Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-18

so small She measured it against mine,
and it lay here in the cente+ like a child's.
The tips of her fingers don't reach to this"
and he drew an imaginary line across his
first finger joints.
David stood still, for his limbs were sud-
denly powerless, every drop of blood, all
energy had gone to feed the fury yelling
up in his heart
"What right have you to know such
things?" he demanded huskily; "what right
have you to touch her? You desecrate her
by your speech, by your thoughts. have
never SO much as squeezed her hand, and
you-did not see you tonight put her 10
shame by kissing her before us all?"
you should be the last to complain Of
that, remembering what it earned you'll"
said Michael; "but what do before her
father dare not do behind his back. When
alone with Catherine / am more timid, and
60 no further than she leads"
81 swear she never leads you'll" cried
David violently; ''you insult her BY every
word you utter"
Michael did not seem to hear, he was i'm
mersed in pleasurable recollections.
"To-day her hair fell down all about her
shoulders and below her waist. She had
run into the garden to catch her kitten that
mad escaped, and the wind loosened 1t and
blew i: about like yellow cloud. / wanted
to take it in my hands, but was afraid. 1
suppose she saw nv longing in my face, for
she got her scissors from her workbox and
cut off for me long thick piece. L have it
here!" and Michael thrust his hand into his
breast.
David recalled the similar movement
when Catherine had said to him, Have you
IL oI,A, e. ,,,I L.
derstood at last the look which they had ex-
changed. Michael had played him false.
Three months ago they had agreed to court
Catherine openly and in each others
presence, and to Loyalty accept her choice;
but now Michael had tampered with her
affection in an underhand manner, and had
got her to concede to him unwarrantable
favors.
Love, rage and jealousy sent David,
usually the most sensible of young MEN,
clean off his head. He sprang upon Michael
with a vague idea of tearing open his coat
and proving him liar, or else of wrestling
from him the lock of hair of which he made
his boast. Michael, astonished at the at
tack, then angry, too, struck back, and his
blow falling upon bis assailant's mouth laid
the lip open, while his own kuuckles
streamed with blood. This was enough to
fought with fury, neither remembering nor
caring for the cause. Locked in each others
arms, they swayed this way and that, and,
oblivious of the danger, came every moment
nearer to the cliffs edge. Both were strong
and evenly matched in weight and
height David had a temporary ad-
vantage. having got Michael below him,
but at the same moment be grew cognizant
of their peril, and the shock at once sobered
him. II was perhaps even then too late,
they were already on the brink. The hor-
ror legible in his eyes caused Michael to
glance round in his turn; down, down fell
the precipice, almost perpendicularly to the
shore. His grip upon David's arms, born
of feroci:y, frightened in despair.
Back, David, for God'sl for Gather
ine'sl" he whispered hoarsely. But David
felt with agony of mind the ground sliding
away beneath him. Was there nothing on
all this great round slippery earth BY which
to catch hold? His foot encountered an OBJ
stacle; with all his strength he held against
the knotty root of some long-perished tree
that laced the ground in his path. They
were saved! Bus when Michael said
"for Catherinel" David's feelings under
went another change. His hatred returned
a thousa fold, he no longer wished to save
his rival, he wished TO thrust him back, to
leave him to his fate. Perhaps he did
transmute this impulse into action, perhaps
Michael must have fallen away. David
never knew. ALI passed in fash of light
ming. With an uncertain cry Michael
crashed down TO death alone, and David lay
on the grass where he had fallen back and
stared at the sky ahd the sailing moon, and
vaguely calculated how soon she would
reach that great bank of black cloud that
yawned before her.
Next he observed on the grass, at little
distance from him. MichaePs cap, which had
fallen of in the struggle. He would have
recognized it anywhere by its shape. Its
color, its frayed and sun-browned binding.
The clustering wind racing along the cliff
top raised the cap on edge, played with it
capriciously, whirled it to tue brink OF the
preciplcs, balanced it there, toppled it over.
David experienced horrible pain at seeing
this senseless inauimate object thus disap-
pear before his eyes. 1t woke him from his
stupor. 1t carried his thoughts down to
Michael; he shuddered; had he died quickly
or was he alive and conscious of the in
creeping sea, that within few hours would
wash high up the base of every rock and
boulder along thar lonely coast? David
crept along the edge, leaned over the abyss,
and called down with all his strength. The
wind seized hold of his voice, scattered it
hither and thither. overpowered it.
No human sound might reach to down
there below; vision might not scan the depth
of those Titan walls, or cleave the blackuess
of their shadows. Yet for q moment
David, hanging over the precipice, fan
cied he could disti -guish q dark and
awful something blotting the moon-white
shore; then the light fIckered, paled, went
out, the moon had reached the swarthy
cloud bank, she passed into it and left him
alone.
He got up and stumbled home through
the windy darkness. As he went he re-
hearsed the three years of his good friend
ship with Michael. Closest, most lnsepa-
rable of companions, never an unkind word
had passed between them, until they had
made the acquaintance of Catherine Eames
Now, because of this girl, Michael's BODY
lay crushed at the foot OF Browncap Cliff,
and David was not only murderer, but to
conceal his crime must become liar and a
hypocrite as well.
He loathed himself, his old love for
Michael was strong within him; and never
theless, before the next sun rose, he had SIX il
fully pieced together and learned by heart
the story he was to adhere TO throughout the
remainder of his life.
CHAPPER vi.
"what do you mean to do?'
This was the question Scott asked O'Brien
the first moment he found himself alma