The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-02-16

guilt, and Jim strobe from the caravan
with muttered threat:
"I'll murder you both; you shall pay
for it.
As he disappeared Meg pressed her hand
to her heart and sank down on the nearest
seat, trembling and faint. 1t was not the
first time she had felt that deadly faintness,
and Jims words were not calculated to re-
assure her.
She was reused by the entrance Of girl.
who came forward and asked, not unkindly,
what allied her.
''It's my heart, Liza; there's something
the matter with it.
Liza smiled cynically. She, too, had
heard the whispers.
"Well," she said roughly, "you have
need to be frightened. | met Jim just
now, and he looked as black as thunder.
He's the very devil when he's reused l
say, Meg, l wouldn't be your
"What do you mean? Meg asked
wearily.
'Well, you see, Jim has heard about you
and Will He's mortal jealous. He'd do
anything. He wouldn't stop at murder
| say, Meg, you won't do that cigar busi-
ness to night?'
The sudden question following the sug-
gestive word needed no enlargement, and
Meg stirred uneasily.
aWhy shouldntI? Jim knows it's false
what they're saying. There's been on
sweethearting between Will and me.
never kept company with any one but
jim"
Liza laughed again.
"Just as you please, but l wouldn't
stand in your shoes tonight for any
thing"
When the hour for the evening perform
anee came Meg stood before the glass putt
ing the finishing touch to the gay dress in
which she usually went through the cigar
and pistol episode.
She had not recovered altogether from
her faintness of the afternoon, and she
opened the little window of the van to let
in some air. The suns rays flashed in,
striking upon the shelf that served as
dressing table.
They lit up the trinkets lying there, and
touched the red stone of the brooch Jim
had given her. until it looked like clot Of
palpitatiDg bloood.
Meg put out her hand mechanically to
take it. but at the sight of its color she re-
membered, with sickening shudder, the
''red hands that had reused her terror
few months before, and she drew back.
Then she took up another brooch from the
shelf, fastened it in her gown and went out
to the tent
The cheer that greeted her appearance
restored her self possession, and she bowed
smilingly to the spectators before she took
up her stand at the correct distance from
jim
She glanced furtively at him, and saw,
relieved, that he was looking at her in re-
stored good humor
He nodded reassuringly at her, and
signed that he was ready to begin. Meg
turned her profile toward him, and put the
cigar in her mouth, thinking idly how
foolish she had been to make so much Of a
trihe.
Jim and she were good friends again, so
she stood bravely, no emotion on her broad,
sensual face. while Jim raised his pistol to
take aim.
In the act his hand trembled, his whole
face changed. aud fierce glare came into
his eyes; he bent forward-gesture and
eyes alike horribly suggesting the panther
about to spring-and gnashed his teeth.
He had caught sight of yellow glitter
in place Of the red sparkle Of the brooch
by which be had always before taken aim.
The whole air seemed to have become
yellow, and the strained silence of the
spectators to be background on which
sentence was embossed: "They say he has
given her a gold brooch.
Meanwhile Meg stood rigidly still, won-
dering at the delay, and thinking that Jim
must have heard from VIII how little reason
he had for jealousy.
,Jim's eyes were staring at the sentence,
bis ears ringing with the words he had
heard heedlessly that afternoon. %They
say he has given her gold brooch.
Who had given Meg the brooch that had
taken the place of his gift?
For moment his senses reeled. Then
he Strengthened himself sternly, and affected
to examine again the priming of his pistol
He raised it at length, and with steady
hand aimed-was it at the cigar, or at
the brooch Meg wore, at his request,
little on one side
Steadily and long he stood, his pistol
poised, his hand on the trigger; his eyes
on the woman who had given him her all.
Steadily and long he stood; then sharp
and sudden the shot rang out And sharp
and sudden rang out its echo-a womans
wild, shrill scream.
In the silence that followed, Meg fell
forward
Almost before the spectators realized
what had happened, the curtain fell and
screened from their curious eyes the pitiful
thing upon the stage-poOr, sinful Meg,
lying with the blood flowing from wound
in her neck Just above the brooch.
Jim had aimed well; the shot had sever
ed the jugular vein and entered the carotid
artery.
The manager stopped to raise her, but
Jim pushed him aside and would have
lifted her himself. But when he touched
her he felt his hands warm with the flow
of her hfeblood.
"Oh Godp' he cried, shrinking back, Il
have murdered her.
Meg opened her eyes at the words, and
world of tenderness was in them as she
gazed on the man she loved, and who had
done her to death.
A great light flashed in her face and
transfigured it, so that the divine promise
of what she might have been-nay, was 1t
not the fulfillment of the promise on which
they gazed ?-was revealed to the men
around her.
She reached out and touched Jim's red
hand, and as the light faded she gasped;
'No, Jim, it wasn't your fault-l-did
| it. Will, do you hear I? | moved-on
purpose. And, Jim-I've been-true to
And so she proved her faithfulness.
J