The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-07
And then be struck her q furious blow
pom her white bosom, and she staggered

And then be struck her q furious blow
apd fell.
The balcony was only defended by rail
of carved wood that time and weather had
weakened long ago. As tho form OF Nina
struck it it broke from it's fastenings, and
she fell with a splash into the river and
vanished beneath its waters, and Max Ru-
dolph saw beside him the figure she had
seen, and knew it for Satau's self
''Demoni you have done thisp' he cried,
as he sprung into the water after his wife.
She had risen to the surface, and he
caught her and swan with her to land.
He implored her pardon, and she gave it
to him freely; but alasi the deed was done.
In little while she lay IN her coffin with
her baby on her bosom, and ne followed
her to the grave, and over her the turf
grew green in time, and stone was placed
on which were these words:
NINA, the beloved wife of Max Rudolph.
A jewel Lost to him forever"
Max returned to his desolate home and
dwelt there alone. Shortly he began his
pursuit of rare jewels again with more
energy than ever. No one knew what he
old with them, for no one saw him go at
midnight to his wife's grave, and there
bury them one after anothe. until the sod
above her heart was rich with jewels.
He lived on wretched food, with scarcely
fire enough to warm him. he wore the
garb of beggar. Piece by piece the old
furniture of his house, its pictures and its
ornaments were sold, the money converted
into gems But it was to Mina's grave
that he bore them, and there he buried
them, with prayers and tears, and the
black fend that had haunted his youth
ceased TO appear to him, nor was it ever
seen by any one at his shoulder.
At last it was known that he had sold
his home and his land, and retained only
the right to dwell while he lived in the
room from which the balcony-the balcony
on which Nina stood when he laid the
jewel in her palm, and whence she had
fallen TO her death beneath his blow upon
her bosom.
There he sat, often the whole night
through A fatal disease had come upon
him. He knew its dread symptoms well,
but he sought no physician. Death was
welcome to him. Only he prayed always
for some token that Nina had forgiven
him. His hair was white as bleached
linen; he had the aspect Of very aged
man, though he was not really old. Grief
and remorse and terror Of the fend had
made him what he was, and now he was
poor-so poor that he could not buy the
smallest gem to bury in his murdered
wife's grave.
One night he had in the house only one
little piece Of black bread and no more.
He sat upon a wooden bench. and in the
Low Ill cfr had ! Ia iy,t ba
balcony-the broken rail had not been
mended-the water sobbed below. He was
weeping-weeping for her whom he had
killed so long ago, and his remorse and
grief would have touched the hardest heart
who could have read his Alright.
Assuredly it appealed to heavens mercy,
for as the clock in a tower hard by struck
midnight strange thing happened. The
waves, never so high before, began to leap
up and wash the floor of the old balcony.
They were white in the moonlight-white
as woodland they looked to him some
times like the faces and hands and arms Of
sea spirits, SO that in spite of himself he
stretched out his own hands to touch
them, and, grasping something that melt
ed between his fingers, still held fast
small hard substance, which, as he opened
his palm, glowed like coal of fire.
A candle stood upon the hearth within
Trembling and overwhelmed with super
stitious terror, he arose and staggered to-
ward it, and saw that what he held was
great ruby, the very stone that he had laid
in Mina's palm SO long ago-the gem of
priceless value for the possession of which
he had We'd with kings.
An hour later the moon at her setting
looked on him as he tottered over the road
to the graveyard and knelt at last beside
Minas grave.
There, with little knife he carried, he
dug hole and buried the ruby hands
depth deep, close against the white stone
on which her name was written, and with
the effort his strength forsook him. He
knew that the supreme moment was at
hand
Nina, Minap' be cried Murdered an
CELL intercede for me with heavenF
And suddenly all about and above the
grave began to glow with clear light like
that of jewels, and in the midst he saw the
figure of an angel who wore his wifes face
holding out her arms toward him.
The next morning sorae laborers found
Max Rudolph dead beside his wife's tomb,
and for months men searched the house
where he had dwelt for the treasure he was
believed to have hidden. But no one ever
thought of looking in the right >place; no
one dreamed of what we know-that he had
offered all he had to his murdered love and
to the heaven he had so offended, and that
the turf beneath which Nina sleeps is rich
with jewels.-Mary Kyle Dallas in Fireside
Companion.