SOME LESSONS LEARNED.
When Leonard Yorke seized the old woman in his strong grasp she
flashed about, uttering a mad cry of rage and despair. One glance into
the young man’s white, stern face and flashing eyes, and the wretch
realized that she was at last unmasked, and her hideous purpose laid
bare to the censorious gaze of the young man whose only parent she had
been about to murder.
“You murderess!” panted Leonard, wildly, his grasp tightening upon the
woman’s shoulder, “you miserable murderess! I know all at last! It is
your work, all this! You are to blame that my mother lies here slowly
dying! By the Heaven above me, I have a mind to choke the life from
your body!”
The woman’s eyes fell guiltily from before his wrathful, burning gaze.
With a groan of horror she sunk upon her knees at his feet.
“Oh, Mr. Leonard! Mr. Leonard!” she whined. “I’ve been here so long,
and I’ve worked so faithfully----”
“Hush, you murderess!” he interrupted, sternly. “Nothing that you can
say will save you from your just punishment. First, you shall confess
your object. Why did you seek to take my mother’s life?”
Old Betty began to sob.
“Well, sir. I’ll confess the truth,” she moaned. “Mrs. Yorke knows
where the papers are hid away in the east chamber; somewhere there, but
no one can find them. I only wanted to frighten her into telling me;
for those papers--well, sir--_you_ would give a heap of money for them,
to say nothing of what Miss Arleigh would give.”
Grimly and silently Leonard drew his handkerchief from his pocket, and
without a word proceeded to tie the woman’s hands together. In the
struggle which ensued her hair was disarranged, and to his astonishment
he found that she wore a wig, and that the seemingly old woman was not
old at all. He fell back in utter amazement.
“Who are you?” he demanded. But Betty made no reply. Having fastened
her hands securely, he pushed her into a small closet, and closed and
locked its door upon her. There was an open transom over the door, so
she need not suffer for want of air. Then, trembling with apprehension,
he hastened to his mother’s bedside. She gazed into his face with a
troubled look.
“Thank Heaven, my son,” she whispered; “for that woman has been the
terror of my life for the past few days. But I dared make no complaint,
for I found that I was in her power. Leonard, sit down by my side; I
have something to say--a confession to make. Yes, I must tell you all
now; and I believe that when it is off my mind, I shall get well. It
concerns poor Rosamond Arleigh. I was so jealous of her, for I loved
Harold Arleigh dearly; he was the first and best love of my life. But
he did not return my affection; his whole heart and soul belonged to
Rosamond. In my jealous rage after their marriage, I formed a horrible
plot, which a strange combination of circumstances helped me to carry
out. The church in which Harold and Rosamond were privately married
was burned to the ground, and the marriage record consumed. The old
clergyman died of fright after the horrors of the conflagration; the
two witnesses of the marriage were both lost at sea soon after. The
strange complication of events went to form a tragedy. _I stole their
marriage certificate_--may God forgive me!--and hid it away in the
east chamber here, at York Towers. There was no way of proving the
marriage, and the shock of the calamity broke Harold Arleigh’s heart.
He was very weak and frail in constitution, and it killed him. Violet
was half grown then, and the horrible fact that her legitimacy could
not be proven to the world--killed her father. It might have killed
her mother also, only we women will keep alive in emergencies where a
man succumbs, simply for the sake of our children. Leonard, you know
my guilty secret at last. In the east chamber, where old Betty, I
am certain, has often vainly sought it, you will find full proof of
Violet’s legitimacy. Look in the right-hand corner of the wall as you
enter the room. Some five feet from the floor you will find a _figure
six_. Press upon it; it will open and reveal a secret receptacle which
contains the certificate of Harold Arleigh’s marriage to Rosamond, also
some other papers as proof. Can you ever forgive me, Leonard? I know
that you and Violet love each other, and she is worthy to be your wife.”
What could he do but forgive her? After that Mrs. Yorke grew rapidly
better, and was ere long able to take her place once more with the
family.
Will Venners improved rapidly under Jessie’s tender care, and when
he was able to sit up, a clergyman called one evening, and in a few
impressive words made Will and Jessie husband and wife.
In the meantime, a letter from Doctor Danton had broken the news of
Violet’s safety, and stated that they would arrive at Yorke Towers in
time for the wedding. Imagine the astonishment and delight with which
Rosamond Arleigh was welcomed as one arisen from the dead, alive, and
in her right mind. Mutual explanations followed, and in the midst of it
all Leonard produced the missing marriage certificate. But out of pity
for his penitent mother, he merely explained that he had found it in
the east chamber. But even before he had sought the hidden document, he
had begged Violet humbly to forgive his foolish jealousy, and be his
wife as soon as possible. And Violet’s reply had been all that he could
desire.
That very day Leonard chanced to find in a pocket of a cast-off coat
Will Venners’ unfortunate poem, which had so wofully miscarried.
Leonard brought it straight to that gentleman.
“Now, Will,” he began, trying hard to keep back the little green-eyed
monster which threatened to arise within his heart, “be good enough to
explain to me why you wrote such a poem to Violet, yet loving Jessie
Glyndon all the time?”
