Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-08

vo'efs grew, while the raven, with hue.
grv eye. looked down on TIE affrighted
lambs in field and meadow.
How futile now seemed sill MelaBie's
dreams IN tn pasi-1reatns uf love sno
Joy that could never be realized.
What was the helpless creature 20 do
now? This was about the very time
when she had expected him home, pro
NOTED, or that she was about to 60 to
him in The distant east and be married.
Uncle Grimshaw, though far from i'll
pleased at the turn her affairs had taken,
still looked grim indeed; yet she had no
other future, it would seem, than he
Gould give-no other home than he chose
TO accord her, unless she lefs her equally
helpless brother 10 his mercy and went
forth into the world to earn her bread.
She looked at Reggie, and her heart
felt ready TO burst wnen she thought OF
all the handsome young sailor had been
and what he was now.
Reclining on his couch Fear the win
dow, he seemed more listless than ever,
with a crimson couvre-pied her industri-
Gus fingers had made, spread over him
He looked as il all that remained of his
youth and manhood had gone, his hollow
cneeks were pale, his large Drown hand
some eyes We're more dilated than ever,
more sad and weary, his hands were thin
ner and his voice more weak.
HIS future appalled, her more than that
of the needless healthy Dick-far more
than her own.
Where had Montague died-in city, in
forest, or the riverf How had he met his
death? Like soldier-like gentleman,
she could not doubt. Where was his
grave, If he got one? His last Thoughts
DOUBTLESS, they were Of her.
Hope had gone, SO strength Of mind
began to fail her.
Spring would come and go-summer
with all its bright loneliness would follow
brown autumn NJ X.-so days and weeks
and months would follow each other; but
he could come no more. He had dropped
out of her life-or rather the latter
seemed ended, SO far Gs object was con-
cerned.
Where Montague lay there was heart
and there her hopes were buried.
But Melanle forgot she was young, and
that ere long the realities Ct the world
would press themselves upon her. Just
yet, however, she felt crushed, giddy, be-
wildered, till kind OF cold despair took
the place of her more passionate grief.
And when once again the cold pressure
and the threats Of her two relatives were
put upon her, she clasped her interlaced
fngers and exclaimed:
"What shall do-oh, Whist shall dor"
Often did the words come to her white
lips at this crisis.
Ga one hand she knew that by her sac
rlfice of self, Reggie would be free from
her uncle's uncomfortable home. and
Dick have all his fondest aspirations of
oeing sent to Sandhurst fulfilled. If not,
she knew what was before them sll-her
"boysn especially, as she called them.
The gloom, the wesry disgust-the
longing to have done forever with men,
CRY and thought, past and present, even
with existence itself, the great longing
for rest, were all strong in the mind Of
Melanie now.
Would q time ever come, she asked her.
self, when sgsin she would smile, or
laugh, or sing-0r even WORK IS of old,
and take an interest in ansthine2
To Melanie, as yet, "the ghost Of a
dead past was reality-an undesirable
and even mysterious present"
CHAPTER TWILL HE ESCAPE?
Odce more we change the scene.
From the banks Of the muddy Thames
to those of the Ira wsddy seems only gu
instantaneous feat now, as in cur time we
surpsss the bosst Of Puck that he would
put girdle round the earth in forty min
utes.
Lonsdale calculated, we have said, that
he might within three days, or less, reach
the eastern bank Of that great river,
which is to the Burmsn empire, what the
Gauges is to Bengal, and the Nile to
Egypt; and be within hail Of some of the
river steamers, If any were passing up
ward or downward just then, an impor-
tant doubt on which he rather ehrank
from dwelling.
Fdll Of the horrid aspect presented by
the executed Burmese near the mongs.
terry, ard too well aware thst some such
fate awaited himself If the Dacoits caught
him and had time to dispose of hirn In g
leisurely manner, he hurried on, anxious
only at first to get as far away as possible
from the vicinity Of his late place Of cap
tivity.
1t was difficult to think OF such bsrbarI-
ties being done in q land where education
had certainly made good progress since
last we fought them in 1852, when hals
the male population are said TO be able to
read and write, and when school books
are issued IN the vernaculsr, setting forth
the elements of mathematics, geography,
astronomy and human physiology; yet so
1t is.
He paused more than once to examine
the edge and hilt of the dab, and the
charges in the revolver, on which so
much tn him. deDeuded now: and when
darkness was fairly in, he found himself
in locality famous for adventures in old
romance, to-wit-the recesses OF 8 forest.
1t was OF teak, species of tree which
frequently attains the height of seventy
feet without branch or twig, and then
throws out roof Of foliage 80 solid and
leafy as TO exclude the rays Of MONDAY
sun. There the darkness was dense then;
under such an outrageous canopy in mid
air not star was visible, nor could ray
of the most brilliant planet penetrate;
but the surface under foot was clear OF
all brushwood; though, In places near
the river, there grew jungle grass more
than twenty feet in height. For years
these vast teak forests have supplied no.
Bile materials for the dock yards OF Ran
COON, Madras and Calcutta.
Around him was solitude awful and
op cressive. Elephants, tigers, Desrs and
leopsrds abouuded, he knew, in the wild
places of Burmah; bat none, as yet, dis
lurbed him, and stretched among soft
moss and the dry dead leaves OF the past
season he took his repose, and in the
awoke to And thst he had slept
actually sIept-long and scundly, and
l.