The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-05-08
THE PRISONERS ESCAPE.

MARION HYDE was a cripple, but
lVl for all that she was beautiful. Her
father was warden in the prison. Among
the prisoners 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 repeat
edly from his benefactor, and finally had
admitted into the house i'm the night
time gang of burglars who had secured
considerable booty, and made off with 1t
in safety, save one, after severely pound
ing the proprietor of the house This one,
who was not able to make his escape, be-
trayed the completely of the young man
in the affair, who was tried, convicted,
and sentenced. There was no redeeming
feature, apparently, to the story, but
somehow, that face 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 whittier, and all the more ten
derly loved by Marion, because of his
sad ways. One day, as she leaned on the
window-sill, looking with wistful sad
ness into the yard at the prisoners, one
of them looked, and changed as he was
in every way, thin feature, she knew
again the black, sullen eyes that yet were
somehow like an angry obstinate child's.
Her glance followed him as though fas-
cinated, and as he passed from sight she
sighed softly, and went in to look at the
prison record for the poor lads name.
1t was AymeT Preston. The next she
knew of him he was in the sick ward.
For few weeks she saR him there, but
the gloomy eyes never softened, only
gazed straight before them from their
hollow sockets, or hid themselves obsti-
nately behind their wasted lids, He
never spoke, he scarcely ate, and the
prison physician told Marion that he
was dying from sheer inanition.
" It's my opinion that he's trying to
starve himself to death,'' he said.
Marion drew near the sick bed.
She bent over him and spoke with gen.
tie firmness. But she might as well
have talked to the blank wall, for all
the 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 anything that / can do" she then
said to the doctor.
But at dusk the physician was called
away by a serious illness in his own
family, and near midnight the assistant,
going his rounds, found Aymer Preston
dead in his bed
It's either make-believe or heart
break, !" DIR. Putney said, sharply, when
word was brought him, and he ordered
that Preston's body 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 body, DIR.
Putney having meantime examined it it
was removed to the dissecting 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 a
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 tho window of the dissect-
ing room slowly lifted, and a gaunt, wild
face appear at the opening, instead of
screaming or running away, she stood