Читать книгу The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin - Henry M. Hunt - Страница 18

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Dr. Cronin's friends were not among the sceptics. Very well they knew that there was more than ordinary ground for the fears they had expressed. There was abundant evidence that long before his death the physician had known that his life was threatened, and that any day might be his last. This knowledge, or belief,—it may be put in either way—was clearly outlined in a pamphlet which, under the title of "Is it a conspiracy," he caused to be printed and circulated among his friends a year before his taking off. In this document which, at the time was summed up by most of those that read it, as a mass of words and phrases without meaning to any one but the writer, Dr. Cronin clearly outlined the fact that he would meet his end by violent means. There was a key to the story which, when read between the lines after his disappearance, made its meaning clear to many of those to whom it had previously seemed but a jumble of incoherences.

The closing paragraph, in particular, was an extraordinary indication of the prophetic spirit that had been generated in the physician by the dangers that he knew assailed him.

"It strikes me that your funeral would be a largely attended one," was the question that he put into the mouth of the mythical reporter who was supposed to be interviewing him.

"Yes," was the reply that followed "and the cause of death extensively inquired into."

Prophetic words. How largely his funeral was attended; how extensively the cause of death was investigated; this volume itself is a record.

The fact that his life was in danger had been the burden of Dr. Cronin's confidences to his friends for a year prior to that memorable night in May.

More than once attempts had been made to lure him to isolated and unfrequented spots on the pretense that his professional services were required. On one of these occasions, so it is said,—although the doctor was always uncommunicative on this point—he barely escaped with his life from a house whither he had been summoned to attend a woman who was, in reality, feigning sickness. At another time he publicly denounced a man whom he believed had been sent from a distant city in the east to encompass his death. Still another time a local sport who had been hired by his enemies to "do him up" as the expression was used; inspired by feelings of gratitude from some indirect favor, had made a clean breast of the matter. Little wonder then that Dr. Cronin felt that he lived the life of a marked man, and that sooner or later, he would fall a victim to the machinations of those that were bent upon his removal. But why had he enemies? and why moreover was his death so greatly desired?