San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-01-16

became possessed with the idea that the
most malevolent of all the spirits, per-
haps the devil himself, was upon them.
Calling on their Maker with more urg-
ence than they ever did at "pray'r
meetin," they grabbed up their belong
ings and addressed themselves to fight.
The bags Hopping up and down on
their backs held them to their speed, by
corporal reminder of what they had to
lose if the devil should overtake them,
and the molasses in the bucket stopped
over the sides and sweetened the dust at
every jump. The buckle. top had
bounced off in the first burst and sped
down the road before them, and the
owner, feeling that he had no time to
lose, never dreamed of stopping to look
for it. Every now and then the bucket
banged against his leg, causing him to
feel that the evil one might be gaining
and to yell: "Oh, Lawdy! Oh, Lawdyp
at the top of his lungs. The torchbearer
had flung away his light, thinking to
elude the devil in the darkness, and all
his soul was in his heels.
Thorne laughed little in mirthless
fashion; but he was too miserable to be
amused While the men talked, black
jealousy had crept around the old mag
nolia and linked arms with him. Twice
in the same evening this name had
crossed him. Who the devil was this
Jim Byrd? These men had spoken of
him as the avowed lover of Pocahontas,
the man she would eventually marry
The girl herself had admitted to him to
be dear and valued friend-a friend so
dear that his going had left a blank in
her life. The power he had but now
felt to be his own suddenly appeared to
be slipping into other hands. Another
sickle was sharpening for the harvest;
other eyes had recognized the promise
of the golden grain; other hands were
ready to garner the rich sheaves.
Thorne's heart grew hot; angry blood
surged from it and inflamed his system;
every nerve tingled: his eyes glowed and
his fingers frightened on the barrel of the
gun beside him. His consciousness OF
antagonism grew so intense that it
seemed to annihilate space and material
ize his distant rival into an actual pres
ence; his feeling was that which ami
mates brutes when they lock horns, or
fly at each others Threats, and, could
the emotional force which swayed his
soul have been converted into physical
force and projected through space, Jim
would never have seen the light of an
other day.
Poor Thorne! If suffering may be
pleaded in extenuation of moods whose
cause is mingled love and pain, he GER
tainly was not without excuse. Imagi-
nation, wounded by jealousy, leaped for
ward into the future and ranged amid
possibilities that made him CULVER
noble, beautiful possibilities, filled with
Joy and light and sweetness-and filled
for his rival-not for him. AS in mir
ror he beheld his love in his rivals
arms, resting on his bosom, as an hour
ago she had rested on his own; only in
this mans embrace, he pictured her
glowing, sentient, responsive tolook and
caress; not cold, lifeless and inanimate
Should this thing be? Mol thousand
times mol Must he always have stone
for bread2 Must his garners always
stand empty while other mems over
flowed with corn?
Deeply the man cursed his past folly;
bitterly he mathematical the weakness
which had allowed shadowy scruples
and too fastidious taste to rule his
Judgment in the matter of a divorce.
He would wait no longer: he would
break at once and forever the frail fetter
that still bound him to union from
which all reality, all sanctity had fed.
He would be free in fact, as he was in
heart and thought, to pit his strength
against that of his rival. This prize
should not slip from his grasp uncon-
tested. No man should approach the
shrine unchallenged.
The wind rose, signing ftfully; the
clouds gathered and formed an army
which stormed the zenith and threatened
to overwhelm the pure light of the
planet. The lesser stars vanished, two
or three falling in their haste and losing
themselves forever in infnity. The night
thickened; snow began to fall.
CukDTEp V