Will laughed aloud. He began to see the truth at last.
“This poem was not intended for Miss Arleigh,” he said; “I wrote it for
Jessie, and begged Miss Arleigh to deliver it to her the night of Miss
Arleigh’s birthday ball. I had been a flirt--an unmitigated flirt--for
so long that I shrunk from anything that might look like trifling with
Jessie, as she was so proud and reserved, and yet I _did_ want her to
believe the sentiments of that poem, and I made a fool of myself, as
usual,” he broke off merrily. “Leonard, old boy, I’ve learned a lesson,
though, of course, I shall never need it now. It is this: Never court
a woman by proxy. If you love her, tell her so; do not trust your
confession to paper. Nine times out of ten it will cause trouble.”
“_I_ have been a jealous brute!” cried Leonard, frankly; “_my_ lesson
shall last me as long as I live. Violet shall have no cause hereafter
to dread my jealous wrath.”
And he kept his word.
Leonard and Violet were quietly married, and live at Yorke Towers with
Mrs. Yorke, quite sweet and amiable now.
Jack Danton and Rosamond Arleigh are husband and wife, and live at
The Oaks, where Dunbar and his good wife and golden-haired child are
always welcome. Captain Venners and his wife reside in New Orleans,
where Will has a good Government position, and talks no more of going
to Texas to do the cow-boy act.
Hilda Rutledge married a rich old man, a merchant in the Crescent City,
and, with her mother, leads fashionable society, and makes her elderly
husband frantic with her numberless flirtations.
And Gilbert Warrington? He was sentenced to a long term in the state
penitentiary, but at the last moment some one succeeded in smuggling
poison into his cell, and in the morning when the officers entered
to lead him forth for his journey to the penitentiary, he was dead
and cold. The poison had been conveyed to him by Betty Harwood, whom
Leonard, in the softness of his heart, had allowed to go free. She
proved to be Gilbert Warrington’s _wife_, and for his sake she had
sinned. She still lives in New Orleans, a wicked, soured old woman.
This is a true tale, made up of the incidents which really occurred.
And if there is a lesson to be learned by its perusal, it is this: If a
man loves a woman, he should tell her so plainly and frankly. Also, to
beware of _jealousy_, that fiend which can turn heaven into hell, and
which is “strong as death and as cruel as the grave!”
THE END.
The Greatest of All Weeklies
By the Greatest of All Detective Writers
[Illustration]
OLD
SLEUTH
WEEKLY
In these stories, issued every Friday, the public has the opportunity
to buy the greatest detective stories ever written. No man has ever
lived in this country or any other whose tales are so thrilling, so
entrancing, which so teem with excitement and desperate situations as
those of “OLD SLEUTH.”
The stories are twice as long as those in any other library, each story
having the enormous total of 50,000 words. Nothing like it ever before
attempted.
THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS ARE NOW OUT:
No. 1. THE RETURN OF OLD SLEUTH, THE DETECTIVE.
No. 2. THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MILLIONS.
No. 3. THE SECRET OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
No. 4. THE KING OF ALL DETECTIVES.
No. 5. THE GIANT DETECTIVE’S LAST SHADOW.
No. 6. THE SILENT TERROR.
No. 7. THE VEILED BEAUTY.
No. 8. THE MYSTERY OF THE SPANIARD’S VENDETTA.
No. 9. THE GREAT BOND ROBBERY.
No. 10. OLD SLEUTH’S GREATEST CASE.
No. 11. THE BAY RIDGE MYSTERY.
No. 12. SHADOWED TO HIS DOOM.
No. 13. TRAPPING THE COUNTERFEITERS.
No. 14. TRAILED BY THE WALL STREET DETECTIVE.
No. 15. THE IRISH DETECTIVE’S GREATEST CASE.
No. 16. THE GREATEST MYSTERY OF THE AGE.
No. 17. TRAPPING THE MOONSHINERS.
No. 18. THE GIANT DETECTIVE AMONG THE COWBOYS.
No. 19. THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK TRUNK.
No. 20. THE CHIEF OF THE COUNTERFEITERS.
No. 21. THE MYSTERY OF THE FLOATING HEAD.
No. 22. THE BEAUTIFUL CRIMINAL.
No. 23. THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.
No. 24. THE ITALIAN ADVENTURESS.
No. 25. RED-LIGHT WILL, THE RIVER DETECTIVE.
No. 26. THE TWIN SHADOWERS.
No. 27. THE SMUGGLERS OF NEW YORK BAY.
No. 28. BLACK RAVEN, the Terror of the Georgia Moonshiners.
No. 29. UNMASKING A VILLAIN.
No. 30. SNARED BY A RUSSIAN DUKE.
No. 31. THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK POOL.
No. 32. THE VEILED LADY OF THE RUINS.
No. 33. FOILED BY A CORPSE.
No. 34. NIGHT HAWK, THE MOUNTED DETECTIVE.
No. 35. KIDNAPPED IN NEW YORK.
No. 36. LURED BY A SIREN.
No. 37. OLD SLEUTH’S TRIUMPH.
