Omaha daily bee., 1888-09-02

thought to look upon the face of my
kind again-to speak to one of them.
Why | thus buried myself must be
buried with me. The world called me
q murderer: l called the act justice.
was doomed to death, but a golden key
will open prison locks and shoe the
swiftest of horses. By night l fed, came
here and-that is enOugh.".
"Still," suggested Middleton, ''now
that death is near, you may have some
thing you wonld like done, something
Nothing, moth yes, this. Here
where l have lived | would be buried.
Within the limits of this cabin let my
grave be dug. Bury me deep, deep,
and when the earth is smoothed over
mt fire the cabin and let it burn down
to ashes. The sponge of Time has
washed out my name from the memory
of those who one knew me, and so let
the spot where these old bones are hid
den be lost to the living"
''Is that alp" questioned Middleton
"Ail? Ali? Give me a drink quickly,
my blessed little angel, for I am faint
ing, choking. That will do. All? Liv-
ing again in the black and bloody past I
had forgotten the more important pres
ent. Listen and swear to do as I
direct"
'To the best of my ability"
when am dead-it will not be very
long now, for my heart is laboring and
will suddenly stop it's feeble beating
dig down in yonder corner and you will
find a stone box. Ali how many hours
/ was on the making. Yet it was a
blessing, for it kept me from thinking
of myself, and much thought is madness.
In it you will find some papers and
better you should lot know now. They
are my gift to this sweet child and are
to be her-her dowry."
The last word appeared to strangle
him, to shake every nerve and fibre of
his body, and fearful indeed must have
been the inward struggle, terrible the
picture memory photographed upon his
rapidly numbing brain. From it he
never recovered.
mo, no, l will not curse her. came
struggling from his ashy lips. "She
was so beautiful it was not strange if
others loved her and-God in heaven!
If | should have been wrong, If my
hand was stained in innocent blood"
For a long time he remained speech
less and shaking as one with the palsy.
The child wiped away the thickly gath
cred tears from his eyes, smoothed the
damp hair and kissed him. She saw no
guilt upon his brow, shrank not from
the sin hidden within his heart. But
in the presence of such a death the old
negro woman was powerless. She with
drew outside Of the cabin, sat down
upon the ground and sang a low, mys-
ferrous chant, such as her not far re-
moved ancestors might have used upon
African shores. Middleton held the
hand of the dying man until the fash
OF intelligence that precedes the final
gasp came, then bent down his ear to
receive the parting instructions.
The old man placed the fingers OF the
child in his and family whispered:
Take her, take care of her, educate
her, as l have been doing; guard her
from every snare, and may the curses
OF heaven fall upon you If in the least
fraction you betray your trust" Then
again his mind wandered. He talked
OF a cottage, a city home, of "Kgnes,
the bright, the beautiful, the"
His heartstrings, worn to the merest
thread, snapped suddenly and he passed
to the judgment of a higher court than
any of earth with his life secret unre-
vealed.
Giving the weeping and frightened
child intothe arms of her foster mother.
Middleton carried out to the letter the
wishes of the dead man. With T.
body buried, the stone box removed
fred the cabin. watched until nothty