic figures on the walls and ceiling. Now it lay low, then sprang into renewed life, dancing coquetishly hither and thither, as though to lull suspicion. Along the thick carpet it crawled, then, with a leap, encircled one of the heavy draperies in its grasp. Darting toward the insensible form, it played about the ojH-n hand, then greedily licked the fingers. A spasmodic jerk threw the form on its other side. A groan cscajied it, but there was no attempt to rise. Nearer the fire came, till il rmuhml the forehead. Another jerk, and Mr. Griilis came to his knees and nieht Savagely the flames, robbed of their prey, laW themselves about the room. The breeze through the ojwn door fanned them into greater fury. They crept up the stairway, not timidly, but with a lustful greed;