The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-03


with your brother, and who'll keep
house for me2' and the strong man
wept like a child.
"Josiah Carson, my tried and true
friend, be comforted. will not forsake
your helpless family" cried the agi-
tated woman. 4 promised Alba that
would not. Do you think would break
my faith witlrthe departed?"
EtBut your brother-p(
''Has no legal claim upon me. Alas,
do not know that he will. ever ac-
knowledge me as his sister,"
Several days passed, and Augusta
heard nothing more from the Major.
In the meantime, letter came to him,
bearing, under cover of his own address,
a San Francisco postmark, and ad-
dressed to Lady Augusta Lindsey Dun
barton.
The Major rubbed his eyes.
"Am dreaming ?'' he asked himself,
audibIy.
His own letter read as follows:
DEAR SIR:-I have just learned, through
note from gentleman signing himself Cap
tain Mason, Harbor Commissioner that you,
the brother of one whom loved and have long
mourned as dead, are residing in Eagle Cove,
as some sort of Director in great railroad
enterprise. I inclose letter, which beg you
to forward at once TO your sister, Lady Dunbar
ton. I have just learned, through Captain
Mason's note, that she survived the wreck OF
LII 7
abouts. My late unhappy wife was inferred in
a secluded spot in Lone Mountain a few days
since. She died bitterly bewailing the injus-
tice of a bargain that our parents had made in
our childhood, by which lands, broad and
rich, had been united, and hearts, wounded to
the death, had been separated. wronged your
sister, but, before God, I did not mean 10 do it.
My wife was hopelessly dead to me. 1 sup
posed her incurably insane, but when
thought everything was secure, she escaped
and pursued me. know you loved her in her
golden youth, Stanley Lindsey. Drop tear to
her memory now, and help, oh! help me to
find my long-lost dear one, that may make to
her an honorable reparation for the great
wrong that came TO us through onr heaven
born and human-denied affection for each
other.
"Forgive me if I have caused you trouble.
God knows was never the willing instrument
of your anxiety. If human laws were made in
unison with the laws OF God, we should have
fewer wrecked lives-but will not stop to
moralize. In Gods name, 1 beseech you to di-
rect me to my souls BRIDE"
"Cm8e him." muttered the Major,
between his clenched teeth, as he
crushed the unfinished letter in his
hand, and started for Augusta's home.
But his anger cooled as he walked,
and conscience whispered:
'tHave mercy upon him. You will
only make bad worse by such actions.
Let him who is without sin do the ours
ing. Go and comfort your sister. The
law does not longer interpose between
her and her child's honor. Be true
man, and you may meet your loved one
in the land of souls"
Augusta's letter was too sacred for any
eyes but hers.
"Write to him, Stanley" she said,
quietly, after long communion with
herself. "Tell him to come out here
and become my husband according to
American laws, and then he can atone
for the misdeeds of the past. Tell him
of the vow made to be a mother to
Alba Carson's children, and let him
know that my own individuality will
never be surrendered, even for the graf
ification of love I'd die for forgive
him. Let the world form its own con-
clusions."
"But I can't forgive him, Gussie."
| "You must. He did one very wicked
deed, and that was when he married me,
not informing me of Lady Dunbarton's
| existence. But the first wrong brought
on all the others. Parents must learn bet
ter than to sell their children in the
, matrimonial market like sheep in
; shambles.n
Great was the excitement in Eagle
, Cove when Lord Dunbarton came and
married the pretty shop-keeper of other
days, and present keeper Of Josiah Car
sons children. Had they known the
, whole truth, revealed to you in these
pages, reader, the excitement would
have been greater still.
Lord Dunbarton sold his English es-
tates, after having successfully searched
Coney's Cliff for the missing papers
} which old man Stanley, great-uncle Of
: the Major and his sister, crazy with the
delirium of smallpox, had hidden away
in a cave, and thereby proved his
undisputed right to them. Then he
E dropped the title he had borne SC
proudly, but which had brought him
) so little happiness, and becoming
, "Myrick Dunbarton, ESQ.," turned
his attention to gigantic business en-.
D terprises that soon stamped him as one
/ of the most successful men upon the
f Pacific border.
An elegant mansion now occupies the
! grounds where Alba Carson spent hel
earlier years, and troops of happy chill.
= dren make the air ring with merriment
? Everybody wonders why Major Lindsey
and Josiah Carson remain unmarried
{ since they are so rich and prosperous
but their curiosity is not to be satisfied
! and so there yet remains this much O
current mystery concerning the two
most prominent men in Eagle Cove