The advocate., 1895-10-09

path was the merest trace, hardly foot
wide. Even when at last she followed
it upright, hers was q snail's progress,
SO thick, SO clinging, so interlOcked were
the briers and tangle ON either hand.
Slowly, blindly, she followed it. She
had no idea whence it came, whittier it
ran, by what feet it was made. All her
thought was it must lead her somewhere
If she persevered, it would take her out
Of this wilderness that might otherwise
be her grave.
Up hill, down dale, it ran, now cross
cd by other and fainter tracks, now cut
ting sharp through disused cartway.
Dare had lived enough in the fields to
know it's smooth surface meant the ha-
bitual tread Of human feet. Evidently
they went upon secret errand, else the
wild growth would not be SO left to
mask the path.
Miles and miles the girl tramped
through the waning day. More than one
ruffed grouse few up from the thicket
as she came too near. A fox stopped and
looked her full in the face ON top of a
high hill A wild turkey, with young
half grown, went with wide skimming
wings adown q long narrow valley.
Sunset came ON, full Of red, stormy
light. At the very last bloody rim
rested upon the hill crestS The sky was
full Of warning clouds driven hither and
yon as flawy winds swept up from south
or north. Dare shivered at the sight.
There was thunder In the air. What il
she must face 1t, the storm, the night,
alone in this wild wastel The dread lent
wings to her feet She almost ran
along the path, which was now broader,
better trodden, less enoumbered with
hindering boughs.
Bats came out and circled low above
her head. She listened hopefully, but
in vain, for the whippoorwill, whose
crying means no rain. Sunset faded out
in dusk; dusk fell to black darkness.
Still the path stretched endlessly before
her. She had climbed long hill, and
had been for some minutes descending,
when log by the wayside caught her
eye. 1t lay, a mass Of fox fire, cleaning
through the dark. Spent and breathleSs,
she sank down upon it, saying under her
breath:
''I cannot go much farther in this
darkness Maybe I had better stay here
until morning."
Suddenly she started to her feet. A
wild droning chant was borne upward
to her ear, the sound Of many strong
voices pitched in a minor key. 1t came
from the right, evidently below where
she sat After q minute she knew what
it was-the death song .wherewith ne
groes seek to ease the passing soul. Feel
ing each step in advance, she went for
ward little way, to find the path dip
sharply in the direction Of the sound
and at last run into the small clearing
about Jincey's cabin.
Door and window stood wide, letting
big blurs Of faint light fall outward
athwart the dark. Adozen were within,
men and women, standing about the bed
where the old woman lay, her gasping
breath coming shorter, shorter, with
each cadence Of the wailing chant AT
the beds foot stood Jubilee, Jincey's
sole living descendant, his wide, solemn
eyes fixed hard upon her withered face.
As Dare paused for q moment in the
door, she caught the eye Of q tall, white
haired old man, evidently the leader oi
the watchers, who beckoned her 10 come
forward as though her presence was ex-
pected and said 90 the rest fell back:
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