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; S THE RECORDER. NO. t1397. CONSHOIIOCKEN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1895. •Jl»LOO ran VEAR ■ AUTHOR OF I ^ K \ ft' ** COPvRi<inl£.p .09< 8» t«t AUTf 'SWAUTHOR oF A do yon make this told ine last Hnviiijj i-omi! to this resolution, I propped ap the opou doox, BO as to close the eutraiH-r to the chamber of death, and descended to the lower regions. Finding viol mils md fuel iu the kitchen, I oooked myaatta meal and made a suffi-ciently good breakfast Then I lighted my pipe and took my seat at the front Joor to watch for the OOmfng of Felix Briarfleld. Whether my suspicions would be di.'-pelled or confirmed by his £eiucanor 1 WM of course unable to say nntil the inter-,nw took placa But I was most anxious to know. All that morning I looked down the winding road to Marshminster, but saw no one oomiag therefrom. Not a sonl was in sight, and if I did for a moment think that Strent and his daughter might returnanil declare themselves in-nocent the thought was banished by a few hours' outlook. The inn, as I said before, was on a slight rise, and I could see far and wide. No human being was to be seen, and as the hours p;issed I grew almost horrified at the grewsome solitude. To be alone with a dead body in a lonely house iu a lonely moor is hardly healthy for the mind Toward noon I took a resolution. "If," said 1. "the mountain won't oome to Mohammed, why, then, Mo-hammed must go to the mountain." The interpretation of this was that I intended to see Felix Briarfleld at Bellin Hall, Marahminster Face to face with him, and I would force him to explain why he had not kept the appointment It seemed to mo a suspicious circum-stance. Perhaps Strent had told him Francis was dead, and therefore it would he useless for him 'to ride to the Fen inn. If this were so, it wonld go a long way toward implicating him in the crime. I re-entered the house, locked up everything, and strapping on my knap-sack took my departure toward Marsh-minster. Some way down the road I looked back at the ruin and saw it loom more grim and ghastly than ever. Even in the bright sunshine it oonld not ap-pear otherwise than eerie, and it was with great pleasure that I left it be-hind. Yet under those sloping roofs Francis Briarfleld lay dead, and it was to discover his assassin and avengo his death that I set my face toward Marsh-minster. CHAPTER HL Late in the afternoon I tramped into Marshininster. • It was by no means my first visit to that sleepy provincial town. Und> C t beahadow of the cathedral towor dwelt relatives with whom I had afore-time spent ohool and oollage holidays, Their house v. a.s the goal of my pilgrim-age, and a Wl •■!,'- to n OOUJ) me for t'>. ■• walking tour. The tragic ocenrrenoe at the Fen Inn altered ;:'i! I:IV plans. With an assassin to be ti... k< : afl no ibne for com-fortable idl dal Iriarfleld had been my friend, and 1 owed it to his memory to averj je his death, It was no easy task I had set myself. I recognized that from the first In place, therefore, of seeking thecen-ter of the town and my maiden aunt's 1 turned off at the outskirts and made for Bolliu Hall. According to the story of F»aneis, his brother was staying with the Bellius, and it was necessary that I should see him at ouco about the matter. My acquaintance with Mrs. Bel-lin and her daughter was confined to carnal conversation at crowded "at homes" during the season I had hardly the right to thrust myself on them un-invited, but my business brooked no delay. The sooner Felix knew the truth the better it would be for him. If he wore guilty, I could punish him for his crime by denouncing him at once to the authorities; if innocent, he need lose no time in hunting down those who had ■lain his brother. Besides I wished to put Olivia on her guard against the man masquerading as Francis Briar-fleld That I intended to do in any case, whether he was innocent or gnilty. Bellin Hall was a grotesque specimen of architecture, built by Jeremiah Bel-lin, who had made his money oat of blacking. It was uncommonly. like a factory, bat perhaps the deceased Jere-miah liked something to remind him of the origin of his fortune and keep him from thinking his ancestors came over with William the Conqueror. He mar-ried the daughter of a baronet and then took his departure to the next world, leaving his widow well providod for and his daughter an heiress in her own right Mrs. Bellin was a pretty woman, with no brains and a giggling laugh Her daughter had the beauty of her mother and the brains of her father, so she was altogether a .charming girl. How she could tolerate her billy, dolly of a mother 1 could never ' understand. Perhaps 3;t years of constant forbearance had inured hi- to the trial Ihj ajxivinit at the front door I teamed mac -«r. v.nariicia waswitinn ana sent up my cant, requesting a private inter-view. For the present I did not wish to I cis is lying (load at the Fen inn." itSoeis. "By what sight mad assertion''" "From what Francis