Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-07-29

NAN AHAADAo WIN WHICH VIC AAtA ~
grown so familiar, said the doctor
to whom she reported. Return
my child, or it may be too late"
| came to work and cannot turn
back. l came under no blind i'm
pulse. Show me the suffering; tell
me what to do, and let me so TO
work, replied Mary.
The weary doctors drew fresh
courage from her enthusiasm, and
the news Of her coming reached the
fevered sufferers like a cool breeze
from the Northern hills.
She went out on her mission of
mercy; and dying men turned on
their cots to bless her, and mothers,
with the death-damp on their brows,
consigned to her care the little ones
so soon to be orphans.
Captain Parker, who came from
Mobile to help US is stricken down.
Can Miss Bent take charge of his
case ?" asked one of the doctors,
after Mary had been working ten
days without rest.
Certainly, doctor -? l have a good
corps of nurses organized. Give me
the Captains address, said Mary.
Wherever the fever seizes its vic
tim there they lay. Houses became
common property; the rich often
dying in novels and tents and the
poor in splendid mansions.
Captain Parker was stricken down
in an old frame house, not far from
the depot The other occupants of
the house had died or convalesced
and he was alone.
Mary Bent found him on mattress
in the corner of room, few wood
en- chairs being the only furniture.
He was a fine-looking man of
thirty, with face that must have
beamed with noble generosity before
the fever flushed and distorted it,
and dark eyes that still retained
their intelligent expression, despite
the fatal lustre that lit them up.
He was evidently surprised to see
beautiful girl entering the wretch
ed apartment; and the low, musical
voice in which she addressed him,
with her soft palm resting on his
forehead, banished for the moment
his feeling of torture and his keen
appreciation Of the danger to which
she was exposed.
"You should not be here Miss
Bent-there are others who should
face the danger said the Captain.
"There are none whose lives are
not as precious to them, as mine is
to me. Keep a good heart, dear
Captain. You are young and strong,
and shall have a good nursing" she
said, with forced cheerfulness.
She brought in a bed and other
furniture, got such supplies of ice
and medicine as were needed, and
transformed the room as if fairy
wand had touched it
There are human birds of prey
that fatten on the affection of their
race-robbers on the battlefield a.
night, and ghouls that plumber the
dead where plague and famine rule
Memphis, with all its heroism, was
not without them; fierce creatures,
whose habtations no one could tell,
who prowled out at night and kept
in the shadows, while they searched
and plundered, and disappeared; no
one could tell how or where.
One night. when Captain Parker
lay unconscious, his eyes closed and
his breath futtering in the uncertain
scale of life and death, Mary, who
was sitting beside him, with her
back tothe door, heard a heavy step
on the creaking stairs.
She turned her head and seeing
nothing she placed her fingers again
on the Captains wrist and watched
his face.
On a table between her and the
door lay the Captains gold watch
and some articles of jewelry of her
own that she had taken off. The
door opened noiselessly, and huge
form, with a SLOUGH hat and a bearded
face came in. In one hand he car
ried knife, and the other was ex-
tended to seize the booty on which
his red eyes were fastened.