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Leavenworth, which might seem in any manner to be connected with this tragedy, you denied having seen any such; how was that?" "Mr. Leavenworth's nieces, as a suspicious circumstance worthy to be taken into account by a coroner's jury?" I shook my head. I could not but acknowledge the impossibility. "What reason had I for thinking that letter was one of importance?
But chance soon favored me here. One day a month ago now I sat down to open Mr. Leavenworth's mail as usual. One letter shall I ever forget it? ran thus: "HOFFMAN HOUSE, "March I, 1876."
"No, sir." "You open Mr. Leavenworth's letters?" "I do." "Has there been anything in his correspondence of late calculated to throw any light upon this deed?" It actually seemed as if he never would answer. Was he simply pondering over his reply, or was the man turned to stone? "Mr. Harwell, did you hear the juryman?" inquired the coroner. "Yes, sir; I was thinking." "Very well, now answer."
"No, sir; how could I when she 's gone?" "But you did see, last night, that she seemed to be suffering with toothache?" "Yes, sir." "Very well; now tell me how and when you first became acquainted with the fact of Mr. Leavenworth's death."
But when, some nine months since, I left my desk in the counting-house for a seat in Mr. Leavenworth's library, a blazing torch fell into my soul whose flame has never gone out, and never will, till the doom before me is accomplished. She was so beautiful!
For by this time I had learned Mr. Leavenworth's disposition almost as perfectly as that of his niece, and knew that in a matter of this kind he would be uncompromising; and that in the clashing of these two wills something might occur which would give me a hold upon her. The only thing that troubled me was the fact that I did not know the name of the man in whom she was interested.
At last, with an effort, he replied: "I saw one thing, a little thing, too slight to mention, but it was unusual, and I could not help thinking of it when you spoke." "What was it?" "Only a door half open." "Whose door?" "Miss Eleanore Leavenworth's." His voice was almost a whisper now. "Where were you when you observed this fact?" "I cannot say exactly.
I have attempted to get these expeditions off twice. The first time they were stopped by General Halleck, on Colonel Leavenworth's representations. He started to make peace; the Indians stole all his stock, and very nearly got his scalp.
"My reason for denouncing the man I beheld before me in the hall of Miss Leavenworth's house last night? It was." And, taking out his handkerchief, he wiped his forehead, on which the perspiration was standing in large drops. "You would then intimate that the face you saw in your dream and the face you saw in the hall last night were the same?" He gravely nodded his head.
"If t believe her to cruel face, what is ble serv yours "H tchie" "It reads like a complaint against one of Mr. Leavenworth's nieces," I said, and started at my own words. "What is it?" cried Mr. Gryce; "what is the matter?" "Why," said I, "the fact is I have heard this very letter spoken of. It is a complaint against one of Mr. Leavenworth's nieces, and was written by Mr. Clavering."
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