Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-06

now," thought the barOnet, while looking
into the sweet pale face Of Melanie, ana
listening to her low, vague replies, that
filed him with sorrow and something of
modification, while she, sunk back in an
easy chair, stroye to shut out his bluff
honest visage, with is husky grizzled
eyebrows and white mustache, SIS that Of
one who sought to come between her and
the face OF him who now ley cold and
moulderiBg ia distant grave and In a
place to her unknown.
"You will thi,k lightly Of all this sort
OF thing MORROW" said Uncle Grim
shaw, cycling her with sardonic glance,
when Sir Brlsco had taken his departure.
"To- morrow-What difference can to-
morrow make to me?" asked Melanie.
"Much, hope"
"How-in what way?"
Because" said he, with an angry grin,
for her grief intensely bored and dis
emily, and are always much more sensible
and amenable to reason in the morning
than at night"
"What brings him here?" nurmured
MeiaDie; chow can he come when his
presence torments me SOP"
| ''And yet you owe him much for his
Kindness" snerIed Uncle GrimshaW.
For days and weeks after this, with
esger and haggard eyes she sought and
searched the public prints with nervous
avidity for farther tidiDgs Of Lonsdalc-
even for complete details, if such were
come, Of his deeth-but she sought in
vain, for nothing OF the kind ever ep-
peared.
| His name seemed to have passed away,
his memory to be forgotten, and other
men had taken his place. 1t was inevita-
BILE.
"For the fashion of this world passeth
away"
! CHAPTER LII THE PO0NGYEE.
"Every hour" it is written, "we are
sowing the seeds of character, which one
day msy estorish even ourselves by
blossoming forth in actions OF which We
had not supposed ourselves capable"
So il WAS with Montague Lonsdale, who
could have little foreseen ali ne became
by Inc course of events, how patient and
matchful, how wary, yet resolute, how
capable OF enduring and facing out to the
bitter end, amid the barbarous people
whose captive be became, all that be had
to encounter.
Ia the Jungle he had been knocked
|
then he was dragged up, half senseltss
with mis- face deluged in his own blood,
and carried Off, psrtly blinded thereby,
by the Dacoits, for what purpose he knew
not, helpless, dis2rmed; incapable of resist
ance. Thus it WAS that, save his bsttered
helmet, no trace Of him was found by
the seachers after the death Of
Montressor.
That he was reserved for some bar
bsrous and protracted death-of ransom
the Burmese Dacoits never thought-he
had not the slightest doubt His hands
were tightly, painfully bound by g
hemp cord, which - that it might
shrink ana inexorabiy tighten still smC re
was care fully and deliberately Wetted, q
barbarity under which several Of our men
died in the Chinese war, when their hands
decsyed and mortified below the wrists.
Through district where the long reed
like elephant grass grew to vast height,
he was dragged or driven in haste, while
the cord which fettered him began fast to
occasion torture as it shrsnk; and his
csptore, true Burmese, though men OF
small stature, seemed capable of erdur-
ing great priystions, being strong, wirY,
tctlve and muscular; thus they urged
him on without delay or mercy.
"In what we call bottom, these people
are not inferior to Englishmen," says q
writer in the Bengal HsrkarD, "snd they
resemble US in their love OF luxury aud
similar amusements. La true bravery"
he adds--incorreclly we think-"theV
take the lead OF all other Asistics. es NO
one who has ever had an opportunity OF
seeing them at RsDgoon will deny"
Lonsdele's captors Knocked, grlnned
and scowled at him, while chewing the
inevitable betel nut, and jabbered and
talked about him, evidently; but igno-
rance of their Language left him equally
ignorant of their Intentions, his only
wonder being that they did not hack him
10 pieces and save themselves all further
trouble On the subject.
Whatever their intention, it was evil
IDENTIFY upset when they overlook two men
bearing a third in q species Of pal.pquin,
ana who, on seeing Lonsdale, uttered q
sbriil cry and issued an order IN per
emptory manner.
On this, the cord that cut his hands
was cut through by sharp dAh, and not
moment too soon, as he feared from
the extreme torture he endured that 6
little more of such lettering would have
Enearly wrenched his wrists through, and
rendered him cripple for life, or what
wss likely to be left Of it.
He now discovered that his protector
WAS the wounded man whom he had sue
coared a short time before, ard whose
bleeding limb he had bound up with q
handkerchief--the Strengthening ana
aged Burmese who, by his yellow silk at
tire, he now discovered to be Poon-
gyee, or species of monk-a parsonage OF
whom we have more to relEte anon.
Not q WORD that he uttered could the
luckless Lonsdsle understands; but it was
evident thst the cid man recognized him,
felt grateful for the succour he had given,
and made the Dacoits aware that he was
to be spared and protected. Thus thei1
menacing manner changed st once, under
his orders and influence, though their
covert glances betrayed hostility and
bs filed spite In the expression OF their
narrow, slmoned-shaped black eyes and
e 1t olive visages, with huge cheek-bones,
narrow foreheads, and coarse, ietty hair,
sill of which were indicative of the Hindu
Chinese type-for such the Burmese are
ia people described by Father Sanger
mano in 1855 as "servile, slothful, british
and false"
The undressed wound on his head &C.
casioned Lnnsdale intense pain and no
small anxiety, when day began to break,
and he knew that in time it would attain
it's tropical heat; while his captors were
still proceeding-he knew not in what
direction. save that by the position OF the
Gun he supposed it must be inland. or to
the eastward of the Irswaddy, far from
the welcome sight Of the smoky tunnels
of the river steamers--at once go sugges-