The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-03-13
Hugh'S Vendetta.

Hugh'S Vendetta.
A Story i'm Four hapters.
By CHRISTIAN REID. IL
AUTHOR OF VALERIE AYLMER," "MoRToN HOUSE,
''HABEL LEE" Erc., ETC.
80 CHAPTER III.
tContinued-l
She listened with sickening heart;
and, though her ears were not trained
like his, she thought she could family
catch a dull and mufled sound,
which told of the vigorous stroke OF
many arms. Once more she heard
him urging her to come away, but
she only shook her head. No earth
ly power could have forced her from
the spot where Hugh was buried
alive, and yet deaaI There are some
things SO horrible that the magma
ton refuses to grasp them. This
was one of them to Margaret. Though
she sat flor her trembling limbs re-
fused to support her, and Mr.. Beres
ford placed her on stone not far
away, like pale image of despair,
breathing the free air of heaven while
he was. shut from it In the black
depths of earth, she could not realize
the awful horror pressing on her.
They came, AMI went, and talked,
around her, as men do under stress
of great excitement; but she did not
heed them. She was trying to wrest
her mind from the upper world and
take it into his dark prison; but it
aoOul9 not go. 1t reeled on the very
brink of unconsciousness when she
tried to picture him gasping, dying
so near her, yet, o Heaven! SO far
away.
She felt as If it had been hours that
she had sat there, frozen into stony
stiffness by the very magnitude of the
anguish, yet keenly alive to every
sound that bore relation to him,
when a faint cheer from the men be-
!
low that is, a cheer which sounded
faint to those above) announced that
they had reached the victims of the
accident. In a second, Margaret
sprang to her feet; but IN second,
also, strong hand held her back.
''Waitl" said familiar voice.
.cNot yet"
She turned, not in surprise-at
such moments people are rarely sur
prised at any thing-but with sense
of blind trust, strange indeed in q
woman usually so self-reiant as Mar
garet Churchill Looking mp into
the dark eyes bent upon her-eyes
full of passionate pity and passionate
love-her agony for the first time
broke forth into words.
'Do yOu go, then" she said. 81
can trust you to tel me if Hugh is"
Her white lips could not utter the
word "dead." 1t seemed such an
awful and such an unreal word to
connect with Hugh's proud life and
strength. "Then you viii save him
if you can?" she went on, with trem-
bling eagerness, go Mr.. Tyrrelll
you are so brave and kind-win you
not try to save him? Surely, you are
better able than they-those men
yonder; surely you can if you will"
"God knows how willingly I would
if Icould," Tyrren said. 'cBut those
men yonder understand such matters
and they have done all that human
efforts can do"
"But you are wiser than they" she
persisted, feverishly. 'FYou think I
am childish to talk like this, but ]
feel-I know-that God has sent you
to help and to save him. Am 1 mad!
I don't know. But say you will try
oh, say you viii try!
81 s0iU try" he answered, carried
away by her appeal, yet knowing that
there was. nothing for him to do
81 swear to you that, if an opportu-
nifty arises, 1 will hold my own life
for nothing in comparison with his
But will you promise me to stay here
if I go?T
81 promise" she said, and she sal
down again on the seat from which
she had risen.
When Margaret Churchill said q
promise" he must have been blind
= and deaf indeed who did not trust
I her-even at such supreme mo
ment as this. Tyrren did, fully and
entirely. He gave one glance at hel
face-rigid with an awful look of de
spair-then went his way without an
other word.
They were bringing out the victims
one by one when he reached the
opening of the shaft. A terrible
sight it was-with the fearful wall O
women rising now and then as hus
band or a son WAS recognized
Most of them were dead. A few
, who had been farther advanced il
f front, had escaped the heavy fell o
the Unsupported earth, and still show
ed signs of life. Half hoping, ye
half apprehensive, Tyrrell looked ovel
. the unconscious faces, but Hugh wa
not there. AS he looked, Mr. Beres
: ford approached.
: 'No signs of Churchill yet" h
said. "He must certainly have beel
one of the farthest in the mine"
'That gives hopes for his safety
doesn't it,"