The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-02-01
THE WARDER'S DAUGHTER.

Mar1on Hyde was cripple, Dut 1of al
that she was beautiful. Her father was
warder in prison. Among the prison
ers was one at the registering of whose
name at his entrance Marion had been
present, and something in his youthful
though sullen face attracted her pitiful
glance. He had stolen repeatedly from
his benefactor, and finally had admitted
into the house in the nighttime gang of
burglars, who had secured considerable
booty and made off with it in safety, save
one, after severely pounding the propri-
etor OF the house. This one who was not
able to escape betrayed the completely of
the young man in the affair. He was
tried, convicted and sentenced.
There was no redeeming feature ap-
parently to the story, but somehow that
ia ,e haunted the girls gentle thoughts
Perhaps it was because she had a young
brother who was wild lad, wandering
Just now in disgrace, no one knew whlth-
er, and all the more tenderly loved by
Marion because of his sad ways.
One Cay as she leaned on the window
sill, looking with o wistful sadness into
the yard at the prisoners, one OF them
looked up, and, changed as he was in
every wan, thin feature, she knew again
the black, sunen eyes that yet We're
somehow like an angry, obstinate childs.
Her glance followed him as though
fascinated, and as he passed from sight
she sighed softly and went in to look at
the prison record for the poor lads
name.
II ,,,oo VIVIAN p,ostap
The next she knew of him he was IN
the sick ward.
For few weeks she saw him there,
but the gloomy eyes never softened, only
gazed straight before them from their
hollow sockets, or hid themselves obsti-
ma ely behind their wasted lids.
He never spoke, he scarcely ate; and
the prison physician told Marion that he
was dying of sheer inanition.
cit is my opinion he's trying to starve
himself to death, he said.
Marion drew near the sick lad.
She bent over him and spoke with gen
tie frmness.
But she might as well have talked to
the blank wall, for all sign he gave OF
having heard her.
Marion left the ward with shocked
and anxious face.
''Let me know if there is any change,
or you think of anything that can do, ~
she then said to the doctor.
But at dusk the doctor was called away
by serious illness in his own family, and
near midnight the assistant, going his
rounds, found Aymer Preston dead IN
bed.
"It's either make believe or heart
break" DR.. Pu+ney said, sharply, when
word was brought him, and he ordered
that Preston's boy should be kept wrap
ped in blankets and not removed till he
saw it.
The order was obeyed, but when three
days saw no change in the form, DR..
Putney having meanwhile examined it.,
it was removed to the dssecting-room.
Marion Hyde's window commanded a
view of this mysterious and horror IN
spring apartment. AS she stood at her
window that night she thought, with q
vague thrill of pain, of the one cold, still
tenant of that terrible room.
She was not timid, superstitious
creature, nor by any means given to
nervousness; SO when she saw the VIM
dow Of the Gssectng- room slowly lifted,
and gaunt, wild face appear at the
opening, instead of screaming or run-
ming away, she stood still. She knew
that her heart was throbbing wildly, but
she knew also that it was no phantom she
looked upon. Doctor Putney had been
right all the time. Aymer Preston was
not dead, and thus he was making one
wild effort for liberty. Marion Hyde
stood and watched him.
She could not have called out just then
if he had been the most desperate and
hardened criminal within those walls.
Besides, the poor wretch was only mock
ing himself. He could not escape even
now unless by miracle. She saw him
stop presently beside a window, which
opened into an upper hall, and after a
long effort raise it and slowly drag him
self through.
Obeying an impulse which she could
not at the moment control, Marion softly
opened her door and passed out without
her crutch for fear of the noise. She
reached the hall just as this poor wasted
creature, after brief rest, was urging
his half paralyzed limbs to renewed
effort. At the sight of her he gasped
and dropped III a swooD, and Marion
hurried to his side. She dared not leave
him, SO she waited, rubbing his cold
hands between her tender palms, till he
at last opened his eyes and she made