The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1896-03-23

could have more dreaded the fatal
day when Herbert would be cured;
when remembrance, fierce and relent-
less would assert its sway, and ruth
leSSly dash away the curtain which
she had woven at such cost and I'M
der such severe trials. Her mind was
stretched on the perpetual rack of the
most terrible doubt, with but the faint
est glimmer of hope piercing the dark
ness that threatened.
What would Herbert remember?
How much would he remember?
Would truth stand before him naked,
shameless, cold and cruel? Would he
know that her father was an assas-
sin? Would he despise her and bid
her go from him?
And yet, so holy is true woman.
that, in her heart Of hearts, she prayed
that heaven might let him speedily re-
cover.
The young earl had been lying at
his couch something over a fortnight,
when the cottage next to the Nest
received two visitors. One Of them
was the landlord of the Greyhound
Inn, who held the key of the place and
was charged with it's letting; the sec
ond was a middle-aged man, dressed
in. unassuming gentlemanly gray
tweeds, and having the appearance of
a person well-to-do in middle walk
Of life, of a servant whom fortune
had favored or of tradesman early
retired from business. He was of
medium height and stoutly built;
bulI-neck gave him a look of forbid
ding strength, and his hands, red and
blotchy, were evidence of the fact that
1 IL l1Sc IN
idleness. There was peculiar cum
ming about an otherwise insignificant
face-the kind Of stealth and slyness
that would not be deferred from stop
ping to the mean; a face that would
not, by it's first sight, secure for it's
owner a position of trust in a bank.
Yet, it was not an unpleasant face,
and it grinned with mixture of cock
ney and outlandish humor. The small
sandy muStache dropped after the
fashion, ia later period burleSqued
by Mr.. Sothern as Brother Sam, and
gave a peculiar admiXture of simple
ity to the otherwise not Over-prepOS-
SesSing features.
The visitor examined the little house
and it's grounds with the utmost care.
He drew on a scrap of paper a small
plan of the place, and it the landlord
had stayed with him he might have
been seen measuring with PAGES the
distance between the Nest and the
unoccupied house, which boasted or
the Understanding appellation, Rec
don Lodge" The man obtained all
particulars from mine host of the
Greyhound, discussed questions of
rent and other conditions, and finally
withdrew, after securing promise
from the landlord that he would have
the refusal of the place for forty eight
hours.
The person thus circumstantially in
troduced at this portion of our his
tory was Mr. Edward Wall, known
to some as Ned Wall, and to
others, especially those who had
made his acquaintance out West, dur
ing Pixies Peak Rush, as Pug nosed
Ned. Mr. Ned Wall had at an early
period of his career, done faithful ser
vice to her majesty, in various to her
majesty's jails. In the result, Mr.. Ned
Wall came to look upon his native
land, where the liberty to steal was so
shamefully denied to the subject, as
very hot-bed of oppression, and the
fiedgling Blue-skin winged away to
the freer fields of the Far West. Such
is the perversity of fate, however, that
Mr.. Ned Wall made the amazing dis
covery that those who obtain gold by
simply digging it from the earth OBJ
iected to having it taken from them
without their leave, by a young man in
whose Welfore they took no special in
terest. Mr. Ned Wall would certainly,
on two several occasions, have been
strung up by the neck until dead had
not the powerful intervention of Mr..
George Maclane saved him from I'M
timely extinction. Mr. George Maclane
had found Mr.. Ned Wall an unscrupu-
lous but useful sweep, ready to do any
dirty work as long as his belly was
filled, and, in addition to that, neat
with his fingers and glib with his
tongue, an excellent bargalnef and
stony hearted taSkmaSter to those
placed under his charge. In the end,
Pug-nosed Ned rebloSsOmed into MIR.
Edward Wall and became hybrid be-
tween a private secretary and a valet
Of both the Maclanes, who, in that ca
pacfty, took him with them to Europe.
On the evening of the day when Mr..
Edward Wall had inspected Reedon
Lodge, the Maclanes were closeted
with their Representatives at the Boil
tons. Ned exhibited his plan of the
and of tie adjoining cottage and
grounds, and pointed out the exact To-
cation of the room in which Herbert
was lying.
Georges coldly glittering eye de
youred every line, every mark.
Il guess it's all right, Ned he said,
at last. "Only yew've got to make sure
of yewr measurements-dead sartln
sure. We mustn't get wrong. right or
left. an inch. Yew'll so down to-morror
an hire that cottage and pay him three
months rent on the Fail, and II he
wants references say yew're a stran-