Evening star., 1897-01-16

| keep the contrabands when any lodge with
YOU
| :. But as they were in the act of carrying
| the woman out she turned her head toward
me, and like one that speaks out of deep
sleep she said: You will not hang my
Leo?'
Go. rest in peace said 1. Il promise to
speak to the king himself for you and YOUR
Leo. More 1 cannot promise"
That night I slept vilely, and so. some
time after midnight l rose and cast my
cloak about me. Then l opened the door
Across it. so close that l wellnigh had step
| of mats
'Excellency.' he cried, leaning up in
stantly and rubbing his eyes. whittier are
you going at this time of the night? %
cannot sleep, l said. Il go to drink
the night air.
ITO drink the poison of these accursed
eastern swamps more like" he growled
Abide, and sleep will come in time
nut stepped out and away across to the
prison. Presently l was laundering at the
door, ana after an interval the taller an
peared, swearing most voluby and calling
me all the sons of pigs and asses that eyer
bhghted the wholesome earth for disturb
ing MIN out of his first sound sleep
But when he saw me stand on the door
Step MS curses sank to abjectest apologies
he opened the great creaking portal wide
as Tor an army. and l stepped within
to the teeth
Il did not bid you come" said L GROSSLY
enough.
Neither did you bid me stay, my gen
eral: answered the rascal, grinning
Without answering him told him to lead
me to the large room 1 had ordered the
Perrone family to be kept safe for the
night.
AS we entered the woman held up ner
nnger. She did not move, but her dark
eyes looked unutterable things Her nus
band rested on the single straw paliasse,
his head reclined on her shoulder. his tam
SleQ hdlr falling his hrnu Tb.a 10
Margherita lay. breathing softly on a
fold of her mothers dress. The mans feet
We're wrapped in his wife's petticoat, which
she had taken off on purpose. Very gent
ly she stroked the damp hair back from his
brow, grooming over him the while like a
mother with fretful child that may wake
any moment.
Again, and more pitifully. she made the
sign for silence, looking beseec hngiy up at
with wet eyes.
And l could see that the breast of her
prison dress was drenched with her tears
So we went out and shut the door upon
the woman and her man.
The end? Why that is the end But
what came of Leo and Maria, You say?
Why, what should come of them? You re-
member the Tremiti Islands, which you see
from the Venice liner before you raise
Monte Gargano going south: there is a
lighthouse there. Well, as l passed the last
time / saw Leo Perrone out in his pCat
ready to catch the papers and dispatches
which We're thrown to him from the great
steamer. The king made him keeper of
that lighthouse when l told him the story,
and he has been there ever since And
with my glass l could see Maria, his wife,
standing up aloft, sometimes polishing the
brasses and anon setting her hand TO her
brow to look over the sea for her man. as
his oars flashed and his boats prov pointed
home.
The little Margherita. Oh, as to her |
have heard that she had married the light
house keeper on the cape which looks out
toward the Tremiti, and that she and her
children spend almost as much time on the
islands the shore.
Now, l am sure ner mother would rot
have done that-but then some women are
such fools about their men,