The Bride of the Tomb and Queenie's Part 30

"I do not doubt that he was here. It is more than probable he was, but he did not come to see me. He believes me dead. He hired the old woman here to kill me and my child. He was weary of me and sighed for a fairer face," explained the deeply wronged wife.

"Yet the old woman, more merciful than your husband, spared your life,"

said he.

"She killed my child and let me live because she loved to have something about her that she might torture at will," said the poor woman bitterly.

"She has had me chained in here for two years, fed upon bread and water, and an insufficient allowance of that. Oh! G.o.d, how I hate that woman, and how I long to avenge my wrongs!"

"She is beyond the reach of both your hatred and your vengeance, Mrs.

Colville. She is dead," said Mr. Shelton, solemnly.

"Dead? Old Haidee Leveret dead? It cannot be true," said Haidee's poor victim, with incredulous joy shining in her eyes.

"I a.s.sure you, madam, it is perfectly true. When I came here a few minutes ago I found both her and her husband lying dead upon the floor down-stairs, and the room in flames. But for my opportune arrival in time to extinguish the fire, the house must have soon burned down, and you would inevitably have perished with it."

f.a.n.n.y trembled like a leaf in a storm.

"It was a narrow escape," she murmured. "And so they both are dead. Did they kill each other?"

"I should say not," replied Mr. Shelton. "They both looked as though they had been poisoned. They certainly died suddenly, for their half-consumed dinner was upon the table. This fact, taken in conjunction with the fire, leads me to think they were poisoned by some enemy who then set fire to the house to cover up all traces of the crime."

"They have met with a fearful punishment for their evil deeds," said f.a.n.n.y, solemnly.

"And now I wish to ask you a question," said her deliverer, "Do you know of any reason for Mr. Colville's visits here now, since he does not come to see you?"

"The villain," she uttered, indignantly. "Oh, yes, sir. I know full well. He has a young girl imprisoned here whom he is trying to force into a marriage with him."

Mr. Shelton saw that she was growing weak and faint, and poured a little wine between her lips.

"That makes me feel stronger," she said, reviving.

"Mrs. Colville," he said, "you must be mistaken. I have searched the house carefully through, and there is not another living soul here beside yourself."

"Oh, then she has either escaped again or they have removed her to another place," was the confident reply.

"Are you quite sure the lady was ever imprisoned in this house, Mrs.

Colville?"

"Oh, I am perfectly sure of that, sir. She occupied the room above me for some time. My groans troubled her so that she sought for me and found me here in my misery."

"And she told you that she was your husband's prisoner?"

"Yes, sir," answered poor f.a.n.n.y, sighing. "I had her whole sad story from her own sweet lips."

"Was she a New York lady?" inquired the detective, evincing a deep interest.

"Yes, sir, and the daughter of a wealthy man."

"If you feel equal to the task I wish you would tell me all you know about the lady. I am deeply interested in her fate," said he very gently, though he was burning with impatience to learn more of Colville's mysterious prisoner.

"I think I am strong enough. Your coming has put new life and hope into me," answered the grateful creature.

"Go on, then," said he. "Did the wicked Colville abduct her from her home?"

"Worse than that, sir. She was a young lady who was murdered by a jealous woman. A Doctor Pratt, the friend and abettor of Colville in all his sins, was called in to view the body of the murdered girl. He p.r.o.nounced her dead. In reality he discovered that she was in a curious condition known to the medical profession as catalepsy. He suffered them to bury her, then stole her body from the vault and sold it to Colville, who was in love with her. They brought her here, used every means to bring her to life, and at length succeeded. She revived after four days and found herself the prisoner of my husband, dead to all the world beside, and doomed never to see her friends again unless she consented to become his wife."

She paused, overcome by exhaustion.

Mr. Shelton sat white and rigid on the foot of the cot regarding her fixedly. He seemed frozen into a statue. At length he gasped rather than spoke:

"Her name?"

f.a.n.n.y Colville's wasted hand went up to her brow in painful perplexity.

"I do not seem to recollect it. Strange that I should forget. I am sure she told me," she murmured.

"Try and think of it, Mrs. Colville. Much depends upon it," urged Shelton, anxiously.

She was silent a few moments, lost in troubled thought. At length she said, timidly:

"I am afraid I cannot recall it, sir. My poor brain is dazed by my troubles, perhaps. But I am sure of one thing. She had the name of a flower, sir--a beautiful flower. I remember that, because it seemed to suit her so well."

Shelton's eyes brightened.

"Was her name--Lily?" he asked, impressively.

Instantly a gleam of remembrance irradiated the listener's face.

"Lily, Lily!" she said; "yes, that was indeed her name, sir. How could I forget it when I remembered everything else so well? I recall it distinctly now. It _was_ Lily--Lily Lawrence."

Shelton sprang up with a cry that rang through the dungeon.

He was like one dazzled by the flash of light that broke in upon his mind.

Here was the solution of the dreadful mystery that had baffled him for weary months, the confirmation of the vague suspicion that had haunted him for days.

It was a living, breathing, beautiful woman he sought instead of a cold and lifeless body! No wonder the banker's reward failed of its object!

"She tried to escape from here, did she not?" he inquired abruptly.

f.a.n.n.y replied by relating the circ.u.mstances of Lily's two attempts at escape, and how Colville had carried her off the second time from under her father's own roof.

"The villains! the fiends!" muttered Shelton, crushing an oath between his clenched teeth.

"After they brought her back again she was put into the room above me, but only for a night. She came in to see me after midnight, and promised to come again soon. But she never came, and I concluded that she had been removed to another place. I am confident she has not escaped from them, for had she done so she would have sent someone to liberate me at once."

"Colville and Pratt spent an hour here five days ago," said he, "so it seems probable that she was still here up to that date."

"No doubt of it. I suppose old Haidee put her into another room for fear that she might discover me down here, and also because the trap-door in that room is the only entrance which she had to bring my weekly dole of bread and water through," said f.a.n.n.y.