ARTHUR
78

However, what caught our attention even more was the testimony of Williams and Mrs. Wentworth. What Wortley and Watson's friends and family find mysterious and incomprehensible is a light for us. The coincidence between the cryptic clues painstakingly gathered by these questioners, and the Mervyn narrative, provides the most convincing confirmation of the narrative's truth.

Watson has disappeared from all eyes, but the resting place of his remains is known to us. The corset that Williams was talking about would not be suspected of being there by the killer. It was undisturbed, and was undoubtedly buried with him. What is highly sought after, and which is a subsistence of Maurices, may be found attached to his body. What behavior is my duty to have this knowledge?

It was only to return this bill to the actual owner; but how could this be done without dangerous processes and tedious disclosures? To whom should this disclosure be made? By what authority or institution could this half-rotted limb be dug up, and the lost treasure taken from amidst the terrible damage in which it was buried?

This should not be the action of one individual. This act would ensnare him in a labyrinth of danger and suspicion, concealment and avoidance, from which he could not hope to escape with his inviolable reputation. The right way is through legal institutions. This is why Mervyn had to give up her behavior. The story she told me she had to tell the world. Suspicion had been attached to him, which did not allow him to be silent and unclear. While she continued to be unknown and unthinkable, the publication of her story would only give birth to unnecessary dangers; but now there were dangers that might be mitigated, if not eliminated.

Meanwhile, Mervyn's return to the city was highly expected. Day after day passed, and no news was received. I have an urgent affair that requires my presence in Jersey, but which, in the hope of every day will be the return of my young friend, he said, I postponed it a week longer than allowed by rigid wisdom. Eventually I was obliged to comply with the urgency, and leave the city, but made arrangements in such a way that I had to be informed by my wife of Mervyn's return with all expeditions that could be carried out.

This arrangement was redundant, as my business was delivered, and my absence ended, before the young man gave us a sign of his approach. Now I remember Wortley's warning, and his assertion that Mervyn had withdrawn forever from our sight. That event hitherto unwelcome coincided with this prediction, and a thousand doubts and doubts were awakened.

One night, while preparing to dispel a gloomy thought by visiting a friend, someone knocked on my door, and left a billet containing these words: ''I:

" dr. Stevens was asked to come to the Debtor Apartment on Prune Street immediately. "

This billet is without signature. The handwriting was unknown, and the hasty departure of the bearer left me completely confused about the person of the author, or the ending that necessitated my presence. This uncertainty has only accelerated my compliance with the call.

The night is approaching,— a time when the prison door is used to being closed and strangers are ostracized. This provides an additional reason for delivery. As I walked quickly, I thought of possible motives that might drive this message. A conjecture was immediately formed, which caused fear and anxiety .

One of my friends, named Carlton, was embarrassed by the debt he could not repay. Lately he was threatened with arrest by a creditor who was not used to paying his claim. I fear that this catastrophe has now occurred, and remember the suffering with which this unwanted incident will overwhelm his family. I know his inability to take his creditor's claim by payment, or to appease him to clemency by plea.

So vulnerable was the human mind to create suffering for itself, that I did not realize the uncertainty of this evil until I arrived in prison. I checked myself out the moment I opened my lips to mention my friend's name, and was accepted without any special questions. I guess the one I called here will meet me in the recreation room.

Almost every mouth is equipped with a cigar, and every hand with a glass of porter. Conversations, conducted with a lot of tone and gestures, are undesirable. Various groups, in various angles, beguile the boring hours. Others, unemployed, walk back and forth, and testify about the emptiness of their mind and attention by humming or whistling.

I grew hopes that my prognostics had deceived me. This expectation was reinforced by reflecting that the billets received were written with a different hand than my friend's. In the meantime, I continued my search. Sitting on a bench, silent and aloof from the crowd, his eyes were fixed to the floor, and his face was half covered by his hands, a form finally found that verified all my conjectures and fears. Carlton is him.

My heart drooped and my tongue stammered at this sight. I watched him for a few minutes in silence. Finally, approaching the bench on which he was sitting, I touched his hand and woke him from his daydream. He looked up. The fleeting glint of excitement and momentary shock was replaced by a deeper gloom than before.

It is obvious that my friend needs comfort. He was ruled by an overwhelming sensitivity to disgrace. He can't wait to face the obstacles. He shrank, with fussy hatred, from vulgar and extravagant contact. The constitution is smooth and weak. Impure air, self-control from sports, unusual food, useless or unpleasant accommodations, and chaotic thoughts, at all times are enough to inflict illness and take his life.

For this crime he is now a target. He had no money to buy food. He's been dragged here in the morning. He hasn't felt a mouthful since he came in. He did not provide a bed to lie on; or ask in what room, or with what friend, the night would be spent.

Endurance is not one of my friend's qualities. He is more likely to shy away from danger than to face it, and to succumb to the flood than to sustain it; but only to observe his suffering, on this occasion, does not fully arise from selfish consideration. His parents are dead, and two sisters depend on him for support. One of them is almost his age. The others hardly showed up since childhood. There is an intellectual and personal resemblance between my friend and his sister. They have their physical weaknesses, their burning desires, and the subtleties of taste; and their affliction of condition increases tenfold, by contemplating the feelings that will be awakened in them by the knowledge of their circumstances, and the difficulties that will be faced by the loss of his help.

It is not my authority to release my friend by paying his debt; but, by contracting the prison guard for his council, I can save him from starvation; and, with the appropriate exertion, I can save him from starvation, can give him a place to stay as comfortable as possible according to time. I could promise to comfort and protect her sister, and, in a cheerful and frequent tone, eliminate some of the evil that surrounds her.

After the first shock subsided, he asked what coincidence this encounter had happened. Aware of my inability to perform any essential services, and unwilling to make me partake in his misery, he did not want to tell me about his condition.

This assurance was listened to in wonder. I showed him the billet. It was not written by him. He is a stranger with handwriting. No one but lawyers and officers were informed of his fate. It is clear to conclude, that this was the interposition of some friends, who knew of my affection for Carlton, had taken up the mysterious method of summoning me to help him.

This conjecture of the author and the motives between positions is suspended by more pressing considerations. I asked for an interview with the guard, and asked how Carlton could be well accommodated.