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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmis d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est filmi 6 partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. rrata to pelure, nd □ 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 • ■ ^' 5 ■- . ■ ' ■ 1 6 No. «'! ■ No, 20. 30 Cents. .RRANcEMErlT WrrHTVicrR\iT'HoRfowHoA\ ARoYAlTry is^iD. HEDRI o R BLIIsriD J^TJSTICE BY HELEN MATHERS, AUTHOR OF " CHERRY RIPE," " STORY OF A S!N,' &:C., &C. JOHN LOVELL & SON, PUBLISHERS, 33 AND 25 St. Nicholas Strut, N40NTRKAL. . * N .^ '•■I li ' ill l| I LOVJKl-L'l^ rf — ^rr*" "M l. .> SfBISS '•'i.' I. THE WI?«> OF AZRAEU % |£ona Cairo, ,. j. : •* , jot CenU. 4f THE FATAL i'HRVNE.' By F. C. >^ ; PuiMv»,A-JTi;c*oif »Asm Al^ooKtHo ' ' 3. BMliiCK VACXSHAI^, NOVELIST,.., ' Bjr EipA LVALt, *i i. SoC«k 4. TH^ SEARCH »f OR BASIL LYND^ Cakby, .. .. ■ ., ,, td Cent). 5. THE LUCK OF THET HOUSE. By Adeline SeSgbant; .. .. 30 Cent!! ' 6. THE PENNycOHEQUieKS. % s. B^INOGduLp, .. . .. 5oCeni$. 7. SOPHY CARMINK. B/ Jmm Strange WjNTKk, .. .. 3c Cent*. 8. JEZEUEL'S FkiBNDS. By Dora RussELt, .. .. .. .. 3oCenjts. 9' THAI OTHER WOMAN. By Annie THOMA^, .. .. V. .. 3QCenU. 10. THE CURSE OF GARNERS HOLD. By G A. Henty, .. .. 30 Ci^ 11. AN L U. 3. IN SOUTH AFR:iCA. By Louise VESCELiDsbJiELboN, Au- thor ot "Yankee Giru in Zululand 30 Cents; 12. A LIFE SENTElircE. By Adeun* Sergeant. .. .. .. 30 Cents. 13. COMEpY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. By JutiAN Sturgess, .. ,: 30 Cents* THETREE OF KNOWLEDGE, B v G M.Robins, .... .. '30 Cents. 15. KIT WYNDHAM, OR FETTERED FOR LIFE, By Frank Barrett ,. 30 Cents. 16. THE HAUTE NOBLESSE, By GEOkdE ManvilleFbnn, .. .. 30 Cents. I7,u. BU'lTONS. By John Strange Winter 30 Cents. 18. EARTH BORN. By SmiTO Gentil 56 Cents. 19. MOUNI EDEN. By Florence Mar- RYAT, .. .. .. .. .. 30 Cents. HE^ER HEPWOORTH: Byi Kate TAN^Ar^T Woods, ,, .. /. 3a Cents. : :4iii 'i^l$I»4kXtATIOK. A , SCARLET SIN,- ^Bjf^ELOJllIN!^^ , .MaRryat,.,; ..,,;.-;.-_^,-.^. ^ -.* ."--3P;'Ceiit«. . TWENTY KOVEIJJTTEJS By Twenty V t' ■ ; t m \ •^PW^Sy "^ ^ '^"t^'fW^ "'?^'" muiiiw_>Jv^Y"jr^^^ ,- HEDRI; OR, I' I BLIND JUSTICE, BY HELEN MATHERS, AutAor of " Found Out;' " Cherry Ripe;' " Story of a Sin" etc., etc. MONTREAL: JOHN LOVELL & SON, 93 St. Nicholas Strxet. r %.■ M1H4- I*: ' ■-^ Entered according to Act of Parliament in the year 1889, by John Lovell &* Son, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture and Statistics at Ottawa. I?W'*?SIks,T™'^?'^'^.w*'?^^^ ■■• ^™> T -■"■■••-' :■- T» ; HEDRI. CHAPTER I. " For I will prove that fej'thful love It is devoyd of shame : In your distress and h^avinesse, To parte with you, the same ; And sure all tho' that do not so, Trewe lovers are they none ; For in my minde of all mankynde I love but you alor«." The woman flashed across the court at me a look of scorn, ay, and of contempt, but of fear not a trace. And yet I, who had placed her in the dock where she stood, I, who had made those purely disinter- ested efforts to hang her, that seemed certain to be crowned with success, felt that however much I might deserve her detestation, I in no sense was or looked the mistaken fool that she supposed me. Judith they called her, and a Judith she was, with the grand frame and limbs of a daughter and mother 19 4 IIKDRJ. of the gods, and like her great namesake, she too had slain her man, though not to such heroic purpose and results. This woman had no tribe to glorify her crime, and only one friend on earth with a heart to be wrung by it, and that man now stood as closely as might be, beside her, his comeliness all aged and dimmed by the anguish through which she had brought him. It was but a tragic variation of the old story of Enoch Arden, only this Enoch did not steal away, leaving her to happiness, but remained, to be speedily removed by her hand, unless all things in heaven and earth lied against her. And yet I felt, for the first time, sorry for my work, when that look of hers, in which spoke a virile innocence, so sure of itself as easily to afiford contempt, flashed upon some inner consciousness of mine, leaving outside it the brain that had already tried and found her guilty. But, no — I had seen this strong, calm woman in the throes of fear and agony, her not easily moved nature shaken to its very depths, and no criminal yet ever had circumstantial evidence so pitilessly arrayed against her. I forced my eyes from her, and fixed them on the counsel for the prosecution, who had al- ready commenced his indictment against her. " This woman," he said, " little more than a child at HEDRI. r for my spoke a to afiford usness of already Oman in r moved linal yet arrayed id fixed had a!- her marriage, had lived a notoriously miserable life with Seth Trcloar, though, to do her justice, no blame of any kind attached itself to her conduct as a wife; and when within the year he disappeared, leaving no trace, she remained in her native village, supporting herself by any sort of work that came in her way. She does not appear to have encouraged any lovers ; but when seven years had passed, she boldly an- nounced that she felt herself legally free of Treloar, and married a man whose character was as good as her former husband's had been the reverse, and whom she loved with a passion more than equal to that detestation she had felt for the other. From being the butt of a drunken and brutal scoundrel, she be- came the cherished and adored wife of the best look- ing and best natured man in the village, and for some brief months tasted that supreme happiness which is known only to those persons who in the past have acutely suffered. Perhaps so much content irritated the on-lookers, for only cold looks were cast upon the two, while the malicious prophesied that Treloar's return would cut short the pair's felicity, and affected not to consider them man and wife at all ; so that by degrees they became completely isolated from their neighbours, and no living feet save their own ever crossed the threshold of Smug- glers' Hole." I i 6 IIEDRI. This house had formerly been the rettdcs-vous of smugglers who were said to have within it some hid- ing place in which to dispose of their stolen goods ; but though smugglers went there no more, its bad character remained, and its lonely position at the end of the parish made it feared, so that the rent was a mere trifle, and as Treloar had brought Judith back to it a bride, so now Judith brought Stephen Croft thither as bridegroom, and here they dwelt as much alone as on a desert island. The woman defied her world, caring nothing, but the man felt her position keenly, and at last per- suaded her that it was best to emigrate, and to this she at last very reluctantly consented. Six months, then, after the ceremony that the vil- lagers declared no ceremony, Judith Croft sat one night by the fire in the almost empty cottage from which she was to depart on the morrow, with the man who represented all the sweetness and happi- ness she had found in her life. She heard steps on the path, the latch lifted, and we may surely pity the unhappy woman when, spring- ing through the dusk, she found herself clasped in the arms, not of Stephen Croft, but of Seth Treloar. Of what passed between them, God alone was wit- ness, and God alone knows tho truth ; but when the man she loved came in an hour later, she was sitting HEDRI. 7 alone by the hearth, with no sign of excitement or anxiety about her. She prepared the fish he had brought in for sup- per, ate with him, and from that moment he never kft her until they rose early next morning, to be in time for the train that was to take them to Liver- pool. So much Stephen Croft said in his evidence, most reluctantly given, but still more reluctantly two damning pieces of evidence against her were drawn from him. He said they had arranged for their landlord to take over the few poor sticks of furniture they pos- sessed, and had sent on their small personal belong- ings the day before, but there were some few odds and ends to be carried between them, and he had brought in a coil of stout rope for binding them to- gether. At starting, the rope was missing, but his wife could not account for its disappearance more than himself, and did not "fuss" about it as most women would have done under the circumstances. At breakfast (this was only dragged from him bit by bit) he noticed that she ate very little, but furtively collected food on a plate, and set it aside, as if for an unexpected guest. He asked her why she did this, and she said the neighbours would be all over the house the moment their backs were turned, and she would gratify their curiosity as to what they had for li' 8 HEDRL M breakfast. He reminded her that their landlord was trawling that day, and several subsequent days, at a distance, and that no one could know the secret place, previously agreed upon, where they were to hide the key of the house. She laughed strangely, and said that though you might lock people out, you could not lock them in ; but this speech, though he did not understand it, was afterwards distinctly quoted in her favour. Then they collected their small effects, and without a God-speed from a friend, or a kindly eye to follow them on their path, passed away from the home in which they had been so happy, to the one that had yet to be earned in the uncertainty of the future. Perhaps the man looked back, but at some distance from the house the prisoner did more, she affected to have forgotten something, and bid- ding him go forward, retraced her steps quickly. But he reluctantly admitted that she returned empty- handed, that she was pale as a corpse, with wild eyes, that she gasped for breath, stammering and present- ing every appearance of a woman who has received some horrible shock, but when he asked her if she had met with some insult from a passing neighbour, she shook her head, but would give no explanation of her state. She showed extraordinary eagerness to reach the train, but did not utter a syllable during the journey, though a sinister incident occurred dur- HEDRI. g ing it. That incident (here the counsel turned and looked steadily at me) was witnessed by a gentleman, to whose keen observation, swift action, and masterly manipulation of fact and surmise was due the bril- liantly conclusive chain of evidence that had brought the prisoner to where she stood that day. This gentleman had in his hurry jumped into a third instead of a first-class carriage, and congratu- lated himself on his mistake when he saw the two other occupants of the compartment. They were simply the two most magnificent specimens of man and womanhood that he had ever seen in his life, but the man looked troubled and perplexed, and the woman gave one the same impression as of some usually calm majestic aspect of nature, now convulsed and shaken to its very core. He saw the fine hands clenched beneath her woollen shawl, the splendid eyes blind to all save some awful inward sight, and he recognized that a tragedy had been, or was to be enacted, and he watched her, with entire unconscious- ness to herself, unremittingly for mile upon mile. This vigilance was unexpectedly rewarded. She moved abruptly, searched her pocket for a handker- chief with which to wipe her damp brow, and pulled out with it a small, curiously shaped silver box that fell into the man's lap. The blank horror of her eyes slowly quickened with some recollection, she to HEDRI. stretched her hands to take it, but he drew back, and with astonishment in his face Hfted the lid, and found the contents to be a white powder. Into this powder he thrust his fore-finger and instantly applied it to his tongue, on the moment crying out that his tongue was burning, then that his throat and stomach were on fire, and violent nausea completed the symptoms of having swallowed c violent irritant poison, " You have taken arsenic ! " cried the stranger present, whereon the prisoner shrieked out, snatched the box from Stephen's hand, and threw it far out of the window. The stranger, approaching the window, took the exact bearings of the spot where it must have fallen, they were then close to a station, and there he got out, having watched these two until the last moment. The man was urging questions on lier as to who gave it her, or where she had got it, but beyond that one shriek, the stranger heard no sound issue from her white lips from first to last. Only as the other closed the door, he saw her lean forward, and press the fisherman's hand with a pas- sion of tenderness, that startled the gazer; clearly the poison was not intended for the husband, there- fore for whom .'' The stranger bade the guard watch the pair, and communicate to him, at an address he gave the s t HEDRT, tt station at which they descended, then he retraced the distance he had come from a certain point, and with very little difficulty found what he wanted. The box was of pure silver, of foreign make, which he subsequently discovered to be Austrian, and it was three parts full of arsenic. He locked the box away, said nothing to anybody, but watched the daily papers carefully. He had not very long to wait ; on the fourth morn- ing he read how in a cellar, formerly used by smug- glers beneath