Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1890-12-25

Lucy SOG uer Sill S1eu luGO Cue mousse
and up to her own chamber without
attracting too much attention, and as
they shut the door upon her and her
troubles, the gun of the depart
ing steamer mingled with the pealing of
the bells which counted twelve o'clock.
OF all the costly wedding-gifts that
had been sent her, Carmine chose but
one to cheer her in her solitude
simple guard-ring Leslie had given her
to hold the wedding-ring in place. That
wedding-ring might never grace the
thin hand now, but the guard should
take its place.
Indignation ran high in the town of
Elmsford over the insult that had been
offered its most popular .young lady.
Parties of young men formed themselves
into various committees for purposes of
vengeance; but graver feelings began to
prevail when it was discovered that DR..
Kenilworth's money still lay in the safe
at his hotel, and that his travelling
trunks remained in his room untouched.
1t was ascertained that he had last been
seen by one of the walters leaving the
hotel about eleven o'clock on the night
before his expected marriage. He re-
marked to the man that he was going to
take look round the town, as he had
not seen it for seven years. His purse
was lying on the table in his room,
along with some labels he had finished
addressing, as if he had intended return
ing Immediately. Could he have gone
down to the docks to see the steamer?
A search was quietly instituted, but in
vain. Was it to be one of those ''mys-
terious disappearances?''
Carmine noticed on the third day of
the year that her mother, when she
came up to pay her usual brief visit, did
not abuse the lost man with her ac-
customed rancor. Nay, she even alluded
to him as ''that poor fellow"
''He is dead, them" she whispered,
sitting up and staring at her with her
burning eyes.
''NoAno-we don't know; but there
is no trace, and-and it is very strange. y
Carmine could not rest that night.
All her hold on hope was torn away by
that thought of death. She wandered
up and down, clasping her hands and
praying for merry. A moaning storm
kept company with her mood, and
dashed the snow in finty sheets against
her window. Through the hiss of the
tempest she could hear the tolling of
the bells telling the quarters, now loud,
now faint, as the wind howled past.
Never before had they pressed them
al 90 = !
now. They seemed to be'calling call
with human voices call
ing to her for help!
The girls mind was in highly
wrought state, her fancy disordered;
that she knew, and she strove for COM
posture. The faith, which had never for
a moment failed her, in Leslie Kenil-
worth's truth made her feel as if his
spirit were near her, his vo ice in the
changing bells.
AS the blast died away before the
coming dawn, and all things became
still, this impression became so power
full that she softly opened her window
and knelt down with her eyes fixed upon
the lofty campanile; and no sooner had
the blush light limned forth it's fretted
spires, than her whole soul seemed to
be drawn from her in the words:
30! God of mercy, tell me how to help
himr'
In solemn measure the hour tolled
forth-six o'clock. AS the sonorous
echoes died away a wild voice spoke to
her pieroingly, asin her very ear:
1fI,o,soo hoJ1a1 NJ lo71a
1t was Leslie's voice! Had she lost
her reason? What was that moving on
the face of the campanile? A shred of
paper? A hand? A reckoning hand?
Leslie! Leslie! I am coming!''
cried Carmine, as if ne could hear her.
Perhaps he did. The pale hand was
Five minutes later the sexton at st.
David's Church was summoned to his
door by young lady without hat,
who said simply:
''Dr. Kenilworth is locked in the bell
tower. Come!''
Breathless with establishment, he got
the keys and followed her flying foot
steps.
st. David's bells were managed by
clock-work down below. The sexton
vaguely remembered that he had gone
up to see if it was all right on New
Years eve before the midnight chimes.
He must have locked the missing man
in among the BELLS
UP and up they sped until they
reached the low-browed door. A stone
balcony ran around the belfry here, and
strangers often came up to see the view.
What more probable than for man to
stumble in the darkness throughs this
open door and be lost for months?
IF he's alive he's crazy, among them
demons!" muttered the sexton, as he
slowly turned the lock.
Narrow rays Of light shone into the
place from the lancet windows cut in
the walls, showing the monster bells