"Am I inconsequent, I wonder, or incoherent? If so, it may be because the presence of death makes man's mind wander or distorts his mental vision, but I do not think it is thus with me. Such may be the case when death comes slowly and the mental faculties are impaired, but when one contemplates it, as I do now, in the full possession of all my faculties, it is rather, I think, that a prescience of the unknown, a touch of omniscience comes to a man and he knows more than other men know. "As I sit here with death beside me, waiting for me, I seem to see things as I never saw them till now, and had I the chance I might wish to live on, but it is too late; to-morrow would bring me ruin and disgrace. Better death than that. It has been my philosophy that death was not an evil, but a solution for evils, and I will abide by it. "It grows late and this letter must catch the mail. Let me then tell you quickly what I did that night, and how I came to do it, and so end all. "I drew the Winters will and at the suggestion of White, who sought me for the purpose, I made his bequest one hundred thousand dollars instead of ten thousand dollars, and for doing so, I received a share. I needed money, and when a man at my age needs money it is hard. The matter would have ended there had White been less remorseful, but he grew daily more morbid over it, till I knew that in spite of all I could do, he would some day confess. Still I had no thought of killing him, and when I left his house that night and fixed the catches on the doors so that I could re-enter, and when I parted with you and retraced my steps, I had still no thought of killing him. I meant only to reason with him and dissuade him as I had done a dozen times before, but when I entered his room and found myself alone in the safety of the night and saw him asleep with the heaviness of drunken stupor and the means ready to my hand, the thought came to me and it was the easier and the surer way. "Then I put on the cap and ulster and gathered up the bills that were on the table and went out. I left the ulster at Stanton's house, but forgot the cap, and then, seeking the nearest elevated station, went home. In the morning when I returned to White's rooms, I took the opportunity while I was by the body to drop the cap unseen behind the divan. I knew that it, as the other circumstances I had created, would but serve to further involve the case when it should be investigated. That is all. "I might tell more of the impulses that swayed me, and of my feelings on that night and since, but it could serve no purpose and I am tired. "I have rung for a servant to mail this; when he shall have taken it and shall be out of hearing---- "Think kindly of me if you can, Dick! for I have loved you." THE END