13. CHAPTER XIII.
Thou art the Man.
I COULD but smile on reading all
this serious nonsense.
After breakfast, the next morning,
I made my toilet with extreme
care, and presented myself at the
sheriff's office.
Two gentlemen who were sitting
at a table, busy with papers, started
nervously to their feet, as I announced myself. I
bowed very calmly to the sheriff, and said,
“I am the person who murdered Mary Ware!”
Of course I was instantly arrested; and that
evening, in jail, I had the equivocal pleasure of
reading these paragraphs among the police items
of the Mirror:
“The individual who murdered the ballet-girl,
in the night of the third inst., in a house on
Crandall street, surrendered himself to the sheriff
this forenoon.
“He gave his name as Paul Lynde, and resides
opposite the place where the tragedy was enacted.
He is a man of medium stature, has restless gray
eyes, chestnust hair, and a supernaturally pale
countenance. He seems a person of excellent
address, is said to be wealthy, and nearly connected
with an influential New England family.
Notwithstanding his gentlemanly manner, there is
that about him which would lead one to select him
from out a thousand, as a man of cool and desperate
character.
“Mr. Lynde's voluntary surrender is not the
least astonishing feature of this affair; for, had he
preserved silence he would, beyond a doubt, have
escaped even suspicion. The murder was planned
and executed with such deliberate skill, that there
is little or no evidence to complicate him. In
truth, there is no evidence against him, excepting
his own confession, which is meagre and confusing
enough. He freely acknowledges the crime, but
stubbornly refuses to enter into any details. He
expresses a desire to be hanged immediately!!
“How Mr. Lynde entered the chamber, and
by what means he left it, after committing the
deed, and why he cruelly killed a lady with
whom he had had (as we gather from the testimony,)
no previous acquaintance, — are enigmas
which still perplex the public mind, and will not
let curiosity sleep. These facts, however, will
probably be brought to light during the impending
trial. In the meantime, we await the dénouement
with interest.”
