Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-04-19

great pia8xas arc emptied OF their prom
cnadcn; the halls and corridors are still
patronixed by the few belatcd chaperons
and their giddy charges. The music lov.
ing girl has gone aioft 10 her room, and
her aunt, the third member Of the group
that 90 chained the attention Of the
young man in gray, lingcrs for mo
ment 10 exchange a few words with their
cavalier. He seems in need of consoIa-
tion.
Don't be 80 downhcarted, Mr.. Van
Antwerp. It is very early in tho sum-
mer, and you have the whole season b.
fore you"
"No, Mrs. Rayncr, it Is very different
from last year. cannot explain 1t, but
know there has been q change. I feel
as--as ! used 10 In my old, wild days
when change Of luck was coming. It's
like the gamblers superstition. but can
not shake II of. Something told me she
was lost to me when You boarded that
Pacific express last February. L was
fool ever to have let her CO."
'Is she still 70 determinedT
II cannot shake her resolution. She
says that at tho end Of the years time
originally agreed upon sho will keep her
promise; but she will listen to no earlier
marriage. 1 have about given up nll
hope. Something again-that fearful
something l cannot shake off--tells me
that my only chance lay in getting her
to go with me this month. Once abroad
with her, could make her happy;
but
He breaks of irresolutely, looking
about him in the strange, hunted manner
she has noted once or twice already.
"You are all unstrung, Mr.. Van Ant.
werp. Why not 20 to bed and try and
sleep? You will be SO much brighter TO-
morrow"
II cannot sleep. But don't let me keep
Good night, Mrs. Rayner. Whatever
comes Of it all, l shall not forget your
Kindness"
So he turns away, and she still stands
at the foot of the staircase, watching him
uncasily. He has aged greatly in the
past few months. She is shocked to see
how gray, how iitful, nervous, irritable
he has become. As he moves towards
the doorway she notes how thin his
cheek has grown, and wonders at the ir-
resolution in his movements when he
reaches the broad piazza. He stands
there an instant the massive doorway
forming frame for a picture en- sill
houette, his tall, spare figure thrown
black upon the silver sea beyond. He
looks up and down the now deserted gal
leries, fumbles in his pockets for his
cigar case, bites off with nervous clip
the end Of huge "Regalia," strikes a
light, and before the fame is half applied
to his weed throws it away, then turns
sharply and strides out of sight towards
the office.
Another instant. and, as though in
pursuit, n second figure, erect, soldierly,
with quick and bounding step strides
across the glittering moon streak, and
Mrs. Rayner's heart stands still.
Only for an instant, though. She has
seen and recognized Lawrence Hayne.
Concealed from them he is following Mr..
Van Antwerp, and there can be but one
purpose in his coming here-Nellie. But
what can he want with her-her right
full lover? She springs from the lower
step on which she has been standing,
runs across the tessellated floor, and stops
short in the doorway, gazing after the
two figures. She is startled to find them
close ut hand-one, Van Antwerp. close
to the railing, facing towards her, his
features ghastly in the moonlight, his
left hand resting, and supporting him,
on one of the tall wooden pillars; the
other, Hayne, with white cinching fists,
advancing upon him. Above the low
boom and roar of the surf she distinctly
hears the clear tenor ring of his voice in
the tone of command she last heard un-
der the shadows of the Rockies, two
thousand miles away:
Haiti
No wonder gentleman in civil life
looks amazed at SO peremptory sum-
mons from a total stranger. In his high
indignation will he not strike the imper-
tinent subaltern to earth? AS well
bred woman it occurs to her that she
ought to rush out and avert hostilities by
introducing them or something; but she
has no time to act. The next words
simply take her breath away:
"Sergt. Cover, arrest you as a de-
serter and thief! You deserted from F
troop, -th cavalry, at Battle Buttle!'
She sees the fearful CLEAN on the dark
mans face; there is sudden spring, a
clinch, straining to and fro of two
forms-one tall, black, snaky, the other
light, 1.-THE, agile and trained; muttered
curse, painting breath, and then, sure as
fate, the taller man is being borne back
ward against the rail. She sees the dark
arm suddenly relax its grasp of the gray
form and disappear an instant. Then
there it comes again, and with it a
gleam of steel. With one shrek of
warning and terror she springs towards
them-just in time. Hayne glances up,
catches the lifted wrist, hurls his whole
weight upon the tottering figure, and
over goes the knickerbocker prone upon
the floor. Hayne turns one instant: "Go
indoors, Mrs. Rayner This is no place
Tor you. Leave him to me-"
And in that instant, before either can
prevent, Steven Van Antwerp, alias
Cover, springs to his feet, leaps over the
balcony rail and disappears in the depths
below. 1t is descent of not more than
ten feet to the sands beyond the dark
passage that underlies the piazza. but he
has gone down into the passage itself.
When MIR. Hayne, running down the
steps, gains his way to the space beneath
the piazza: no trace of the fugitive can
he find.
Nor does Mr.. Van Antwerp appear at
breakfast on the following morning, nor
again to any person known to this story.
An officer of the -th cavalry, spending a
portion of the following winter in Paris,
writes that he met him face to face one
day in the galleries of the Louvre. BE-
ing in civilian costume of course and