Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-03-07

|
ter give yourself up at once.
| Then she waited. The dark figure
crouched still closer behind the old
carriage, and there was no answer.
Il shall find you, sir; l know every
corner" She gave warning; then,
with arms stretched out before her,
commenced the search. In and out
| among the barrels and boxes she went
in the utter blackness, calling out mer-
rily now and then that she would find
him and punish him for giving her SO
much trouble. Once she almost
touched the shrinking figure; but it
held its breath, and she passed on.
1t was weird game of hide-and-
seek: the dark figure with the ugly
face covering among the wheels, lis
tening with strange kind of savage
| fear to the light footsteps that sounded
now here, now there; he heard them
climb the ladder and patter about in
the loft overhead, then come down
again, and the voice-not 50 merry now
repeat her assurance of finding the
truant, and sudden desire entered his
brain to spring upon her and choke
her. 1t would not be the first time he
had done such deed, but her perfect
audacity seemed to paraiyze him, and
again she passed him all unconscious.
He saw her pause in the doorway,
dimly outlined against the sky, and
then disappeared down the path.
"Ef she amt the Quickest un" he
growled, as he crept from behind the
carriage. Hanged eff she amt a
ghost or suthin." And with this
peculiar comment on Mrs. Cuthbert's
bravery, he shook himself and made
his way out Of the barn with side
long gait, as if he was used to stink
ing in and out of places.
Mrs. Cuthbert meanwhile sped on
to the house, her steps FASTENED by
the idea that her husband might be
there-perhaps he had slipped out of
the barn while she was up in the loft,
or perhaps he had not gone into the
barn at all.
| Alas for her hopes. The sitting
room was empty, and just as she had
left it.
Not despairing yet, she snatched up
the lamp, and determined to search
the house. From room to room she
went, calling upon George. and look
ing into every closet and behind and
under every article of furniture, but
not a glimpse Of her husband glad
dened her eyes, and at last she sat
down by the baby's cradle and burst
INTO tears.
"Oh, how can he be so cruel" she
| sobbed, land for such little thing.
lie might have known ! was only in
fun; but maybe he's only in fun him
self, and will come in soon."
Cheered by this last reflection, she
trotted briskly downstairs, stirred the
IRE into blaze, and stood watching
1t, too iidgety to settle to her sewing
again. The wood famed noisily, then
glowed a silent red, then crumbled
and fell, an untidy, dreary mass of
whltened ashes and dying embers,
and still her husband did not come.
The clock struck nine, and Mrs.
Cuthbert looked at it reproachfully,
us IT ii was the time-pece'S fault that
II was so late. Where lGdS her h as
band? Perhaps he was wandering
about in the dark, unable to find the
house. Why hadn't she thought of
that before? She would put Il lamp
In every room.
And in few minutes lights were
twinkling from all the windows, Civ
ing the little cottage quite gay and
festive air. Who could have guessed
that a lonely woman and a sleeping
child were its sole occupants? Not
the dark figure with the ugly face.
doubled up under the lilac bushes that
bordered the graye-path.
AS the hours wore on, another dark
figure joined the one of the ugly face.
and was greeted with an oath upon
his laziness, and the information that
something was up" that the first
chance was "spiled,' and they would
have to "lay to Il while" and then
both the dark figures. with many
curse aud shiyer, cUouched together,
hidlng their time
Poor Mrs. Cuthbert, as the night
crept on wandered from window to
window, with the vague feeling that
II she could not see her husband from
one, she might from another. Some
times she stood at the door, listening
mlently, and coniuring every breath
OF wind into the longed-for footsteps,
her heart dying within her at each
fresh disappointment. She must have
walked miles in that small house; the
baby waNed restless, and she was up
many times to replace the coverings
that the sturdy little legs had thrown
oil IN climbing the invisible mountain
that child is always ascending in his