The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-02-11

Try bell naQ peYIJWou tne9e 00tleS
for his father, and she now consid.
cred him the persoDi6casiop of man
lly beauty and excellence.
Aud so Jessie dreamed on, and at
last, with the night shadows folding
themselves closely about her, went
SLOWLY down the creaking stairway,
with heavy aching at her heart and
a weary, wistful longing in her brown
eyes.
But bark Up through the wind
ing passage, with the rush of the
damp wind from the street door
came shrill cry of mortal aguny,
and her blood ran cold while her
heart almost stilled its beating as
she listened.
| One, two, three horrid yells rent
the air, mingled with the sound of
falling blows and fierce oaths. The
sounds came from tie overseer's Of
| fee at the foot of the stairs, and
were heard with awful distinctness
above the roar of the storm. Jessie
knew that the last workman had
left fifteen minutes before, and she
was alone-perhaps with murder
er-and whittier than the faces of the
sheeted dead was that of the young
girl as she leaned for support against
the smoky wall.
The cries had ceased, door open
ed and closed, but still she could
hear the thud, thud of the wind
lashed waves, and up from the street
came the sickening stencil of the
rain-soaked debris.
But she must act And with the
thought came renewed strength, and
down the old stairs she went with
flying feet. AT that instant in from
the street came the same awkward
form from which she had turned SO
scornfully five minutes before. How
noble AID manly be looked in the
hour of peril.
"Thank Gnd, you are here, John
Brace |" and then they opened the
office door and went in together.
Only the empty room, vacant and
blank, with the shadows weaving
themselves together in the dim and
dusty corners, and the wind moan
ing its weird anthem through the
narrow passage.
But what is that thing lying in a
mangled heap upon the low lounge
behind the stove? Shapeless almost,
and vet not lifeless, for a human
hand is thrust out and on it is a
great gout of blood.
With pale face, but unshaking
hand, John Brace removed the Gov.
ering and disclosed the CHASTITY dis
figured face OF Thomas Morgan, the
factory overseer. Three great CASH
es across the throat from which the
l:fe-hlood was fast ebbing, and the
marks of heavy blows about the head
were the sole traces of the murder.
Poor little Jessie could endure no
more, and when the curious crowd
cane hurrying in from the street.
they found her lying PROSTATE upon
the floor, and honest John Brace
gazing in dumb horror upen the
scene.
Three weeks had passed, and
the low kitchen window of
the farmhouse under the hill, the af-
ternoon sunlight sbone blithely in,
and wove its fairy embroideries in
broad lines of gold upon the white
hair of the busy housewife, as she
passed with light footballs across the
foor, plying her daily tasks.
Upon the little white-draped cot
in the kitchen bedroom lay Jessie,
with her poor face thinned almost
10 shadow by wasting fever. For
4 long time, in a kind of dumb,
dreamy quiet, she lay counting the
crimson leaves upon the woodbine
over the window, listening to the
.ricket's dreams chirping under the
door stone, and the sound of the
dropping nuts in the forest, and
hen with sudden rush OF memory
came the recollection of the events
IF that terrible night.
Mother, mother, come and tell
ne. Have they found the murder
,r2"
Can you hear it, Jessie, if l tell
,oU al?" and the poor woman look
ID with yearning pity upon the
worn, tired little face before her.
Anything is better than suspense,
nother.n and so in trembling tones
he poor woman told her all.
They have took him up for the ,
murder, you know-John Brace, /
nean-for they found him in tine ,
oom with the dead man, and his
ack knife was on the floor covered
With blood, and they do say the two
ave had good many hard words
# late. John was wanting more !
,ay, and Morgan wouldn't give it to
lim, and they are both high-temper- ,
d, you know. The trial comes off I
Iext week, and you'll have to be ;
sitness," and the ga-rulous old ,
mother expiated at length, upon the
of the horrid tragedy but ,
essie heard her not. {
What? John Brace to be tried for
Her John. whose coarse
'rown hand she had held so often
n her own in the olden time, and
shose honest eyes had again and
gain looked down in hers, with the I
lght of a noble tenderness shining
n them. Tried for life? 1t must {
ot, should not be, and she remem-
cred with thrill of satisfaction
hat her testimony would save him,
,r did she not see him come in !
rom the street before she reached I
he foot of the stairs
And then came another thought,
billing her to the heart. She did
ot hear him speak after all, and
he had only said, "Thank God, you .
re here, John Brace" when they
rent into the office together. Per-
APPS it was all q mistske-he might ,
e the murderer-and then away +.
own in the depth of her heart Jes- !
ie realized the length and breadth /,
nd depth of her love for poor John !
race, aud in al her misery her .