Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-08-02
to the room together, and Rose and htrhus.
hapH xua~o Lar. z...tl-

Rose was In an agony. She would have
dashed into the room, but Philip held her
back,
Let them be for a few moments,n he
said. "Nortemar is alive. The mystery can
be only %that-aliye, and shut ND in this
house, under watch and ward Of that wo-
man."
Two minutes after, the door was opened
by Suzon, and the Durands went In. The
room was comfortable enough within, desc
late as the house looked outside. The furni-
ture was humble, but neat and decent.
There was a fire burning in the crate, a lamp
IN the table.
In an easy-chair in front OF the fire sat a
man with his leg in splints from the hip
downwards. lie was pale TO ghastliness.
and bad the look Of one who had but begun
the slow progress OF recovery from a sick
ness nigh unto death. His hair and beard
were long, his hands thin 10 transparency.
Eyes, it was CASTOR Mortemar, and his
wife was kneellng at his feet, kissing the
wasted hands, murmuring sweetest words,
nesting her head in her bosom, ineffably
happy.
Il give you back your dead" said Suzon
solemnly. "He was left for dead when I
picked him upand brought him in here, shot
through shoulder and hip and leg with half
a dozen bullets. The surgeon l brought to
him said IL was a hopeless case: but for the
sake Of surgery,a as an amateur, he would try
to cure him. For two months he lay In in
slant danger. For seven weeks he was mad
with brain feYer-fever that came from the
pain of his wounds. I have nursed him
through all. The surgeon will tell you If 1
have been a faithful nurse. And now I
give him back 10 You, not healed, but on the
fair road to recovery; although he will be
lame all his life, poor soul; but that does
not count In a writer, does II? lie will be
all the greater with his pen IL he has less
temptation 10 roam
BLESS you! May God bless and reward
you for your devotion r. cried Kathleen.
bah! There is no question OF blessing
or reward. | have been a wicked woman.
| kept him like q bird III 4 cage, and I let
you think him dead. and I told him you bad
persisted on the last day Of the barbados,
ard let him mourn for you. lie was help
less, in my power, and | lied TO him and
cheated him, But / snatched him from the
jaws Of death the surgeon who has attend
ed him will TIL you that. / dragged him
~ AtliN fllllg HblNtN hiNEEfh niH away
just as the last batch Of Serizier's blood
hounds were turning the corne of the street,
whooping for more blood: and I kept him
here, closely guarded, hidden from all the
world, except the surgeon, who believed
that he was my brother. He could tell no
tales, poor fellow, for ii is only within the
last three weeks that he has been in his
right wits"
Gaston's head was leaning forward against
Kathleen's, the husbands haggard brow
against the wife's wasted cheek. Both faces
were the image of death, and yet radiant
with q newborn life-the sublime light OF
happy love.
'She told me you were dead, Kathleen
he murmured.
Forgive her, dear. She saved you. and
j have avenged you. o my love! my love!
God Is good. lie has given you back to me,
out of the grave"
How did you manage TO occupy this
house, and 10 keep your existence here a
secretg" asked Durand.
There was M difficulty. / was not with.
ont means. | went TO the landlord, and Of
fered him half the rent of the house for the
use of two or three rooms NJ the back. The
house had been inlet a year and a half-the
street is a failure-so he was glad to accept
my offer, and the board was left up over
the door to avert suspicion. The people
who saw me go in and out took me for q
caretaker; nobody asked any questions. l
had a yan-ioad of furniture brought here
after dark from my rooms at the creInerte,
aud | made things as comfortable as | could
for my patient. II he had any knowledge
Of those dark days he would know that l
nursed him faithfully. For six weeks I
scarcely knew what il was TO sleep for an
Aal# Alta stSetse,hh rrl -lad o, MattIesS, at the
my ear on the alert for the first groan of
pain"
her hand and kissing it.
YOU are a strange woman" said Durand;
hut let no one say that you are wholly
bad"
II was a devil in those days Of the bar
ricades. was mad like the rest Of them,
maddened with the thought of al the wrongs
that we cdnditte have suffered from the be-
ginning of the world Yes, from the days when
Herod put John the Baptist in prison, and
cut off his head.to keep faith with q princess
who danced. i was drunk with blood, like
the rest of them. Butin six weeks of w~atchful-
ness and watching one has time TO think;
and, in the silence Of the night, sometimes,
i used to wonder whether il was good for
a woman to be In esprit fort, whether 1t
was not better to be cheated, even, and to
believe in some one up yonder, who can set
the riddle of this world right when He
chooses-some hand turning the great wheel
of destiny yonder behind the clouds. No,
Monsieur Durand, l I'm not all evil"
1t was not till the end Of the year that
CASTOR WAS well enough TO be removed 10
the Rue Git lie C9ur, and, i'm the mean time,
he and his wife occupied the rooms In the
empty house near the Place d'Italie, with
that good-natured busybody, Madame Schu-
bert-generally known as CT bonnie Schu-
bert-to take of care Of them. Suzon Michel
went straight from the house where those
two whom she had held apart were lost i'm
the bliss of an unhoped-for union, and gave
herself up TO the police. The account against
her name was heavy, and payment in full
was exacted. She was despatched with a
gang Of Communards on board a rotten old
ship bound for Cayenne, n In the NUT
terable miseries of that dreadful voyage she
was like an angel Of mercy to her fellow
sinners. And at the convict settlement
the petroleuse, the amazon, became the
nurse and minlstering angel OF the fever
stricken wretches In the prison hospital, Q
source Of comfort and Of hope to many a
dying captive, till the deadly climate did its
work, and the pestilence struck her down
as 1t had stricken others-a woman young
in years, but old in strange and sad expert
ence; a sinner, but not without hope of par
don.
The dark days of November an Deem
Der were blissful days for Kathleen. Health
and strength returned to her as II by magic;
and " a week after her restoration to hap
piness she was able to help In waiting upon
her husband. Another week and she would
hardly allow Madame Schubert to do any
thing for him. In the third week she was
walking to and from the printing Office OF
Gaston's old journal, which had been re-
suscitated under a new name, as The
Friend Of Freedom, and the proprietor of
which was ~enraptured to receive copy"
from the brilliant pen Of his old contributor,
given up as lost to literature for ever.
Yes, those were happy days. That poor
shattered leg Of Gaston's had shrunk and
shortened, and no would go limping along
the Dad of life to the end of his days; but
his mind was clear and vigorous as ever.
and his heart was content. During the en-
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