Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-09-30
CHAPTER xxxIx. oconnnued.,

putty MUCH Wllit L pleuSe 10 ulli, Dut
/ can't do what | please. Ole Marsa
amt a ~bad-tempered man in de main.
But when he do get on his high horse
law! but he makes people cl'ar out'n
his way. l wonners, deed | does.
how he's lib to dis hour oh de day wild
out KILN somebody
And you will not assist meT'
Cant, honey"
'"rhen heaven WILL. said .Astrea, tax
ing her resolution.
She knew that at night she would
again be locked in her chamber. froui
which escape would be im~practlcable.
Therefore. she must try TO elude OBJ
servation and go by day.
She knew. also. that the approaching
interview with her employer would be
full of peril.
And therefore the attempt must be
made at nee
The supernatural vision or dream
had warned her TO fly from the ac-
cursed house. And upon that. and ev-
cry other account, she would do 50.
Yes. she must ty from the house,
from danger, from d~ishonor: but
whittier should she hy?-whither, in Il
country where every door would be
closed against the fugitive, and every
constable put upon her track?
To death, If necessary. This vas
what the vision had said. If she could
escape to the cypress swamp she might
defy recapturc. and ever If she per-
ishcd by starvation, IL would be better
than to be driven To the act of suicide.
as she would be by remaining in this
house. To the shades of the cypress
swamp, then. she resolved to try to
make her escape.
She would have liked to write a few
lines to her friends ut home. and leave
the letter for Cybele to put in the post
office; but this the fears OF the old
woman rendered impossible.
AS she mechanically slipped her cof-
fee, her mind reverted again TO the su-
pernatural visitant or dream of the
night, and she connected it with the
thought of her predecessor in this
house, of whose fate she had heard
the preceding evening. aud a in
Quired:
..Cybele, what sort Of looking person
was that poor Lulu OF whom you
spoke to me last nighty"
Laws, chile, let's seei-I amt good
at 'scribin'. Poor gal! She was tall.
slim, delicy, wild long black hair fallin'
down below her wais': an great black
eyes, wild de mos mournfuilest look in
to dem as ebber you see. She look jes'
MS Ii she had some eberlastin' great
sorrow rs nothin' OH this earth, nor yet
III heaben. could cher, eber comfort
her again, Dat her, An so she pine
away an die" whispered the old wo-
man, mysteriously.
Astrea recognized, with a supcrsti-
tious thrill the portrait of her noctur-
nal visitor.
"An' | don't want TO scare you, ION
ey. but dey do say how she walks"
'Walssy' echoed the captive.
Yes, honey: dey do say ole marse
hissc'f can't sleep quiet In his bel.
cause she don't rest quiet in her grave.
Dey say how anybody a-listenin' can
hear him halo out in de middle o de
night for de fear dat is on him. You
see, honey, | don't know muffin bout
it. 1t may be muffin tall but his guilty
conscience for aughts l know whis-
pered the old oma
But who says these thingsT in
uuircd Astrea. in q lone Of voice from
which she could not Danish the *
preston of awe.
FLUSH, honey; Dina, as was &c
housemaid fore Venus come, she was
de fus'. An when ole marse heard DIT
he turns roun' an sold her TO a trader.
Den odder people said de same; eben
visitors as stopt in de house all night.
But | say it's de effects of conscience!'
"Well,'' said .Astrea. ''sucb nm ex-
PLANTATION Of his wakeful nights might
be satisfactory"
but, see here. honey, why'n you eat
your breakfas'! You seem like any
body In n dream said Cybele. herself.
Just waking mp to the perception that
Astrea a there with the food I'M
touched before her.
Astrea, no. rccollecting that she
would need all her strength for her es-
cape, forced herself to swallow Il little
coffee and bread, and then arose qui-
city from the table and walked out OF
the back door. as though she was go
ing into the kitchen. Then. with n
sudden impulse. she turned back and
got into her own room. The key was
still on the outside of the lock. She
turned the guard OF the keyiiole down
on the inside, so that no one could look
through il from without. TheIi. catch
Ing up and ~concealing the bonnet that
Venus had given her. she came out OF
the door and looked up and down the
passage.
No one was on the watch.
She then closed and softly locked the
door and Withdrew the key. and then
stopped to look through the key-hole.
1t was dark.
''rhey WI. think that l have locked
myself In, and perhaps gone TO sleep.
and that will gain time" she said to
herself. as nee more she passed the
back door out into the back yard, ~ il
going into the kitchen. The yard was
thickly shaded with trees. There was
no one visible In 1t. She passed 10 the
right of the kitchen building into n
kitchen garden, where she found old
Saturn busy among the pea-yincs.
"Good mornin', Miss Fora! How you
do dis morpin'. MISS" inquired the old
man, Strengthening himself up.
II am well. l thank you, Saturn"
she replied. MS her heart sank at being
thus discovered.
s'Where you gwine dis mornin'Y'
next asked the old man, bent ON con
~verSation.
Don't you seeg 1 am looking at
your garden. Where are the straw
berry bedsy she asked, anxious to
escape.