The Mill Mystery

here's mor

eak to me as to

nate; and give th

rst of

HEL

r, I pressed forward too, and so it happened that I stood by her side when her gaze first fell upon her dead lover. Never shall I forget the cry she uttered, or the solemn silence that fell over all, as her hand, rigid and white as that of a ghost's, slowly rose and pointed with awful question at the pallid brow upturned before her. It seemed as if a spell had fallen, enchaini

uddering backward with wondering dread as one of those tiny

t ominous

betrothed"; and her eyes wandered for a mom

p. "He has been drowned, miss. T

that must have been in the bottom of the vat o

epeated. "The va

iss." And there the

een found drowned in the disused vat of a half-tumbled-down old mill on a lonesome and neglected road meant--But wh

"In the vat!" she reiterated again and again, as if her min

t last, over my shoulder, "if a parcel of school-children hadn't strayed in

words had changed as if the breath of death had blown across it; and

ly aside, she turned to a stalwart man near by,

and show m

t her amaze

mply; and she herself took th

e look of any common determination, and the power which seemed to force her feeble body on upon its fearful errand was of

re," objected the man she had appealed

ed upon the ruined walls before her, rising dre

re," I heard her murmur. "How t

ery, dear heart, with w

d making for the steps that led below, we found that the growing twilight was any thing but favorable to a speedy or even safe advance. Fo

first step she had reached the bottom one, and was groping her way towards the

into the vat yourself!" exclaime

wards which she bent her way, till suddenly she paused and we saw her standing with

ut as, profoundly startled, I was about to hasten

d up the stairs, and out of the mill to where that still

ething which I could not hear, but which lent a look of strange peace to her features, that were almost as pallid and set now as his. Then she arose, and

rd was

light on her forehead, her lips parted, a

is death here was not one of chance or accident, mysterious, if you will,

e in reply, "we wou

itated a crime of this nature. He was too much of a Christian. An

ely have been understood. As it was, the furtive looks of the men about showed that they comprehended all that she would