The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-06-27

On fair Kirkconnel leu.
Mr.. Eyre's indomitable will had en-
abled him to preserve a calm demeanOr
that day; but il was characteristic of
him that he did not pause a moment by
Madcap's grave, but turning aside, and
with no word or look to those who had
come from so far to do her honor, walk
ed alone to his house, and ascending to
his wife's room, shut himself in, and
locked the door.
The glance that he threw around,
spoke of reason on the very verge of
overthrow; yet it was with the fixed
resolve to grapple with, and master
something in his brain which forever
eluded him, that he advanced to cabi-
net that stood on one side of the room.
1t was remarkable neither for its use-
fulness nor its beauty, but as Mr.. Eyre
touched it, distinct impression of some
recent experience connected with it,
fixed his attentions; and as an ordinary
weapon may become unique through
some especial use to which it has been
put, so Mr.. Eyre found curious fasci-
nation in thing that he had seen every
day for six years of his life, without
once consciously observing it.
His fingers wandered over it and
secured to pause without his will at a
certain handle. Strange! he could have
sworn that not long ago he had opened
that very drawer, either to seek some
thing that was there, or to lay it away.
Mechanically he drew it toward him,
and saw that it was empty.
The cabinet stood back from the
light; but as he remained, with his eyes
fixed on the open drawer, he saw that
dark red stain crossed it Obliquely-it
hn nj of
He pressed one clinched hand to his
brow. Surely he had got the clew now
that he had lost during the stupor in
which he had two days lain-but no; it
had escaped him before that, for even
as he stanched the blood that flowed
from Madcap's side on that fatal night,
his mind had been projecting itself
backward in q futile effort to remem-
Der something similar that had happen
ed previously. Even Madcap herself
impressed him with strong sense of
unhealthy quite distinct from dreaming,
or rather it was like being reminded of
dream that he had forgotten, till the
actual presentiment of it brought all its
details to his mind.
Step by step he forced himself to fol-
low the events of that evening, remem-
bered leaving Frank and Madcap in the
drawing-room, and sitting down to his
writing. over which, though his brain
had never been clearer, he must have
been overcome by one of those sudden
fits of sleep that sometimes followed
any severe excitement to which he had
been subjected, and from this sleep he
had been wakened by the shrek above
that had caused him hastily to ascend
the spiral staircase that led from his
nd 70 Io ho1
found Madcap alone and unconscious,
seated in chair drawn close to the
open window.
But beyond and beneath these dis
tinct memories, he was conscious of an
abyss whose brink he approached with
strong shudderings, yet fiercer will, but
from which he found himself, as by
some unknown force, dragged back at
the very moment when he was on the
point of piercing its depths-strange
lightnings passed through his mind, re-
vealing hidden places, yet never that
one sealed chamber which was locked
against him; moving chaos of half
seen visions and strangled recollections
contended in him for recognition, while,
driven with fury from opposite points
OF the compass, q crowd of ideas met
and jostled each other in his brain,
stunning him with the roar and con-
fusion OF tempest. lie had dared to
pluck the curtain from the Utmost re-
oesses of his soul, and what did they
give back to him in answer Confused
echoes, uncertain replies, like face
guessed at in troubled waters.
AS worn out with fasting and agony,
he covered his eyes, slowly from the
background of night black as pitch,
fhntrnht ao
its raiment and its hands. Above its
hollow eyes there cleaned a star, and
that too was of blood color, and he re-
cognized it for the spirit of murder, and
knew that the hand hidden in its breast
clutched weapon; he glanced aside,
and there, pale and dimly illumined by
the fame that glowed from her. crouch