The morning news., 1897-04-18

hose, and there were some who hesitated
not to hint that Dick knew more than he
had said.
Rut Time drew curtains over the mat
ter in fulness OF days. A month passed,
then second, May came and Polgaze,
busy with its fishing, thought less and
talked less of that strange event In March.
Many noticed however the mark Millys
loss had left on those most concerned.
DICK, according 20 the nature of his class,
mad mourned eXtravagantly at first, but
his wound began to heal by first inten-
ton, and golden-haired Milly faded little
by little from his memory. With the other
man it was different
He had shown no overwhelming grief at
hrst, but time appeared to Increase his sor-
row. Always silent and reserved he grew
taciturn ana morose; always temperate,
ne now took to drinking; as Pollock said
the man began to creep Through life in
stead of to walk upright through it, He
looked ghost-haunted, and ghost-haunted
he was; but none knew the awful memory
that began to slowly destroy him; none
but himself guessed at that grim uprising
by the Lovers Stone" at that hurricane
OF passion, at the sudden knitting of hairy
hands around a plump, white throat, at
the murder done, and the murder hidden.
He had gone back home. holding himself
the weapon of the Lord He had knelt be-
self no sinner; and now, day by day, a
mist was rising from off that terrible mo-
ment ana he began to see himself the
toy of ne devil, and his deed as IL really
was. Drink could not drown the truth
time would not dim it, The dwarfish de-
mon, grown to d giant now--the foul thing
that had first prompted him to play the
listener--spOke loud in the night watches,
| ana another voice fl ON within urged him
upon different course. He knew he must
end the present suspense or else go mad
lie testated upon giving himself UP to
man or to Death; between destroying him
sell or letting PolglazC know where Milly
lay hid under sand and flint. And while
he hesltated, the Powers that control hu-
man affairs chose another course and WON
| drously revealed the truth through the
hand of an idiot and the beak of a bird.
Tommy Leng was a little hair-lipped
imbecile, and harmless "softy," who
rambled about Polglaze. The boy loved
loneliness The birds and the rabbits were
! his playmates. He scaled the cliffs for the
gull's nests, he knew where the rare
chough built, and himself had gathered
together great collection of eggs, to
| which he added as each spring came
round, and his strength and agility in
creased. His parents laid no Injunction
upon him, but let him go his dangerous
way on the steep cliffs and elsewhere
They thought 1t might please God TO
| break the child's neck some day-the best
| thing that could happen--because certain
1t was he would never be able to earn his
| bread
This boy, on a day in early May wan
| derlng over the moors some half-mile
from the Lovers Stone" came upon
marvellous strange thing in the gorse,
neat gold-lined-a yellow hammers nest
that bird which lays eggs written upon
In mystic language which no man can
| decipher. And the eggs reposed in a soft
| bed fashioned and wrought with a thou
sand interviewer threads of pure gold
The boy laughed and chattered TO himself
He had never seen the like, and he tore
the treasure down and took it home re-
| joicing
| His father marked the gold for wo-
mans hair, and remembered sunny head
that had vanished not long since He
questioned Tommy, kept the matter
| silent for the time, and on the return of
Richards from the sea showed him the
| nest.
lizard by where that nest be you'n find
| her." said the IDIOTS father otis the
Lords doin', Dick. He confounds the
larnin' of the wise, and puts truth into
| the and of the daft"
Tommy proudly led the way to the
moors next morning. and there, not far
| from where the nest was found, wonder
fully hid in a steep place. only to be
reached by bird, and climbed out OF by
an ape as 1t seemed, they found an awful
caricature Of what had been the beauty of
| Polglaze.
That night the gossps of '"The Travel
ers' Rest talked long and loud, and John
Macklehose listened, but he made no ad,
dition to the manifold theories advanced
on every side.
In the morning, however, he cleared that
mystery and told the truth. The post
brought a letter to the police station, and
at the breakfast hour the few authorities
Of the village were at the inn. But Mack
lehose was not there. He had cut his
| throat that night, leaving something 70
| bury, nothing TO be judged.
(The End