a cottage at Trevenick, in Cornwall, had been found the dead body of a man whose ap- pearance gave rise to suspicions of foul play, and who, on examination was found to have in his viscera sufficient arsenic to kill thpee or four men. The man was well clothed, well nourished, and concealed in a belt upon him was found one hundred gold pieces of money. He was at once identified as the long mis- sing husband of a woman who had within the past few days left the village for Australia with her second husband. Jake George, a fisherman, swore to seeing a man enter the house at seven o'clock the evening before the pair left, but he saw no one come out, though his work kept him near by till eight, when Stephen Croft himself came home. He was not near enough to hear voices, though he could easily have heard a ta HEDRI. \% cry had there been one. He peeped, as would be shown in the evidence, but he could see nothing. With what superhuman swiftness and strength must this woman have overcome her victim, so that not even a moan or cry reached the spy without ! What self-control must have been hers that she could meet her husband with a smile, and sit at board with him that night, however absolutely she might break down on the morrow ! In one short hour she had done as much, and more, as a man could do, and she had done it thoroughly. Secure by her hearth, her murdered man hidden at her feet, she sat with un- daunted front, no smallest trace around of the man who had visited her. Without that hollow cave below, she might have murdered, but could not have concealed him ; but as it was, this hiding-place fav- oured the swiftness and subtleness of the crime to an extraordinary degree. For who could believe that he, the former master of that house and the woman in it, walked of his own free will to the disused trap- door, and deliberately elected to be lowered by a rope to a cold and noisome dungeon peopled only by rats ? No ! It was for Stephen Croft to quail, to shrink away out of sight as a defrauded man, or, if Treloar shewed himself moved by his wife's entreaties, and actually consented to leave her to her happiness, would he not have left, as he came, by the house door ? HEDRI. »3 We see no such thing when, in imagination, we project our gaze upon that bare dismantled room ; we see a man who, whatever he may have been to her in the past, had since possibly repented, and prosper- ing in his new life (as his clothes sufficiently proved), had remembered the woman who once loved him, and returned to share his prosperity with her. He found her more beautiful than ever, and probably the very thought of taking her awaj/" from another man enhanc.ed her value in his not over-fastidious mind ; he meant to take his rights, and told her so, while the miserable woman only half heard him in straining her ears for her lover's step without. She must have acquiesced to all appearance in his demands, or he could not have taken from her hand the cup of milk with which she had stealthily mixed the poison; strangely enough, she must have also been possessed at the time of a strong narcotic, since traces of one were found in the stomach, so that the cool firm hand doubly doctored the draft she handed to the unsus- pecting man. Let us picture her then, watching his unavailing struggles and agonies till the opiate deadened the effects of the poison, and he sank down in a stupor that she knew must end in death, nay, that may so have ended abruptly, as she stood by and watched him. Her crime is accomplished, but how to hide it ? X 14 HEDRI. II 1 See her eyes wander hither and thither over the walls, the floor, upon the door through which she might drag this heavy weight, but that she may meet her lover on the threshold ! Her glance falls on a dis- coloured ring level with the ground, and scarcely visible save to those who know where to look for it, she creeps nearer and nearer to it. She kneels down, and drags at the rusty ring ; a square door, about the width of a strong man's shoulders, rises towards her, beneath is a black void, and that void is to be the hiding-place of her husband's body. Close at hand lies a coil of cord, she deliberately cuts it in half, and kneeling down beside him, makes one portic^n fast round his body be- low the armpits, then with the ends drags that hud- dled, helpless body easily enough along the floor v itil the open square is reached. And now comes the most difficult part, physically, of her enterprise. To thrust him feet foremost down that pit would be easy enough, but with all a woman's extraordinary insensi- bility to crime, but sensitiveness to a cruelty, she could not bring herself to do this, but with arms stronger surely than a woman's ever were, lowered him so carefully that not a bruise or a mark was any- where to be found on his person. Picture her placing her husband, his feet to the pit, his head to her knees, see her give him a strong push that sends his feet over the edge, and instantly I I HEDRI. «S the body disappears with such a jerk as nearly to throw her forward on the ground ; but with straining muscles she holds grimly on, her thighs bent back, resisting in every fibre the dead weight that seeks to drag her down to the place to which she has con- demned him ! Now the head is over, has vanished, bit by bit she lets out the cords that are twisted round her hands ; presently they grow slack, a dull tremble runs through him, the body has reached the ground, she casts the cords in after him, drops the trap-door, and all is over. So far, she has acted with extraordinary prompti- tude and skill, ably seconded by great physical strength, she is even able to greet Stephen Croft as if nothing had happened, and to wash the cup out of which her husband drank ; but in the morning she breaks down, and attracts suspicfon to herself in a way little short of madness. At breakfast she sets aside food as if for a visitor, she returns to the house after they have both presumably left it for ever, shi lifts the trap-door, and leaves it open, and from a hook inside suspends a long piece of cord, by which a person might easily descend to the vault below, or ascend from it to the room above. By the trap-door she places the plate of broken food, and having thus drawn attention to what would have never been sus- pected but for her indication, she rejoins her hus- i6 HEDRL MM band, very soon after committing another and even worse act of stupidity, since it is witnessed by one who grasps the full significance of the incident, and who in following up the clue then given, brings all the facts home to the woman at last. This gentleman, on reading of the murder, went straight to the village of Trevenick, found the police supine, and the villagers convinced of Judith's guilt, although they had only their spite to convince them. The rural police thought that the man might have got in after the two left, and had chosen, for his own reasons, to conceal himself below ; but the medical evidence proved that he had been dead at least three days, and the key was found by the landlord in the place agreed upon, wiiile every window was securely bolted from within. But suspicion was not certainty, or Judith would probably have reached Australia unmolested, and remained there to this day, had not the stranger who travelled with them produced the arsenic box and his evidence, at the enquiry then being held. The result you know, the woman was brought back and committed to prison to await her trial. One cannot sufficiently admire the sagacity and acumen of this amateur detective who put to shame a — but I heard no more. His praise sickened me. I no longer felt proud of niy work, but as a mean fel- HEDRL «y low who had deliberately hounded down a possibly innocent woman. But for my evidence about the poison seen in her possession, and that of her hus- band (the only being in the world who loved her) about the rope, she would be standing a free creature In primeval forests now. Why did I put the slum- bering police on her track, why cable to the port where they landed, and secure her arrest ? She had done me no harm, nor surely should I have done any in leaving that hunted soul one chance of salvation and a life with the man who honoured her, the main- spring of whose happy existence was now as surely broken as hers- 2 i8 HEDRL CHAPTER II. ** For an outlawe, this is the lawe That men hym take and binde Without pitee, hanged to bee And waver with the wynde, If I ha:l neede (as God forbide ! ) What rescue could ye finde ? " I STOOD still in the Cornish market-place in the midst of the Cornish sing-song voices, trying to think of any loop-hole by which she might escape, but found none ; then I bethought me how abler brains than mine would marshall every tittle of evidence in her favour, for, I, who had brought her there, could do no less than engage one of the most brilliant advo- cates in the world to defend her. He was probably now speaking, for the burst of applause that just now broke forth announced the end of the opposing counsel's speech. I went back, found a man holding the court breathless, and as I listened, felt my doubts waver more and more of her guilt, while a hope began to stir in me that she might escape. He began by contemptuously dismissing as hyper- irr.DRT. '9 [bole, prul wild iinaginatioji, his learned friend's Lkctcli of what went on in the kitchen of Smugglers* Hole on the night of Seth Treloar's return. In some Ipoints that imagination did not carry him far enough, for why was not the court treated to a description of a man in all the agonies of poison, which must have declared itself long before the narcotic had time to take effect ? The fisherman [within ear-shot of the house heard not a sound — not even raised voices — and w^as it for a moment credible that a maddened and betrayed man, realising that his wife had murdered him, would not have raised a cry for help, or uttered a single shriek at the agony which devoured his entrails? Such conduct was not only incredible, it was physically impossible, and no woman, however powerful, could have so strangled his furious cries and curses, that not even an echo crossed the threshold. The real truth was, that she never gave him the arsenic^ for how, pray, did she manage to dissolve it in water before his eyes, then add it to the milk, for if she had merely shaken the powder into the cup, it would have risen to the surface, and attracted his attention immediately. I say that this woman did not touch or see any poison, but that she did administer a narcotic she had by her, probably with the intention of gaining time while he was asleep, to think out her terrible '" llu I! 90 HEDRT. situation. The sight of the trap-door suggested to her mind a Jiiding-placc, anc^ grasping the idea with fatal hurry, she did actually, by the exertion' of her unusual strength lower him into the vault while he was unconscious, in the hope that he would not wake before she and Stephen Croft left the house. That she had no wish to harm him, is abundantly proved by the care with which she managed his descent; that she felt sure of his awaking, . is proved by the rope she affixed to the hook inside the trap-door, left purposely open by her that he might see the means of ascent, and climb through it. If further proof is wanted that her mind was not murderish, abundant proof was given by the plate of victuals set inside the open trap-door, nay, more, it was the good- hearted and gentle action by a woman who, while nerving herself to an act of force made neces- sary by her desperate situation, could think of the comfort of the man who had been a brute to her, and by such thought prove that she bore no malice against him. True, the man's body contained arsenic, but who was to prove that she gave it him } He had been in the house three days before he was discovered, and what might not have happened in that time ? An old enemy might have pursued him there, some old companion have followed and quar- relled with him in the deserted house, or he might IIEDRL %\ have died by his own hand ; it was utterly impossible to prove that the arsenic found in his body was taken from the box subsequently found in her possession. More than this — (and the learned counsel looked steadily round the court before advancin^j his daring theory) he would boldly assert that she did not even know there was arsenic in the box, it had been jerked from the man's pocket previous to her lower- ing him into the vault ; and afterwards in the stress and hurry of the moment, she had thrust it into her pocket, a.id forgotten all about it, till she drew it out with her handkerchief in the train. I saw Judith, whose eyes never left her counsel's face, bow her grand head as if she had said " Yes, — that is true," and then she turned and laid her hand on that of Stephen (whom she could just reach), and the utter confidence of the gesture and the look they exchanged of pure love, quite apart from passion, might have moved the hearts of many who sat there. " If" (continued her counsel) " he carried about arsenic, might he not have had more with him, or at any rate enough to take his own life ? True, his arms were bound, but who was to prove that the prisoner bound them ? They may have been bound and unbound a dozen times in that deserted place where no villagers ever came, and that stood as much ViMi^ \ I 111! 