The Portland daily press., 1886-07-17

she only sneered at the miserable wretch,
until af last. one day, when she had Knocked
him as usIai. he caught up his double-bar-
relied run in an excess of mad rage, and fired
at Theresa Albanil and her daugnter; Inc
old woman was killed on the spot; the girl
was mortally wounded as lol INC lhuIueleI,
he fled to the forest ,.e
For two DAYS he lived the life OF a wild
beast; he had not dared to return to the ALTA
yard, and almost died from munger and
thirst, His small supply OF powder and lead
enabled him finally:to XII lew birds, which
little fire of brush wood, for he became afraid
fine smoke might betray him. In order to ap-
pease the burning thirst that consumed him,
he chewed the leaves OF the trees; but this
only made his thirst still worse.
Yet he could not trust himself to go away
before he had been fully informed as to the
fate of Rafaela; the mere thought that she
might be able to recover, might live to love
another man, threw him into paroxysms of
fury. He trusted to chance for obtaining in
formation; then, if she was dead, as he
hoped, he could try to make his way to Ne
mours. whence some fishing smack might
take him to Spain. If she was not dead,
then he would think what was best to do.
The third day, unable to bear the strain
any longer, he made his way stealthily to
the neighborhood of the alta yard, and saw
all the alfatiers going to wOrk-one after the
other. He waited for the last to come out,
Alonzo Gomez one of his old friends, and
he stroke out of the brush
'Alonzo," he said, in hoarse voice; "give
me drinkv'
The other turned pale at the sight Of him,
and lowered his gun. But after moment
reflection he took out massive water jar out
of a hamper, laid it down in the middle OF
the path and went on his way without so
much as turning to look back.
Franquito stood motionlesS for moment,
under the lash of the mans voiceless con
tempt. He hesitated second, and then
shouted;
''And Rafaela, is she dead?"
Eyes. YOU murderer replied AlonZo, who,
doubtless fearing the result of his answer, at
once took to his heels, crying for help,
Frasquitc drank with delight, ana the en-
frightened in his own turn, He'd away. lie
never paused until he found himself at
safe distance, when he fell exhausted at the
foot of a tree There he lay and thought for
a long time Little by little the joy that had
flooded his heartat the news that Rafaela
was dead-that she could never belong to
another-gave place to a hopeless despair, to
an undesirable regret. What-oh, what
had he done ?-he had annihilated all that
grace and beauty He recalled all the incl
dents of their past love-all his hopes of the
ton; he thought Of the dimples in the
cheeks, the dimples he tried to fill with
kisses-and certain smiles and certain ten
der looks that used to make him tremble
from U6du 10 lOOI. Allu Will Vic u uol ohNoo-
ness of those memories, his grief-swollen
heart seemed to burst; the alfatler sobbed.
An unutterable bitterness overwhelmed him.
He ceased to think of the cruel fortunes Raj
aela had inflicted upon him; he forgot even
how happy they might have lived, II his no
via had possessed good heart. He could
only cry to himself, ''She is dead; shall
never see her again, and-it was L who
killed herp' Several times he repeated aloud,
dead !-deadl' and the strange sound of
his own voice terrified him.
And soon Frasquito came to have horror
of himself and to feel himself unfit to live.
What was the use of fighting for his life in
thousand different ways, if he would always
have to suffer like this? He gave up think
ing of his plans of escaping to Spain or to
Morocco; he felt too well assured that it
would be impossible for him to live thus,
with the grief of never being able to see RAJ
faela again, and the remorse of having killed
place in which to end his own life.
eIf do not kill myself" he kept think
ing; ''if do not kill myself after having
murdered two women, they might well call
me cowardw He halted at last in little
thicket of myrtle and cytisus. There he
carefully made all his preparations for sur
eide, assuring himself that his gun was well
loaded, and removing his footgear in order
to spring the trigger with his naked toe.
Some Arabs from a neighboring douar
found his corpse there, half eaten by. wild
beasts The alfatiers buried him beside RAJ
faea, although some men cried out that 1t
was PROCLAMATION; that it was not right Tor
the assassin to rest beside his victim. But
which of the two was really the victim OF
the other?