The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-06-04

peak. mounted my horse, and, quite
alone, rode up the valley, noticing with
strange prescience Of evil that the
road was overgrown, and, save for the
music Of the waterfalls, the place silent
as death. The kraals that used TO be TO
the left Of the road by the river had van
ished. i rode toward their site; the
mealie fields were choked with weeds,
paths we're dumb with grass. Presently
/ reached the place. There, overgrown
with grass, were the burnt ashes OF the
kraals, and there, among the ashes,
cleaning in the moonlight, lay the
white bones OF men. Now 1t was clear
TO me. The settlement had been fallen
on by some powerful foe, and its inhab-
itants put TO the assegai. The forebod-
ings OF the natives had come true; Bah
yam kraals were peopled by memories
alone. passed on up the terraces.
There shone the roofs Of the marble
huts. They would not burn, and we're
too strong to be easily pulled down.
| entered one OF them-it had been
our sleeping hut-and lit a can
die which / had with me. The
huts had been sacked; leaves OF books
and broken fragments of the familiar
furniture lay about. Then / remem-
bered that there was secret place hol-
lowed in the floor and concealed by q
stone, where Stella used TO hide her
little treasures. | went to the stone
and dragged 1t up. There was some
thing within wrapped in moldering.
native cloth. undid 1t. 1t was the
dress my wife had been married In. In
the center OF the dress were the
withered wreath and flowers she had
worn, and with them little paper
packet. opened it; it contained
lock OF my own hair. remembered
that ] had searched for this dress when
| came away and couldn't find 1t, for I
had forgotten the secret recess in the
Hoor.
Taking the dress with me | left the
hut for the last time. Leaving my
horse tied TO tree, walked to the
graveyard, through the ruined garden.
There 1t was mass OF weeds, but over
my darling's grave grew self-sown
orange tree, Of which the scented petals
fell In showers on to the mound be-
meath. As drew near there was a
crash and rush. A great baboon
leapt from the center Of the graveyard
and vanished into the trees. could al
most believe that 1t was the wrath OF
Hendrika doomed TO keep an eternal
watch over the bones Of the woman her
Jealous rage had done to death.
tarriod there awhile, filed with
such thoughts as may not be written.
Then, leaving my dead wife TO her long
sleep where the waters fell in melan-
choly music beneath the shadow OF the
everlasting mountain, / turned and
sought that spot where first we had told
our love. Now the orange grove was
but tangled thicket; many Of
the trees were dead, choked with creep
ers, but some still fourished. There
stood the one beneath which we had
fingered, there was the rock that had |
been our seat, and there on tho rock sat
Stella, the Stella whom / had wed. Ayl |
there she sat, and on her upturned face |
was that same spiritual look which | |
saw upon 1t in the hour when we first
had kissed. The moonlight shone In
her dark eyes, the breeze waved in her |
curling hair, her breast rose and fell,
q gentle smile played about her parted |
lips. Istood transhxed, gazing on that
lost loveliness which once was mine. | |
could not speak, and she spoke no word;
she did not even seem to see me. |
drew near. Now her eyes fell For a
moment they mot mine, and their mes
sage entered into me.
Then she was gone; nothing was left
but the tremulous moonlight falling
where she had been, the melancholy |
music Of the wsters, the shadow Of the |
everlasting mountain, and. in my heart, |
the sorrow and the hope.
THE END.