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The Black Patch by Julian Killman.
The dead weight about my body made me

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gasp as I leapt into the taxicab. So far as my uncle and I

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were aware, there was only one
other person who knew of my errand he

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lived in a small town in the
northern part of Ontario and was the sole

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surviving member of that branch of the
Warren family, which had left England three

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generations before. The gold coin I
carried was a legacy to him, and

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I do not think he would have
divulged the manner of its delivery. Yet

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twice during the short time that had
elapsed since my arrival in New York,

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I had been attacked, and on
the second occasion, my bag actually snatched

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from me. This seemed a bit
thick, even for a city as sophisticated

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as New York. The taxicab bore
me to Grand Central Station, where I

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secured my tickets at the booking office
after the train had started. There recurred

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to my mind the odd request of
my Canadian cousin. He had demanded that

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his legacy be paid in gold,
a decision which, under the terms of

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the will left no choice to my
uncle and me. Its executors and hence

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I was lugging the valuable stuff on
my person. The visit to Niagara Falls

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was not to be given up,
and nothing occurred to increase my apprehension during

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my stopover at the famous resort.
At the end of the following day,

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after much discomfort from the excrapable train
service, I reached my destination and hastened

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to a hostelry. That evening I
ascertained something of my relatives, most of

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my information coming from a garrulous waitress
who needed but the merest hint of a

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question, not only to answer it, but to anticipate five others. Thus

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it came about that I learned that
David Warren, my cousin many times removed,

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was a queer duck, that he
was rarely seen downtown these days because

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in the past he had had trouble
with the authorities. Whether it was intended

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to intimate that the man drank or
what, I did not find out.

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And finally that the further I stayed
away from his dump, the better it

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would be for me. It was
nearly nine o'clock in the evening when I

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reached the Warren residence in the outskirts
of town. The building was large and

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rambling with picturesque gables that loomed out
in the peculiar twilight glow of the northern

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country. As I passed through the
gateway, I perceived every evidence of dilapidation

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and decay. There was not a
light to be seen in the house.

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With considerable misgiving, I proceeded up
the long, grass grown walk to the

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door and plied the ancient knocker.
No one answered. I waited a few

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moments, feeling less and less inclined
for my task. Suddenly the door swung

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open silently. I was confronted by
an elderly man who held aloft a candle

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and peered at me. Is this
my cousin? He asked, if you

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are David Warren, I replied,
I am David Warren, he said slowly,

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and then added more quickly, as
if anticipating his remiss as a relative

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and host. But come in,
sir, come in. As he lowered

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the candle and turned to close the
door, I was startled to see that

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he wore a black patch over one
eye. Whatever my first impressions of the

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man may have been, certainly nothing
occurred during the remainder of the evening to

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excite distrust. He carried no side
and treated me with the greatest cordiality.

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Indeed, there was that about him
which gave me satisfaction that he was my

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own blood. He was the first
low pitched voice I had heard since I

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left England. With this opinion of
my relative and host, therefore I accepted

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his invitation to continue his guest,
and soon, with every sense of fear

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lulled, was shown to a chamber
at the head of the stairs. I

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respected his sense of delicacy in not
mentioning the object of my visit up to

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that time, and did not refer
to it myself, for the reason that

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I did not wish to have him
know I had taken such precautions as to

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conceal the gold about my person.
How long I slept I do not know,

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but some time must have elapsed when
suddenly I found myself wide awake.

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I sat up, trembling, my
hearing, alert for the noise that had

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disturbed me. Then it came a
faint call, near and yet far distant,

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like the successful effort of a ventriloquist. It seemed that the word I

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had heard was help. Thoroughly alarmed, I thrust a hand under my pillow.

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The gold was still there. I
decided to reconnoiter and tiptoed downstairs to

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the living room, lighting an occasional
waxed festa. I had about concluded that,

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in my nervous condition, I was
the victim of a hallucination. When

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my attention was attracted by an ancient
writing desk. Something quite projected from under

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the blotter, and quite casually I
pulled it out. It was the letter

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that had been in the bag snatched
from me in New York. The sight

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of that bit of inanimate evidence,
my positive knowledge that it came from a

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stolen gladstone caused my heart to flutter
to my room. I returned, but

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sleep was not possible, and I
relieved the tedium of waiting for daylight by

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a thorough examination of my quarters.
At seven o'clock there was a rap at

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the door, and old Negress signed
for me to follow. Good morning,

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I heard as I entered the dining
room. I trust you slept well,

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my cousin. The man with the
black patch stood by the window, his

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good eye resting on me splendidly.
I lied as we finished breakfast, however,

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and I made no mention of the
purpose of my visit. My host

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appeared restless. He rose from the
table, and now he said, almost

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sharply, I assume you have with
you the amount of my legacy one thousand

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pounds. Sorry, I said,
but I thought it advisable to deposit the

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gold in the bank of Niagara Falls. The weight of the stuff made traveling

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tremendously uncomfortable. He proved a consummate
actor. Of course, of course,

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he exclaimed, with quick buoyancy.
Let's not worry about it. We can

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manage it. Later, twice that
day I endeavored to slip away, but

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each time my host, with a
manner disarmingly casual, contrived to join me.

