The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-05-08
than God himself has shown to a poor

woman like me?"
Dicks experience of the sex. large as
it was, did not include a woman of this
kind Her beauty. her tragedy, her
eloquencc, her romance, and certain
fascination about her. fairly tool; his
breath away. He did not know what
to do. Doubtless he was in the land of
romantic adventure; but this was be-
yond any he had ever dreamed.
"My lady," said he. 80 far as one
arm can help You to vengeance on the
cowardly French brutes, this shall. But
meanwhile you'd best come with me to
Escalona. You won't get much to eat
there; but you'll be safe, and that's the
great thing"
Safe! As if l cared for safety-and
among the Portuguese seam; beg par
don of your uniform, sic. but net of the
Englishman inside. l swear to you by
all the saints in heaven that / will not
turn back. Twill go on or l will die;
but go backward from vengeance
no."
MADAME exclaimed Dick. lit is i'm
possible. 1t mustn't can't be. Do
you know that the French army is not
many miles beyond that river; and
their foragers don't pay heed to which
bank they forage on, as our bellies
knowP You're rs safe TO fall in with
their scouts if you go farther as you
sit there. Can't be, indecd-it sha'n't
be. You must be my prisoner, Count
ess. It's for your own sake"
Then" She turned her horse.
and was of, before Dick had fairly
seen she was no longer there.
And a prudent man would have let
her go, and, when he returned to his
quarters, held his tongue. But to Dick
Blackthorn it was horrible to think Of
what would happen should she fall into
the hands of French maraudcrs. He
had seen something already of the
fouler side of war, and none of its
glory. He ceased to be soldier-or,
maybe, became one; at any rate, he
urged his horse up the bank and was
after her, as if at fox-hunt at home.
The chase was sharp for burst over
the brown turf, and, in the dust, he al
most lost sight of her. But the burst
was soon over. In less than six min
utes he was beside her with his hand
ON her bride.
"You are my prisoner, madam"
said he, with all the sternness he could
assume,
"And your enemyr' she answered,
while her eyes flashed, and her BOSOM
heaved. " An Epglishman. and you
rob woman of her one hope-her
one, would sooner meet the French.
They are devils, but they are not En-
glishmen; they are not towards, after
all"
towards" cried he.
"YeS; towards. Who but a coward
would treat a woman as you have
treated me9"
Reason in her charge there was none.
But who looks for reason in woman
who is held back from a precipice
against her VIII? And her words had
stung Dick Blackthorn SO that he al
most began to think himself the thing
she called him. If man had said
that word. But, spoken in a voice
from which angry scorn could not rob
the sweetness, and with such flashing
of eyes as the lightning itself could
He hung his head for moment, and,
when he raised it, it was to meet such
a look of agonized appeal that his
heart seemed to melt away.
DO you know your way to the
Spanish lines?" asked he
Il must hold by the river, l suppose,
Do you know?'
q Not hang. Do you know how
farP"
mo. How should know?"
And you're all alone"'
"All alone" she sighed.
Poor Dick Blackthorn had been in
many scrapcs, but never in one Ike this
in all his days. Discipline had to be
observed; and what account could he
give OF himself for absence, when the
presage of coming battle filled all the
air? 1t might, for all he could tell,
take days to reach the Spanish lines.
And though many n good soldier is
missing after battle, who would be
found missing before? He might tell
some lie; but then Blackthorn was
always safe to be found out if ever he
on lie. But then. how, as a
man, could he leave woman like this
to make her way alone? 1t was not:
How could he force her back-that
question had been settled long ago. On
one side honor and duty; on the other,
beauty in peril.
He possessed single COMA SIX
pence with a hole in (which Kate or
Nellie or Susan or Mary had given him
for love and luck; he forgot which, but
he had kept it for her sake, all the
same. Suddenly he tossed it in the air.
Heads. go back-tails, go on. Hang
it all, it's heads. III try again-two
out of three. Tails this time. Now for
the third. Heads, by all that's blue.
Go back, shat means. No; it was tails,
turning tail. You know, for go back;
and heads for going ahead; that's 60
ing on. Which was it, Countess? I'm
hanged if know"
81 know nothing of incantations,"
said she. '.Au recoir, sir. You have
meant we'll"
On she rode.
''Was it heads, or was it tails?" he
brooded. Yes; it Uas tails. Woman
wins"
The coin was not made by mortal |
mint against which, when twirled by |
Dick Blackthorn'S thumb, woman |
would not have won. But he had done |
his best And, having done his best,
he threw all doubts away, and gave |
himself UP to the hour, only wishing
that his Portuguese uniform were not !
quite so threadbare and stained. Why !
mad he not pair of epaulettes? He |
vowed 10 win them before they had I'd