Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1893-05-19

he's not already. l Iroused the neigh
bors and they're bringing him here.
Be quick and prepare the bed.
Father, she asked, TREMENDOUSLY
catching his hands, tell me right
ont. It's james; / know it's James.
Isn't it2''
''Yes, it's James.
The willfulness with which she had
driven him away died now like spark
on the hearth. and gave place to an
anxiety which would have rendered her
helpless to get ready for his coming
had not her father sternly bade her
obey.
The unconscious man was brought in
and placed in the bed. While a
physician, wild accompanied the
carriers, was exaf&z4ng his injuries,
Mary followed tbs !. IN down stairs.
She was thoroug lv five and earnest
now, and calling Il, ~ attention in the
sitting-rooms she said
Men, Reginald Brown has done
this. know it. He WAS here this
afternoon and he threatened Mr..
Blake Mr.. Blake was here tonight,
and when told him of Browns threats
he called him coward At the mo-
ment he called him coward | saw
face in the window there. told my
self at the time it was only the shape
of the frost on the pane, but now |
know j, was Brown looking in. He
heard Mr. Blake call him coward, and
he has pushed him into the gully for
that and other reasons. Go and do
your duty"
The accusation was as draft of air
upon their smouldering hatred Of
Brown. The whispers of the life be
had led in the West sounded again IL
their ears as loud eorroborating voices.
There was not man in the crowd tc
whom James Blake had not shown hii
/ fairness and generosity. OF course
the. scoundrel Brown had committed
this deed. He had Thought to cover
the act under the probability that
man could easily slip into the gully on
such All icy night. One Of the men, a
biirlv, resolnte fellow, who had often
denounced Brown, constituted himself
leader and marched the crowd off to
! BroMa's residence.
Notwithstanding his prorestations or r
innocence, he was rudely taken from
the house, hurried before Justice,
and lodged in Jail to await the result
of Blake's injuries. These were
broken leg and rib, and an internal
injury which the doctor pronounced
serious. In addition, he had been
almost frozen. Had he not prov
identially lodged against tree, he
would have been dashed to pieces on
the rocks i'll the gully, or, escaping
these, would surely have persisted in
the awful cold of the night. The mar
rowness of the escape sent a shudder
all the community, and as the
facts of the case were freely and closely
opinion as to Browns guilt
became fixed, and indignation increased
as the horrors of a lonely death in
Blackman's Gully were graphically de
tailed
Meanwhile, with remorseful solic-
tude, Mary Graham watched over
James through the long hours of I'M
He was near death;
but at lrst one day, when she and her
father sat by the hearth, talking in
alternate hope and despair, the doctor
came down from the sickroom and told
hem that the young man would live;
hat he had Just come out of quiet
sleep; and that, in view of the serious
ness of the charge against Brown,
question as to his guilt would not harm
he sufferer.
Mary and her father ascended to the
iickroom, and James feebly welcomed
hem.
James" said the farmer, "do not
,xcite yourself at the question l am
going to ask. You know, suppose,
hat you were found down in Black
mans Gully. A man is in Jail accused
If pushing you down, and a word from
Fou will decide his guilt. Did Regi-
lald Brown push you into the gully?"
Brown push me into the gully?"
Blake repeated, weakly, but in great
why, what made you
hink that? OF course he did not.
vas careless, and I slipped on the ice
md fell down myself"
Farmer Graham hastened away, and
lanes, reaching out his trembling
land, asked
MARY, l know l mustn't talk, but
low about my answer? Are you ready
fet?"
"Oh James, how cruel l was to
Iou," was all she could say +; but he
Inew from it whit the joyful answer
yas--an answer which he was only too
glad to meet by relinquishing his re
olution not to come and live on the
arm. Yankee Blade.
According to the report of the Mis-
ouri Railroad Commissioners for 1891