Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-12-31

! but never heard my fathers NAME The
clergyman who married my mother was dead
the witnesses also. When my grandmother
was dying she tried to tell me the story. She
had put it off too long. All that I could un-
derstand of her mumblings was the name OF
| Devereux. shall never forget that name
'DEvEREuxv Probably that was my fathers
name-my own rightful name. But as /
should never find him if / sought him, and as
he would repulse me if did find him, stand
no chance Of inheriting his property. He may
be dead. lie may have other sons who have
succeeded him. 1t is all a mystery, but the
prominent truth is, that am an outcast, poor,
disowned and friendless."
lie leaned over the bulwark, the spray
dashing over his face violently.
Tressilian's heart warmed to him.
my poor friend!" he said. ''Must say
again you are not friendless while live. My
father has influence enough to obtain for you
a government appointment. This tangle may
straighten itself out some day. But if it don't
you are resolute enough TO make your own
happiness"
lie grasped Lowder's hand, and looked with
warm bright eyes, full of sympathy, into Low
der's lowering face.
There had been temporary lull in the
storm. But as the two stood there, the tenn
pest revived, and swept over the wild sea in
maddened rage.
There was no time for talking now. The
wind rose SO high that words would scarcely
have been distinguished. The storm that had
gone before had been but play to this awful
outburst The vessel drove on, creaking and
groaning, mere cookie shell on the pillows.
"Mother of Mercies!" walled the captain.
"Its all UP with us, signores. / can't make
out the Cape in this darkness. We shall go
on to the rocks. ST. Anthony save us!''
The seamen echoed his cries.
The two young Englishmen, comprehending
their peril, clasped hands in silence.
For the next few minutes it seemed that
Pandemonium reigned.
Then a noise like the report of cannon
suddenly doomed through ithe storm and the
darkness. The little vessel shivered, stag
gered, and careened upon her side.
She had struck upon rock.
A moment later crew and passengers were
struggling in the waters.
few moments of butfetings and tossings,
OF vain struggles, and agonized, involuntary
prayer, and then Jasper Lowder felt his SEN
ses slip from him, and became unconscious.
When he came to himself, he was lying up
on rocky beach of the Siclian shore, sore,
bruised, and weak as child.
He opened his eyes. The wind had spent
its fury, and now moaned along the coast with
a desolate, despairing wall. The waves beat
against the rocks.
Lowder struggled to his elbow.
"Wrecked !" he muttered. 81 am cast ashore,
while the others are drowned! Oh, this is
terrible!" ! have lost my best friend to-
night
He moaned and wrung his hands.
ssHa 10 dead who wonld haxa 1opa
much for ME, and SO worthless am saved All
my hopes of an easy and luxurious life must
be resigned now!"
At that moment he beheld dark object at a
little distance in the water. The waves hurl-
ed this object against the projecting head Of a
sunken rock AT the same instant Lowder
recognized it as the body of man.
He crept towardit and the waters dashed the
body on shore at his feet. He put his hands
on his face. How cold and wet it was. it
felt like the face of a dead man! Lowder's
fingers came in contact with the soft, siken
mustache, and he knew that the body was that
of Guy Tressilan.
Of the five who had stood on the sloop's
deck half hour earlier, these two alone were
left. The captain and his crew had found
their deaths among the cruel, yawning waters.
Lowder thrust his hand under the waistcoat
of his friend, but he could not perceive the
beating of his heart. Despair took possession
of him.
dead 2. he said shrilly. Dead And
he would have done SO much for me if he had
lived. And his father and the young girl he
was to have married will wait in vain for his
coming! His place at Tressilian Court is
empty. Who can fill it?
1t seemed to him that some demon at his
side echoed the question: Who could fill the
place left racant BY noble Guy 7rsssilian'
A thought came to him-a thought so
strange and sinister that he shivered involun-
tarily. Again he felt of Tressilan's heart.
He passed his hand over Tressilian's head
and discovered gaping wound in the skull.
The hair was clotted with blood.
Putting his hand into his breast pocket,
Lowder drew out his little waterproof match.
safe. He opened it with trembling fingers
and struck light. The red flicker danced on
young Tressilian's face.
How CHASTITY and terrible it looked. The
eyes were closed, the smile was gone. The
seal of death seemed set on the noble features.
Lowder examined the wound. 1t had been
made by contact with the sharp rock, and ev-
en- Lowder perceived its terrible character.
"If he is not dead, he soon will be-" he
"His brain has received an awful
injury. He will never know who he is again.
He won't live till morning, and he is perhaps
dead already. He must be dead!"
Again it seemed to him as though some de-
mon echoed his words.
The match dropped from his fingers into the
water. For little while he crouched on the
wet stones in silence, battling it may be with
the better and nobler instincts of his nature.
AT last, with sudden and abrupt STEALTH
ness. his hands stole into the breast pocket of
Tresslian, and drew out his private note
book. packet of letters, a few trinkets. He
secured these among his own wet garments.
Their possession seemed to give him courage,
and his face hardened, and he kneit beside the
body of his friend and rihed his garments of
all that they contained, bestowing his plunder
on his own person.
Then he took his own purse, his note book,
a few receipts and trihes from his own pock-
ets and 1t them in the pockets of Tressilian.
''It is done !" he whispered to himself, look
ing with wild, defiant eyes through the dark
ness. mo one is harmed. He is dead. If
he had lived he would have provided for me.
AS he is dying or dead must provide for my
self. Thts likeness betreea as iciH make my
fo,tune. His friends will be spared terrible
grief, and IL shall live at last! Fortune
gives me chance to gain name and wealth at