The Mynns' Mystery

"I hate you, sir, with all my heart, and you force me to say it. This is a cruel outrage. What have I done that you should dare to treat me so? Is there no one to help me? Bruno...

"Yes, uncle, dear," and the girl, who had made a brave effort to grow calm, approached the side of a great four-post bedstead, where a large, thin, yellow hand lay upon the whit...

Dan Portway sat in the shade cast by a large hemlock, an extinct pipe between his lips, and his chin resting upon his hands, gazing down upon his companion, whose head and breas...

"It will make assurance doubly sure," Dan Portway thought, and, quick as lightning, he recalled the discovery of a murdered family of settlers he had seen on the plains, where,...

Gertrude made a step to get on the other side of the bed, so as to place the old man between them; but Saul caught her wrist, and laughingly swung her round.

"But with his wealth it seems strange that we have not got a host of needy relatives. We can talk about it, Hampton, not being relatives. Wish I was. A slice of the poor old boy...

"There, Miss Gertrude," said Mrs Denton, carefully pinning the white apron she had rolled up to guard against its falling open--the apron she had been wearing for a fortnight, "...

Gertrude stood trembling, with the card in her hand, the name thereon seeming to play strange tricks, and growing larger and then dying away, till it seemed to be hidden in a mi...

The new-comer was furnished with refreshment, and at the end of a couple of hours, after a long talk between Saul and Doctor Lawrence, the visitor rejoined them, just as there w...

"I know," he cried, taking her hand. "You have only, as we may say, known me a month, and you think me too rough and ready to show so much of the American camp-life; but that wi...

"And when I clapped eyes on you, I said to myself, `This chap will do anything he can to rob me of my rights, and is as jealous as a Turk because that little girl smiled at me.'"

It was Mr Hampton who asked the question as he returned one afternoon from town, to find a van in the yard at The Mynns, and some workmen about to leave.

"Oh, nothing much. Harrington was taken ill, and I got him to lie down, but he didn't seem to get any better, so I thought it better to order a fly and have him driven home. But...

The anxiety was terrible for a short time, during which the sick man seemed to be suffering from acute spasms, which made his limbs contract, and drew the muscles of his feature...

It was a fortnight before the sufferer was about again, and during that period Gertrude had begun to look more hopefully upon her future, for, though peevish and fretful to a de...

"Yes, my dear, Mr Saul's there. He saw him in the garden, I s'pose, and didn't come up to the house. And I thought, perhaps, a word from you might keep him out of temptation, my...

"Mean? Why, of course, situated as we were, the wife agreed to poor little Gertrude's wishes, and stayed at The Mynns to play propriety till those two were married; and now I wa...

"Yes," she said, "I think it is right. I shall have influence over him which will grow, and I shall then have the right to speak with authority--as his wife."

Here the first thing the host did was to open the window, look out for a few moments at the soft dark night, and then draw to and fasten the outer shutters, after which he close...

"Oh, don't hurry, my dear. Mr Hampton is not going to town by the early train. What a lovely morning! Perhaps he has gone for a walk." The ladies walked to the window and Mr Ham...

The sound that startled them was a faint scratching noise at the door, and Gertrude hurried across the room to open and admit the dog Bruno, who was lying on the sheepskin mat,...

The cry was so peculiar, and impressed its hearers so painfully, that they stood looking at each other, Gertrude with blanched cheeks, and Mrs Hampton, who had not outgrown the...

As he came in sight of the house, he was aware of the tall, gaunt figure of Mrs Hampton standing at the drawing-room window, forming a kit-cat picture in a frame, which, as he d...

The cry brought Mrs Denton to the door, and she hurried away directly to return with a light, just as the dog set up another mournful howl which echoed dismally in the gloomy ra...

"I'll come and speak to him," he said. "Don't be alarmed," he turned and whispered to Mrs Hampton. "Some mistake of the old woman's. Try and keep her calm. A messenger, I think."

She took a couple of steps forward, gazing wildly in the frank, handsome face before her--a face which lit up with satisfaction as it encountered the earnest gaze of the young g...

"Oh, this is absurd!" cried the new-comer as soon as he had recovered somewhat from his surprise. "I am George Harrington. What does it mean--some subterfuge on your part, sir,...

"Oh, yes, you do," he cried merrily. "Don't you remember washing me when I was a little chap in a sort of tin bath with spots on it, red spots, and the inside was white, with sh...

"I am not thinking of the estate now, sir. I want to meet this man--I want to be brought face to face with him. I'll soon bring him to his knees, and make him confess. The villa...

"My dear Gertrude, I did not oppose you after you had made up your mind to carry out your guardian's wishes; but I'm so pleased with the way in which things have turned out that...

"Shall I fasten the gate? There you are. One moment, though: Master Bruno was never very fond of me. Dog had his teeth in me twice. Is he chained up?"

"Come, Mr Saul, sir, drink a little more of this," said Doctor Lawrence; and he held a glass to the young man's lips, as he lay back on the sofa, where he had been lifted, for t...

"No, Denton; he does not seem to get better," said Gertrude, as she knelt beside Bruno in the stable, the dog resting his muzzle in her hand, while he blinked patiently; and, fr...

He smiled as he said to himself, "this is a strange position;" and he appreciated the maiden delicacy which prompted the words, and stood religiously on the field side of the he...

Mr Hampton was seated in his dingy office in Lincoln's Inn one morning, when the clerk announced Doctor Lawrence and another gentleman, who were shown in, the old lawyer frownin...

But, somehow, it was observed that Gertrude did not appear at all low-spirited. In fact, as each day glided by she seemed to become more hopeful and buoyant. There was a new lig...

"Quick! Pray! Oh, Bruno, Bruno!" shrieked Gertrude, as she dashed forward to seize the dog--a vain attempt, for stronger hands had already failed to hold the furious beast, who...

Doctor Lawrence's first action on getting his patient quieted down, was to telegraph off to town for a colleague, and an attendant from the asylum of a friend; but it was too la...

"Ah, I forgot him. It would be too horrible to let him get into the room where the poor fellow is. Yes, poor fellow! _De mortuis, et cetera_. Come along, Mr Blank, and we'll loc...

"I beg your pardon," said George, and hastily supplying the lapse he had made, he went and reported progress to Gertrude, who smiled her thanks, and returned to where Mrs Hampto...

"Yes, sir, it may," said George hoarsely, as he worked away hastily, the dog growing more excited as brick after brick was thrown down into the growing heap, his hair about his...

A double inquest and a long inquiry, too, in which an intelligent British jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Saul Harrington--the most satisfactory of circumstanti...