The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-10-11

glide up; SO Bessie lay under the lee Oh tne
schooner, watching, with clenched teeth'
two men. struggling for life or death, come
to the bulwarks just over the boat She
could hear their painting breath, then pls-
tol-ShOt and then body was hurled over
the side. Clutching desperately at the
slippery wood, grasping at the last moment
a loose rope, he swung down almost touch
| ing the young girl.
At first she was too busy to notice his
! face but when the bandage was tied which
she furnished, she looked at him and saw
his lips moving, though his voice was too
faint to be heard over the noise OF the fight
and roar of breaking waves. Her ear al
most touched his lips before she caught the
words
''ETide me, hide me, and let me die in
peace -
For moment Bessie stood staring at the
black rocks and thinking; then a light
crossed her eyes, and she said to herself:
eve mays well risk it. May be there's
no other boat about, and he's too handsome
a young chap to be hanged. Cargo maun
look after himself, 1 allow
EACllcIlcuI IcHG CAlId W
arms. Shooting through the Durcle arch
way, she ran the boat into the beach just
| in the quiet little nook behind the "Door,"
where the projecting rocks made perfect
haven, dragging the boat up as far as she
could.
! The man was moaning now with pain,
but as she couldn't lift him out, the only
alternative was to make him shift for him
self.
You'll hev to land, young man. allow
it's difficult, but yo' maun do it. Theirs a
cave here yo' can lie in till the cutters men
and soldiers are out of the way"
For answer he got up and scrambled,
with many groans, out of the boat, dropping
upon the shingle.
YOU'RE a good lass, and if you're as
pretty you're voice is sweet, I'll have the
best of it hiding away here"
Gwen see about that, my man. Yo're
all tarred with the same stick. The moor
a woman does for man the moor she'll
hev to do. The ferst sarcy word yo' says
to l, my fayther he cooms TO nus yo'. So
yo' best keep a civil tongue"
The natural result of this nursing was
that Kitty lost her heart Pity is, we know,
near akin to love {; and SO it was.
By some means or other, the revenue
officer left to keep lookout at Lulworth
began to get some inkling of the truth, and
one day, meeting Bessie, he questioned her
rather closely as to her friend. But she
was too sharp to tell anything, and the
name he went by Kit Roberts, could give
no clue to his antecedentS. That night,
however, the officer came across Kit linn
self, and began chatting him about Bessie
Boasting little loudly of his knowledge
about domestic matters, there was a row.
The officer threatened-Kit retaliated.-
Then some of the older men stepped in and
separated them before blows had actually
been struck. Henry Walters, however,
had come in time to hear his daughter s
name banded about, and it being Christ
mas eve, the old man was not perfectly
sober. So he gave the officer bit of his
mind and, warming with the subject, end
ed by threatening to pitch him over the
cliff if he ever said a word against Bessie
again. Then Kit, who had been standing
by, got the old man away, and for few
hours the latter was at rest.
Next morning Bessie started for East
Lulworth to attend high mass. Returning,
she went down the long, steep path leading
to the ruined chapel of Binden. Suddenly
she stopped. Surely that was Kit walking
along the cliffs-yes, going slowly, as if
watching or waiting Then he stood still,
crouching down. There, within a hundred
yards, wrapped in a night cloak and hood
to keep off the keen east wind, stood the
revenue officer, watching with his glass a
passing vessel. Behind him, creeping like
a panther down the steep cliff, was Kit
Roberts
A thousand sparks seemed to be flashing
before Bessie's eyes. Her lips opened, she
tried to scream, but her voice was gone
she endeavored to start forward, but her
knees gave way, and falling, she lay still !;
yet, impelled by the horrible attraction of
murder, she watched her lover-he who in
few weeks was to be her husband-delib-
erately steal upon the officer, and with a
sudden spring and blow, with his hands
outstretched, strike him over the cliff. She
heard the murdered man's death-yell, but
no more. A cold hand seemed laid upon
her heart, and all her senses left her.
When she recovered consciousness Kit
was sitting by her. His face was white
and terrible expression of fear and anger
glared out of his blood-shot eyes.
''How did you come here ?" he asked,
making no attempt to raise Bessie up or
excuse himself.
AS Bessie told him his face grew wilder.
Springing up, he dragged her up too, al
most crushing her wrists as he did SO.
There's only one of two things that
will silence you, and by heaven you shall
accept the alternative-either follow him