tor, while the others went into Mrs. Cutter's
room. She was lying on her bed, in her night-
gown and wrapper, shot through the heart.
Her husband must have come in while she
was taking her afternoon nap and shot her,
holding the revolver near her breast. Her
nightgown was burned from the powder.

The horrified neighbors rushed back to Cut-
ter. He opened his eyes and said distinctly,
"Mrs. Cutter is quite dead, gentlemen, and I
am conscious. My affairs are in order." Then,
Rudolph said, "he let go and died."

On his desk the coroner found a letter, dated
at five o'clock that afternoon. It stated that
he had just shot his wife; that any will she
might secretly have made would be invalid, as
he survived her. He meant to shoot himself
at six o'clock and would, if he had strength,
fire a shot through the window in the hope
that passers-by might come in and see him
"before life was extinct," as he wrote.

"Now, would you have thought that man
had such a cruel heart?" Antonia turned to
me after the story was told. "To go and do
that poor woman out of any comfort she might
have from his money after he was gone!"

"Did you ever hear of anybody else that

[[409]]

p408 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p409w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p410

v?