The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-26
.ve.he hint. AfIeas.. we can try.

would choose it for ne; 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 believe
/ shall be able to signal to you by
lights projected on the sky. long and
| short flashes II 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 trife to 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
should she be, when she knew that his
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-
ION 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. ID" Mary read, and her soul
finished the word "a" ''R," 1.-the
| others came in confirmation. Then
there was flicker, and the circumam-
bient gloom once moro.
But that fragment of MATHS old IA
miliar endearment was sufficient for
Mary. Her deep bosom throbbed and
| neaved with pride and alteration. Her
! lover had succeeded, and through her.
! All! she knew him SO well, know 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 a promise in her face.
Thereafter Mats 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 WE'LL" and Mary began to smile at
his fears, though her heart kept stout
! against their realization.
But one night there came change.
There was series of vivid flashes, as
if even the electricity were nervous,
! and then Mary spelled out the hating
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-.
6dences of love- And at length she
CROPPED to her home considering the
mysterious words. Mysterious they
were, yet memory soon solved them
! She,recalled shadowy incidents of child
| hood. bits of UNDECIDED 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 contra bands which they dared
not bear into port. She remembered
| Reuben's sinister, Sowing face, and
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.
Its that young cub we've heerd
from" he growled. On him, with
his dad: but belize 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
pened. Mary kept her vigil, as usual,
for only the hand of death could have
stopped her. but not sign came out of
the west It remained as changeless
as an edict of fate. She watched until
the sickly light betrayed the breaking
of day. Then through the gray shad-
ows she crept back with heart just as
cold as that awesome hour, yet not
whit irresolute. One more trial would
she make, and if that gave no tidings
then she would seek them face to face