No. 38. A TRAIL OF BLOOD.
No. 39. THE BAND OF THE “RED OATH.”
No. 40. TEMPTED BY A WOMAN.
No. 41. THE MILLION DOLLAR CONSPIRACY.
No. 42. ACCUSED FROM THE COFFIN.
No. 43. COOLNESS AGAINST CUNNING.
No. 44. FOILED BY LOVE.
No. 45. UNDER A MILLION DISGUISES.
No. 46. TRACKED BY THE MAN OF MYSTERY.
No. 47. THE HUMAN BLOOD-HOUND.
No. 48. MANFRED’S STRANGEST CASE.
No. 49. MONTE-CRISTO BEN, THE EVER READY DETECTIVE.
No. 50. OLD TERRIBLE, THE IRON ARM DETECTIVE.
No. 51. THE STAIN OF GUILT.
No. 52. A CONSPIRACY OF CRIME.
No. 53. “OLD IRONSIDES” IN FRANCE.
No. 54. THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY OF PARIS.
No. 55. THE GYPSY DETECTIVE ON THE TRAIL.
No. 56. THE HALF-BREED’S SECRET.
No. 57. THE ITALIAN’S REVENGE.
No. 58. A THREE-FOLD MYSTERY.
No. 59. THE MIDNIGHT LEAGUE.
No. 60. THE SECRET OF THE DUNGEON.
No. 61. GYPSY FRANK, THE LONG TRAIL DETECTIVE.
No. 62. THE WEIRD DETECTIVE.
No. 63. A TERRIBLE MYSTERY.
No. 64. THE STRANGEST MYSTERY IN THE WORLD.
No. 65. THE KING OF THE SHADOWERS.
No. 66. THE OLD MISER’S SECRET.
No. 67. THE MAN OF MYSTERY.
No. 68. THE MYSTERIOUS DETECTIVE.
No. 69. THE AMERICAN MONTE-CRISTO.
No. 70. ON THEIR TRACK.
No. 71. THE OMNIPRESENT AVENGER.
No. 72. TRAGEDY AND STRATEGY.
No. 73. THE GYPSY DETECTIVE’S GREATEST CASE.
No. 74. THE SHADOWS OF NEW YORK.
No. 75. THE OLD MAGICIAN’S WEIRD LEGACY.
No. 76. A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
No. 77. THE RED DETECTIVE.
No. 78. THE WEIRD WARNINGS OF FATE.
No. 79. THE TREASURE OF THE ROCKIES.
No. 80. BONANZA BARDIE’S WINNING STRIKE.
No. 81. LONG SHADOW, THE DETECTIVE.
No. 82. THE MAGIC DISGUISE DETECTIVE.
No. 83. A YOUNG DETECTIVE’S GREAT SHADOW.
No. 84. STEALTHY BROCK, THE DETECTIVE.
No. 85. OLD SLEUTH TO THE RESCUE.
No. 86. OLD SLEUTH, THE AVENGER.
No. 87. THE GREAT JEWEL MYSTERY.
No. 88. JACKSON COOPER, THE WIZARD DETECTIVE.
No. 89. FOILING THE CONSPIRATORS.
No. 90. THE BANKER’S CRIME.
No. 91. GASPARONI, THE ITALIAN DETECTIVE.
No. 92. THE VENGEANCE OF FATE.
No. 93. THE SECRET SPECIAL DETECTIVE.
No. 94. THE SHADOW OF A CRIME.
No. 95. THE SECRET OF THE KIDNAPPED HEIR.
No. 96. FOILED BY A FEMALE DETECTIVE.
No. 97. “OLD IRONSIDES” IN NEW YORK.
No. 98. THE IRISH DETECTIVE.
No. 99. THE SHADOW DETECTIVE.
No. 100. DETECTIVE THRASH, THE MAN-TRAPPER.
No. 101. “OLD IRONSIDES” AT HIS BEST.
No. 102. TRAILED BY AN ASSASSIN.
No. 103. THE LUST OF HATE.
No. 104. A GOLDEN CURSE.
No. 105. THE HOTEL TRAGEDY.
No. 106. THE MYSTERY OF ROOM 207.
No. 107. GARDEMORE, THE DETECTIVE.
No. 108. THE FATAL CHAIR.
No. 109. THE MASK OF MYSTERY.
No. 110. THE TWISTED TRAIL.
No. 111. BOOTH BELL.
No. 112. THE BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE.
No. 113. BOOTH BELL’S TWISTED TRAIL.
No. 114. THE WALL STREET DETECTIVE.
No. 115. THE BANKER’S SECRET.
No. 116. THE WIZARD’S TRAIL.
No. 117. THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY.
No. 118. OLD SLEUTH IN NEW YORK.
No. 119. MANFRED, THE VENTRILOQUIST DETECTIVE.
No. 120. WILD MADGE.
For sale by all newsdealers and booksellers or sent, postage paid,
by the publishers upon receipt of 6 cents per copy, 10 copies for 50
cents. Postage stamps taken the same as money. All back numbers always
in stock.
THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY
CLEVELAND, OHIO, U. S. A.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.