23 HEDRI. alone as if it were a hundred miles from a human habitation. Then, if antecedents went for anything, where could a woman be found with more blameless ones than this ? Even her drunken scoundrel of a husband was not neglected or deserted by her, and v/hen she was left alone, in the full flower of her magnificent beauty, her name was never lightly coupled with any man's, and she was ashamed o' no work, however lowly, by which she might keep her- self from beggary, or the pauper's home. It was only when the sum of years that are supposed to constitute legal death had elapsed, that she chose for a husband a man of character as pure as her own, and as you may see, a man physically her match, and though the spite and venom of their neighbours may have affected to consider the bond between them illegal, they were unquestionably in the sight of man and God, husband and wife. "Could such a woman's nature change all at once, could her veneration for all things holy, all things of good repute, fail her utterly in the one supreme moment of her life, when she found her heaven sud- denly transformed into hell ? Was yonder the woman to boldly conceive and execute a murder with a ski'l and rapidity that the most experienced criminal might have envied, and striven to imitate in vain ? No ! That she had displayed extraordinary HEDRI. n nerve and resource in carrying out a wronjr act, he fully admitted ; but when one conies to think of the immensity of the stakes involved, of what life in bondage meant with this man, of what love in free- dom awaited her in the new world, you may condemn her, but you cannot wonder that she snatched at any means, however unlawful, by which to save her- self. " I contend then, that there is no case against this woman, and that each and all of you, gentlemen of the jury, will be guilty of murder if you send this innocent and sorely tried creature to the gallows ! " He sat down amidst applause from the legal fraternity, and strangers present, but low murmurs and growls of dissent rose from the fishermen and their wives in the body of the court. "Who else had a motive in getting rid of Seth Treloar ? And motive was everything in murder ! Why was the door found locked, and every window fastened from inside (for hadn't some of them prowled round to see after the pair left), and the key found hanging in the place the landlord and Croft had agreed on ? Didn't the doctors say he had been dead a good three days, and how could he have poisoned himself when his arms were fastened to his sides with cords ? Wouldn't an artful jade like her have tied a rope to the book, and put the food i I I ! I ! ! i S4 HEDRL there, just to make people think she expected him to get up again ? Wasn't his face fixed in the most awful look of hungry agony, more like a famine- struck wolf than a human being ? Only to dream of it was to lie awake all night afterwards." And then the Cornish sing-song of bitter tongues ceased as the first witness was called for the prosecu- tion — Stephen Croft. I have said that he and Judith made the hand- somest pair I ever saw in my life, but the man's beauty was the more pre-eminent of the two. Save in sculptured images of Antinous, whom he most curiously resembled, alike in feature and the sweetness tinged with melancholy of his expression, I never saw anything in the least like him, and from the crown of close sunny curls on his splendid head to the sole of the finely shaped foot, he looked a man who would wear a fisherman's dress or a king's robe with equal grace and dignity. No wonder, thought I, that the women of the village hated Judith — I saw evil looks pass among them as Stephen's blue eyes sought hers as he left her to take his place. And now she stood alone, and the man who loved her was on oath to give evidence against her. And surely this was a cruel thing to see, for had he been the woman's husband, the law would have closed his lips, so that he might neither help to save nor to hang her ; but Seth Treloar's return had bl tl tl h| S d I iiJ III HEDRI. as cted him to 1 the most a famine- ' to dream er tongues e prosecu- 'he hand- he man's o. whom he and the cpression, and from did head looked a a king's wonder, d Judith tephen's is place. lo loved broken the tie between them, and she was no more than any other stranger to him in the eyes of the law. He made no ado about kissing the book, but when the first damning question was heard, I saw him set his teeth hard, and his mouth and jaw hardened. Stock still he stood, looking at the man who ad- dressed him, but not one syllable passed his lips. The question was repeated, this time angrily, but not -even a shade of expression crossed Stephen Croft's features in reply, neither sullen nor obstinate did he look, but simply a man who had made his mind up, and who would not unmake it for all the applied force in the world. He did not look at Judith, even when " Do 'ee spake now ! " broke from her lips, and silent as a stone he stood through the war of words that raged around him, silent when the Judge addressed him with no unkindly words, before committing him to prison for contempt of court, urging him to answer, as the admissions he had previously made about the prisoner had been duly taken down, and his silence now could not affect her one way or the other. But the fair Greek lines of his face never yielded in a single line, until just before his removal, then a pang crossed it, as he realised that he would no longer be able to stand beside Judith, and with an earnest > " Keep a good heart, my lass ! " and a look of love transfiguring his face, he caught her " God bless thee, Steve ! " as he was led out. i ! ! I i 96 HEDRI, CHAPTER III. • '* For had ye, lo ! an hundred mo', Yet wolde I be that one ; For in my mynde, of all mank)mde I love but you alone." Her face changed as he disappeared, for a moment an almost childish look of loneliness per- vaded her figure, then she drew herself together, and looked as strong and serene as before. More triumph shone in her eyes, and she glanced at the spiteful women in the body of the court with almost a smile on her lips. Was he not faithful, her man who would not break his oath, but who was content to suffer imprisonment rather than give wit- ness against her ? Then the notes taken down of her husband's ad- missions, clearly wrung from him in his agony, were read aloud, but still the brightness of her face did not change. . Jake George was the next witness called, a striking contrast to the silent, splendid man who had faced the court a few minutes ago, and whose volubility was far more irritating than Stephen's dumbness had been. i^-i HEDRI. 2f Jake was the husband and tool of the most bitter- toii<;ued shrew in the village, and as her mouth-piece could have poured out his venom upon Judith by the hour, had he not been smartly checked, and brought to book by his questioner. Shorn of irrevelancies and spite, his story was this : " His business took him close to Smugglers* Hole on a certain night, or perhaps he was only passing it, any way when he saw a man dressed in a pilot coat, outside clothes he should describe as ' fancy,' dodg- ing about outside the house, making as if he were in doubt whether to go in or not ; he stopped to see what it all meant, and presently the man lifted the latch and went in, shutting the door behind him. Asked if he peeped, Jake boldly admitted that he did, but couldn't see so much as her shoe-string, the blinds were down, but he could make out the glint of a fire through it, and catch the sound of voices. His wife had always said that Judith would be caught one of these days, and only behaved herself because folks were looking, and at the time he didn't think the man was up to any good there, after dark, and with such queer rags. He hadn't seen his face, and didn't think of Seth Treioar. Didn't stay at the window long for fear Steve Croft should come back and catch him there, but thought he'd stop and see the game out. Sat down by the cliff, a bit of a s 28 HEDRI. Ill I > ii! ! i 11 way ofif — may be a hundred yards, and stayed there till Steve came home. Nobody came out during that time, and he went down to the village, riled at wasting so much time for nothing. Told his wife and she was angry. She liked a story with a tail to it — and this hadn't got one, and he thought no more of it till the landlord found a man's body in the house." The owner of Smuggler's Folly next entered the box. He was a stout and prosperous man, who also owned the " Chough and Crow," and was not depen- dent on his nets for a living. He said that he was from home when his tenants left, and on his return he went to the house, and found the key in a hiding-place upon which he and Stephen Croft had previously agreed. On entering the house, though the blind was down, he noticed at once the open trap-door, and the plate of broken victuals beside it. He let the daylight in, and look- ing down though the open square in the floor, saw a heap of something lying about twenty feet below, but not until he had obtained a candle, discovered that it was the body, lying face downwards, of a man. He procured help and a ladder, by the aid of which he de=":v •- ■ -i, but had some difficulty in lifting the cof j ii. .nds, dug deeply into the mould, had stiftc:iea ill :i. .vhile his teeth literally bit the dust. ^^ HEDRL 39 The expression of his features was less one of pain than of intense hunger, though his body was well nourished, and his clothes, made in the fashion of some foreign country, spoke of his prosperity. Below the chest, and across the arms was secured the rope by which he had evidently been lowered from above (but cross-questioned on this point, witness admitted that the rope was not tightly drawn, so that a power- ful man might easily struggle or jerk himself out of it), a portion of similar rope being secured to a strong hook just beside the trap-door. His own impression at the time was, that somebody had dragged and hidden him there, arranging for his escape when he came to himself, and even providing him with food to eat when he came to. Thought the man died of heart seizure, or visitation of God, or of fright, till the coroner's inquest proved that he died of poison. Was astonished to find that food was found in his stomach, from his look he would have thought he had been slowly perishing of famine for days. Saw a bottle of stuff in the cupboard that smelt of narcotic ; was aware that the secret of making it was known to a few women in the village, that it was decocted out of herbs, and that its strength rather increased than waned with years. Had heard it said (though he didn't listen to gossip) that Judith had more than once given a dose of it to Seth Tre- 30 HEDRI. I i 1 m loar, when he was in one of his mad-drunk furies, but that he never guessed it, only fell asleep and woke in a better temper. That was the only bit of scandal he had ever heard about her. Even now he didn't believe her guilty, though facts might be against her." When the burly fisherman left the box, he left a distinct impression of good sense and good feeling, and some of those present muttered that he should have been called as a witness for the defence, and not for the prosecution. The doctor's evidence was short, and to the point. In Seth Treloar's body he had found enough arsenic to kill three or four people, and traces of a powerful narcotic that would have the effect of cutting short his agony after swalloA 'ng the poison, so that he would actually die without pain, and unconscious. Cross-examined as to whether a man who had swallowed a deadly irritant would be likely to refrain from crying out. Dr. Tr^^velyan said it would be most unlikely, even with a man of severe self-discipline and iron will, and in the last degree improbable with an ignorant and notoriously passionate man. Short of a blow that would have instantly stunned him (of which there was no trace) he could not have escaped the severest agonies immediately after swallowing the doubly hocussed drink, which, by the way, he must have tossed off at a draught. The man had been HEDRL 3t dead over three days when l.c saw him, and he could not account for the wolfish look of hunger in his face, for in his stomach was a large quantity of undigested food, indicating that he had eaten heavily shortly before he drank the fatal cup. The body was extremely well nourished, the skin and hair remark- ably sleek and glossy, the complexion clear, while the solidity of the flesh spoke to excellent powers of digestion. He looked a man in the very prime of life who might have lived to be old but for the acci- dent that cut short his existence." When Dr. Trevelyan left the box, I knew that here again was a witness whose evidence was dis- tinctly in favour of Judith, and how, but for me, the case against her must Inevitably have broken down. And then my name was called, and when I left the witness-box, I knew by the faces of the jurymen that Judith ^is virtually a condemned woman. 