Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1892-04-29
looked for what he expected ana yet
dreaded to behold.


washed away and swallowed up by
the ocean," cried Ches, with groan oi
agony.
Dazed and stunned by the awful end
ing of his thoughtless prank, and with
bitter but unavailing remorse in his
heart, he at length crept homeward
still carrying the sheet which he had
unwittingly retained throughout the
whole terrible race. Silently he re.
placed the fatal linen upon the line,
then went into the house and passed
directly to his room lest the family
should notice his ghastly looks and
question him as to the cause.
He threw himself upon his bed. but
not TO sleep. The picture of a white,
terrified face sinking down, down,
down 10 a grave in the ripping, shining
water was ever before him; and slum-
Der fed from his uneasy pillow.
Poor, pale, quiet Charlie! Two hours
ago so full of life and vigor, and now
lying stark and dead under the cold.
cruel waves. And he had been the
cause,
Could they hang him if the whole
truth were discovered? He did not
know. Visions of an ignominious and
awful death upon the scaffold rose be-
fore him, and again he groaned in
agony.
But he would never tell! People
should never know what he had done;
never, neverl Somehow he would con-
ceal it, and the truth should never be
disclosed.
| haN 1,Fa1a~r e. lr,f
on the shining, shimmering water, and
settling slowly down into its black
depths. would pass before the eyes of
his imagination. Ches groaned. and
shook as If with an ague fit.
All that long, dark, horrible night he
lay and wept In sleepless agony, tor
mented by his guilty thoughts and ter
rible imaginings- Trembling with
weakness and burning with fever and
excitement, he arose from his couch at
break of day. His parents questioned
him anxiously, alarmed by his looks
and actions, but he would only answer
that he was tired and felt unwell
| Scarcely a mouthful of food passed his
| lips, and that he crowded down because
the other members of the family were
watching him, and not because he
wished for it.
Early in the day the tidings came
that Charlie Bird had run away. Mr..
Hall had told him to go up to the big
rock for a bundle the night before and
he had objected. He had been COM
PEELED to 60 and had never returned.
The bundle had been found in the road
by the old graveyard, but of the boy
there was not single trace. Ches
groaned at the first mention of Char
lies name, but all were listening
breathlessly TO the strange intelligence
and no one noticed 1t.
Mr.. Hall would not try to find him,
so the neighbors said. "lf he wanted
to leave those who had done SO much
for him, in that ungrateful manner.
why, let him" And so the matter
rested.
All day long Ches kept by himself as
much as possible, eating little and tor
mented by the terrible secret that was
struggling to burst forth and make
itself known to the whole world But
he must keep 1t in. So he passed all
that long, terrible day and another
hlkAb VI SlCGDiCSS kElCl anu ICI1OI DC.
The second morning Ches arose look
Ing but the ghost of the merry, light
hearted boy that he had been only two
days before. His eyes were wild and
bloodshot, his face haggard and ghastly
one minute and the next burning with
the hectic flush Of fever. He spoke In
coherently, trembled when he walked,
and his whole appearance was moro
like that OF an insane person than one
in his right mind. His parents were
much alarmed about him, for his condi-
tion grew worse with every hour.
And SO the day wore on. Darkness ut
last settled down upon the landscape,
but Ches was still brooding over the
horror hidden In his breast. A mur-
derer! Voices in the air seemed to
whisper the appalling word in endless
rciteration, and his brain seemed on fire.
About nine o'clock in the evening
Ches crept out Of the window Of his
room, to which he had retired some
time before, and hurried off through the
darkness. A strange, uncomfortable
impulse TO visit the scene OF the fatal
accident had taken possession of him,
and was driving him on. lie walked
rapidly up the hillside road as far as
the old graveyard, paused there, and
looked 6xedly at the edge of the cliff,
dreading yet desiring to go on to the
brink of the precipice from which
Charlie Bird had fallen to his doom.
As he stood there, unable TO go for
ward or TO return, a noise at his right
side startled him and caused him to
turn his head. Horror OF horrors!
Not ten steps away from him, with
fnce cleaning white and ghastly In the
light of the rising moon, stood the
shadowy figure of Charlie Bird. Ches
uttered single wild piercing cry and
fell senseless to the earth.
When he came TO himself again he
was lying in bed in darkencd room at
home, while his mother was moving
about with a worn and anxious face.
For a moment Ches looked around In
wonder; then the memory of that awful
night came back TO him, and he cried
out In a voice SO changed and feeble
that he could scarcely believe IL was
his own: Great Heavens! A muir
dererl''
His mother stepped quickly TO the
door and spoke to some one outside, and
IL figure entered and approached his
bedside. II was Charlie Bird, alive and
with the hue OF health upon his face.
Ches gave one look and tainted.
As soon as he became strong enough
for he had been ut deaths door for
weeks with a brain fever-the whole
story was told to him. When Charlie
heard Ches' wild cry behind him, he
gave one quick glance over his
shoulder and beheld the white-robed
apparition In hot pursuit. He made q
single wild bound forward, and felt
himself falling down, down somewhere
he knew not where.
Instinctivcly he made frantic clutch
TO save himself. and succeeded in catch
ing hold Of the tough dropping bushes
that grew upon the edge Of the prcci-
pice. There he hung, suspended In mid
cir just below the summit OF the clin,
while the ocean rippled on the shore
more than forty feet beneath him.
IT was but a minutes work to Chamber
back to the top of the cliff, but in that
minute Ches had started on his way 10
the shore. Charlie saw his white. re-
treating form, and still nearly Insane
with terror, he turned and resumed
his headlonR fight In the opposite
direction. Without knowing or caring
whittier he went, so long rs he cs-
capped the specter that he fancied was
At l. n