night." "But 1 tell you 1 am Francis," he said savagely "Don't I know my own name?" "If you are the man you assert your-self to be, where is the pearl ring?" "I lost it." "Yon did not. You never had it I saw it on the linger of Francis no later than last night" "1 think yon are mad, Denhatu!" said Felix, white with passion, "or else you most be talking of Felix, who is iu Paris." "That untruth will not serve, ' I said coldly. "Felix is before me, uud Fran-soo Olivia, as it was my intention to warn Felix that I was cognizant of his trickery. My theory was proved correct by the following dialogue: Myself—Is Mr. Briarfleld within? Footman—Yes, sir. Mr. Francis Briarfleld has just returned from town. After Which question and answer 1 was shown into a room. Observe that 1 had said "Mr. Briarfleld, " and the foot-man auswerod '' Mr. Francis Briarfleld Now, as I well knew that the man bearing that name was lying dead at the Fen inn, it was conclusive proof that Felix, to gain the hand of Olivia, was masquerading as his brother. I had just argued this oat to my complete, satisfac-tion when Felix mado his npp&ronca Tho resemblanco between the brothers was extraordinary. I had some difficul-ty in persuading myself that the man before me was not he whom I had seen dead that morning, the same pale face, dark hair and jaunty mustache, the same gestures, the same gravity of de-meanor and actually the same tones in the voice. . There was not the slightest difference between Felix and Francis. The one duplicated the other. I no longer wandered that Olivia was deceived. Despite my acquaintance with the brothers, I should have been tricked myself. As it was, I stared open moat h • (1 at the young man. "This is a pleasant surprise. Den-ham," he said looking anxiously at me. "I did not know yon were in Caw part of the world" "*Jlor was I nntil yesterday. • walking tour and last night I am on slept at the Fen inn 'Tho Fen inn," he repeated, with a ■light start. "What took yon to that out of the way place?" "I came by the marshes, and as 1 was belated had to take the shelter that offered" "But, man alive," said Felix, rap-ing his-eyebrows, "the inn is empty1" This time it was my turn to be as tonished If Felix thought the inn was empty, why did he appoint it as a meet-ing place for his brother? He either knew too much or too little, so it be-hooved me to conduct the conversation with the utmost dexterity. "It was not empty last night at all events," I retorted, keeping my eyes fixed oil his face. "Indvedl Are gypsies encamped there?'' he said coolly. "Well, not exactly,' 1 answered, emulating his calm. "It was in charge of a man called Strent and his daugh-ter." "This is news to me. 1 was alwa.v nndi r the impression that tho Fon UlU was quite deserted," " Y ■ i have not been near it "No. Wol ly goes near it Thej it is haunted " "Pshaw," I answered angrily, "oi oldwiii s tale) And yet," 1 added a moment's thought! "it may well be haunted after what took place tin re last Dight" "This begins to grow Interesting, said Felix. "Had you an adventure?" "Yes. 1 met with your brother. " "Impossible! My brottios Kelix is in Paris." "I am talking of Francis. " "Francis," ho repeated, with a dis-agreeable smile, "Francis? Well. Den-ham, I am Francis." "I think you are making a mistake, Briarfleld," said I coldly. "Your broth-er Francis slept at the Fen inn last night" "I slept in this house. " "I quite believe that But yon are Felix!" "Oh." said Brinrfleld bursting into n harsh lniiirh, "I see you are making the Inevitable mistake of mixing me up vith my brother. It is pardonable un-ier tke circumstances-, otherwise I -.iirht re " .1 your plain speaking." The assurance of the man was so com ,»lute thai I wondered if he knew that his secret wan safe by tho death of his brother. Such knowledge would account for his complacency. Yot it was quite impossible that he could know of the death, as he certainly had not been to the inn. I knew that from my own knowledge. "If you aro Francis, " said I slowly, "you aro engaged to Miss Bellin. " "I am," he answered haughtily, "but by what right you" "One moment, Mr. Briarfleld Miss Bellin gave her lover Francis a pearl ring. I do not seo it on your finger." He glanced down at his hand and grew confused. "I lost it," he muttered—"I lost it some time ago." "That is not true!" "Do you dare to" "I dare anything In connection with what I know to be a grand Yon are Dating yourself otf an What! Francis dead?" he oried uu- ; guardedly "Ah. you admit it is Francis?" "No, 1 don't, "he retorted quickly "I only re-echoed your words. Whatdo you mean by saying such a thing?" For answer I rose from my seat and made for the door The farce wearied me "Where are you going, Denham?" ho asked, following me up. "For tho*polico, " 1 answered, facing | him. "Yes, 1 am determined to find out the mystery of Francis Briarfleld's ! death. Yon, his brother, decline to help | me, so I shall place the matter in the : hands of tho authorities. " "Upon my soul, Denham," said