3» IIEDRL CHAPTER IV. iiiiii ''III I 'iiii •• Balow, my child, I'll weep for thee Too soon, a lake, thou'lt weep for me 1 Born to sustain thy mother's shame, A hapless fate, a bastard's name." That night I made no pretence of going to bed. I could not sleep with that death-cry of " Guilty ! " ringing in my ears, and the twelve stolid, stupid faces of the men who had returned the verdict would have stared me into madness had I closed my eyes. They had not hesitated at all, and only one gave her the benefit of a doubt ; they looked solely to motive and to the enormous stakes involved to the woman, and they quietly rode rough-shod over Jake's evidence, and that of the Doctor, and having pro- nounced her guilty went home comfortably to the dowdy wives, who one and all believed a superlatively handsome young woman to be the off-spring of the devil. The men might have felt lenient to a woman who killed her lover rather than offend a husband ; but to kill a man she had sworn to honour and obey, touched them very nearly, and each slept HEDRI. n that night feeling that his day's work was a shining encouragement to virtue. Perhaps Judith, too, slept well, all her hopes and fears over ; but Stephen, once more at liberty, rested as little as I did, or I was much mistaken. Was he cursing me for the cruel part I had played, and him- self for that fatal admission about the cord, and the even more damning one of her return to the house. It is an awful thought, that one has helped to adjust the noose about the neck that is the dearest in the world to you. One falls to asking God why he did "ot strike us with palsy e'er we pronounced the words why he did not strike us dead before we rose a wit- ness against that we would have been martyred to save. The bold theory of Judith's counsel had greatly impressed me, though to the jury it had sounded as the merest romance. I had watched her while he spoke, and every feai are of her face bore witness to the truth of his guess, nay, there had been a look almost of fear in her eyes, as if she suspected him of some devilry in describing correctly what he could not possibly have seen. But more than all, I believed in the lightning con- viction that had come home to me, born of some- thing indescribable in herself, that of folly and to spare, she had been guilty, but of deliberate murder, 3 34 ITEDRL not even in thought. Long before morning dawned, after I had minutely gone over the heavy indictment against her, I knew surely that these twelve men had blundered, and that I had blundered worse than any one of them, though there might be no vestige of evidence to prove to us our mistake. But proved it must be, and that verdict reversed, or I should be a haunted and miserable man to the day of my death. And how } If Judith had refused to speak one word for herself up to the present time, would she be willing to speak now, when nothing that she could say or do would avail her } Knowing the use- lessness of speech, she had proudly refrained from it, and I greatly admired her silence, even though, if persevered in, it would effectually baulk my efforts to save her. Seth Treloar died of poison, it is true, but not administered by her hand, nor did she know by whose, and probably no one ever would know. If the dead could speak, it would clear her, but for ^he living to try and prove the truth was about as hope- less and impossible a task as was ever set to a pur- blind, miserable man. Yet I resolved (unchecked by my recent disas- trous failure that the world crowned with success) to devote myself during the next two months to search- PPPPP" IIEDRI. 35 ing for the real factor concerned in Scth Treloar's death. Two months — for within a month Judith would be mother to Stephen Croft's child, and the law allowed her a further period of life before her execution. I remembered liow the expression of her face in the train, at the sight of the arsenic-box, was less horror than blank astonishment, and how her im- pulse to snatch, and throw away what caused her husband intense pain, was a perfectly natural one, and no proof of guilt as I and others had supposed. One thought alone still disturbed me. Why had she returned pale and terror-struck after visiting the house on the morning of her departure ? Was it not the same expression on her face, the expression of guilt, that had struck me so vividly the moment I saw her } But I thrust' the doubt away, and resolved that on the morrow I would go to her, and implore her to tell me what had passed between the hours of seven and eight on that evening at Smugglers' Hole, and soothed by the determination, my head fell forward on my arms, and in the morning light I slept. HEDRI, J I 'iiLii !' ! !*'!!■: CHAPTER V. ** Yet I am sure, of one pleasure And, shortly, it is this : That where ye be, me seemth perdi I could rot fare amysse." As I turned in at the gaol-gates, I knocked against Stephen Croft coming out, his face dulled and wrung with disappointment. I guessed that he had been refused admittance to Judith, and this I thought inhuman, even if she had been the guiltiest wretch alive, and had lived with him of choice as his mis- tress, when in truth she had believed herself to be his wife. " Come with me," I said, " and I will try to per- suade the governor to let you in with me." He could not change the look of hate that came always into his eyes when he saw me, but he followed me like a patient dog, and after some difficulty I got the required permission, and these two, to whom each made the whole world of the other, were face to face. For a while I was deaf and blind to them, but presently I said : HEDRI. 37 "Judith, I believe you are an innocent woman — tell me if what I believe is the truth." The scorn in Judith's eyes was boundless as the sea, but she remained silent ; it was the man who spoke. " Nobbut a fool 'ud iver ha* doubted her," he said. This was a strong speech from a man of Stephen's gentle character, and I found the two pairs of brown and blue eyes hard to meet. " And I was that fool," I said ; ** but before God I will undo my folly if I can." " Naw," he said sadly, " 'ee canst ne'er do that, 'lis thou has wove the strands aboot her bonnie neck, an' all 'cos 'ee must blab to what warn't no business o* thine. An' I wish my tongue was rotted i' my head afore I'd spoke them words as war brought up agen her arterwards — but 'twas thy wark, man, a' thy wark." Judith turned and kissed passionately the mouth that had ignorantly borne testimony against her. " I'd rayther ha' a curse from this wan — the on'y wan — than th' luv o' all the world," she cried ; and he kissed her back with all his heart. As on the first occasion of my hearing her speak, the woman's voice jarred upon me; she looked a Semiramis, and she spoke like a daughter of the peo- ple. HEDRL m "Judith," I said, "your counsel imagined certain things to have occurred on the night Seth Treloar came home. Did he guess truly ? " She looked at me indifferently. " Iss," she said, " but what do't siggerfy naw ? 'Tis all adone wi', an' yo'd take me fo' a fool if I up an' told 'ee th' truth." " No, I should not," I said ; " and what is more, I should believe you. I want to help you, but you must help yourself by telling me exactly what hap- pened that night." Judith looked at Stephen. " Shall I tell 'un .? " she said. " M'appen him 'uU know then what a fule 'un has been. Iss, I'll tell 'ee, tho' 'tis waste o' time, an' I'd rayther be talkin' to him, yon. ** Wa-al, I war sittin' by th' fire th' nicht afore we was t' sail fo' Australy, thinkin' o* my baw, an' a bit fainty hearted at leavin' th' old place (us had been main happy, hadn't us, lad) } when steps corned along th' path an' somebody gie'd a bang at th' door. I s'posed 'twas some giglet or rapskallion comed fro' th' village t'jeer at me, so I jist bided quiet, then a body swored out, an* in come a man — 'twar Seth Treloar. " I gied a yellock 'ee moight ha' heard a moile, an* him jest larfs an' ses, ' Your'm purtier nor iver! ' an* ups t' kiss me. * If *ee touches me,* ses I, * I'll murder HEDRI. 39 'ec,' an' he larfs agen, an' ses, ' I see yer temper's so sw^et as ever 'twas,' an' him thrawed hisself into a chair, an' keeps on larfin'." " * I 'spected to find 'ee married agen,' him said, ' th' seven year is up, an' you'm free, 'sposin' we'm ony brother an' sister t' wan anither now ? ' " ' Wi' a' my heart,' say I, strainin' my ears fo' th» sound o' Steve's han upo' th* latch. I knowed I war thrust out o' my bit hebben into hell " * If 'ee means that,' ses he, lookin' hard towards me, * us'U be the boonist frens as ever war. Thar's a baw out yon in Styria as clapped his eyes on yer picter, an' he be jest mad about 'ee, an' when I tells 'um you'm my sister, he ups and swares to marryin' 'ee, and gi'es me no pace till I sets out to fetch 'ee. Will 'ee come ? 'Ee '11 have gold an' fine clo' an* sich lashins as 'ee never see the like o' here, an' e's a fine bav/, as 'uU be good to 'ee, a sight better'n I iver war. j..» " I said niver a word, I war just listenin', listenin for Stephen's steps. " ' Wa-al,' he ses ' we'll talk more o' that bim'by. I doant look much loike th' ragged ne'er-do-weel as runned away fro 'ee, do I ? Awh, t'is a foin life out yon in Styria, all the baws is lusty an' strong over there. Jes look to this ! ' An' he rolled ups his furrin' sleeve, an' showed a arm as 'ud flummax an ox. 40 HEDRI. " ' Us don't drink much over thar,' sez he, w' a curous sort o' larf, * us knows o* somethin' better stuff as you poor fules *ud reckon as a bit different to what us dus, stuff as makes 'ee strong, an' yer skin sleek, an' yer hair t' shine, but I ain't a goin' t' tell 'ee wot t' is. Hrs 'ee got a drink o' milk anywheres ? ' " Iss,' ses I, listenin* for th' sound o' Steve's foot, an* I wraps my cloak closer about me, an' I goes t' th' cupboard, an' thar th' devil war waitin' fo' me, as 't is aisy now t* see. " Fo' thar, roight a facin' me war th' bottle o' sleep- in' stuff as 'ud stood all them seven year ; I'd kep it t' mind me o' th' hell I'd lived in w' Seth, an* side o' the stuff war the milk, an' the cup out o* which Steve had drunk that day. " Th* devil ses ' Pit some o' th* stuff i' his drink, an' he'll niver knaw, an* git him out o' th* way afore Steve be comed in.* Thar war na taste to 't, nor more nor watter, nor na color, th' gipsies knawed thar work too well fo' that, an' wi' my back t' Seth, I jest poured th' stuff into th' cup, an* th' milk to top o' un, an' I ups an* gies 't to 'un, d'reckly.'' "There was no water in the cupboard ? " I said. " Watter } " said Judith, staring at me, " what for should I keep watter there } Wa-al, him. tossed 't off to wance, an' afore 'ee could count ten, him war asleep an' snorin', and out he slips IlEDRI. 41 .fro* th* chair to th' groun*, an' a box falls out o* his bosom, an' I picks 't up (listenin' the whiles fo' Steve's step) an' puts it i' my pocket, an' thin, knaw- in' he war safe naw for twenty-vour hour. I looks at un and ses, Whereiver num I hide un ? ' " Ther warth* secret bit room, on'y Steve alius went thar when he corned in, an' I daurna pit him on th' cliff. Jes thin my eye catched th' ring o* th' trap- door, an* th' devil flashed it up t' me, * Put un down i' th' cellar ! 'Ee'U be gone in twelve hour, an' nuth- in' *ull waken he fur twenty-vour, put un down i* th* cellar ! * " If th* devil war quick, I war quicker, I catched up a coil o* rope near by, an' I had Seth Treloar roun* the shoulders i' a second, an' tied a knot ahind him, an' then I dragged un along th' floor till I'd got un to th* trap-door, an' opened un, but t'warnt so easy to let down; an' when I'd pushed his feet over, I knewed I'd got so difficult a job as air a woman had. ** I was boun* to take time, if I'd pushed un too quick, him ud ha' bin killed to wance (an' a' th' time I war listenin* for Steve's step) so I giv' un a bit push, then rinnedback an' jest dug my feet i' th' floor an' thrawed mysell till I war slantin' like a tree i' a storm, but th' dead weight o' un's body ls him slipped thro' th' trap-door nigh pulled me arter un, but I jest held on, an' lettin un down a inch at a 4« HEDRI, time, bimby I felt un touch th' groun', tliin I dashes th' rope in alter un an bangs down th' door jest at th' very moment as Steve lifts th' latch, an' corned in. " I thrawed my apron over my head so as un could- na see my face, an' thinkin' I war frettin' anent leavin', he lets me alone, an' bimeby us has supper thcgither an' so th' evenin' passed." "And you could eat, drink and sleep, with that drugged man lying nea« ir ^' vault at your feet?" I cried. " Iss," said Judith, whose homely words and accent afforded the strongest contrasi *^o :.. : c'«-andeur of her looks and gestures, " what harm had I done 'un .-* Him 'ud ha' woke up none th' wurse for what I'd gived 'un, as him had niver been th' wurse afore (often as he'd tooked 't unbeknown t' hisself), an* thar war no rats below, an' th' place war dry an' sandy, an' I knawed he'd come to na harm. Yet I seemed feared like to rejoice too much, to git safe away wi' Steve 'ud be too much joy, an' as things corned out," she added bitterly, " 't war well I didna c ount my chickens too soon ; I warnt to knaw as there war a fule wanderin' about th' warld meddlin' wi' things as God A'mighty didna mean to meddle in. He'd jest hev let 'em ravel themselves out, but you be wiser nor he, tho' naw you'd like t' undo th' piece o* wark you'm made." HEDRT. 