The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-04-20

Jacks dressing room and sees hi
things hanging before the fire il
readiness for him, his slippers warm
ing on the hearthrug-the slipper
she worked with her own hands il
the happy days when she was frs
married. At sight of these inani
mate things she breaks into tenn
pest of fearless sobs, Jack Jack
my darling! my darling"
She is wild with fear and grief
Poor Dolly! in all the days to com,
she can never have such happines.
as the few short years Of her wed
ded life. And as she waits and list
ems and watches, while every heart
beat is bringing the time nearer, sh,
does not know that what she is suf
tering now, the almost uncomfortable
suspense, will, in the after days
seem as nothing compared to that
greater other suffering that is to
come.
Jack, riding slowly home in the
creeping, lengthening shadows Of
the evening, little dreaming that
this is his last day on earth He
has had good sport, and in the
pleasures Of the moment had al
most forgotten his troubles; but
now, moving slowly toward home
with a friend, it all comes back to
him again, and he talks it over with
a certain quiet vehemence.
DIR. Ryan, jogging along beside
him, thanks his stars that he doesn't
own rod of land-that he is in no.
wise dependent on the vagaries of a
misguided peasantry or misguiding
agitators.
Cheer up, Captain Trevorl he
says heartily. "All this will blow
over when some strong measures are
taken.n
Il hope so,o Jack re;oins. This
is my road, and | must get on now,
or the wife will be anxious so,
good night, Doctor"
Good night" and DR.. Ryan is
the last who secs Jack Trevor alive.
All unconscious of danger, he is
riding home at trot, for the horse
is tired after the long run, and Jack
goes slowly on the grass near the
hedge. smoking a cigar and think
ing of many things. He thinks of
the run to-day, of the friends he
met, of Dolly, and at thought of her
he mends his pace a little and push
es on. The twilight has given place
to a pale moonlight, that looks
ghostly enough across the meadows.
1t is a lonely road, high banks on
either side, and slowly, slowly comes
Jack, the horses feet making no
sound on the grass, the riders strong
figure showing dark and well de
fined against the clear sky.
It's all over in a second. Two
shots, one after>the other.
My Godw cries poor old Jack,
and swings forward. The horse
rears and plunges, and his rider falls
headlong to the ground, stone-dead,
without a moan or a wall, after that
one cry to his God.
In the pale moonlight two men
fly across the fields. jacks horse
gallops away up the road he lies
there Oh his face, shot down, murder
ed, within half a mile of his own
gates
So they find him lying in the
moons rays, cold and dead, fiat on
his face in the grass. Tomorrow it
will be in all the papers; Another
landlord murdered r Then a nine
days talk, and then It win be for
gotten by all bat one.
Reverentlv they carry him in at
his own gates and up the avenue he
had ridden down in health and
strength only this morning. There
he lies, cold and liteless, in his red
coat, his poor face upturned to the
heaven that is more merciful than
man, carried home TO his wife.
Yes, carried home to his wife and
laid at her feet in the lighted hall
where she stands waiting fer her
husband.
leave me with him =
1t is all she says, and so he is laid
ON his own bed, and one by one
they go softly out of the room and
shut tn : door and leave her alone
alone with her dead.