San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-08-17

iG ne c!y quessIolS, and TO remain IN per
ct ignorance Of VIVA: am doing. My word
IS the or!y guarantee YOU can have that |
she'll 40 Goaes.iy do.ag my best on your
oeacif" -.
at IL sufficient, said t.e countess, "You
hall have re noasAss E4:. can you startr'
Tomorrow" answer.
for Narovel, wh.ca i ? Wills 20 in the prov
nee Of Minst. in "cstara 2-ssia Here he
.ook up bis c5o1s - s-.e Guiss Of well to do
Cnglishma. wao wished to make himself
acquainted wi:i the language and institu.
lions OF the coc:::"y, and who bad no obJec-
ton to spend lis money pretty freely. He
was good s-ot, was fond of riding, and,
spar: llsosethe- from the necessity Of acting
part which was involved by the business
he had on hand, he was a really jovial and
pleasant companion The Consequence was
that he soon became q favorite with every.
body in the district. The men liked him be-
cause he was q capital sportsman and could
take his bottle with the best Of them; the
women, because he was good looking for.
eigner, who was always paying thetp such
compliments as circumstances permitted and
who was very fond Of children. Among
others with whom he shortly became very,
intimately acquainted was the new priest, a,
young man named NichSlas Kohl. Kohl
acted, as priests very ofteTdQ in Russia, the
part both of priest and physician to the dis
trict And since Marston was able to give
him great deal Of valuable, advice and as
sistance, they soon became fast friends.
One day, about five months after he came
to Narovel, he went with Kohl into the yes
try room of the chapel where the countess
was married He had been in this room fire.
quently before. and knew exactly where the
book in which her marriage was registered
lay among some others in a sort OF cupboard.
Already he had, on the pretense Of compar-
ing the Russian system with the English, ex-
amined several registers of births, deaths and
marriages. so that he was familiar with the
forms. and on looking at a book OF such
registers could easily find any particular one
that he might be in quest Of As yet, how
ever, he had had no opportunity of examin-
ing the book which contained the record Of
the marriage of the countess Now what he
had been scheming for during the past five
months was TO get this book secretly into his
possession for about half an hour. Already
he had formed number OF plans for getting
half an hour alone in the veStry room,
but these he had discarded one by one as
being unsuitable. At last, as often hap
pens In such cases. an accident gave him
the opportunity he sought. On the
occasion in question they were going
for long walk, and had only gone into the
vestry room to leave a parcel, which the
priest had in his hand Scarcely, however,
had they entered the room when they were
followed by little girl who had seen them
90 into the chapel She had been to the
priests house to look for him, as her mother,
who was very ill, wished to see him for a
few minutes.
81 shall wait here for you" said Marston.
speaking to Kohl in French, when he under
stood what the little girls errand was. 81
can read until you come back" There were
some French and Latin books in the room.
Very well" said Kohl, its only a few
minutes walk from here. shall not be
more than half an hour"
When the girl and priest had left the
chapel Marston took out Of the cupboard
the volume that contained the register Of the
countess marriage and turned over the pages
till be came to the entry he was in search of.
Yes. there, il black and white, was the rec.
ord of the marriage of Sophia Uschakol
with Michael TokLtamish. Mr. Marston
looked at the register inteutly for a minute
or two. during which time he turned rather
pale Then he got up and looked out of the
vestry room to see that there was nobody in
the chapel Having satisfied himself that he
was quite alone, he sat down again and ex
amined the characters in which the name of
Michael Tokhtamish was written with the
greatest care for about minute Finally,
he took out of his pocket a penknife, bottle
,,I.u md inl, Il,
ried about with him in anticipation Cf an
opportunity like the present With the pen
knife he carefully erased the name of Michael
Tokhtamish. 1t took him about three minutes
to do this, so anxious was he to do the work
neatly. and not to leave trace of the letters
he was removing from the register When
he had succeeded to his liking he put
the penknfe in his pocket again and having
carefully examined the pen to see that the
nib was in order, he proceeded to write over
the eraSure the name of -
Let me first ask if the reader has guessed
whose name it was that Mr.. Marston wrote
over the name he had been at such pains to
erase. Some people of whom have asked
the question have guessed that he wrote his
own name But why so? On a subsequent
occasion he did write his own narle III a
marriage register after Sophia Cheraski had
written hers. But on the present occasion
he could not have gained anything 10y so
doing. Ard the same objection will apply to
his writing most oVIer names over the erasure.
Nc Having most carefully erased the
name of Michael Iokhtamish, he proceeded
with the very greatest care to write the name
OF Michael TokEtamish as nearly as possible
in the same place and characters that it had
stood in before, When he had done this to
his satisfaction lie let the ink dry, and then