43 She paused a moment, and a rush of pain swept over her face as if some physical agony pressed her hard. " Has 'ee thort 'o 't ? " she cried, " o' th' little un— Steve's an' mine — how 't 'uU grow up wi' out a mother, an' be 'shamed t' speak her name when it be old 'nufif t' knaw ? Eh, my lad (she put her hand on Steve's), an' us waited so lang, and o' our bit o' happiness wi' wan anither, we luv'd fu' money a year afore us iver spoke but wi' our eyes, ay, 'ee luv'd me when I war th' sport o' that ne'er-do-weel, Seth Tre- loar, an' I war iver comparin' the twa o' 'ee i' my mind. An' t' see 'ee war like a bHnk o' heaven, us niver got no nearer, but us war heartened up t' walk Ih' stony road apart, an' 'ee passed a' th' lasses by, but when th' seven vear war up, 'ee jest sed t' me, ' You'm mine naw, Judith,' an' I went to 'ee like a bird." The helpless love, the profound dependence on him that spoke in her voice, moved mc deeply. If ever a woman by her misfortunes had merited some taste of happiness, that woman, who looked made for love, was Judith, and yet she had but sipped the draught before it was dashed from her Kps for ever. She left her arm on Stephen's neck, then pulled herself together, and went on with her story. 44 HEDRI. " When mornin' corned, Steve an* me war stirrin' early, an* whiles I got th* breakfast, him put up our bits o* things, an' then *un couldna' guess wheriver th' coil o' rope war gotten to. " Whiles I war eatin', I ses to mysel*, ' Seth Treloar 'ull be hungry when 'un comes t* hisself,' an* I set a bit o' bread an* fish t' one side, an' soon arter us locked th* door ahind us, an' war gone for iver, so Steve 'sposed, fro* th' place whar I'd bin th* miser- ablest an* th* happiest woman upo* airth. " But so soon as we'm got a bit forrards, ses I to Steve, * Tve forgotten somethin*, an* must rin back/ an' for sure I did rin, an* catched up th* key ra* th bush, oped th* house place, an* puts th* plate o* victuals side o* th* trap-door, an' opens 't *an sees th' rope hangin* to a staple as th* men used t' climb up by. An' thin I looks at Seth, lyin' still as th* dead, an* all to wance it comed upo* me the sinfu' thing I'd adone, an* I ses to mysel' * 'Sposin' him war niver to wake up ? Or if 'un do, *t *ull be dead dark, an* him war alius a coward, like t' most bulUies, an* 'sposin* 'un dies o* fright } ' " Someways I felt as if I war leavin' 'un to his death, an' yet I hadna got th' sperrit t' go to Steve* an* say, * Go yer ways, an' leave me an' th* child as is comin*, t' th' marcy o' Seth Vfreloar ! * So I jes stole away, but I left my innicence ahind me, an* I HEDRI. 45 niver knawed a moment . more o' peace fro* that day t' this. "Wa-al, you was i' th' train, 'ee knaws how I looked, an* *ee saw th' box o* poison skip out o' my pocket, I'd niver gi'en 't a thought since I picked 'un up when 't failed out o' Seth's bosom. An' naw I've told 'ee th' truth, an' nuthin' but th' wan truth, but 'ee '11 niver make anythin' o' 't. Nicht an* day I've toiled t' puzzle 't out, but no wan 'uU iver knaw th' truth 'bout Seth Treloar's death, 'ceptin* Seth Treloar hisself." " He died of a dose of arsenic, sufficient to kill three men," I said, " as the post-mortem proved, also that there was no bruise upon him, or any disease whatever to cause death." " Iss," said Judith, looking at me from beneath those grand bent brows of hers, and with the divine stamp of truth on her lips and in her eyes, " 'tis that beats me. Him war alive an' well when I put 'un in th' cellar, him war found jest as I'd left 'un, bound safe 'nuff, an* dead, three days arter. But what for did *un carry a box o' poison } Furrin' folks has out- landish ways, 'sposin* him used th' stuff as a medicine like, summut as I've heerd tell doctors gives poison t* sick folk t* make 'un well .? " ** Doctors only give very small doses," said I, "be- sides, if Seth Treloar had been in the habit of taking Ul 46 HEDRl. it, why should he die of a dose of it then ? He had no desire whatever to die, he was prosperous, healthy, he possessed money, was engaged in schemes to make himself richer, and you may take it for granted that he did not die of his own free will. Witness his attitude when found, the agony of his face, the evi- dence of his struggles, ignorant in the dark of the means of life and escape close to his hand." "I canna argify't," said Judith wearily, "'tis all dark t' me, o'ny I knaws I'se as innocent o' his death as you be, but I'll die fo't all th* same." " Men have died before now by the Visitation of God," I said slowly, " that mysterious death which comes swift as lightning, but, unlike the lightning, the Divine hand striking out of the darkness leaves no trace." " Iss," said Judith, " I see'd sich a wan once. Her lookt as if her'd failed asleep, poor sawl, an' purtie;r nor ever her did in life. Seth Treloar niver died that death, but how 'un died for sure none but him an' God A'mighty 'ull iver knaw." " Could he have had an enemy ? " I said as one thinking aloud, " some one who followed him here, and gave him the poison } " Judith shook her head. - " It arn't possible," she said ; " by th' doctor's 'count he died somewheres i' th' night artcr I comcd away. rcount away, HEDRI. 47 an' th' locks an' window war safe, an' nobody knawed whar we'd put th' key. M'appen you'm none so much t' blame fo' yer thoughts o* me, thar's but wan i' th' wide warld (she kissed Stephen's brown hand) as knaws I speak the truth." " No, I believe you too," I said, but without hope, for there was no hope in me. And then I turned my back on the pair, bidding them make their farewells, and presently I called the turnkey, and soon found myself in the fresh air with leisure in which to ponder over those things that I had heard. Her lurtifT died it him is one here, m\ 48 IIEDRI, i CHAPTER VI. " Who saws thro' the trunk, the' he leave the tree up in the forest, When the next wind cuts it down — is his not the hand that smote it ? " In town I consulted the man who had the most experience of criminals, and criminal trials of any man living, and I told him the story of Judith from first to last, and asked his opinion. " I believe she is innocent," I said, " do you ? " Mr. Gillett answered my question with another, and several to follow ; when I had replied, he took a pinch of snuff in his usual and well-known manner, then said, " The woman has lied from beginning to end. She is a handsome woman ? " " The handsomest I ever saw in my life." "H'm — that explains your qualms at having brought your Jezebel to justice. Not but what it must have been a great temptation, enormous, to have an empty cellar at her feet in which to hide her degen- erated Enoch. The sole point in her favor is the evidence of the man outside the cottage that night, who did not hear such cries as you might expect a man to give forth when he found that he had been experimented on with arsenic. Does he happen to h^deafV HEDRL 49 She jgen- 3 the light, )ect a been ien to Mr. Gillctt was leaning forward, a pinch of snuff between finger and thumb that would not be carried to his impatient nose till he got my answer. "In tb" witness-box he did not appear to be so," I said, " b... the court was exceedingly small, and he was very near the Judge." •' Find out, and let me know," said Mr. Gillett, snuffing with energy, "and also the exact distance he can hear from, and how far he was from the cottage door ; if he didn't hear the cries of Treloar because he couldn't, then the last hope of the woman's inno- cence is gone. Every other point against her is con- clusive — t^ *^ administered drug — " " Stop cried, " there is a total absence of proof that she did administer it. Remember that arsenic must first be dissolved for some minutes before it could pass unobserved in a drink of any sort ; it would have floated to the surface if she had thrown it hastily in, and she gave him the drink he asked for so quickly that she did not even raise his suspi- cions. "So she says," remarked Mr. Gillett, "but then the only man that would contradict her is dead." " I wish you had heard her," I cried ; '* the unvar- nished simplicity of her story, no flights of tall talk, no heroics, or seeking after efl'ect, but just as a child entirely without imagination would repeat what he had actually seen," 50 HEDRL "Very clever," said Mr. Gillett, nodding; "those stolid, uneducated people are wonderfully cunning. I was saying, but you cut me short, there is the fact of the administered poison, certainly not by himself, for the man was full of life, health and hope, with a large sum of money, too, ready to his hand ; then there is the woman's own confession of having drugged and bound him — a pretty high-handed proceeding for an innocent woman ; there is the evidence furnished by his body, and above and beyond everything is the motive^ the over-mastering motive she had for making away with the man. * She must be a fine woman, a very fine woman ; her muscular development must be of the highest order, while her powers of lying are also extremely brilliant. But if my old friend, Dolliman, one of the ablest men alive, couldn't alter facts so as to win her case, I'm afraid her unsupported testimony won't go for much. She is evidently a consummate liar who will probably go on lying to the end of her life." " But the food she placed beside the trap-door," I urged, " why should she do that if she did not expect him to waken } " " To disarm suspicion, or to gratify one of those insane impulses that often undo a clever criminal's most skilful work. Had she not left the food there, or had she even replaced the trap-door, probably the »» )or, [pect Ihose Inal's lere, the HEDRI. 51 murder would not have been discovered to this day. You would have forgotten the incident of the arsenic-box in the train, had not the papers pointed her out to you as the probable person who was * wanted * for the murder." "No," I said, "I should never have forgotten the incident, or the woman." Mr. Gillett looked shrewdly at me as he manipu- lated his last pinch before dismissing me, then he smiled. " Mr. Varennes," he said, " what possessed you to go in for the post of amateur detective } " I shook my head. " I can't tell," I said, " I felt impelled to act as I did in this affair, and now I would give half of all I possess in the world to undo my work." "I have heard," said Mr. Gillett, "that, about women, there is nothing to beat an old fool, unless it be a young one. Now, my own opinion is, that the middle-aged fool beats the other two hollow. No offence — we're old friends, you know — and let me know if that man is deaf, or not. I only wish to know as a matter of curiosity, for you can do nothing. No one could save the woman now." Could they not ? As I went back to Trevenick that night I swore that I would try. And yet, if, instead of going to an expert of the 53 HEDRI. law, I had gone to an expert in medicine, who had read an account of some amazing revelations made by two men (introduced by Dr. Knapps, practising in Styria) at Gratz in iS/"?, I should have made a discovery, that I afterwards went through a veritable martyrdom of body and spirit to obtain. HEDRL 53 CHAPTER VII. '• 0, man ! thou vessel purposeless, unmeant, Yet drone— hive strange of phantom purposes ! " Smuggler's Hole was empty, as it had been ever since its landlord discovered an unlooked-for tenant, and when I told the worthy man I would take it for three months at a liberal rent, he scratched his head, and clearly thought me mad. He showed me over the two rooms of which the place consisted, sordid and mean beyond belief, but containing sufficient furniture for common use. The place seemed to have been built out of uneven lengths of timber, crosswise, any-wise, so that the existence of a secret door in the sitting-room wall would never have been discovered by any stranger save by accident. When my new landlord touched a spring, and shewed a small shed or lean-to, containing a second door, and a grating about the height of my head, I was astonished, but easily understood that it had been c evised as a means of escape for the smugglers when surprised by the excise officers. Then he lifted the trap-door, and, striking a match, we both peered down as if half expecting to see Scth m 54 HEDRI. m Treloar staring up at us, and gave it as his opinion that, but for this one little mistake of Judith's, she would have been an-out-and-out good woman. I got but little comfort from him, and yet my spirits rose as I turned my back to the hovel, and standing on the towering cliff, along the precipitous edge of which a narrow path wound sinuously to the little cove below, gazed out at sea to where the orange line of sky just touched it, while betwixt them shone a single silvery sail. From that wonderful orange the sky melted by imperceptible tints to the translucent green that is never matched by any earthly tint of grass or flower, and the quick dancing lights and shadows on the waters seemed to laugh in the sunshine, and to touch here and there the sea-gulls resting upon the bold, dark headlands farther away. " I will go back to the great sweet mother, Mother and lover of men, the sea ! " I exclaimed aloud, and the loneliness and majesty of the scene did not appal me, or, at least, not yet. The landlord evidently did not share in my admi- ration for what was common to him as daily bread, and having recommended Jake as a general factotum, who would bring me supplies from the village, and volunteered to send him over to the hotel, half a dozen miles away, for my belongings, he, with the usual HEDRl. 