The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-11-17

| safety. | fear any of our letters would
remain there"
''Ohl if 1 only could But l will,
know 1 will Even now l seem to see
| that which has been hid. Listen, Mary;
| you know for what I've been striving
| a means of REORGANIZATION by
electric lights at night l really be-
| lieve l have finished my solution of the
problem. 1t was my love for you that
gave the hint. At least, we can try.
shall doubtless have the little turret
room of our house on the cliff. Father
would choose it for me; it's the
most remote l will set up my
apparatus there. Perhaps, oh! per-
haps. At least, come here every
night and watch, for l believe
l shall be able to signal to you by
lights projected on the sky, long and
short flashes like the lines and dots of
the Morse alphabet"
The next day they parted-they who
had known no separation save that of
sleep. A week passed by, and then
Mary began her vigils. The walk to
the bluff was triae to a girl of her
strength, and the darkness was no
hindrance, for she knew every step of
the way was an increasing comfort to
her, for it brought her nearer to her
lover.
The late hour was their friend, for it
rendered everyone else unconscious,
and left them the world to themselves.
She was not impatient when that night
and the next yielded no sign. Why
Shn11ld ha no tybnYl Shn l, M that bic
heart was signaling every second? And
knew well, too, just what it was say
ing2 And on the third her reward
came, as rewards will come to pure
hearts that are willing to wait. Against
the blue-black sky of the western hori-
zon there were several distinct flashes,
Intellectual, yet distinct, as on the first
great day there were glimmers precd-
ing the dawn. Then, slowly and wav-
eringly, there were spelled out four
letters. I'D" Mary read, and her soul
finished the word. ga" 'R, )" ''L"-the
others came in confirmation. Then
there was flicker, and the circumam-
bient gloom once more.
But that fragment of Matt's old IA
miliar endearment was sufficient for
Mary. Her deep bosom throbbed and
heaved with pride and alteration. Her
lover had succeeded and through her.
All! she knew him SO well, knew how
his genius was hampered by timidity
and sloth, twin brothers that are sell
dom separated. In her love there was
tenderness akin to maternity, and
she humbly gloried in her strength, for
she felt that some day it would be
spent for him. He had succeeded,
despite his environments of loneliness
and brutality; for the present there
would be this ecstatic communion; for
the future there was the hope, aye, the
certainty, of happiness! When at
length Mary aroused from her reverie
and turned her light steps homeward
the east smiled promise in her face.
Thereafter Matt's mechanism worked
smoothly, and for few moments each
night Mary read her lovers wishes and
fears in the sky. True, she could not
answer him, yet what had she to tell?
He knew her heart; it long hadbeen an
open page to him. AS for her life, it
was uneventful. Should the crisis
arise for her to speak, her deeds should
be her words! His messages were frag-
mentary. but Mary had an interpreter
in love that filled all interstices. They
told that he was depressed by circum-
stances, yet buoyed by probabilities;
that his father was morose and savage,
seemed conjuring some evil, and that
when he gave the signal then at once
she must come to him. Weeks passed
by and still the horizon flashed "all
is weu;" and Mary began to smile at
his fears, though her heart kept stout
against their realization.
But one night there came a change.
There was series of vivid flashes, as
if even the electricity were nervous,
and then Mary spelled out the halting
tidings: WARN your father; he has
been betrayed. The revenue cutter
will capture him on his next trip-my
father" The lights ceased abruptly,
as if heavy hand had fallen. Mary
waited, but the skies withheld the con-
fidences of love. And at length she
groped to her home considering the
mysterious words Mysterious they
were, yet memory soon solved them.
She recalled shadowy incidents of child
hood, bits of unheeded conversation, her
fathers long absences, the fetching
and storing of bales and casks, his
broad acquaintance with those sailing
to foreign ports, and so she compre-
hended that the former partners had
been smugglers, intercepting vessels off
the coast and receiving from them
precious contrabands which they dared
not bear into port. She remembered
Rcuben's sinister, Sowing face, aud
she perceived that he would work his
revenge, even at the ruin of his own
livelihood.
OF course she must tell her father and
save him from fine and forfeiture and
imprisonment. But how could she ex-
plain the source of her information, or,
without SO doing, make it credible?
Poor child Her nature was too simple
and unassuming to understand its own
strength. That surly father respected
/ her judgment as he had her mothers,
SO when she warned he believed.
"'Tis that young cub ye've heerd
FROM" he growled. "D-n him, with
his dad; but belilke it's true. I'll not
venture out this week, though there's
job with many a dollar Oh, my day
may come, and then, and then, stand
by for squalls. you lubber." And Mary
watched him as he bravely paced the
beach, now and again shaking his fist
toward Macbeth.
That night an ominous thing hap
| peued. Mary kept her vigil, as usual,
for only the hand of death could have