The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-02-01

my don't you say, Where's King?n
''Well, where's King?'
Gould you bear to see him ?"
"COlGd see him ?p
ayes, by being quiet"
''Is he here ?n
'rYes."
'In Montana >"
Certainly. Is there anything strange
about that?'
''How do I look ?''
The schooImate of the long ago, now
known as Mrs. Boyle, laughed heartily.
'I guess you're getting WE'LL" she
said, with chuckle. "But you're lovely.
You couldn't look better"
'Bring me a mirror"
''No, 1 shan't. You are pale, pink,
pretty, and Interesting. Your hair was
sacrificed to the fever god, but the stubs
of it curl in eoquettish rings; and your
eyes-Oh, Martha, never saw you look
half so pretty"
"Tell King to'come in."
It was but a moment till the long-lOst
loved one stood beside her.
"Marthar'
"King'
Reader, look the other way. That
greeting is not for your eyes or mine.
Martha grew rapidly better. By de-
grees she learned that her brother, Col
onel Augustus Marblehead, accompa-
MED by his brown-eyed wife, had, at her
instigation, gone to Washington in
search of King, and had laid before him
the entire plot overheard by himself,
revealing the conspiracy by which the
old-time suitor to Martha's hand had
been indirectly robbed of his property
by the same party who had robbed him
OF his wife.
Colonel Marblehead had acted in the
matter reluctantly at first, but finally
with all his heart enlisted in the en-
deavor to redress the wrongs of his sis
ter, he had ferreted the nefarious
schemes of Jones and johnson so fully
out that the latter, having never been
the legal husband of the defrauded
woman, was compelled to flee from the
clutches of the law and hide himself
somewhere in an adjoining realm. But
Judge Jones stood his ground, and hav-
| ing the power in his own hands, came
of victorious.
As soon as Kingston Greensborough
heard that Martha was free, he had
made haste to seek her. Strange he
had not learned it earlier, but Jones had
taken good care that he should be kept
in ignorance
All this was past now; and though
the locks of both were hecked here and
there with white, and each had face
furrows, born of care and disappoint-
ment, yet the future lay before them,
and each was calmly, sublimely happy.
"But I must have my children, King,
else we must part again. said Martha.
81 cannot forego my moral obligation
to them because the laws Of men have
taken them from me. There is higher
law than mans that rules woman"
81 have already provided for that, my
dear. Your children are, by this time,
in Washington, with their grandmother
Marblehead"
so, King! And can't I see them ?''
''Yes, when it gets well enough to
make the journey, and will go as some
body's own little wife" was the ten
derly playful answer.
"But why were they not kept here
till was able to see them ?"
"For the best of reasons, my sweet.
They were poorly cared for, as you
know. Jones was determined to keep
them away from you, as under the law
he had the power to do, so lie sent them
away"
"Over the plains ?''
''Yes."
''In the stage ?'
Eyes"
''In whose care ?n
zone of the women's who's been sweet
on him."
zone of those hussies saw when I
came here ?'
She was growing wild again, but
Kings caressing kindness soothed her.
"Yes, my sweet. She wasn't wholly
bad. The children are well provided for"
"But must be near them"
"Then get WELL"
$50 1 will, now you've come. But,
King, never meant to get well. /
meant to fight snd bIaspheme and be a
demon and die. You have saved me-"
Another proof of the retributive and
rewarding forces Of nature, my dear.
Losing me, you well-nigh lost yourself,
and finding me, you gain yourself
again. Isn't that it?"
"Yes; I have saved myself, and I
would fain believe the same process
saves you, too" she answered, reaching
up her thin and faded hand and touch
ing his forehead with a hesitating ca
ress, as maiden might.
"The doctor says you are not to be left
together another minuteu1 cried Mrs.
Boyle, entering the room with as much
preliminary noise as possible. 'The
talk and excitement will bring on the
brain trouble again If we don't clear my
= lady's chamber of all rubbish"
; 'Did you once think King was rub
bish, sAIollie ?n asked Martha, smiling.
"You see, the old wound has lost its
sting, Mr.. Greensborough. L was fool
= 4