The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1888-05-04

open. AS / drew aside the curtains
which Closed in1the staircase corridor OF
.ne left wing, | saw Sir Edmund come
from his rom with a lamp. The door
of Edith's room exactly faced his; it was
wide open; all was dark within.
"What is it, my dear, what is itT he
called, as he entered the room.
There was no answer,
l followed tn the door. Sir Edmund
was standing by the empty bed looking
around him In blank disrnay.
"She is gone" he sasped. "The door
was wide Open"
The bed stood away from the wall. !
babe Sir Edmund look on the further side.
There was scarcely room for him to
pass between the foot of the bed and the
wall, but as he lowered The light, be
said. in quick alarm:
"She is MISUNDERSTANDING the
bell for the women"
/ ran to the bell and rang 1t VIOLENTLY:
then from the stairs IN the cr~oss-gallery
| called to the servants to come down.
In the meanwhile Sir Edmund had raised
Edith and placed her on the bed, whern
she l2y like one tsai,
From his room / got a spifit-case, but
we knew rot ke~ to apply the remedies
at our hand. and it was an intense relief
to us when the houselkeepcr hustled in,
followed BY Edith's maid. fer we were
as helpless as children III this emergency.
The h2usekneper told me to leave the
room. I went to the door, and stood
there, trembling from head to foot.
l had taken Edith's hand, and the icy
GOODNESS of the lifeless fingers that | had
only known quick with warm blood
chilled my very heart with fear.
There was a long period of terrible sus-
rense, and then l heard tho dear voice
murmur, and my heart bounding with
Joy, l ventured forward that l might see
the life once more in her beautiful face.
Sir Edmund stopped me on the threshold.
"Thank Godv' he said, fenvenlly, "she
has come back to US; but the women say
she must be kept quiet. Go back to your
room, my dear fellow, md we will talk
it all over at breakfast-time. Good
night, goodnight"
l returned reluctantly to my room. As
l passed his chamber l heard the Judge
snoring loud and long.
1t needed something more than such
triiles to wake him when he had a bed to
sleep in.
What already puzzled me was how
she had tainted in a quite remote part of
the Don
--
CHAPTER X.
What happened in Edith's room that
night l did not learn until the NEXT
morning, but l will give her account in
this place in order ia nreserv., the go
Quence of events,
Trr1la to her r~csolvr. she had left he
window open and the bad down, ex-
actly rs on the preceding nights. 1t was
her habit to lock the door, and that she
did no omit to do so on this occasion she
was convinced by the fact thatshe found
some difficulty III turning the key, and
had afterward tried the handle to know
ii the bolt was shot. She left he lamp
burning on the table, screened from her
by the lace curtains of the bed. 1t was
half past eleven when she lay down, and
she felt so little fear that she fell asleep
almost Immediately.
pillow slipping from beneath her
head awoke her, She believed. Her first
consciousness was that her head felt an
comfortably low. She put her hand out
to find If she had slipped TO the edge Of
the bed; but no, her position was UNI
changed.
Then it struck her that she had left a
light on the table; it was now ont, and
She wondered if this was a trick Of
imagination. Was she awake or asleep?
She touched her eyes to be sure they were
open. Then it occurred to her that she
might nave been asleep a long while.
There was nothing extraordinary in a
lamp going out, or her head slipping from
the pillow. Saying this to herself, shs
felt for the pillow.
To her establishment she found that
both were gone,
It was droll. She felt inclined To lanoh
thinking how she must hayetossed nb"rt
in her slecn ia knock LotL ,iliows n,t
But the bedclothes we're nerfectIv smooth
tho Lad on e.ch S;do 81 ha. 49,, 80
soft, and Welding. That was ]stranya,
81 must have done ali the tossingw With
nv head" she said to herself st;ll ticllad
by the oddity of the thing,
One thing was certainSshe coula not
sleep in comfort with nothin~ h,,t :, Inl,
ster unde her head
She leaned ont and felt ,,non the foo,
as far as she could reach In tho rigIt
The pillows had NOT slinned ont on INT
side. Then putting her shoulder naoinst
the wall she FELT down on tho left Thnre
was nothing there. What did # ali
meano Daci1ndly th;s n,,,st ba 4. 49,
freak of her ~imaSinntion. "
She wasno vet thoroughly friehten.5
The spirit Who could steal her niIlnws
must have some sonse If humor. r v.os
preferable to drumming on the window,
paues and ~ylarine throlph tha blinds al
her. Hearing and s;pht had Ieen tr;,a
and now her se1,se of touch was To hs
tested.
But tbonph she triad IN mako ,;u,, ,f
the affair. she feIt that h s so neShn rsf te,r =.
bic underlay its comic aspect. and a IT.
lie SILVER ran tbrongh hor at thn thop,,n
of getting up and Striking =" a rjpht' II
was so much easier to be %courareous in
the daylight than in such darkness as
this. "
After all. perhaps the pillows had nil
out of the bed in a natural way. and Law
only lust a little beyond her reach, l3it
rather than stretch her arm out again in
the dark space, she preferred to nut nm
with the bolster doubled.
She doubled the boisrer and rave H..
little pat; then she put up a locE of h,s
kAb ISA WI i"A