Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-07-12

A Dark Nights Work.

BY FLORENCE M'LANDBURGH. 4
's,Didn't you hear it?"
sWhen?o
aJust now"
"No."
'They say it foretells death. Hush
The two men sat motionless. Not a
sound broke the silence, not even q
creak of the old boards in the floor, no1
3 sigh of the wind, nor Tapping shut
ter
"They say it foretells DEATH I heard
It last night and the night before
What's that?"
Nothing. It's stiller than grave
yari.'
st heard it last night and the night
before about this time, near o1e. II
isn't a very pleasant sound, and this
old garret's dismal enough, any way
Monk, you're afeared. It's moth
ing. Don't waste no more time. I'm
dead tired and sleepy. You wouldn't
have been in this old hole now if it had
not been for Peters,"
''No, if it had not been for Peters,
the strike, like enough, would have
took. But he won't stand in nobody g
way again
While Monk spoke, he drew out a
long, slender knife, and ran his finger
along the blade.
81 tell you, Shifet, we must do it the
night after the blasts done, and the
men in the shed say the coal will run
ont on the 9Th; that's tomorrow.
When Peters is fixed, the manager will
TO he
furnace"
Both men sat with their arms leaning
upon the table, and the Pickering light
Of the tallow candle between them
showed two faces, rough, begrimed by
smoke and SCOT, and disfgured by evl
passions, that grew fercer as they
calmly plotted against the life of a fel
low being.
"We1l meet at one, where the roads
cross. It'll be quiet then, and Peters
house is alone"
It'll be all right" said Shifet, with
grin that rendered his brute-like coun.
tenance doubly repulsive. "I'm con.
founded tired Bring your candle, and
light me down them internal stairs"
The men stood up. Monk, small and
slim, was dwarfed by the almost giant
stature of his companion. With a few
parting words as to secrecy and silence,
they separated.
Monk stood on the upper step until
Shifet disappeared. then closed the
door and replaced the candle on the
table.
The room, neither large nor small
was mere hole, smoked, dirty and
upholstered, high up in frame tene-
ment house. Two or three chairs, an
old chest Of drawers, a rickety bedstead
and pine table, composed its furniture.
Some old boots and broken pieces of
pig iron lay scattered about. The small
box-shaped window was set just below
where the ceiling or roof sloped to the
stairs that went down two, three flights
10 the ground. There were many such
places in Agatha, where the furnace
hands lived.
Monk walked rapidly up and down
the room, as if making an effort to
wear off the excitement that the last
few moments had brought upon him.
His features had lost much of the
malignant expression, which was by no
means habitual. His countenance was
impress of crime like Shifet's, who
had just parted with him at the door
q countenance in which every trace
of conscience had long been erased.
Monk face was neither good nor bad,
neither bright nor dull; but he was a
man easily wrought into a passion,
governed by impulse.
Crossing to the table, he slung his
coat over chair, and stretched out his
hand to extinguish the light Midway
in the action he suddenly checked him
self, looked hurriedly around the room
for an instant, and stood motionless,
with inclined head, listening intently.
Not a sound disturbed the stiffness.
Pinching out the light, he threw him.
self on the bed, and In the darkness
there soon came the heavy regular
respiration of sleep.
The houses of Agatha nestled under
the north cliff. A hundred feet above
them the railroad lost itself III the black
mouth OF tunnel, and reappeared be-
yond q high wall Of trestle-Work stretch.
ing southwark down the valley to Ely's
Mines. Hours ago the toiling men and
cattle had laid down to rest. and now
the wild, and rocky hills around silent in
the moonlight. No sound broke upon
the stiffness but the muffled puff, puff
of the furnace, and murmur of frogs
that rose and fell interruptedly along
the shrunken water-course. The cabins
under the cliff shone white and sharp
the iron on the metal switch flashed with
million gems the rails upon thetrestlt
receding, turned to silver, and the foil
age of early summer glittered on the
trees. A few passionless stars blinket
feebly in the yellow light, where To-:
hill tons crlt AGAINST the skx and sanl