Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-10-05

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no use IN running unnecessary
risks. Suppose we should meet
some oneY'
eve shan't /"
"l'm none so sure of that. Any
way, it's best to be on the safe
side, and tomorrow night"
Their yoic es lowered a little, now
died away into the distance, and
Kitty, standing alone in the woods,
tried to collect her scattered
thoughts into some definite ONT of
action.
"ShalI l still follow then7 or
shall 60 up and see it they have
not hidden their booty In that
hutin
For one moment she hCsltated,
then she began to creep up the
hillside With weary feet and lag.
glng limbs, for fatigue and terror
were beginning to tell upon her
slender frame.
1t was nearly dark when she
crossed the mOlderlng threshold
and sto ID in the solitary cabin.
Through the started limbers of the
roof the steel gray sky cleaned
with unnatural light, while the
half decayed boards of the floor
creaked aud gave way beneath her
weight. A futterng noise In one
corner made her heaIt turn chill,
aud the next instant she perceive
1t was but u dusky.wingCd bat.
beating itself against the beams
aud raflers.
She stole tremulOus!y forward to
look into the black, yawnilg chasm
of the mud chimney, the only place,
as it seemed to her, where any
thing as large as the deacOh'S can
vas bag could be concealed. Ana
as she picked her way a board
sprung bene ath her feet-a bOIrd
which had beeu loosely laid across
two beams without any securing
nail. Ilstinctively she STOPPED
aud there before her, wedged in
between the heavy timbers, over
which had lain beard, was the
little canuas bag.
She caught it in both hands, hug
gng it close to her breast, and hnr-
ried toward the door. But, as she
advanced ont of the close, moldy
ar Of the CABIN into the NovembeI
twilight, the strength seemed to
die out Of her limbs, the vitality
to ebb from her heart.
Surely, surely lam not gong
to perish nOw,' she though, Wild
ly, when the danger Is all snrm cunt.
ed, the peril all pas. God vii
never let NE die in this lonely
place~
Tue ha'f.murmured aspir alton
was still on her lips when all sense
AID feeling left her, and she sank
utterly unconscious on The door
step, with the canvas bag still
clasped TO her hearil
1t was quite dark when the old
lumber. wagon rolled upto the
door, and Mrs. Osprey came into
the house carrying the "extra'
shaw upon her arm.
"Klttyl Kitty Why, where Is
the chldi'
In vain she called. The fire bad
died upon the hearth-ths pan o.
| vegetables stood upon the table
just as the gill had left 1.-THE
doors were open, and, altogether
there was an air of confused desc
lation about the dark and dreary
house.
deacon Osprey said th'
frightened matrOD, grasping he
husbands arm "what does thii
mesbp
The d .acon set his teeth tightly
together, but made no answer. lie
walked silently up stars into th'
back I Dom, and presently turf
ed.
cit means, wife," he s,iG, in
husky voice
"Hush.7 SAID Mrs. Osprey, will
a start. whats th VT"
"SOmethlng at the door, salt
Silas, rising TO open it. And as b.
did so, a slender figure, drencae'
with chill rain and rObed in sOlled
briertOrn garments, tottered fol
ward into his arms, and the baI
of gold fell to the kitchen foo
with a dull, heavy sonn1.
kitty ho cried; ''mother, it i
Kitty, and she is diving"
But Kitty Clifford was not dy
ing-she was only faintlng iror
fatigue and overexertion, and Mrs
, OspreJ's kindly care soon restore
hpr IN afranUfh and animation