At the Mercy of TiberiusEvans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
History
At the Mercy of Tiberius
Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
Rome -- History -- Tiberius, 14-37 -- Fiction
"My name is Edgar Jennings, and I live at T----, in Pennsylvania. I am
ticket agent at that point, of----railway. One day, about the last of
October (I think it was on Monday), I was sitting in my office when a
man came in, and asked if I could sell him a ticket to St. Paul. I told
him I only had tickets as far as Chicago, via Cincinnati. He bought one
to Cincinnati and asked how soon he could go on. I told him the train
from the east was due in a few minutes. When he paid for his ticket he
gave me a twenty-dollar gold piece, and his hand shook so, he dropped
another piece of the same value on the floor. His appearance was so
remarkable I noticed him particularly. He was a man about my age, very
tall and finely made, but one half of his face was black, or rather
very dark blue, and he wore a handkerchief bandage-fashion across it.
His left eye was drawn down, this way, and his mouth was one-sided. His
right eye was black, and his hair was very light brown. He wore a
close-fitting wool hat, that flapped down and his clothes were
seal-brown in color, but much worn, and evidently old. I asked him
where he lived, and he said he was a stranger going West, on a
pioneering tour. Then I asked what ailed his face, and he pulled the
handkerchief over his left eye, and said he was partly paralyzed from
an accident. Just then, the eastern train blew for T----. He said he
wanted some cigars or a pipe, as he had lost his own on the way, and
wondered if he would have time to go out and buy some. I told him no;
but that he could have a couple of cigars from my box. He thanked me,
and took two, laying down a silver dime on top of the box. He put his
hand in the inside pocket of his coat, and pulled out an empty
envelope, twisted it, lit it by the coal fire in the grate, and lighted
his cigar. The train rolled into the station; he passed out, and I saw
him jump aboard the front passenger coach. He had thrown the paper, as
he thought, into the fire, but it slipped off the grate, fell just
inside the fender, and the flame went out. There was something so very
peculiar in his looks and manner, that I thought there was some mystery
about his movements. I picked up the paper, saw the writing on it, and
locked it up in my cash drawer. He had evidently been a very handsome
man, before his 'accident', but he had a jaded, worried, wretched look.
When a detective from Baltimore interviewed me, I told him all I knew,
and gave him the paper."
Again Mr. Dunbar drew closer to the jury, held up the former fragment
of envelope, and then took from his pocket a second piece. Jagged edges
fitted into each other, and he lifted for the inspection of hundreds of
eyes, the long envelope marked and underscored:-"LAST WILL AND
TESTAMENT OF ROBERT LUKE DARRINGTON." The lower edge of the paper was
at one corner brown, scorched, somewhat burned.
"Lucullus Grantlin."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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