Fe-lix, detaining me, "you aro either mad ; or drunk. I declare most solemnly that | I am Francis Briarfleld From this story i of yours I should think it was my broth- [ er Felix who is dead, did I not know i he is in Paris?" "A fine story, but it does not impose | on me," I answered scofflngly. "Listen to me, Briarfleld. Your brotlier Francis went out to South America some six mouths ago. Before he went he was en gaged to Miss Bellin. The mother would not hear of the marriage, so the engagement was kept quiet You alone knew of it and took advantage of snefa knowledge to suppress the letters sent to Miss Bellin through you by Francis and represent yourself to Olivia as her lover returned three mouths before ! his tinio. You, I quite believe, are sup- ! posed to be in Paris, so that yon may I the more easily carry out the game." "This is mere raving " "It is the truth, and you know it As Miss Bellin did not answer his let-ters, Francis thought something was wrong and returned home. Afraid lest be should find oat your plot, yon asked him to meet you at the Fen inn, and there either intended to throw yourself on his mercy or—to murder him. " "Murder him I" he repeated fiercely "It is false!" "That will be for the police to deter-mine " "But surely, Denham, you don't in-tend to inform tho police?" "I am going to do so now. " Felix seized me by the arm and drag-ged me back to my seat He was now much tigitated, but made every effort to restrain his emotion. "Sit down," he said in a hoarse tone "You do me wrong, Defcham—on my soul you do ino wrong. I was engaged, I am engaged, to Olivia Bellin. 1! i mother oonsented to our engagement after 1 retnrni d to England three months ago. Felix, I believe, is in Paris. I "You won't believe mat i am r run-cis?" In- sai11, evidently making sonio re-solve. "No You are Felix!" "Ono moment, " he said, going to the door. "I shall prove my identity and in a manner that will admit of no denial " With that he vanished, and I waited to HIO what further evidence he would bring forward to back up his imposture. CHAPTER IV. There was no donbt that Felix in-tended to continue passing himself oti as Francis For how long I was uncer-tain; perhaps for the rest of bis natural life or until he made Olivia his wife In this latter event he could reveal the fraud with impunity and revert to his own identity I oonld not help thinking that he had l-ecii informed beforehand Of the death oi his broth, r, else he would not have tl red to keep ap his imposture with a pos ible rev, lation so near at hand. Even assuming such ignorance, I had now told hi in of the death myself and ■0 Strengthened his position. 1 regret-ted that 1 bad not beeu more cantiona I was curious to see whom he would bring forward as a witness to his iden-tity. Scarcely Olivia, as if she once had suspicion of the truth she would never rest until all was cleared up to her satis-faction. I hardly thought Felix would run such risk, the more so as his story of losing the pearl ring could not stand against my assertion that it was on the finger of the dead man. If he still per sisted iu declaring himself to be Fran-cis, 1 determined that he should ride with me to the Fen inn and there sect the corpse of the man whose name he had so shamelessly assumed That «ld surely settle the matter, llix was bolder than I gave him it for, as his witness proved to be none other than Olivia Bellin. She en-tered the room with assumed lightness, hoc her face was anxious, and she glanc-ed every now and then at Felix SI" though to seek his aid and cennteuanee He, as was natural, wore a haggard ex-pression. His nerves wore tauwiuied ap to the highest pitch, a matte r of small wonderment, seeing that his life's hap-piness depended upon this interview. '* What is this strange story you bring. Mr. Denham?" asked Olivia, greeting me coldly. In our best days wo were never overfriendly "Has not Mr Briarfleld told you?" "I huve not had the time," inter-posed Felix anicklv. "Bevond »f»«- (T» b4 continued next meek.) aWHY WAIT Untill Spring to have that room papered? Let us surprise you with the small cost of doing the work at the present tin e. Our revv spring styles are now in stock. Many Patterns of rare beauty tmong them. Now is the time to take ad-vantage cf the good selection, it will be $, $, $ and cts, cts, cts, in your pocket Respectfully yours, ROBERTS & MEREDITH, FAYETTE STREEl, CONSHCHOCKEN, PA., ^ M. J. MALLEY, WHOLESALE. DEALER IN PORTER. ALE, BEER, WINES and LIQUORS YUENLING :-: & :-: SON'S :-: BOTTLED :-: PORTER. Elm street, below Harry, Oonghohockez. "Sit down," he said in a hatirn nine, don't know whom you met at the inn last night It was not I—it could not have been Felix. There was no appointment between us. I am not uiasuueradiuK as Francis because I am Francia " "I don't believe yon " "Yon must! I can bring forward witnesses to prove my identity!" "They may be misled by the resem-blance. Remember, yon and Francis are twins." "I said before, and 1 say it again, yon are mad!" he cried, roughly