55 Cornish courtesy, took himself and his pleasant sing-song voice away, evidently relieved to turn his back on the ill-omened abode. Unutterably dreary in the chilliness of the spring evening looked the squalid room, and I shivered as I sate by the fireless hearth, in the chair that Seth Tre- loar had occupied not so very long ago. Involuntarily I contrasted the silence and disuse with the rollicking scenes that had taken place here when the smugglers were stronger than the excise- men, and the bold Cornishmen lived their lives (ay, and sometimes lost them too) in the fullest sense of the word. Are not all these things set forth gloriously in " Adam and Eve ? " And I could not but think of the book as I sate there in the cold alone. But as my bodily discomfort grew, my mind concentrated itself the more intensely on Judith's story, till I seemed to see her coming and going about her night's work, exactly as she had told me, and if she were making the one great and fatal blun- der of her life, methought she committed it magnifi- cently well. And yet, what could my presence here avail her, her whom I had caught in the toils, with no power to undo the thing that I had done, out of idleness, vanity and curiosity ? 5« HEDRL p There was only one chance, one hope, tb-^t, if justi- fied, could furnish me with even the faintest ground for applying to the Home Secretary. I should know what that chance and hope were worth soon, and by a simple experiment that I meant to try the moment Jake appeared. Meanwhile, I lit my pipe, and smoked it for an hour or so, and finally fell asleep. I was awakened by a loud knocking at the door, and for a moment, and in the half darkness, could not remember where I was. " Come in," I shouted, but the door did not un- close, and, though I called out again, nobody replied. At last I lifted the latch myself, and there stood Jake verily laden like any beast of burden. ** I have been shouting to you, to come in," I said, "didn't you hear?" " I'se bin a bit hard o' hearin' lately, Mister," he said. " How long ? " I said, sharply. " I doant know, it's jest growed upo' me, so my missus says." " Come out on the cliff," I said, ** and stand just where you stood on the night you saw Seth Treloar come home." He went obediently enough, wondering. It was a wild evening, and the magnificent Lizard coast was HEDRI. 57 fast being shrouded in the sea-mist that crept insidiously inward. Jake's figure looked dim, and tall, and lonely outlined against the sad grey sky, and far below him the monotonous rushing of the sea was broken by the booming of the waves, as they rushed into the little cove with a sullen roar. "Kindly stay where you are," I said, "for five minutes, until I come to you." He promised, and when I returned to the cottage, any one who had seen my conduct there would never question my right to Bedlam. Standing by the fireplace I gave utterance to sharp, spasmodic cries, gradually ascending till they reached the point of shrieks, into which I put my whole vigour, and my lungs were those of a normally vigorous man. Having pretty well exhausted myself, I went out to the cliff, and found Jake precisely where I had left him, and with all a fisherman's contentedness at doing nothing. ** Well, Jake," I cried, " I have been hearing some queer noises — what did yoit hear ? " The man looked at me with ignorant, candid eyes. " Nothing, sir," he said, " but the water pouring down the cliff yonder — it makes a power of noise — you can hear it right out at sea." I gave him his reward with a heavy heart, and s« HEDRL m 1 m I m ■I I '■ii when he had lit my fire, arranged my Kiggage, and taken my orders for what I required from the village, he retired. With him went Judith's last chance, and day after ^ day, night after night, I brooded in that solitary hut, trying to build possibilities out of impossibilities, theories out of nullities, until at last my brain worked no longer, and whether sitting by the hearth, or wandering about those glorious cliffs, to whose beauty I had become blind, I possessed less intelligence and reasoning power than a dog. Jake brought me daily the food, fuel, and drink I needed, but we exchanged bare syllables, and I saw that he feared me, believing, with the rest of the village, that I was mad. Shadows would steal about my door after dark, half-seen faces peered curiously in on me as the fire- light illumined the corners of the ill-omened room, but Steve was not one of those furtive visitors, he had not attempted to see me since I parted with him at the prison gates. I guessed that he spent every allowable moment with her, and at others pursued his old calling as fisherman, and I knew that hope must be as dead in his heart as it was in mine. And now the time that is the most ineffably blessed and happy in an innocent woman's life drew JIEDRl, 59 nigh, and I trembled as I thought of all that thrilling joy in her first-born which would make Judith cling all the more passionately to that life from which she was so soon to be thrust out with ignominy and shame. »t 6o HEDRh 'iill! ' '■IS'! CHAPTER VIII. " I have both waged life and land, Your love and good-will for to have." I WAS sitting one evening before the fire, neither sleeping nor waking, a vegetable more than a think- ing human being, when I heard Jake's voice without, and his knock at the door. I said " Come in," listlessly, without opening my eyes, but the tread of two men instead of one sounded on the threshold, and I looked up to see a man of great stature following Jake, clad in a picturesque costume of whose nationality I was not at first sure. " Awh," said Jake, *' here be a fren' o* Seth Treloar's. Him be comed a long journey over t' see *un, so I broffed *un here. Him's in his tantrums cos him can't say how-dee-doo, but on'y Seth Treloar, Seth Treloar, loike any Jimmy-ninny." My heart leaped, my pulse bounded, as I looked at the stranger, for here was confirmation strong that Judith had told me the truth about the man in Styria to whom Seth would have sold her, and if she had told the truth in this one particular, why not in all ? HEDRI. 01 He stood looking at me in an attitude of uncon- cerned grace, hearing, but not understanding Jake's words, and having now decided what his nationaHty was, I counted it a piece of the rarest good fortune that I was able to address him in his own tongue. I had lived a good part of my life in Vienna, and had almost as thorough a knowledge of Austrian as of English. In fact my one gift was the gift of tongues, and I could talk argot in half a dozen. I dismissed Jake and bade the new comer be seated. He brightened visibly as I spoke, and the smile brightened what was otherwise a strong if not for- bidding face of pronounced Austrian type ; and as he took the seat opposite mine, I was able easily to define his class as that of a rich herdsman, probably from Upper or Middle Styria, where the men are famous for their vigour and physical strength, and indeed his provincialisms of speech (which I do not find it necessary to repeat here) soon convinced me that I was right. " You came to see Seth Treloar ? " I said, as he sate impassive, waiting for me to speak. " Yes," he said, " I've waited for him four, five, many weeks, and still he came not — so I am here." " Seth Treloar is dead," I said very distinctly. The man's face changed, but he did not move a hair's-breadth from his attitude, and I thought I had HEDRL :i||ii never seen so impassible a mortal, or one less likely to be overthrown by fate than he. " Seth Treloar is dead," he repeated slowly, " and where is Seth Treloar's sister ? " Though he knew not a word of English save Seth Treloar's name, and the name of the place he had come to, he asked the question calmly, as if it were a perfectly natural thing to journey a thousand miles to fetch a woman whom he had never seen. " She is alive," I said slowly. " And well, and beautiful ? " he said. " She is well," I said, " and she must always be beautiful." His face flushed, but he said calmly, "She is at Trevenick ? I may see her ? " "She is not here. When Seth Treloar died, I took his hut and am living here alone." The Styrian looked round with something like dis- gust in his face. , *' A poor place for her," he muttered, then aloud he said, " how did he die ? " He was in splendid health when he left me to fetch his sister. Not one beast of all my herd was smoother or sleeker than he, and he hated the life here in this little Cor- nish hole, and he knew he would go back to pros- perity, ay, and become rich if he brought me " — his voice died in a low mutter, he gazed down at I! i '«>! HEDRI. 63 ,or- -os- I at the ground frowning, but more with vexation, I thought, than regret. " Where is she ? " he said, looking me full in the face. " How can I tell ? " I answered haughtily, for the coolness of this rich peasant angered me, " 1 never spoke to Seth Treloar in my life." " Yet you have seen her^' he said, with a piercing look, " and I too will see her before another sun has risen. " Perhaps you cannot," I said laconically, " did she know that you were coming ? " " I sent her word by her brother," said the vStyrian with an unconscious loftiness that well became his grand stature and characteristic face, " How came he to your country > " I asked curiously. " He was wrecked with some others on our shore," said the Styrian, " starving and in rags, and I took pity on him and employed him as a shepherd. He was quick at ^ king up our tongue, the life suited h''^ Dccame industrious and avaricious and one d. I saw by accident in his hut a picture of a woman so beaut' uil that it set my heart on fire, and he told me that she was his sis r, and as good as she was beautiful." He drew from his breast a silver locket and shewed 64 HEDRI. i I'! me the face within. It had been taken at Plymouth and was very beautiful. " I struggled and fought against such folly, but my peace was gone, and I ^ook no pleasure in my flocks and herds, and at last I said to him, * Go home to your sister, tell her that if she will be my wife, I will make her a good husband, and to you — to you I will give the post of chief shepherd.' " "You took her consent for granted," I said, "but a woman usually has some voice in the matter." , " Seth said she would be quite willing," said the Styrian calmly, "and I sent her a noble ma»riage gift by him of a hundred golden pieces ; he said that, like all women, she loved money, and even if she had another lover that would decide her." So here was the secret of the money found on Seth's beit, truly the rascal had been clever, for, fail- ing Judith's highly improbable return with him to Styria, he possessed the means of keeping himself in comfort for years. "Where is that money now.^" said the Styrian sharply. I shook my head. " I don't know," I said. The Styrian looked at me searchingly as if to read my very thoughts, and I gave him back gaze for gaze. HEDRI. «s You are not deceiving me ? " he said ; " she is not married?^' "No," I said truly enough, " she is not married." For her prayer and Seth's, that they might be mar- ried before her child was born, had been refused on the ground that the church could not sanctify a union that she had committed a crime to bring about. -A look of intense relief, exultation even, crossed his features. " I was beginning to fear," he said, " that the man had fooled me, — but he is dead and I have wronged him. And when shall I see her ? " " You shall see her," I said, " but not yet. She is away at a considerable distance from this place, and she must be prepared for your visit." The Styrian chafed visibly, but soon displayed the self-control upon which I could see he prided himself. "Meanwhile," I said, "remain here as my guest, the place, such as it is, and all in it is at your ser- vice. . He thanked me civilly enough, and I then pro- ceeded to get out food and wine, which I set before him. He did not touch the latter, but asked for milk, and I observed that he ate much butter and cheese, but scarcely any meat. , Apparently half asleep in my chair, I watched him closely, but found nothing to gratify my curiosity, 5 ■I !{|| ■;':ilii: i 'ti! 66 HEDRI, until the meal was done, when he drew from his pocket a small horn box, shook some of its contents (which I could not see) into the palm of his hand and rapidly swallowed it. Whatever it may have been, it brought to his face much the same satisfied expression as that worn by the dram-drinker whose craving is for the moment appeased, and when he sate down opposite me, I felt half inclined to ask him what his secret refresher was. But as self-constituted host I had some duties to perform, and when I had improvised a rude bed for him, and had removed the plates and dishes, I found the Styrian, accustomed to his early hours and, early rising, half asleep by the fire, and considerably to my disappointment, he shortly after disrobed and turned in. ' • ■ Sitting over my solitary pipe and the coffee I pre- sently prepared, I had ample leisure to consider the strangeness of this man's unexpected arrival, but in no way could I perceive that he would influence Judith's fate one jot. Why, then, had I pressed hospitality upon him, and, after committing myself to a lie that he would in all probability speedily discover, saddled myself day and night with a man who could at best be but an irksome companion to me ? I cannot tell, save that I clung to straws and if HEDRl. 