FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65  
66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>   >|  
they were gone from under the patient's pillow--vanished away. The patient said: "Let the pillow alone; what do you want?" "We thought it best that the cheques--" "You will never see them again--they are destroyed. They came from Satan. I saw the hell-brand on them, and I knew they were sent to betray me to sin." Then he fell to gabbling strange and dreadful things which were not clearly understandable, and which the doctor admonished them to keep to themselves. Richards was right; the cheques were never seen again. A nurse must have talked in her sleep, for within two days the forbidden gabblings were the property of the town; and they were of a surprising sort. They seemed to indicate that Richards had been a claimant for the sack himself, and that Burgess had concealed that fact and then maliciously betrayed it. Burgess was taxed with this and stoutly denied it. And he said it was not fair to attach weight to the chatter of a sick old man who was out of his mind. Still, suspicion was in the air, and there was much talk. After a day or two it was reported that Mrs. Richards's delirious deliveries were getting to be duplicates of her husband's. Suspicion flamed up into conviction, now, and the town's pride in the purity of its one undiscredited important citizen began to dim down and flicker toward extinction. Six days passed, then came more news. The old couple were dying. Richards's mind cleared in his latest hour, and he sent for Burgess. Burgess said: "Let the room be cleared. I think he wishes to say something in privacy." "No!" said Richards; "I want witnesses. I want you all to hear my confession, so that I may die a man, and not a dog. I was clean--artificially--like the rest; and like the rest I fell when temptation came. I signed a lie, and claimed the miserable sack. Mr. Burgess remembered that I had done him a service, and in gratitude (and ignorance) he suppressed my claim and saved me. You know the thing that was charged against Burgess years ago. My testimony, and mine alone, could have cleared him, and I was a coward and left him to suffer disgrace--" "No--no--Mr. Richards, you--" "My servant betrayed my secret to him--" "No one has betrayed anything to me--" "--And then he did a natural and justifiable thing; he repented of the saving kindness which he had done me, and he EXPOSED me--as I deserved--" "Never!--I make oath--" "Out of my heart I forgive him." Burges
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65  
66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Richards

 

Burgess

 

betrayed

 

cleared

 

pillow

 

cheques

 

patient

 

claimed

 
temptation
 

confession


vanished

 

artificially

 

signed

 
witnesses
 

extinction

 
passed
 
flicker
 
citizen
 

couple

 
privacy

miserable

 

wishes

 

latest

 

natural

 

justifiable

 

repented

 

saving

 

servant

 

secret

 
kindness

EXPOSED
 
forgive
 
Burges
 

deserved

 

disgrace

 

charged

 
suppressed
 
ignorance
 
important
 

service


gratitude
 

coward

 

suffer

 

testimony

 

remembered

 

purity

 

gabblings

 

property

 

destroyed

 

forbidden