River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1872-08-30

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Bessie told him his face grew wilder.
Sprirging up, he dragged her up, too,
almost crushing her wrists as he did so.
"There's only two ways to silence
you--and by heaven you shall take the
alternative follow him, or go with me
othe priest at Dorchester. and be mar
ried. You came out of chapel to meet
me they'll hear we're off to Dorches.
ter, and I'll be safe both from them and
YOU"
Three days after Bessie was bride.
The girl hardly knew how those days
had passed. Shehad been kept prisoner
in small room at the top of house in
some back street in Dorchester.
Meantime the body of the coast guard
had been found Harry Walters threat
was corroborated by dozen voices, and
the old man hurried off to Jail. The
village was in ferment of wonder and
excitement, for simultaneous with the
murder was Bessie Walters elopement
with Kit Roberts.
The drst news that met Bessie and
her husband was that of her fathers
arrest.
Who can describe the girls horror and
misery, the perplexity which beset and
crushed heron the one hand. to see
her father hung for a crime of which
her husband was guilty; and the other,
to denounce the true murderer, and
save her father by the sacrice of her
husband. ,
There was one thread of hope, the
evidence against Harry Walters was
merely circumstantial; those who had
heard him swear vengeance against the
officer were now ready to swear he was
drunk and that more forgiving,
peaceable man never lived.
Once Bessie saw her father.
"Don't yo' fret my darling. Yo'
know l be innocent as an unborn
babby," he said.
A great and exceeding bitter cry burst
from Bessie's lips.
"Doant say that, oh! fayther, yo'r
KILN II must tell yo'-I maun tell
yo', or my heart will break. Kit did
it-fayther-"
The old man sprang to his feet; he
had been kneeling beside the seat she
was on.
"He did it, fayther; l seed him p
and Selling the arm that, with hand
clenched, hung by her, she told him
the story of her husbands crime and
her misery.
When she had done he stood still,
his hands clenched, his head dropping.
Suddenly he turned, and lifting her
up in his arms, held her to his heart as
he had done when, as motherless
child, she had come to him for comfort
in her childish trials.
"Bessie, my darling, We are donerigh
in telling me. l can die happy when l
know why die., No, my dear, you've
not TO fret; it is you I'm thinking for,
not Kit. God III have to think for him.
It's yo, darling-you'll find it hard to
hold your tongue, but you must, dear.
Pm your fayther, and God has given me
right toconmand my child. My com.
mand is t'yo goa back to Kit, and help
the Lord to make him better man. l
hadn't many years to live, Bessie. It's
not much whether go this year or five
wears later and / allow ] won't be
hardly judged in the other world for
what I'm doing now"
Kit was sitting at the table writing
when she got out of bed. She went
over to him and put her arms around
him. He looked up in her face.
God knows what he saw there per.
haps the shadow of her doom or his.
Whatever it was, it made him lay his
head upon the table, and sob in the
very bitterness of mans despairing
passion.
Bessie did not try to comfort him.
She had her work to do. Kit sobbed
on then, turning, he came over to his
wife and laid his hand on her shoulder.
"You are right, Bessie; only you are
not to do it. I'll do it myself"
And he left her.
Bessie ran after hinl-he was gone.
Rushing back to her room, she began
dressing; life and death depended upon
it-ay, indeed, lite and death; for even
as she hurried down stairs, a crowd
came to the door-a crowd with white,
frightened faces-bearing in their midst
q body!
Kit had shot himself. The paper he
had been writing when Bessie gave him
her last kiss was full confession of the
crime.
Harry Walters was released, but never
showed his face in Lulworth. When
Bessie was able to move they emigrated,
and no tidings of them, veal or wo, have
ever reached their old home.
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