Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-12-24
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CHAPTER v.

hended on n charge of poaching and aid
ing in u dangerous assault on Lord FUR
toms gamekeepcrs. Bail was refused for
him, but ut the trial he was acquitted for
want of evidence. Every one knew he
was guilty. He made no great effort to
conceal it. But he deted the whole legal
power of England to prove him guilty.
He employed clever counsel, and the re-
suit was his acquittal. He was free; but
the prison brand was on him, and his wife
felt that she could not endure the dis
grace. ,
II shall go from bad to worse now, Mag
gle" he said to her. II do not find prison
: so bad, nor vet difficult to bear: If ever
see by any lucky hit 1 can make myself
a rich man. I shall not mind n few years
in Jail us the price. A forgery. or m
thing of that kind, or the robbery of u
well-stocked bank, will be henceforward
my highest aim in life"
She placed her hand on his lips and
prayed him for heavens sake to be silent.
He only laughed.
Mature never intended me to work
she did not indeed, Maggie. My fellow
men must keep me; they keep others far
less deserving"
From that moment she knew no peace
or rest. He would keep his word; he
would look upon crime us a source of
profit; he would watch his opportunity of
wrOng-doing, and seize it when it came.
She decided ON leaving Ashwo0d. An
other and perhaps even stronger motive
that influenced her was her passionate
. love for the child; that was her one hope
in life, her one shcet-anch0r, theO n thing
that preserved her from the utter madness
of desolation.
1t was easy to manage her husband.
She had said but little to him at the time
she undertook the charge Of little Magda-
line, and he had been too Indifferent to
make inquiries. She told him now, what
was in some measure quite true, thnt
with the Doctors death her income had
ceased, and that she herself not only was
perfectly ignorant Of the child's real
name, but did not ever know to whom to
write. 1t was true, but she knew ut the
same time that, il she would only open the
box of papers, she would not be ignorant
of any one point; for those papers she had
firmly resolved never to touch, SO that
in saying she knew nothing of the child's
identity she would be speaking the bare
truth.
AT first Henry Dornham was indignant.
The child should not be left a burden and
drag on his hands. he declared-it must
go to the w%orkhouse. But patient Mar
garct clasped her arms round his neck.
and whispered to him that the child was
SO clever. SO pretty, she would be IL gold
mine to them in the future-only let them
get away from .Ashwood, and go to Lon
don. where she could be we'll trained and
taught. He laughed n snecring laugh,
for which, had he been any other than her
h,,c1n,1 ,1,n x,,o,,1l 1nrn hn<n1 hin,
Not Il bad plan, Maggie" he said;
''then she can work to keep us. I, myself,
do not care where we go or what we do,
SO that no one asks me to work."
A few weeks later the new Earl of
Mountdean arrived in search of his little
girl. This time the visitor did not take
my pains to conceal his title. He drove
to the Castle Arms" and from there
went ut once to the doctors house. He
found it closed and empty. The first per
son he asked told him that the doctor had
been for some weeks dead and buried.
The young earl wa terribly shocked
sDead and buried-the kindly man who
had b%efriended him in the hour of need.
1t seemed almost incredible. And why
had no one written to him? Still he re.
membered the address of his child's fos
ter mother. 1t was Ashwood Cottage
and he went thither Mt once. When he
found that, too, closed and deserted, il
seemed to him that fortune was playing
him a trick.
He was Disconnected; and then, believ
ing that this ut least was but u case OF
removal, he decided upon going to tn,
rector of the parish, whom he well re
membered. E!e surely would be able II
give him all information. Mr.. Darnle,
looked up in wonder Mt the nnouncemen
of his visitors name-the Earl of Mount
/ dean. What could the earl possibly wan
a of him? His wonder deepened us he rec
%ognized in the earl the stranger Mt til,
burial of whose fair young wife he hat
assisted three years before.
The rector contrived to say sOmethin,
: about his surprise, but Lord Mountdeai
interrupted him hastily:
Eyes, I understand. I was travelling a.
Mr.. Charlew0od when my terrible misfor
tune overlook me here. have returnet
from Italy, where I have been spendin,
the Inst three years. My father has jus
died, and 1 am here in search of my child
My child" continued the earl, seeing til,
%rector's blink face-"where is she? I fin,
my poor friend the doctor is dead. and til,
house where my little ones foster mothe
lived ia empty. Can you tell me what /
means? Can it be that she, too, is deadY'
mo, she is not dead" replied the rec
tor. II saw her two months since, an,
she was then living-well, beautiful, IN,
happy. No, the little one is not dead"
''Then tell me. for PHYS sake. wher,
she Isl" cried the earl, III an agony o
impatience.
II cannot. Two months since I was a
Ashwood Cottage. Margaret DORMANT
worthless husband was In some grea
trouble. I went to console his wife; an,
then I saw the little one. Then I saw n,
more of her; aud my wonder was arouse,
on hearing some Of the tradespeople 50,
that Mrs. Dornham had not been in tow
for some weeks. I believed she was i'll
and went to see. Ny wonder was as grea
as your own at finding the house closed
Husband, wife and child had disappeare,
as though by magic from the place. leav
I, ing no clew or trace behind them"
=. The rector vas almost alarmed n tn