Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-06-11


heard the sound Of the ponies feet on the
road, and going to meet them 1 saw her
just dismounted and standing in the glow
Of the moonlight.
She gave great start when she saw me
and put her hand to her heart but pulled
herself together in second and came for,
ward and shook hands.
"This is an unexpected pleasure" she
said. ~ thought you lived in quite a
different part of the country" and then
she introduced me to her husband as an
old friend. She evidently had told him
nothing about the little comedy in which
l had figured. disliked the husband at
first sight-a great coarse BRUTE who talk.
ed to her as If she were disobedient dog
and whom I put down as being a bully
and a drunkard.
We were not a CHEEKY party that night.
She talked the talk of that world of society
that two years of misery had put back into
! an infinite past, but 1 noticed that her
| eyes took in every detail of curtains and
| furniture and ornaments. He helped him
| self most literally to the whisky bottle
and talked little, but that little generally
| took the form Of some insult to his wife.
| Later on she asked me about Afiz Kahn,
| who waited on us with grim stateliness,
and told her his story; how by a lucky
| shot saved him when he was in bear 8
| embrace, with the brute's breath hot in
| his face, and how since then he had re-
nounced everything, his loved hills and
clanship and relations to follow me through
| good and evil fortune as my servant
| Finding she was interested, 1 talked on
and told them some of the border tales Of
revenge and blood that the Afridi had told
| me over the fire on our Shikah expeditions;
how ready a border man S hand is to strike
| when his chief orders; how little they val
he life, whether it be theirs or anothers,
and to all this she listened eagerly.
The morose husband thawed under the
the doctors had forbidden him to go home
to England, and how he was wandering
| over the unbeaten tracks in the noun
tains, taking his wife with him "just to
show her what roughing means" until the
weather became passably cool in the plains.
She went to their room immediately aft
er dinner, but he sat up for another couple
Of hours Dragging about most things in
this world and Furnishing the whisky bot
tie to such extent that when at midnight
he rose to go he staggered about, and I
had to help him to his door.
1t was glorious night. The moon, half
way up the sky, flooded the bread veranda
there with golden light; the oak and rho
dodendrons, the great hill across the river
were picked out in vivid light and shade,
and the village doors made points Of bril-
liancy in the darkness of the gorge. !
stood against the post of the veranda, my
brain in whirl with present surprise and
burning memories. tried to think of
what this fresh turn of the wheel that
brought her under my roof might mean
to me. Munda Devi, the great sacred
mountain, showed its mass of snow hang
ing as it seemed in the sky, and in my
feverish helplessness in the battle against
fate felt a longing to pray to it for some
OF its everlasting strength and endurance
'GeorgeP' whispered a soft voice behind
me. and turned to find her standing at
my elbow.
She had put ON dressing gown sort Of
thing, all silk and lace, and the moonlight
caught the ivory smoothness of her arms
and bosom.
"George!" she said again and held out
her two hands to me.
Then the fire in my brain leaped to
sudden blaze, and all that knew was that
was holding her again once more, tight
clasped in the hollow of my arms.
II never loved any one but you'll" she
said as she looked up into my eyes, aud
then she told me how her husband LII
treated her, cursed her and when drunk
beat her, and on the delicate arms that
were round my neck could see the purple
welts where his heavy stick had struck
her.
"Do you love me in spite of ALP" she
asked, and l. being fool, told her that l
was ready to die for her.
Then for time she kept silent, only
Nesting closer and closer to my breast.
At last she spoke in whisper, which
had tremble in IL: ST only were free
from him, could marry you. shall be
rich woman"
Her brain worked quicker than mine,
and didn't understand what she was
asking Of me.
1t would be so easy" she whispered,
"and we should be SO happy"-and then
what she meant began to dawn on me,
and l loosened my clasp, though she or'y
twined her arms more closely. If an a, l.
dent were t. happen to him now, while g
Is drunk, N one would be any the wiser,
and you can trust your man."
Then the fire In my brain died out.
! shook her free and stepped back
dozen PAGES from her, for knew that she
was asking me to murder or have murder.
ed the drunken man, my guest, her hus-
band, who lay helpless in the next room
"You daren'tP she said, with sudden
rage, and as spoke to her she stood like
a statue, but with the glow of desperate
anger in her eyes.
What said don't exactly know, but
she understood me, and with whispered
"cowardly fool" she slipped back into tho
darkness Of the room.
walked all that night and the early
morning about the estate, and they had
left before came back to the house. They
went down by the other road, and l never
saw either OF them again.
Was there sequelp
Yes.
received the noxt summer through the
mail newspaper cutting telling how the
two were riding along hillpath in Cash
mere In front of all their servants; how
his pony must have SHE'D, and how he and
the pony were found pounded to a jelly
thousand feet down the klud, and the par
agraph finished by sying how the widow,
who had viewed the tragedy, was to be
pitied.
In the envelope besides the cutting was:
A tiny white feather.
She died two years ago after having
made ducks and brakes with tho mans
money, and sit here and grin and look
at my faded flnery and smack my leg to |
think what narrow escape had Of mar
rxinu M, accumulated and beautiful Grim. |