San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-10-24
The GypSie's Curse;
BY THE AUTHOR OF GUILTY WITHOUT
CRIME" THE "WRECKERs OF
ERNER Doom" ETC.
First Chapter began October 18th.

GRAFTON of his inferiOrity to his antagonist
or of the consequences to himself if even
he succeeded in taking the hated life.
Startling was the change that evil pas
sions had wrought in the young man in
few hours. His cheeks were livid and bag
gard, his neither lip was dropping, and his
eyes were wild and bloodshot; any one
who had seen him seated in that dreary
place, with his elbows on his knees and
his hands propping his chin, might well
have deemed that he had committed or
contemplated some deadly crime.
Although the rain had ceased at Scarth
Abbot, it was pouring down over the far
Off hills, and the storm might sweep over
Searth Abbot again that night. The river
rose steadily; and numbers of villagers
watched anxiously the progress of the
floods, and predicted that whether the rain
came or not the river would certainly
overflow at the turn of the night, if not
before; though what mysterious influence
the midnight hour had upon tides and cur
rents was not explained.
Black and heavy the clouds rolled up
from the west, till the whole sky was one
black canopy, beneath which the river
rushed foaming and roaring; and against
the inky black ground the doomed Mill
stood out white and ghostlike.
Just when darkness had fallen on the
scene, two figures came out from the wood
and passed down to the lock bridge, and one
"a mans fgure-vanished in the shadow;
the other ran swiftly towards the Grange
garden, which, at the back of the house,
stretched to within few hundred yards of
the river.
As Zeph-for it was she-drew near to
the gate of the garden, her keen eyes
detected form standing just without;
and her vengeful heart gave glad bound.
The next moment lima had sprung forward,
and Zeph was painting for breath, pressing
her hand to her side.
"What is it? What is the matter?"
asked the Canadian hurriedly, her thoughts
flying instantly to Roland, who had left
her So In distraught q state of mind.
ooh, lady" faltered the girl, 81 was
coming to tell you'll daren't tell them at
the Larches; and the young Squire was
fond of you; wasn't he, LADY,"
$50 on" said lima, grasping Zeph's
wrist and speaking quite sternly in her
agony and terror. "What has happened?"
"He's down there, lady-in uncle's cot
tage-drowned. Father found him."
But lima waited for no more; she ran
down the slope fleetly as deer. She had
reached the bottom, and had turned to
ask Zeph, who was a little way behind,
where the cottage was, when u stalwart
fOrm-which even i'll that second she recOg-
missed as that of Job HestOn-sprang out
before her, and, before she could utter
cry or word, thick shawl was thrown
over her head, and she was lifted in a
grasp against which her widest struggles
would have been vain. She did not struggle,
she did not try to cry Quit would have
been useless if she had. She perceived,
even in that bewildering moment of hor-
rer never to be forgotten, that she was the
victim of Il terrible deception-that Job
Heston and his daughter were but the
tools of Roland Sabine.
"Don't hurt her, father" she heard
Zeph say, as she was being borne rapidly
towards the weir; but its roar grew
louder and louder, so that Jobs muttered
reply was lost in the thunder of the angry
waters. Were they going to throw her
over? She almost wished they were. But
no; she was carried On-still on, over the
lock bridge. They were taking her to the
Mill-the Mill that would be washed away
that night! Where was Zeph now? Gone?
Ali, Heaven, there was some sense of pro-
lection while in her presence! She was
woman, evil though lima knew her to be.
lima did not faint, not once did her
keen wits desert her. Every faculty was
sharpened. She quickly revolved the
feasibility of any appeal to her captor,
and dismissed it Is worse than futile. In
the first place, HestOn was firmly con-
WINGED that Dark Darrell would perish in
that nights floods, and therefore he would
only laugh at her if She promised him i
reward from her lover if he would save
her; in the second place, she felt certain
that, though the roar the weir prevented
her from hearing anything else, Roland
Sabine was close ut hand, and possibly
nay, prObably-armed; SO that treachery
OF jobs part would be instantly frus-
truted.
Her cousins object WAS, she thought, to
impriSOn her i'll the Mill, and to try to
force her into promise to fly with him,
leaving her, if she refused, to perish in the
floods; and, horribly as this fate was, it
was Elysum compared to that which she
had first conceived, and which even now
was not beyond possibility.
Her hurried reasoning was cut short by
Job pausing; then he commenced to as
cend steps. He was going into the Mill!
Then for the first time she heard steps fol-
lowing. On they went, still on; they had
passed the first floor. Next a somewhat
steep ladder was climbed, something was
set down by the man who followed job
the man was Roland, lima knew-and the
next moment she was put down gently,
the shawl removed, and she found herself
in the disused corn-loft from the narrow
window of which she had gazed few days
before, and Roland Sabine stood before