Wichita eagle., 1890-02-02

~~rnave pfsce IN the world gaspeo
Leonard Heath, putting tho cold metal
to his face, as though it had been liy.
ing thing.
He turned presently TO take up his
lantern. The fame was driven out sud-
denly by a rush of cold air; there was a
sound as of distant thunder. The walls
of the tunnel had fallen behind him!
he was buried in living grNe!
The church bells began to ring. He
could hear them, dulled and sweet, then
they were silent. No lower sound could
reach him. But it was worth recording,
that through the final pain and horror
of the night which settled down upon
him he heard the birds twittering in the
trees overhead, heard the grasshoppers
chirp in the grass. There were voices
reached him, too-voices which had
long been silent; Bess calling to her
baby, Winny singing an old Scotch Ia
ment of which she once was fond. He
| knew it was but the delirium of old
| thoughts unclaimed, unruled by his WILL
| But the tears wet his eyes for the first
time for many years.
| Three days passed, and Heath yet
lived. The candles he had brought
were gone he sat down passive. He
held the treasure in his hand, the deeds
to his place in the world, but he was
Inan in utter darkness, starving to death
for a mouthful of food. Thought comes
clearly sometimes in mortal pain.
homeless, nameless, with neither wife,
child nor friend to search for his bones,
or TO say, with ever SO little regret, HE
was here, and he is gone"
The hubble on the river would break
and die not less unmissed than he. The
physical torture of starvation gave him
not so much suffering as to know this at
last. He cried aloud. 1t seemed to
him, so terrible was the pain of soul
which thus uttered itself, that God him
self must hear and answer. But the
shock of his voice only loosened the
pebbles from the wall, and they rolled
rafting to the ground.
when he lay down in new place on
the bricks, a gust of damp air struck
his face. Then it occurred to him to
wonder why the vault had been free
from noxious gases. There must be
some opening to the outer air. Reused
and startled he dragged himself up and
crawled to the wall from whence the
draught came. The earth was lightly
heaped; he cleared it away and found
a passage. 1t was, in fact, a continual
ton Of the tunnel in the opposite direc-
ton, but Heath was too weak to reason.
How long he was in creeping through
he never knew.
There was a blast of cool night air;
heavy mass of tangled vines brushed
in his face; he thrust them aside; soft
light glimmered before his eyes; it was
the blue heaven studded with stars.
Leonard Heath crept out of the break
in the bank and stood in quaint old
fashioned garden about cottage. A
bird, frightened in its sleep, chirped in
its nest in the cherry tree beside him;
the path ran between rows of privet
bushes and crimson altheas; the damp
night air was fragrant with the scent of
spice pinks.
But in the evening air there came also
the sound of womans voice singing an
old Scotch lament. The door of the house
was partly made of glass, and bright
fire light shone through it. He went to
it. Some figures, which his dim eyes
could scarcely distinguish, were gathered
about the hearth. But in the warmest
corner an old leathern chair shone cheer
fully, vacant and waiting.
Then he opened the door, and, with
feeble cry, stood before them.
Later in the night, when Leonard
Heath, warmed and clothed and fed, sat
in the long vacant seat and they all gath
cred about him, he unfastened the copper
case. The lid was rusted into holes.
Joe only smiled, therefore, sorrowfully,
knowing what the end must be. When
the box was opened the deed fell from
it, a heap of powdered dust, which puff
of wind blew over the hearth.
Joe put his hand on his brothers head:
"My poor lad! You have lost your place
in the world, after ALL
But Leonard's face had brightness
which it had not learned when he was
boy:
Il lost it for many years, but 1 came
to it again tonight"
He was silent for a little while.
''You found the fortune long ago, joe"
he said; and he drew Winny's hand |
closer in his own. looking out from the
warm home into the quietnature behind
which God was waiting.
TIE END.