The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1897-10-13

her head and shoulders she hurried
out of the house, taking the rough, :.
descending slope of the hill as more
direct than the roundabout curve
of the road.
'Let us pause here u moment,
Cousin Geoffrey. I have something
serious to say to you"
"What is il, Cousin Roger? must
say you have chosen an unpleasant
spot for talk. never take this road
IL can help it; for those ugly looking
sands give me the horrors"
GAS good grave az any other"
muttered Roger, gazing over the edge
of the wall with n gloomy brow. "a
man might lie rs comfortable under
those sands as in churchyard.
"Look you, Roger, my boy" said
Geoffrey, with an attempt at gayety.
'If you dragged me out of my com
Portable bed this morning to listen to
disquisitions upon the grave and the
future state, wish you had let me
speep an hour longer"
"Geoffrey," returned Roger, raising
face whose expression startled his
companion. 1t was deadly pale, and
lurid CLEAN shot from his eyes, in
dicative of such hatred and despair as
appalled, his cousin. 'Geoffrey, you
have taken from me all that makes life
valuable. You have destroyed all my
hopes of the future. You have con-
demned me to hell, when, but for you,
/ might have had heaven"
"Cousin Roger" replied Geoffrey,
his natural spirit beginning to over
come his amaZement, 81 hope you are
talking mere nonsense. But if you
mean anything by this rigmarole / ex
pect you to explain it at once. Speak
out, manp
"You have robbed me of Berenice
Tolland's love-" said Roger, with
lowering eye. ''Had you not come
here she would have accepted me.
Now she has put me aside for you"
'Roger," returned Geofirey, seri-
ously, tell me, on your word of honor,
were you sure that Berenice loved you
before / came?"
Roger paced to and fro along the
edge of the sea wall, looking gloomily
down upon the quaking sands, answer
ing nothing for some moments.
"No," he muttered, finally, as if
preforce. "No; she refused me more
than once. But, nevertheless, should
have conquered her opposition in time
but for you; you who have won her
away from me-" ..
Geoffrey confronted him with an
angry frown. "And you, whom she
has never liked; whom she has refused
| again and again, even according to
your own story, wish to drive me away
make me relinquish my hopes of
happiness, that you, who have not
been able to win her, with all your
opportunities, may continue to perse-
cute her! No, Roger, understand me
plainly. If L were to crawl away
meanly at your request, and, as take
it, your threats, should be as low a
coward as you are"
The cousins were standing facing
each other upon the very edge of the
sea wall, against which throbbed and
bubbled the fatal Sundown Sands.
"You refuse to go away and leave
Berenice Tolland to me?" Rogers
voice was scarcely audible, but the ex-
preston of his face was terrific in its
malignity.
81 do refuse, Roger" was the firm
reply, "and you ought to understand
that should be less man to do
otherwise"
''Then die and find your grave in
the Sundown Sands" cried Roger,
flinging himself upon Geoffrey and en-
deavoring to hurl him over the wall.
But Geoffrey. had been, in measure,
prepared for the onslaught, and the
cousins, locked in desperate embrace
swayed to and fro upon the very brink
of the fatal quicksand. The struggle
was as silent as it was deadly. No
word, no sound, except the hoarse
gasps of the combatants interrupted
the fatal contest Finally, Godfrey s
foot slipped over apebble and he stag
gered backward. With a bitter curl
of the lip, and savage heaye of the
shoulders, Roger cast his opponent
toward the edge of the wall.
Geoffrey fell backward, and, with a
wild clutch, found himself hanging
half over the wall, with his feet within
an inch of the deadly sands. Dragging
himself desperately up, he fell pant
ing upon the edge of the parapet.
Rising to his knees and looking
about him he was amazed to find his
enemy nowhere in sight. Getting
upon his feet, he rubbed his cramped
limbs and cried out:
''Cousin Roger! Where are your
'Here, Cousin Godfrey" was the
sad reply, "where 1 deserve to be-"
Looking over the sea wall he beheld
Roger standing ankle deepin the Sun
down Sands.
"Oh, Roger" cried Geoffrey, 81
must rescue you, or you Will be
swallowed up"
"What! when / tried to throw you
into the sands" said Roger. '"That
is too much. Let me die, cousin!
tried to put YOU where am now. For.