Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-09-14
disabled man. his voice was SO calm

"You can do me no good by staying,
and there will be three instead of one
to die. By tomorrow morning, you
can be within reach of the settlements
aud safe, but my time has come. -
The two men looked at each other
in silence. After all, it was but true
that nothing would be gained by their
staying. They had both risen to their
feet like men who had been given 4
new hope.
"Boys, tell Matte how it was, and
give her what I have got in town" At
the mention of the girls name, there
again came into the voice the unsteady
strangeness that was there when he
first told them that he was hurt,
while, in the moonlight, they could
see there were tears in his eyes. For
an instant the wounded man was
silent, and then he added: "You had
better take my arms with you; you
may need them.
As lie finished speaking, he cooked
the revolver and placed it to his head;
but before he could press the trigger,
one of the men grasped his hand and
exclaimed
"Don't do thatr'
eyes, you are right. The report
would betray us, said the wounded
man, rs he lowered the weapon. "Give
me that knife, instead"
'I didn't mean it that way" said
the man who had made the remark,
ashamed that the true feelings which
prompted it had been perceivedby the
wounded man. "Don't kill yourself.
We will stay with you, and we may
yet pull through"
The wounded man shook his head
quietly. The tone of the speaker told
him, as plain as words could have
done, that there was but one chance
of escape for any of them. He took
from the belt the man mechanically
handed him, in compliance with his
request, his heavy hunting-knife, and
leaned back full length in the shadow
of the canon. The men who stood
watching him saw his eyes close and
his lips moving in prayer, but only for
an instant, and then, without looking
up, he said: =,
"Good-by, boys; I hope you will
get through"
There was not quaver III his voice.
As he finished the men turned away so
as not to see him, each saying softly,
as if speaking to himself:
Goodbye, Harry"
AS they stood looking down the
moonlit canon, they could hear behind
them, where the wounded man lay,
sounds rs if lie were choking and
gasping for breath. When they nc
longer heard them, they looked toward
where he lay. The white breast,
where the opeu bosom of the shirt ex-
posed it in the shadow, looked - :
stained with ink where the blood H.,
touched it, and across it lay the
nerveless hand that had held the
knife.
For an instant the two men looked
down on the body with awe, as if
afraid that the open eyes were watch
-fnfs fnls, fihetn: Then one placed his nahd'
over tho heart of the outstretched
form, shuddering as he felt low warm
it was. 1t seemed unnatural that, 1t
should be so with dead man. Fot a
moment he held it there, and then,
wiping from it Oh the shirt OF the depd
man the blood that stained it, he
arose and said, in answer to his coh-
rade's look, in almost whisper, hs
if fearing to bo heard by the spirit
that had just departed:
eyes, he is dead"
And then the two survivors/took
the dead mans arms md pushed for
ward into tho night toward the settle
ments, leaving behind them in the
stiffness of tho moonlit canon, q white,
upturned face to await the carly dawn,
when tho Indians would slash it so
that even the girl in the settlcmEnt,
who had so often kissed 1t, woule not
| know It.