casting me off. "Whoever heard of an appoint-ment being made at a ruined inn? No one has lived there for mouths. Ask any one in Marahminster, and they will tell yon so." "Strent and his daughter Rose"— 1 began, when he cut mo short "Who are they? I never heard of them. They are figments of some dream. You went into that ruined inn last night and dreamed all this." "You don't believe my story?" "Not one word," Baid Felix coolly, looking me straight in the face "Then 1 don't believe one word of yonrs, " I cried, jumping up. "Let us place the matter in the hands of the authorities and see who will be believ-ed " "What are yon going to say. Den ham?" "Say? That Francia Briarfleld has died in the Fen inn." All Run Down Always Tired, Sleepless and Without Appetite Blood Vitalized and Strength Re-newed by Hood's Sarsaparilla. "C. I. Hood S CO., Lowell, Mass.: " For a couple ot years, I was suliject to feel- Uigs anything but good. I always felt tired, I could not sleep at night and the little 1 could eat did not seem to benefit me any. I Did Not Have Any Ambition to go around or work and In fact was not able to do a good day's work. I happened to pick up a circular embracing advertisements and testi-monials for Hood's Sarsap.ui.lla, and alter read-i HoodVP1*Cures | lag them decided to give Hood's Sarsaparllta a trial. I havo taken Ova bottles and must say that I have derived wonderful benefit from It and Feel Like a New Man. I would recommend It to all sufferers and would arg* them not to hesitate but to decide at ouoe ••take Hood's Sarsuparllla." PACLM. Wrima. UU N orth Tenth Street, Reading, Pennsylvania. Mood's "Ilia are prompt and efficient, rat Inaction. Sold by all druggists. 2So. ' Windcw Glass. HAVE YOU TAXIED CBOWN OlftXittttiST the great SKIN CURE? there is INSTANT RELIEF for all afflicted with TORTURING SKIN DISEASES in a single application of CBOWN OINTMENT CROWN OINTMENT Works Wonders, and its cures.of torturing, disfiguring, humiliating hum-ors are the most wonderful ever recorded. freezing, Windy Weather. You'd better get that broken window fpane removed and have a whole one put in, so as to be prepared for the cold weather thats coming. Al-though wt thought everybody knew that we have a full assort-ment of w indow glass, we find an occasional customer who don't know it, so we take this means of 1 tting you know once again that you can get all sizes at WcCOY'S Drug Stores, Fayette street above Elm and P. 0. s- of A. Building. j -» — 1 [3 '~r1 r wj'y*\. _, ^*ci. .jii .-. 1 TEA GOWN, BALL DRESS AND HOME COSTUME. , A' tn? rig'1* is a lilac crupon tea gjiwu with a pointHcl yoke of white velvet broidercd in irold. At thv left is a home doesa of old riw cuahmeiv. Down the fro there is a told of the material With ohooolat* colored bnttons. In the center ia mauye ailXuiypon ovcuing gowu with a line of mink fur and |>raae bom. em-front
Object Description
Title | The Conshohocken Recorder, January 18, 1895 |
Masthead | The Recorder |
Date | 1895-01-18 |
Year | 1895 |
Month | 1 |
Day | 18 |
Volume | 13 |
Issue | 97 |
Coverage | United States -- Pennsylvania -- Montgomery County -- Conshohocken |
Subject | Conshohocken (Pa.) - Newspapers; Montgomery County (Pa.) - Newspapers |
Type | Text |
Technical Metadata | Digitized from 18x microfilm at 330dpi true optical resolution to 8-bit uncompressed TIFF master files. Searchable PDF derivatives shown here are downscaled to 150 dpi / Medium quality. |
Date Digital | 2011-12-01 |
Digitized by | Creekside Digital |
Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/ |
Contributing Institution | Conshohocken Free Library |
Sponsorship | This Digital Object is provided in a collection that is included in POWER Library: Pennsylvania Photos and Documents, which is funded by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Education. |
Contact | If you have any questions, contact Branch Manager at smason@mclinc.org or call 610-825-1656 |
Description | Conshohocken Recorder Newspaper |
Original Format | Newspapers |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Language | English |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subject | Conshohocken (Pa.) - Newspapers; Montgomery County (Pa.) - Newspapers |
FullText |
;
S
THE RECORDER.
NO. t1397. CONSHOIIOCKEN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1895. •Jl»LOO ran VEAR
■ AUTHOR OF I ^ K
\ ft' ** COPvRi |
Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/ |
Contributing Institution | Conshohocken Free Library |
Sponsorship | This Digital Object is provided in a collection that is included in POWER Library: Pennsylvania Photos and Documents, which is funded by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Education. |
Contact | If you have any questions, contact Branch Manager at smason@mclinc.org or call 610-825-1656 |
Description | Conshohocken Recorder Newspaper |
Original Format | Newspapers |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Language | English |
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