Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-01

NV iuttu1S HpUH uCT 6I nfSt. when be
did cali re was somewhat shocked BY the
chinge III her appearance.
"ln tine | may hope to cure all this
(, now," though the b.ronet, while looking
into the sweet pale face Of Melsnle, and
listening to her low, vague replies, tina:
| filed him with sorrow and something of
modification, while she, sunk back in an
easy chair, strove to shut cut his bluff
honest yisage, with ifs husky grizzl ed
eyebrows and white musIsche, as that of
| one who sought to come between her and
the face OF him who now lay cold and
mouldering In distant grave and In a
place to her unknown.
"You will Think lightly of all this sort
OF thing to morrow" said Uncle Grim
shaw. cycling her with sardonic glance,
when Sir Brisco had taken his departure
"To- morrow-what difference can to-
morrow make to me?" asked Melanie.
"Much, hope"
"How-in what way?"
Because" said he, with an angry grin,
for her grief intensely bored and DIS
gusted him. "people view things differ
emily, and are always much more sensible
and amenable to reason in the morning
than at night"
Melanie; show can he come when his
presence torments me so?'
"And yet you owe him much for his
Kindness" snsrled Uncle Grimshaw.
For days and weeks sitter this, with
eager and heggard eyes she sought and
searched the public prints with nervous
avidity for further tidings of Lonsdale-
even for complete details, If such were
come, of his desth-but she sought in
vain, for nothing OF the kind ever ep-
peared.
His name seemed to have passed away,
bis memory to be forgotten, and other
men had taken his place. It wss inevita-
BILE.
"For the fashion of this world passeth
away"
CHAPTER LII THE POoN GYEE,
"Eyery hour" it is written, "We are
sowing the seeds of character, which one
day may estonish even ourselves by
blossoming forth in actions of which we
had not supposed ourselves capable"
So it was with Montague Lonsdale, who
could have little foreSeen all he became
by the course of events, how patient and
watchful, how wary, yet resOlute, how
capable OF enduring and facing cut to the
bitter end, amid the barbarous people
whose captive he became, all that he had
to encounter.
In the Jungle he had been knocked
down by a blow from dubbed musket;
then he was dragged up, half senseless,
with his face deluged in his own blood,
and carried of, partly blinded thereby,
by the Dacoits, for what purpose he knew
not helpless, disarmed, incapable OF resist
ance. Thus it was that, save his Battered
helmet, no trace of him was found by
the seachers after the death Of
Montressor.
That he WAS reserved for some bar
barous and protracted death-ot ransom
the Burmese Dacoits never thought-he
had not the slightest doubt His hands
were tightly, painfully bound by g
hemp cord, which - that it might
shrink and inexorably tighten still ;mcre
was carefully and deliberately wetted, g
bs1barity under which several of our men
died in the Chinese wsr, when their hands
decsyed and mortified below the wrists.
Through district where the long reed
| like elephant grass grew to vast height,
he was dragged or driven in haste, while
| the cord which fetteIed him began fast to
occasion torture as it shrank; and his
cspt0rs, true Burmese, though men Of
small stature, seemed capable of endur-
ing great privssions, being strong, wiry,
active and muscular; thus they urged
him on without delay or mercy.
"In what we call bottom, these people
are not inferior to Eaglishmen," says q
writer in the Bengal RarkarD, sand they
resemble US in their love of luxury and
similar smusements. In true bravery"
he adds-incorrectly we think-"theV
take the lesd OF ell other Asiatics, as no
one who has ever had an opportunity OF
seeing them at Rangoon will deny"
Lonsdale's csptors mocked, grinned
and scowled st him, while chewing the
inevitable betel nut, and j.bbered and
talked about him, evidently; but igno-
rance Of their Language left him equally
| ignorant Of their Intentions, his only
wonder beiag that they did not hack him
TO pieces ard save themselves ell further
trouble On the subject.
Whatever their intention, It was evil
IDENTIFY upset when they overlook two men
bearing third in species Of palanquin,
and who, on seeing Lonsdale, uttered |:
shrill cry and issued an order in per.
emptory manner.
On this, the cord that cut his hands
WAS cut through by sharp dab, and not
moment too soon, as he feared from
the extreme torture he endured that q
little more Of such lettering would have
nearly wrenched his wrists through, and
rendered him cripple for life, or what
wss likely TO be left of it.
He now discovered that his protector
WAS the wounded man whom he had sue
coured short time before, and whose
bleeding limb he had bound up with q
hsndkerchief-the Strengthening ana
aged Burmese who, by his yellow silk at
tire, he now discovered to be Poon-
gyee, or species of monk-a parsonage of
whom we have more to relate anon.
Not word that he uttered could the
luckless Lonsdale understand; but it was
evident that the old man recognized him,
felt grateful for the succour he had given,
and made the Dacoits aware that he was
to be spared and protected. Thus their
menacing manner changed at once, under
his orders and influence, though their
covert chances betrayed hostility and
bsiied spite in the expression Of their
narrow, slmoned-shaped black eyes and
fat Give visages, with huge cheek-bones,
narrow foreheads, and coarse, lefty hair,
all of which were indicative OF the Hindu
Chinese type-for such the Burmese are
a people described by Father Sanger
nano in 1855 as "seIvile, slothful, british
sDd false"
The undressed wound on his head &C.
casioned Lonsdale intense pain and no
small anxiety, when day began to break,
and he knew that in time 1t would attain