67 Judith's wild assertion, that Seth Treloar killed him- self, were true, then this man, who had lived in his company for years, and must intimately know his habits, might be able to throw some light upon what seemed a wholly incredible thing. "This Styrian," thought I, " must be a man of no common tenacity and strength of will, to start off, knowing no word of English except Seth Treloar, Trevenick, Cornwall, England, in search of a woman whom he has never seen, and I see well enough that he is not a man to be trifled with, now he is here. I may keep him quiet for a day or two, no longer ; but during that time he can learn nothing from the villagers as they cannot speak his tongue, and he cannot speak theirs, meanwhile I shall have leisure to study him, and extract from him all that he knows about Seth Tre- loar. After — but the morrow should take care of itself. It was with a distinct feeling of happiness and almost of hope that at last I knocked the ashes out of my pipe, paused awhile to look down on the calm, healthy face of the Styrian, strong even in the aban- donment of sleep, and mounted the narrow stairs that led to the only chamber the hut afforded. 68 HE^DRL \\ CHAPTER IX. > "As on the driving cloud the shining bow That gracious thing made up of tears and light, ; ' 'Mid the wild rack and fain that stands below, Stands smiling forth, unmoved and freshly bright." The room was empty when I descended early next morning, and the house door stood open shewing the moving sparkle of the sea, fretting itself against the translucent green and yellow of the sky. Early as it was, Jake had already been here, for a pitcher of milk (only partly full, as if some one had drunk from it), some bread, and other articles of food were placed, as usual, outside the door, and when I had taken these in, I proceeded to make my prepa- rations for breakfast, and then strolled out in search of my visitor. I knew pretty well who would be his companion, for Jake was as inquisitive as a squirrel or a i.rmkey, and as they had but one word upon which to ring the changes of conversation, instinct guided me to the churchyard, where, sure enough, I found both men standing before a plain tombstone, upon which was inscribed, SETH TRELOAR. Died April, 188-. HEDRI, 69 I approached them unobserved, and saw that the Styrian eagerly desired to ask some question of Jake, and that his powerlessness to do so moved him to a deep inward rage. He clenched his sinewy hand with a gesture that spoke volumes, and turned a look upon Jake before which the man drew back, but the Styrian's passion was quickly controlled, and he moved slowly away in the direction of the hut. He gave no heed to the beaiaty of the surroundings through which he passed, he never once lifted his head to draw in a breath of the pure, sweet air, nor cliff, nor sky, nor sea had power to win a glance from him, as he moved forward sunk in profound thought, his uncommon dress marking him out as a beacon upon which all the villagers cro'vded to their doors to gaze. Jake, unconscious of being himself followed, kept a few paces behind the Styrian, and when the latter entered the hut, hovered about outside, desirous to enter, but fearful of being caught by me on my return. The preparations for breakfast shewed him that I was abroad, and presently he too stepped over the threshold, and disappeared. Now I am not usually either a spy or an eaves- dropper, but on this occasion I decided to be both, and, turning in my tracks, I made a circuit, and so got I ^Q HEDRI. to the back of the hut, and quietly into the small place dignified by the name of the secret room, where was the small grating that gave directly on the kitchen. I looked in. Jake was in the act of lifting the iron ring of the trap-door, and the Styrian, with indifference in his expression, was looking on. My first impulse was to smile, for Jake had literally one eye on the door, fearing my return, and the other on his companion, who only frowned and looked puzzled as Jake pointed to the black void below, repeating, " 8eth Treloar^ Seth Treloar" over and over again. Then ensued a display of histrionic power, for which I was not in the least prepared, for snatching up a piece of cord lying near, he rapidly wound it round his arms, simulating a man who is securely bound, then threw himself on the ground, stretched himself stiffly out, and simulated death. The Styrian watched him closely, but without visible comprehension, till Jake by a series of jerks that shewed considerable muscular energy, but still preserving in his features a corpse-like rigidity, brought himself to the open mouth of the cellar and made a feint of going through it head foremost. This, I need scarcely say, he was most careful not to do, and h?ving opened his eyes and sat up, he pointed downwards with much vigour, repeating e small 1, where on the f lifting n, with iterally le other looked below, nd over ^er, for itching 3und it scurely etched without f jerks ut still idity, ir and » ul not ip, he mating IIEDRI. 71 " Seth Treloar down there ! " till the sudden flash of comprehension on the Styrian's face convinced him that he was understood. Then he replaced the trap-door, tossed the cord back to where he found it, brushed some of the dust from his jersey, and with a confirmatory nod meant to convey, " it's all true," made tracks for the door. But the Styrian's strong hand caught him back. " Murdered ? " burst from his lips in Austrian, and in defiance of common sense, but strange to say, whether it be that the thought of murder, or rather its image, is able to convey itself in one flash from eye to eye, being by its human horror as well understood of the deaf as the dumb, Jake distinctly understood the Styrian's question and nodded vehemently. For a few moments the stranger stood motionless, all his energies concentrated in thought, then he made a gesture of enquiry, that said as plain as possible, 'Miow?" Jake was equal to the occasion, and performed his part so well that I was not surprised to hear later that he had often rehearsed the whole drama in the tap-room of the " Chough and Crow." He crossed the room, threw himself into a chair, the chair in which Seth Treloar had sate on the night of his return. In this he leaned back, affecting to sit up shortly, and look smilingly at some one who 7* HEDRL approached him. He then pretended to take some vessel from the invisible person, to swallow its con- tents, to be seized at once with violent pain and sick- ness (it was droll to see him, in the paroxysms of agony, still keeping a weather eye on the door, in case of my return), to roll on the ground in convul- sions, biting and kicking like a rabid dog, and finally to stretch himself out stiff and stark, as if the last office he required would be at the hands of the undertaker. The Styrian had watched with bent brows the first part of the pantomime, fully perceiving its signi- ficance, however grotesquely expressed, yet ■ ;aw in a moment that it neither surprised nor convinced him, and I said to myself, " This man listens to a circumstantial tale that is entirely vitiated by some secret knowledge that he possesses." Jake, out of breath, and disappointed with the effect of his simulated death, came nearer the impas- sive man, who looked up suddenly, and began a pantomime of his own. I caught his meaning before Jake did. "Did Seth Trcloar die of poison before he was pushed into the cellar, or after ? " But when Jake had made him understand, an ex- pression of incredulity, quickly followed by astonish- ment, crossed his face, he turned aside, threw out his HEDRI. r3 hands vehemently, and his thundered out Austrian, " No ! No ! Impossible ! " reached me clearly where I stood. Jake shrugged his shoulders and slipped away, he knew he had stayed too long already. For some moments after he had gone the Styrian stood motionless, revolving many things clearly not pleasant in his mind. Then he smiled evilly, and half drew from a fold in his sash a pistol of curious workmanship, and it needed not his significant look at the staircase leading to my sleeping quarters to convince me that here was a man only to be fooled at serious personal risk to the fooler. He put back the pistol, produced the little horn box, shook out some of its contents into the palm of his hand, and swallowed it. I saw the color distinctly — white. Involuntarily I thought of another man whom I had seen taking a pinch of white powder out of a box, but with very different results. Over the Styrian's face stole the same expression of voluptuous satisfaction that I had noticed on the previous night, then he turned to the table as though his appetite were freshly whetted, and, without wait- ing for me, sate down and fell to. The act convinced me of his utter contempt and indifference to me. I counted for nothing ; he had H IJEDRL come to fulfil a purpose, and meant to do it; my presence here could neither hinder nor advance him one jot. So he thought-but through my brain had just darted an idea so wild, so inspired, that I felt absolutely giddy as I left my loop-holc and regained the fresh morning air. HEDRI. 75 CHAPTER X. ** What have I done but that which nature destined. Or the blind elements stirred up within me ? If good were meant, why were we made these beings?" The Styrian had the grace to rise as I entered the room, but in the very tone of his greeting I observed .1 change, and knew that he already distrusted me. His appetite, however, was in no way afifected, for he put away vast quantities of butter, cheese and milk, looking at me with a kind of pity as I made my moderate meal of coffee and bread. When he had finished, he leaned across the table and looked me full in the face, a tough, resolute-eyed fellow, who might have passed for a brigand whose only law was his own will. "Seth Treloar was murdered," he said. "Who murdered him ?" I neither turned my eyes away from him, nor answered save by shrugging my shoulders, and shaking my head. " He was killed first, then thrown down that trap- door," (he pointed to it). " Why was he killed ? I repeat, who killed him .? " 76 IlEDRL ■I ! "That is what I am trying to. find out," I said. Tlic Styrian looked at mc with eyes that searched my very soul. " You do not know ? " he said. " I do not know." •* Does any one know ? " said the Styrian. " Seth Treloar." The Styrian laughed harshly, "Of course, — but the man who killed Seth Treloar ? " " I believe Seth Treloar killed himself." "And who threw him down the trap-door ?" " Another person — for reasons wholly unconnected with his death." The Styrian sate rigid, and concentrated in thought. " It is a strange story," he said. " A man dies, is thrust into a cellar. If he had died by his own hand, why not bury him ? To whose advantage was it to hide him ? Whoever did so must surely have come under suspicion ?" I said nothing, the filling of my pipe occupied me. "You are playing the fool with me," said the Styrian in a hoarse guttural voice, " but the truth I will have, even if it cost your life." I laughed contemptuously at his melodramatic tone. " It is not my life that is in question," I said, * 'but that of, as I believe, an entirely innocent person. IIEDRI. 77 The manner of Scth Trcloar's death did arouse sus- picion, and the person accused is now in prison." I paused. " Found guilty ? " said the Styrian. *• Under sentence of death," I continued, " but that person no more murdered him than you or I did." " Who was the person ? " said the Styrian. *' The woman," I said, *' with whose portrait you fell in love, and whom you have come all the way to seek ; the woman," I added slowly, " who was his wife." The Styrian thrust back his chair, leaped to his feet, and turned on me with the ferocity of a mad bull. "His wife — his wife! You are mad, and a liar! She was his sister, he would not have dared to fool me so ! " He literally towered over me, his great stature seeming to rise higher with the wrath and fury that swelled him ; his clenched fist involuntarily moved to fall with crushing force on my head, but I did not stir, and with an oath he dropped it by his side, though his features remained dark and convulsed with pas- sion. " He lied to you," I said quietly ; " he was always a liar and a rogue. And he wanted to make her some- thing worse than himself. So far he meant honestly 78 HEDRI. iL by you, that he would have taken her to you, and sold her as his sister — if she would have let him." "And she killed him when he told her of his intention," said the Styrian more calmly, " and hid him yonder ? She must be a strong woman, and her will must be as strong as her heart." He snatched at a slender gold chain hanging round his throat, and drew out a locket, which he opened, and looked at with a frown that gradually softened into extraordi- nary tenderness and love. " She did right," he said suddenly and passion- ately. "The man was a hound and liar, it was not her fault that he deceived me, and he deserved all he got; she must have been a good woman to be so angry ; and he is dead, she is free now — free — " He stopped suddenly as one palsied by a sudden thought ; for some moments he did not speak, then striding over to me he seir.ed my arm and, shaking me violently, said, " Where is she ? Speak ! O ! God ! She is in prison. She is to die — to die for killing that scoun- drel?" ^ ' " She did not kill him," I said. " I told you that before. But she will be hanged all the same." As I spoke I released myself with a suddi'^n exer- cise of s*^ ingth that sent him reeling backwards, and seemed to astonish him. ii! i; HEDRI. 