Wichita eagle., 1889-08-24


the easement in her hand, but did not lift
there was lull The air was still fer a
moment. At that moment the white object
moved again, rose once more and duttered
up, it was flying, it was nearing-it fell On
the roof Of the bakehouse under the window.
Now Mehalah saw what this was. It was the
wounded gull, the bird Rebow had shot,
The miserable creature was struggling with
a broken wing, and with distlling blood, to
escape to sea TO die, and drop into the dark,
tossing, foaming waves, to lose itself in in.
fnity. 1t could not expire on the land, II
must seek its native element, the untamed,
soul on the earth.
Was it not 80 with Gloryl Could her tree
soul rest where she now vast Could it en-
dure forever this tyranny OF confinement
within impalpable waLsa She who he'd
lived, free as bird, to be blown here and
there by every impulse, when every impulse
was fresh and pure as the unpolluted breath
of God that rushes over the ocean. Was she
not wounded by the same hand that brought
down the white newt There she was flutter-
ing, rising little, again falling, her heart
dim with tears her life's vigor bleeding
away, the white. Of her bosom sIneared with
soil that adhered, as she draggled In the mire,
into which he lad cast her. Whittier was
she tendingi She turned her face out to sea
it lay before her ink black. Ped Hall and
its marshes were to her prison; freedom be-
yond its seawalL
She was startled by sound as Of bricks
falling. She listened without curiosity.
The sound required again, and was followed
after awhile by grating noise, and then
rattle as Of iron thrown down. She heard
nothing further for few minutes, and sank
back into her dull dream, and watching Of the
poor new, that now beat its wings on the roof,
and then slid of and disappeared. Was it
dead nowi It did not matter Mehalah
could not care greatly fer bird. But pres
emily from out Of tbs 5hadow of the bake
house foated few white feathers. The gull
was still vending its way on, with unerring
instinct, toward the roiling sea- Just then
Mehalah heard thud, as though some heavy
body had fallen, accompanied by short
clank Of metal She would have paid it no
further attention had she not been reused by
seeing the mailman striding and then jump
ing, with the chain wound round one arm.
He looked at the moon, his matted hair was
over his face, and Mehalah could not distin-
guish the features. He ran across the yard
and then leaped the dixie and went off at
long bounds, like kangaroo, over toward
the sea wall.
Mehalah drew back. What should she dot
Should she rouse Elijah and tell him that his
brother ha>, wrenched of the grating Of his
window and worked his way out, and was
now at large in the glare of the moon on the
marshes, leaping and rejoicing In his free
don't No, she would not. Let the poor
creature taste Of liberty, inhale the fresh,
pure air, caper and race about under no
canopy but that Of Gods making. She
would net curtail his time Of freedom by an
hour. He would suffer severely for his eva
sion on the morrow, when Elijah would call
out his men, and they would hunt the poor
wretch down like wild beast She could
see Rebow stand over him with his great dog
whip and strike him without mercy She
rouse Rebowi She reconsign tie maniac to
his dark dungeon, with its dank floor and
sitting atmosphere! The gull was forgotten
now; its little striyings overlooked in anxiety
for the mightier strivings Of the human suf-
ferer
Yet all these three were bound together by
q common tel Each was straining for the
infinite and for escape from thralldom; one
with broken wing, enc with broken brain,
one with a broken heart. There was the
wounded bird tapping and edging its way
outward to the salt sea. There was the dazed
brain driving the wretched man in mad gam
bols along the wall to the open water. There
was the bruised soul Of the miserable girl
yearning for something she knew not what,
wide, deep, eternal, unlimited, as the all en-
bracing ocean. In that the bird, the man,
I he ,oiJ
could not go TO bed and leave the poor ma
MAC thus wandering unmatched She would
go out and follow him and see that no harm
came to him.
She took OF her shoes, shut the window.
Her mother was sleeping soundly. She I'M
did the door and descended the stairs They
creaked beneath her steps, but Rebow, who
had slept through the noise made by his
brother in effecting his escape, was not
awakened.
As she passed the balehcuse she Lit on the
wounded bird. In q spasm of sympathy she
bent and took it up. Ii made a frantic effort
to escape, and uttered its wild, harsh screams;
but she folded her hands over the wings and
held the bird to her bosom and went on.
The blood from the broken bone and torn
flesh wet her hand, and dried on it like glue.
She needed it not, but walked forward By
the raw moonlight she saw the mailman on
the wall. He had thrown down his chain.
He needed it not now. There had been suffi-
cient intelligence or cunning in his brain to
bid him deaden It's cianLing when making
his escape from the house
He sprang into the air and waved his arms;
his wild hair blew about In the wind, it
looked like seaweed tangles. Then he sat
down. Mehalah did not venture on the wall,
but crept along in the marsh. He had got a
stone, and was beating at his chain with it
upon the stone casing Of the wall on the sea
face. He worked at it patiently for an hour,
and at last broke one of the links He waved
the chain above his head with shout and
flung it behind him into the marsh. He ran
on. Mehalah stole after him He never
looked back, always forward or upward
Sometimes he danced and shouted and sang
snatches TO the moon when it fared out from
behind cloud. Once, when at bend of the
wall, bis shadow was cast before him, he
covered back from il, jabbering and putting
his hands supplementary toward it; then be
slipped down the bank, laughed and ran
across the marsh with his shadow behind
him, and thought in his bewildered brain
that he had cunntngiy eluded aud escaped
the figure that stood before him to stop him
He reached the n,iN that worked the pump.
He must have remembered 10: il was mixed
up somehow with tue confused recollections
in his brain, for 10 did not seem to startle or
frighten him He Scarcely noticed il, but,
uttering 6 howl, wild, triumphant shout,
sprang upon a duck punt hauled up on the