Wichita eagle., 1888-07-15

next went by and found me there. con-
tent Carna soon forget her terror. and
laughed in happy giee as she sat beside
me under the Silly trees And l forgot
my comrades up the long ravine. and al
my gold dreams faded from my mind; for
ali. loved the wildwood flower | had
found beneath the pines, and she-oh,
the memory of Ter love for Tel
She told ne Of herself in those sweet
days. how she had always lived there with
that fieod. seeing no other face but his,
hearing no sound bat the shrill cry of the
panther through the dark. She wore q
little locket in her breast. with the face
of a woman IL ia face beautiful as the
angels, with eyes like Carrna's own Her
father. she said, lad told her once it was
the face of her mother. who had died st
Carma's birth. And then be struck me,
and went off, and STAYED for many days."
she said. shivering with the memory OF
his brutal blows conforted her as best
could. and fingered on.
One morning. our stock OF venison get
ting low, / started off again in search OF
game. Carma stood in the doorway and
watched ne out Of sight. had good
luck that day. and went hurrying home
ward in the twilight. listening to catch
the first notes of greeting song. but au
was still-too still, l thought Then.
suddenly. there was one long. wild
scream. one such as called me to her side
before, and | knew that the fend had
come back Rushing madly forward, |
reached the door in time to see the villain
seize my darling by the throat and plunge
q long dirk knife into her breast; to see
her totter, fall heavily. and tben-then
my senses left me. and knew nothing Of
what was doing for some time.
When l recovered was kneeling before
the dead body of the girl loved, while
close to US lay her murderer, with the
long knife In his blackened heart-for |,
too. bore the mark of Cain.
Somehow knew not howl staggered
to my feet, and Selling my gun. went out,
leaving the dead together in the accursed
hut.
The next few weeks are blank to me,
but my old friend. Totten, told me that
one day was found by some hunters
more dead than alive, in O glen. far off
from the bloody scene. They said l had
lost my way. and had tainted from starva-
ton. where they found me. never told
them otherwise.
Three years after that was in San
Francisco, living with friend, a great
criminal lawyer there. He told me OF
many things and in his conversation spoke
Of a case he had tried two years before OF
young girl accused Of numbering her
father. Then the tale came out.
My darling was not dead, as supposed,
when left her, but rather in that awful
swoon which is twin sister to death A
party of miners, passing down the canyon
some days after the tragedy, saw the
cabin hid among the pines. and going in
found the old man lying dead on the floor,
with the girl crouching beside him.
When questioned, she would answer moth
ing. but that the crime was hers. Il
killed him. Yes, killed him; don't you
seer was all she said when they
spoke to her; so she was taken to San
Francisco, tried and sentenced-yes, SEN
fenced to prison cell for life, for the
cruel murder of her fathsr Such is the
usual justice Of our land. She never fall
tered, never wavered through all the slow
fortunes Of those terrible days. shielding
the man she loved at the price of her own
soul, bowling her glorious head to the ac-
cursed blow. bearing the ignominy and
deathless shame of crime, simply, that
the one she loved-and who deserted her
might live on in honor and escape tho
storm; for she saw me. saw her lover,
strike the fatal blow.
"And she, does she still live?" I gasped
out, as the lawyer paused a moment to
pour out glass Of wine.
"Ah, no." he said; "she tainted when
the sentence was pronounced. and was
carried across the street to the hospital,
where she died the next night. l went
over to see her there, and. just as the sun
went down she half rose up, put out her
hand, IS II reaching toward some one in
the dark, murmured name, and then fell
back, asleepi'
"a namel What name?" 1 whispered,
for my voice had deserted me, and LIE was
watching me. quizzically. if not suspi-
ciously.
"What name? Why, strangely enough,
It was your own" he said, and then:
Good God, Jasper, what's the matter,
mani Here, drink this and come out into
the airi"
l drank the brandy he poured out for
me; followed him out into the sunshine
that has ever since been to my soul but
shadow; out among the jangling bells Of
the songs and merry laughter of this
great. busy world. only to hear ever,
amidst it all, the dying meanings of the
woman that | loved
So have l lived, doing what little l
could in my own strange way, to drag out
q life. burdened with this double curse Of
Cain, without drawing any other human
heart within the awful shadow OF my sin.
And SO, tonight. as the great sun goes
down behind the purple hill tops. I stretch
out my hands into the darkness, and,
touching hers, made clean by this, my
true confession, of any shade Of guilt, or
shame, turn my tired face toward the
waiting stars. aad with her own sweet
name upon my dying breath, go to meet
her In that land beyond .. Werdsn
in American Magazine.
But true to tie bitter contrasts every
where noticeable IN toe island, the road itself
was e1scrable beyond description They are