Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-07-26

| into his possession for about half an
hour Already he had formed a number
of plans for getting half an hour alone
in the vestry room, but these he had
discarded one by one as being insult
able. At last. as often happens in
such cases, an accident gave him the
opportunity he sought. On the Oc-
casion in question they were going for
a long walk, and had only gone into
the vestry room to leave 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 go into
the chapel. She had been to the
priests house to look for him, as her
mother, who was very i'll. wished to
see him for few minutes.
II shall wait for you here" said
Marston. speaking to Kohl in French,
when he understood what the little
girls errand was. Il 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. l shall
not be more than half an hour"
When the girl and priest had left the
chapel, Marston took out of the cup
board the volume that contained the
register of the Countess marriage. and
turned over the pages till he came to
the entry he was in search of. Yes,
there, in black and white, was the rec
ord of the marriage of Sophia Uscha-
koff with Michael Tokhtamish. MIR.
Marston looked at the register intently
for 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 examined 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 penknife. bottle of ink
and a pen, which he had always carried
about with him in anticipation of an
opportunity like the present. With
the penknife 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 penknife in his pocket
again, and having carefully examined
the pen to see that the nib was in Or
der, 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 sub
sequent occasion he did write his own
name in a marriage register after So
phia Cheraski had written hers. But
on the present occasion he could not
have gained any thing by SO doing.
And the same objection will apply to
his writing most other names over the
erasure.
No. Having most carefully erased
the name of Michael Tokhtamish, he
proceeded with the very greatest care
to write the name of Michael Tokhta-
mish as nearly as possible in the same
place and characters that it had stood
in before. When he had done this to
his satisfaction he let the ink dry, and
then restored the book to its place.
Kohl came back presently, and they
went for their long walk.
About three weeks afterward Mr..
Marston found that he had business
which necessitated his leaving for En-
gland, AID, very much to the regret
of the inhabitants of Narovel, he de-
parted. From Russia he went straight
to Paris, where he called upon the
Countess Cheraski. with whom he had
held no communication whatever dur
ing the whole time he was living at
Narovel.
You have placed implicit conf
dence in me-" he said, land you will
find that it has not been abused. l
have told you before that you must not
ask any questions;. and l tell you SO
again. You must do exactly as direct
you without asking why. Commence
proceedings at once for the restoration
of your title and estates. And mark
me, when the register is produced, in
sist on having every word that relates
to your marriage most carefully ex-
amined. Do exactly as l tell you, and
you will find that the result will be sat-
isfactory. And now, goodbye. l must
get back to London and see if can not
get my patients again."
The Countess did as he told her to
do. She commenced an action on be-
half of herself ard her children for the
restoration of the title and estates.
The register of her marriage was pro-
duced, but when it was examined it
wac found that the name 0f Michael