The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-04-14
the great black doorway before she

On, you great goose ]" she said
standing on the threshold, don't you
suppose l can find you? You had better
give yourself up at once"
Then she waited. The dark figure
crouched still closer behind the old car
rage, and there was no answer.
81 shall find you, sir l know every
corner" she gave warning then, with
arms stretched out before her, COM
menced the search. In and out among
the barrels and boxes she went in the
utter blackness, calling out merrily now
and then that she would find him and
punish him for giving her so much
trouble. Once she almost passed 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 cow
ering among the wheels, listening with
a strange kind of savage fear to the light
footsteps that sounded now here, now
there heard them climb he the ladder
and patter about in the loft, and come
down again, and the voice-not so merry
now-repeat her assurance of finding
the truant, and a sudden desire entered
his brain to spring upon and choke her
1t would not be the first time ne had
done such a deed, but her perfect
audacity seemed to paralyze him, and
again she passed him all unconscious.
He saw her pause in the doorway, dimly
outlined against the sky, and then dis
appear.
:" Eff she amt the pluckiest Jun l' he
growled, as he crept from behind the car
riage. Hanged eff she amt ghost or
suthin."
And with this peculiar comment on
Mrs. Cuthbert's bravery, he shook him
self and made his way out of the barn
with sidelong gait, as if he was used
to sinking in and out of places.
Mrs. Cuthbert meanwhile sped on to
the house, her steps FASTENED by an
idea that her husband might be there
perhaps he had slipped out of the
/ Ddlh NhilC ehC was III bHC iOib, VI pei
haps 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 looking into
every closet and behind and under every
article of furniture, but not glimpse of
her husband gladdened her eyes, and at
last she sat down by the baby's cradle
and burst into tears.
ooh, how can he be 50 cruell" she
sobbed, "and for such little thing, He
might have known was only in fun; but
maybe he's only in fun himself, and will
come in soon."'
Cheered by this last reflection, she
trotted briskly down stairs, stirred the
fire into blaze, and stood watching it,
too fdgety to settle to her sewing again
The wood famed noisily, then glowed
silent red, then crumbled and fell, an
untidy, dreary mass of whitened ashes
and dying embers, and still her husband
did not come.
The clock struck nine, and Mrs. Cuth-
bert looked at it reproachfully, as if it
was the time-piece's fault that it was so
late. Where was her husband Perhaps
he was wandering about in the dark, I'M
able to find the house. Why hadn't she
thought of that before? She would put
a lamp in every room.
And in few minutes lights were
twinkling from all the windows, giving
the little cottage quite gay and festive
air. Who could have guessed that a
lovely women and sleeping child were
its sole occupants? Not the dark figure
with the ugly face, doubled up under
the lilac bushes that bordered the gravel
walk.
As the hours wore on, another dark
figure joined the one of the ugly face,
and was greeted with an oath on his la
illness, and the information that "some-
thing was up" that the first chance was
"spiled," and they would have to clay
to awhile" and then both dark figures,
with many curse and shiver, crouched
together, biding their time.
Poor Mrs. Cuthbert, as the night crept
on, wandered from window to window,
with the vague feeling that if she could
not see her husband from one she might
from another. Sometimes she stood at
the door, listening intently, and conjur-
ing every breath of wind into the longed-
for footstep, her heart dying within her
at each fresh disappointment. She must
have walked miles in that small house
the baby waxed restless, and she was up
many times to replace the coverings
that the sturdy little legs had thrown
off in climbing the invisible mountain
that child is always ascending in his
sleep.
The clock struck one. How like the
voice of fate it soundedl 1t was not at all
the cheerful thing that, when the sun was
shining, had announced the dinner hour
that day.
A distant dog barked, and Mrs. Cuth-
bert rushed to the door; she had resumed
/ L. l.