The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-12-20

gled and fought against the kind hands
that tried to hold her. At sight of
away and flew to him. hiding her face
In his skirts. He picked her up in his
arms, and presently, feeling herself safe,
and sheltered I'm that eminence, she whis-
pered in his ear the little she could tell
of the events Of the night.
She had been put to bed early as usual
in the oak press bed in the wall with the
doors drawn close and in the middle of
the night she had woke in a fright, hear
ing a loud, hoarse scream and a heavy
sound like a fall, then a sort of a gurg-
ling noise, and then the door banged
and all was still. She had been too
frightened to call out at first and then
she thought that perhaps she had had
the nightmare and that grandmother
would be angry if she screamed, and so
lay trembling till she slept again. In
the morning she awoke suddenly; she
thought she heard the door slam again,
but was not sure, and grandmother had
never come to bed, and Ii seemed all
strange and dreadful. And then people
came. and there was poor grandmother
on the floor all blood
This was ali she could TELL and Ar
mand questioned it out of her by de-
grees and repeated IL to the official who
wrote ii down. Some one asked wheth-
er any robbery had been committed.
Had the old soul anything to loser Then
Armand told what he had seen of the
little hoard Of coins counted into the
old stocking. Search was made and re-
vealed that drawer in the bureau had
been wrenched open and was empty.
This seemed to supply what had hitherto
been lacking in the evidence, possible
motive for the crime.
"This makes 1t look blacker still for
the young fellow" said the man who had
been taking notes who else could
have known or suspected the existence
of the money!"
where is hep asked the priest. "Can
1 speak to him2"
This. however, could not be permitted;
the gendarmes declared they had no au-
thority to allow any one access to their
prisoner. A disused plgsty had been
turned into a temporary jail. While
conveyance was being fetched to drive
the accused to the town; and there he
was sitting I'm close custody. What he
had to say for himself could only be
CLEANED from the people 7-ho were there
when he was taken.
BY his own story, he had got an IN
expected furlough and had come from
Brest, as far as CarhaiX by diligence,
and thence had set out 10 walk but as
the night was foggy he had stayed at
a little tavern about a mile from mis-
mothers cottage. Armand shrewdly
suspected that the attractions OF YER
muth had proved TOO strong Tor ms not
very steady head. With the earliest
dawn he had started slipping out unfor-
tunately without rousing any one. Eav-
ing paid his reckoning over night. To
his establishment ne found the cottage
door ajar, and step ping in, he had al
most fallen over the PROSTATE body of
his mother. He had not even thought
TO look for the child who was sleeping
behind the closed doors. but rushing cut,
nearly mad with terror, had met two
peasants setting off to their field work,
who, taking his inccherent CONSERVATION
and blood-stained hands for evidence Of
guilt, FASTENED 20 rouse the village and
summon the gendarmes.
To Armand nothing but the testimony
Of eye-witneSseS would nave seemed evil
dence worth considering. Nerves open,
boyish face and clear eyes came before
him with irrefutable witness of the inn
possibility of a crime so hideous. He
fingered about the spot for a while. on
the chance of discovering something
that might throw light on the mystery.
Presently there was movement
among the crowd, and the little cart that
was to take the prisoner away was heard
numbering over the narrow. stony road.
1t was awkward to turn just here, and
the spectators were forced to scramble
up the bank out of the way. There
seemed quite a little lane of them to
pass through when the accused was led
out pale wfde-eyed with the gaze of
a terrified child. between the two men
in uniform. The appealing look he cast
at the priest as he caught sight of him
was like little Georgettes when she had
rushed to hide her face in those friendly
arms. The utter helplessness and trust
in it went straight to Armands heart.
He pressed forward. The gendannes
hurried their prisoner into the cart and
whipped up the horse. God help you,
my boy / will do all I can for you"
It was ali there was time for. He re-
manned watching so long as the cart was
in sight; and Herve, looking back, could
see the thin, black figure standing out
against the sky, and knew there was one
man who believed in his innocence.