it of question; and they parted implacable foes, as
is attested by the fact that he drove her from his room through a rear
and unfrequented door, opening into a flower garden, whence she
wandered over the grounds until she found the gate. The vital import of
this interview lies in the great stress Gen'l Darrington placed upon
the statement he iterated and reiterated; that he had disinherited his
daughter, and drawn up a will bequeathing his entire estate to his
step-son Prince.

"Miss Brentano did not leave X--at 7.15, though she had ample time to
do so, after quitting 'Elm Bluff'. She loitered about the station house
until nearly half-past eight, then disappeared. At 10 P.M. she was seen
and identified by a person who had met her at 'Elm Bluff', crouching
behind a tree near the road that led to that ill-fated house, and when
questioned regarding her presence there, gave unsatisfactory answers.
At half-past two o'clock she was next seen hastening toward the station
office, along the line of the railroad, from the direction of the water
tank, which is situated nearly a mile north of town. Meanwhile an
unusually severe storm had been followed by a drenching rain, and the
stranger's garments were wet, when, after a confused and contradictory
account of her movements, she boarded the 3.05 train bound north.

"During that night, certainly after ten o'clock, Gen'l Darrington was
murdered. His vault was forced open, money was stolen, and most
significant of all, the WILL was abstracted. Criminal jurisprudence
holds that the absence of motive renders nugatory much weighty
testimony. In this melancholy cause, could a more powerful motive be
imagined than that which goaded the prisoner to dip her fair hands in
her grandfather's blood, in order to possess and destroy that will,
which stood as an everlasting barrier between her and the estate she
coveted?

"Crimes are referrible to two potent passions of the human soul;
malice, engendering thirst for revenge, and the insatiable lust of
money. If that old man had died a natural death, leaving the will he
had signed, his property would have belonged to the adopted son, to
whom he bequeathed it, and Mrs. Brentano and her daughter would have
remained paupers. Cut off by assassination, and with no record of his
last wishes in existence, the beloved son is bereft of his legacy, and
Beryl Brentano and her mother inherit the blood-bought riches they
covet. When arrested, gold coins and