Wichita eagle., 1890-01-26
Daily eagle

Perhaps it may interest the reader to
know the fate of Mr.. Carsons property,
which should of course have gone to his
grandson Harry. | wrote TO England to
claim the estate on his behalf, but the
lawyer to whom the matter was sub
mitted said that my marriage to Stella,
not having been celebrated by an Or
dained priest, was not legal according to
English law, and therefore Harry could
not inherit Foolishly enough l acqui-
esced in this, and the property passed to
a cousin of my father-in-law but since
l have come to live in England L have
been Informed that this opinion is open
to great suspicion, and that there is
every probability that the courts would
have declared the marriage perfectly
binding as having been solemnly entered
into in accordance with the custom OF
the place where it was contracted. But
/ am now SO rich that it is not worth
while to move in the matter The cou-
sin is dead, his son is in possession, SO let
him keep it.
Once, and once only, did [ revisit
Babyan Kraals. Some fifteen years after
my darlings death, when L was man
in middle life, | undertook an eXpedi-
ton to the Zambesi, and one night out
spanned at the mouth of the well known
valley beneath the shadow of the great
peak. 7 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. [ rode towards their site; the
mealie fields were choked with weeds,
the paths were dumb with grass. Pres
entity / reached the place. There, over
grown 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 it was clear to me.
The settlement had been fallen on by
some powerful foe, and its Inhabitants
put to the assegai. The forebodings of the
natives had come true; Babyan Kraals
were peopled by memories alone. [
passed on UP the terraces. There shone
the roofs of the marble huts. They
would not burn, and were too strong to
be easily pulled down. / entered one of
them-it had been our sleeping hut-and
Lit candle which had with me. The
huts had been sacked: leaves of books
and broken fragments of the familiar
furniture lay about. Then | remembered
that there was secret place followed in
the floor and concealed by a stone, where
Stella used to hide her little treasures. |
went to the stone and dragged it up.
There was something within wrapped in
moldering native cloth. undid it. 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 a little paper
packet opened it; it contained lock
sf my own hair. remembered that [
had searched for this dress when came
away and could not find it, for had for
gotten the secret recess in the floor.
Taking the dress VITA me, left the
hut for the last time. Leaving my horse
tied to tree, I walked to the graveyard |
through the ruined garden. There it was
r mass of weeds, but over nay darling's |
grave grew a self sown orange tree, of |
which the scented petals fell in showers
on TO the mound beneath. As I drew
near there was a crash and rush. A
great baboon leapt from the center of !
the graveyard and vanished into the |
trees. | could almost believe that it was |
the wrath of Hendrika doomed to keep |
an eternal watch over the bones of the |
woman her jealous rage had done to
death.
l tarried there awhile, filled with such
thoughts as may not be written. Then, |
leaving my dead wife to her long sleep I,
where the waters fell in melancholy |
music beneath the shadow Of the ever |
lasting mountain, | turned and sought /
that spot where first we had told our |
love. Now the orange grove was moth |
ing but tangled thicket; many of the |
trees were dead, choked with creepers,
but some still flourished. There stood |
the one beneath which we had fingered, |
there was the rock that had been our
seat, and there on the rock sat Stella, /
the Stella whom had wed.
Aye! there she sat, and on her up
turned face was that same spiritual look
which l saw upon it III the hour when
we first had kissed. The moonlight !
shone in her dark eyes, the breeze wav-
cred in her curling hair, her breast rose
and fell, gentle smile played about her
parted lips. | stood transfixed, gazing !
on that lost loneliness which once was /
mine. l could not speak, and she spoke
no word; she did not even seem to see /
me. / drew near. Now her eyes fell. |
For moment they met mine, and their
message entered into me.
Then she was gone; nothing was left
but the tremulous moonlight falling
where she had been, the melancholy
music of the waters, the shadow of the
everlasting mountain, and, III my heart,
the sorrow and the hope.
THE END.
Glass Eyes.