The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-24
THE WIFE'S SACRIFICE.

AStory OF h Transvasl,
After tifin on the second day of the
summer assizes for Griqualand West,
the languid interest which had hither-
TO been taken in the proceedings sud
denly developed intosomething nearly
akin TO excitement. Theiury hadjust
returned a verdict Of culpable homi-
eide against a dozen out of some fifty
Shangaans who stood huddled togeth-
er, helpless and frightened, in the dock,
charged with participating in a fatal
tribal affray atthe LoneStar Diamond
Mining Company's compound; the
Judge hadduly sentenced thegaping UNI
~fortunates, and the jailcrs were endeav-
oring to sort them out from amongst
their u%nconvicted but probablyno less
guilty comrades, when the Crown Pros
ecutor, a fresh-colored young English
man, with no small idea OF his own
Importance, turned in his seat at the
barrister's table, and whispered to the
official who sat behind him to put for
ward DirkSylvester. The official rose
and repeated the name aloud; a hum
OF expectancy ran through the little
crowd OF spectators, and passed on to
the loungers outside, who eagerly
crowded into the corrugated iron tenn
pie Of justice; gentlemen OF the long
robe and members Of the press hurried
over from the Yellow Bar just oppo-
site and the stalwart Zulu, attired in
canvas, marked with q broad black
arrow, paused in his monotonous
jerking Of the punkah cord in order to
catch a glympse of aBaas'' Sylvester,
az he stepped into the dock.
The prisoner was a tall, handsome
colonial, with dark cleaning eyes,
black beard, and skin the paleness OF
which had been ripened into swarthi-
ness by the fierce African sun. He was
erect and fearless; he threw a glance of
defianceat his enemies; he nodded with
q smile to his friends, and then, as the
door OF aprivate entrance to the body
OF the court opened, and a figure
draped IN purest white, with bright
golden hair ripping in rich ~profusion
over the shapely shoulders, glided in
softly andquietly like q sunbeamfrom
the free world outside, he leant over
the ral whichtinterposed between him
and liberty, and hoarsely whispered
her name-the dearest name on earth
to him.
tt was ~Sylyester's wife. She re-
sponded quickly with a look more elo-
quent than words; and then the
Frisnner drew himself up to his full
height, folded his arms and listened in
tently as the clerk of hecourt-an old
friend with whom he had spent many
a registering evening in his bachelor
days-droned through the indictment,
and in a clear voice replied to the
Charge of wilifll murder, Not guilty.
The Crown Prosecutor, in slow and
measured tones, began to sketch the
history Of the crime; the Judge lounged
back In his easy chair and l~eisurely
sought for the clean pages in his record
book; the counsel for thedefense push
ed back his wig from his perspiring
brow, and h~untediout areterence in an
almost forgotten work on the Roman
Dutch law, the spectators hnshed their
murmuring;; the punkah swayed regu-
larly to and fro overhead, and Syl-
westerns wife, sitting there in the well
of the sizzling court, with her sweet
blue eyes riyeted on the prisoner, and
her luxuriant locks rising andN falling
with the artificial breeze, looked to me
even more beautiful than two wears
ago, when she nightly ravished the
hearts of susceptible diggers in the
make-shift theatre in the Dufoitspan
road.
In those memorable bygonedayssh she
was Mademoiselle Marie La Cour, and
the star Of q travelling theatrical com
pany, which, like most other sicombi-
nations OF talent" visiting the. Dia-
mond Fields, never, as q whole, got
any further. The proprietor made so
much money in q short season that he
LETT to assume the lesseeship of a big
Australian house, and Marie's father
look over the management Of the sheep
thus bereft of their shepherd. How
divinely she danced and sang; how she
brought the tears into the eyes Of
great rough fellows, or made them
shake the rafters with their sonorous
laughter; how she f1uttered the hearts
OF the bank magnates and the Jew
diamond merchants, and she caused
the Treasury" to overflow with fat
ness-aren not all these things written
in the tablets OF the memory of every
dweller on the Fields? In the zenith OF
her fame she married Dirk Sylvester.
and if ever a man deserved his bridehe
did, forhis passionwore him almostto
d shadow; and his dark eyes cleaned
dangerously if rival presumed as
much asto speak to her; and before
Dirk came upon the scene there were
rivals in plenty, but though Marie sip
ped8the champagne they offered, and
even accepted their diamonds, she
laughed openly at all OF them. Dirk
was proprietor of one of the richest
claims at the New Rush; and the mo-
ment he and Marie met theh gilmore
or less hopeful suitors saw their
GAlikilCCS NSIC OfCIs - 5iIC sCOIllGu W
have fallen in love with him quite as
much rs he had with her, and would
have married him long before she did,
but that her father besought her to
continue on the stage a little longer
for his benefit. At last the old gentle
man drank himself into the Carnarvon
Hospital, and only came out since to
occupy n of the graves which are
always yawning, ready dug in the Kim
barley Cemetery, for victims to fever
and alcohol; and then Marie La Cour
became to us and all our world,
tsS.Ylyester's wife,
They took little villa at the ex-
tremity of Putoitspan road, a neat
veranda-surrounded residence, screen
ed from the dust and heat by tall