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On the second occasion, I had
reached the road and started for the

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village, when with profuse apologies for
his carelessness, he overtook me. I

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concluded the walk in his company.
It accomplished nothing. Again and again,

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as we passed along the streets of
the little town, I noted the curious

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gaze of those we met, and
the words of the women's scullion recurred to

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me. The man with me spoke
to no one, and no one spoke

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to him. Meanwhile, he kept
up a running fire of commentary his thoughts

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seemed to race by the way.
He exclaimed, as we turned to retrace

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our steps, I haven't shown you
my laboratory. Later, in exhibiting his

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workshop, he evinced extreme nervousness.
This I, he exclaimed, I lost

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a year ago in an experiment.
At the thought of the sightless socket beneath

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the black patch, I felt it
difficult to repress a shudder. That evening

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with my host did not serve to
allay my fears. I had definitely planned

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to remain and keep awake all night
and in the morning to communicate any event

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with the authorities. During the long
hours it followed, I lay fully dressed

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on my bed, revolver in hand, but the vigil was too much for

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me in my exhausted condition, and
I finally dozed. It must have been

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after two o'clock when I awoke and
laid tents. A hand was being moved

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cautiously back and forth beneath my pillow. The search was thorough, but the

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gold was not there. It was
again fastened about my body, and the

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owner of the hand seemed to conclude
that some other course was necessary. For

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a moment later, I heard him
steal out as I slid from the bed.

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There came a sound as if someone
had stumbled in the hallway. Instantly

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it was followed by a horrible shriek. Again and again it pierced the air.

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The hair on my head stiffened with
fear. Flinging open the door to

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my room, I could just make
out that a terrible struggle was in progress

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between two men. It continued for
a brief bit, and presently I heard

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a long, drawn sigh. One
of the combatants slid to the floor.

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I waited no longer, but leapt
into the passageway. My hands extended before

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me. Suddenly, in the darkness, they touched those of another. He

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was feeling for me. We crouched
there for an instant, each reaching for

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the other, as in the preliminaries
of a wrestling match. His fingers were

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hot and slippery with moisture. Then
he rushed me. The pistol was not

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from my hand, and the next
instant the two of us were struggling together

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to and fro We staggered. Finally, my feet tripped over the prostrate body

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of the man on the floor.
My adversary and I went down together.

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The fall loosened his grip I was
able to breathe more freely, and I

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got a hand on his throat.
The other hand wandering about his face and

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clutching something. I shrieked with the
horror of it. One of my fingers

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was digging into the empty socket of
a human eye. Wild with pain,

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my antagonist arose sheer from the floor, flinging me off as if I had

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been a child. An instant later
I heard him running down the stairs.

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It has been difficult for me since
to understand my course. That dreadful night,

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I was insensate. I followed the
man with one eye, for I

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fell felt that murder had been done. It was moonlight and I could see

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him plainly, with incredible swiftness.
The figure sped over the landscape and made

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for a trestle, which spanned a
crevasse half a mile in the distance.

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I knew that on the opposite side
of it was a heavily wooded stretch,

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and fearing his escape, I endeavored
to head him off. He reached the

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bridge a few seconds before me,
however, and to my horror, I

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saw him poise his body at one
side. The next moment he went over,

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I think we both screamed then the
one eyed man as he whirled through

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the moonlight to his death, and
I as I watched him. Not until

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daybreak did I come to myself.
The soles of my boots were scuffed through,

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and I seemed to have been running
for hours, running to blot out

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of my vision the sight of the
body spinning downward into the abyss, running

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to brush from the tentacles of my
memory. The horrid thought that I had

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driven a human being to his death, then filled with forebodings as to the

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identity of the body over which I
had stumbled earlier that night, I started

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to return. When I reached the
house, it was a long time before

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I could summons courage to enter.
Once inside, however, I gained confidence

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and hastened upstairs. The body was
gone from the hall, but in the

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small room at one end, a
mere closet, I found what I was

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looking for, the body of the
man who had fallen in the struggle in

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the night, evidently had dragged himself
thither. His heart was still beating,

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and I carried him downstairs. He
was heavy, and I groaned with relief

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as the weight slipped from my arms
to the floor. Then I looked at

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the face. Never shall I forget
it. It was my host. The

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black patch was displaced. It covered
a perfectly good eye. I must have

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swooned at the sight. For the
next I knew there were many men about

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me. They came from the village
and had been notified by the old negress.

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I was taken into custody and lodged
for three weary hours in a ridiculously

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small place they called a lock up. At the end of that time,

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I was led before a magistrate who
took my statement. Next morning I was

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informed that the body of David Warren
had been found in the ravine. It

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confirmed my worst fears. I had
driven to his death my own cousin.

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That day the authorities obtained a confession
from the man who wore the black patch.

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He was unknown to them and stated
that his name was Douglas. For

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about three months he had had been
employed by David Warren as an assistant in

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the laboratory work. Having opened by
mistake the first letter from our solicitor,

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Douglas learned of the legacy and kept
my cousin in ignorance of it for two

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months. He had confined David Warren
under circumstances of the greatest cruelty in the

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little closet at the end of the
hall. He insured the silence of the

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old negress by threats of death.
How Warren escaped from his room, Douglas

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could not say. He suspected that
the negress finally had dared to unlock the

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door. In any event, my
cousin met Douglas in the dark just after

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the latter stepped from my room after
his futile attempt to steal the gold.

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Then ensued the struggle in the hallway
that I had heard, and in which

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Warren stabbed the impostor with a knife, a wound that would later result in

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the death of the criminal. Although
aware that we had never seen our Canadian

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cousin, Douglas wore the black patch, fearing that we might know that David

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Warren had lost an eye. After
the inquest, I hurried, shaken and

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trembling, to the hotel and packed
the stolen Gladston, which had been found

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and returned to me. Then,
feeling that I had sufficiently vivid impressions of

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America, I purchased a draft with
the gold and started on the long journey

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home. The end of the black
Patch by Julian Kilmen