Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-09-24
d,a so MS UNCONSCIOUS vIctIm stirred

ala so MS UNCONSCIOUS victim stirred
little in his sleep and murmured
"Maggie;" but he did not wake.
"The fool is dreaming of his sweet
heart" muttered Rockhurst sotto
vOce, as he swung himself gently
from the 'karte," and picking I'D
the saddle from the floor, quietly
left the wagon. Stopping for mo-
ment outside to open the pouch and
make sure that it contained what he
expected-a few rough pebbles, dia-
monds in their 'gang'-he unhitched
the horse, led him carefully little
distance beyond the wagon, saddled
him, and spr,nging upon his back,
quickly disappeared over the moonlit
plain.
All that night the guilty man
urged on his beast, keeping to the
track as best he could. All the next
day, too, he pushed on, stopping
twice at lonely farmsteads to bait
the horse and procure food for him
self. He was no connosseur of d ia
monds, and could not form any idea
of the value of his plunder, but he
Judged that it must be worth some
hundreds of pounds He had got d
good start, and he meant to keep it.
The program that evolved itself in
his brain was this: He would make
direct tor Graaff Reynet, at which
place he expected to arrive at least Il
couple of days before any information
or the robbery tor news travels
slowly over the veldt. There he
would take the train for Port Eliza
beth, leave the cars before they got
to their destination, and make the
hest of his way across country to East
London, where he could ship to any
distant port whittier d vessel might
be on the point of sailing.
Full of this determination, he
spared neither himself nor his steed,
and that night drew rein at a solitary
farmhouse from one of the windows
of which shone the light of a candle.
The appearance of the homestead did
not give one the idea that the tenant
was blessed with a superfluity of this
worlds riches.
The squat, mud-built dwelling.
place was small and ugly, and the
kraals and out buildings were few and
scanty. Nevertheless Rockhurst de-
termined to stop and beg for nights
quarters. Dismounting, he ap,
preached the house, and peered anXl
iously into the lighted room through
the uncurtained window, but the
sight he saw was far from the com
Portable scene he expected. On a
low settle, which had been trans
formed into bed, sick child-a lit.
tic girl--of 3 or years of age moaned
wearily as she tossed restlessly in her
feyerish slumber, while in a chair in
front of the dying embers in the
CRATE, a pale wan woman, haggard
and hollow-eyed with long watching,
sat lost in that deep oblivion which
only overwrought nature can give.
SMALLPOX" exclaimed Rockhurst,
recognizing the symptoms of the
loathsome disease on the face of the
little sufferer bad, too. Pm get.
ting out of this as sharp as l can
even if have to camp out on the
veldt all night" and springing once
more into the saddle, he urged on the
jaded beast.
But however much he tried, he
could not rid himself of the sight of
that little face dishgured with the
fatal blotches Suddenly he turned
the horses head. Something drew
him back to the farm. A second
time he approached the lighted win.
dow and peeped in. The sash was
open at the top, and as he stood
watching the pathetic scene, the
parched lips of the tiny patient moved
and family lisped: "Mammy, want
u drinkm
A jug and Il cup stood upon the
little table; but the woman in the
chair was deaf to the plaintive voice.
For four days and nights she had
watched unremittingly by the sick
couch; now her strength had failed,
sleep had overcome even mothers
devotion; and it is doubtful whether
anything short of an earthquake
would have aroused her Just then.
NANNY, want drink-want ii
drink, mammY-mam.m came
again, Stlll more 1alntly. from the
settle.
In the moonlight something sus-
piciously like tear glistened in the
corner of the hardened scamp's eye
as he hitched his horse to a ring
in the wall of one of the outhouses
and turned t. the door No bolts
stopped him, and, raising the latch,
he stepped straight into the little
room. With clumsy fingers, trem-
bling with a strange emotion, he
poured out the cooling drink and
held the cup to the discolored lips of
tha little sufferer.
The child swallowed the draught
eagerly, and then lay motionless for
few minutes before beginning to
toss and moan as before. Next Rock.
hurst raked together the glowing
embers, hcaped on more fuel, and
snutfed the candle with his fingers.
Then be gazed round the small apart
mcnt, and spying box under the
table, he drew it UP to the hearth
and opposite to the sleeping woman.