79 " Tell me the truth," he said, with more respect in h.is tone than he had hitherto shown me. " You do not believe her guilty, and I forgive her if she is,*' I could have smiled at his sultan-like assumption that Judith was absolutely at his disposal, but the grandeur of his simplicity impressed me, and I began my story without loss of time. He heard the account of Treloar's married life without much emotion, though he occasionally gave vent to an expression of disgust ; bat when I brought Stephen upon the scene, he became transformed into an enraged man who sees snatched from his starving lips the morsel he hungrily covets. " And she loves him, she adores him, this miser- able fisherman ? " he cried. I shrugged my shoulders. "Who can answer for a woman ?" I said. "All women love comfort, and, as you say, he is poor. And she is noi his wife," I add°d, narrowly watching his working face ; " if by any miracle you could save her, who knows but that " I did not complete the sentence, but I saw he understood me. " Wife to one man, mistress to another," he said, the Words dropping harshly and slowly from his lips, "so that is the woman I've come all this way to find — but go on with the story, there will be more surprise yet." . . 9o HEDRI. I described Seth Treloar's return to Smuggler's Hole, his disappearance, the departure of Stephen and Judith next morning, her return to the hut for a few moments, and her strange conduct in the train, where I was eye-witness to the incident of the box of arsenic and the effect produced on Stephen when he tasted it. (At this point the Styrian laughed contemptuously, as a fire-eater might at one who dreaded fire.) I went on to relate how I recovered the box that Judith had thrown out of the windo\y, how I traced her as the woman who had left a man hidden away at Smuggler's Hole, how I had caused her to be brought back to England and put on her trial, how she had been condemned, on circumstantial evidence, to death, and how only a short time now would elapse before the carrying out of the sentence. I then gave him a succinct account of the events of that night, as related by Judith herself. The Styrian had not asked a single question during the recital, but ^ had read first scorn and then flat denial in his face when I described the dose of arsenic found in the dead man's stomach; he even waved his hand impatiently as if to motion away an absurdity, but when I had ceased to speak, he began a very vivid cross-examination of me, " You are sure that the potion she gave him was HEDRT. %\ luring m flat )se of even Jay an )egan was harmless, beyond keeping him asleep for twenty- four hours ?" " Quite sure." " There was no trace of 'x>ison found in the stomach besides arsenic ? " " None." "She d' ot bruise or ir4ure him when she hid him in the cellar ? " "There was not a maik or bruise of any kind on him." " It would be d^rV when he came to his senses, there would be no hj it by which he could see the trap-door above, and his arms were bound ; did the rope hang in such a manner that in the dark he would strike against it or touch it ? " " No. By lifting his hands he could touch it — not unless." " How could a bound man do that ? " " He could have shifted the cord easily — as any other man of half his muscular strength could have done." "Always supposing that he had not swallowed enough arsenic to kill a dozen men," said the Styrian, whose excitement increased each moment, though he made visible efforts to subdue it. " Arsenic that was never administered by his wife," I said boldly, "but by — himself. God knows by 6 8a IlEDKI. j %' ) iti 1 %. 1 1 iiiii what devilish agency a man is able to take a life- destroying drug and thrive on it, but yon at least should know, since you carry a box with similar contents to the one Jie carried, and without which, and possibly for lack of it, he died." I was not prepared for the effect of my wild shot, which had yet hit truth in the bull's-eye, or the Styrian's face belied him. His eyes quailed before mine as I pushed my advantage remorselessly. "You can see her," I said, "and you zvilL You know that he died of either too much or too little of a powder both you and he seem to be able to take with impunity, and you will go with me at once before a magistrate and swear the evidence which will clear her." " You talk like one mad," said the Styrian sullenly. " In one breath you say men thrive on a poison, in the next you confess that Seth Treloar died of it. How do you reconcile the two statements .? " " I hope to do so before I am much older," I said coolly, for by now I saw what his line would be, and decided on my own. For a moment he looked disconcerted, then rose and went to the window, where he stood gazing out and thinking deeply. " I must see her," he said at last ; " take me to her." I shook my head, and went on smoking. her." HEDRI. 83 *' But I say you shall," he said, striding close up to me and with a look of absolute murder in his face. " Not I ; unless you are going to give evidence that will clear her." " How can I do that ? " he cried angrily. " You can do it," I said, " and you will. What ! You will stand by and see a woman hanged for a murder that you know she did not commit, for want of a few words that cannot possibly hurt you ? Shame on you! And who knows but that in her gratitude to you " " You said she was fond of the other fellow," said the Styrian sullenly. " Was^ man, was — but who will answer for what a beautiful woman is ? " "I will see her," said the Styrian with stubborn lips, " and then I will tell you. She cannot be far away, and if you refuse to take me, that fool who brings you food will guide me to her." " Find him," I said curtly, " and go." But the Styrian lingered. "Will they admit me ? ne :.aid. " Not without me," I said indifferently. "Then you wil. (one too," he sai(i. " See here, I am rich, I am not ill-looking, I love her, I would take her away from a shameful death to give her such a home as she never dreamt of. Is it likely that she will refuse } " 84 HEDRI, iiili nil I looked at the man, then thought of Stephen. Many a woman not cast in Judith's mould would not have hesitated between the rich man of many flocks and herds and the poor fisherman whose daily bread and life were at the mercy of the waves. ' I will take you to her," I said. " And supposing that she should refuse ? " " Come," he said, and that was all the answer I got as he stalked along the cliff before me. IIEDRI. 85 CHAPTER XI. "The nevv-fa'en snow to be your smock, It becomes your body best ; Your head all wrapt wi' the eastern wind, And the cauld rain on your breast. Arrived at the gaol, I left the angry, impatient man without, while I sought the governor to explain to him the state of affairs. I also begged that a mes- senger might be sent for Stephen, though I could hardly have explained why I wished him to be present at the Styrian's interview with Judith. The governor, who had hitherto held the worst possible opinion of the woman, was inclined to admit that the Styrian's appearance corroborated her story, though he did not for a moment believe that his coming could in any way influence her fate. But I thought differently, and my heart beat high with hope as I left him. Judith, whose figure was almost entirely concealed by a long cloak, rose as we entered the cell, but kept her foot on the fishing-net that she was making, look- ing past me with eyes of grave wonder at the man following beh'nd me. 86 HEDKl. \\\ 'h II I He on his part stood abashed and confused before the glorious woman who so far outstripped his expectations, and so for awhile the two stood looking on one another, then the colour suddenly- flashed into her face and she sate down and resumed her work. "Judith," I said, " I have brought to you a man who knew your husband in Styria, and who arrived last night in Trevenick in search of him." Judith looked up, in a moment she knew that this was the man to whom Seth Treloar had promised her as a wife, and there was no anger, only pity in her voice, as she said, " Seth Treloar desaved 'ee, an* made a fule o* 'ee, but he be dead naw." '* He does not understand English," I said ; then I repeated to him what she said. The Styrian answered nothing, his burning eyes were rooted to the woman whose fairness was to her picture as the full flood of sunlight is to the pale glimmer of the moon. ''■ Judith," I went on, "this man can save you if he wi^l. He knows that Seth Treloar died of arsenic administered by himself, but under what conditions I know not, nor can I persuade him to tell me. If you can so work upon his pity that he will speak, then you will untie the knot from about your neck, ilililiii HEDRI. 87 but he will be hard to deal with, for he has come over here to fetch you for his wife." Judith turned and looked at him. Some things ai e learned in a second of time from a woman's eyes that a whole volume of written words might fail to teach, and I knew that he perfectly understood all the dumb entreaty, the deep beseech- ing of that prayer put forth from her helplessness to his strength, that might surely have kindled chivalry even in the breast of a boor. " Put by your desire, and save a human soul alive," said her eyes, but her very loveliness undid her petition, and if her mere picture had held such power over him, where should he find strength to thrust from him the breathing woman whose looks and voice were sweet as love ? "Tell her," he said to me, " that I will save her on one condition only, that she becomes my wife." I repeated his words, and Judith stepped back, throwing out her hands with a grand gesture that expressed repudiation, disappointment and scorn more eloquently than any words. "Th' coward ! " she said, between her teeth ; " him's worse than a brute beast, an' me belongin' to Steve, an' th' little 'un an' a'. Tell 'un," she added proudly, "as I'd rather die Steve's Hght-o'-love than be wife to he or any ither man, an' what him knaws, that 'un " 88 HEDRI. ! I I mm i III i;. i I can keep, us did wi'out *un afore, an' us can do wi'out un agen ! She resumed her seat, and went calmly on with her netting, then suddenly the fire in her eyes flamed out, and she bowed her head upon her arms. " Steve ! Steve ! " she said. It was like a mother's cry of love and yearning forced from a soul that had schooled itself to look calmly upon death, but to whom a momentary pros- pect of life had renewed all the bitterness of an undeserved doom, but it woke no echo of pity in the Styrian's breast, for well enough he knew that it was not for him, and his face hardened as he looked down upon her. If she would not live to please him, then she should not live to please another man, so much I read in his eyes and the cruel curl of his lips, and from this determination I afterwards knew he never wavered. " Let her be," he said to me calmly, " she will come to her senses in time. Where is this Steve on whom she calls like a bird for her mate 1 Bah ! she will forget him and call on me just as lovingly before she is many months older. She was born to wear rich clothes — not such woollen as now disfigures her. Tell her that I will enrich him also if she will leave him, and they will both live to bless me, for there is no such thing as love when the body starves." HEDKl. 89 I gave no heed to him, but turned to Judith. "Do not send this man away in anger," I said; "the key to the mystery of Scth Treloar's death is locked in his breast, and the only fingers that can steal or wile it away from him are yours." Judith thrust back the loosened masses of bronze hair from her face, and looked up. ** What 'ud 'eehave me do ? " she said. " I'm jest mazed, an* how do 'ee knaw but he be a Hard ? Ilim warnt here when Seth Treloar died, an' how can 'un knaw aught about it ? " she added, exercising the common sense that excitement had for a time driven from its stronghold. ** That I cannot tell you," I said, " though kc can. You ask me what you are to do — something harder, probably, than you have either skill or strength for." "What be it," asked Judith, looking at me with sombre, distrustful eyes. " Fool him," I said with energy. " Does a captive thrust from him the hand that contains his ransom ? Hide your detestation of his offer, let me tell him that you must have time to think over his proposals, and meanwhile I will watch him, and try to surprise his secret." " I canna do *t," cried Judith with heaving breast, and as I looked at her, I realised that she was mo- rally and physically incapable of acting a part that