The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1898-06-22

my arm? I stared out into that white
band Of moonlight across my room. By
George, there was something unearthly,
but most divine, in the onfowing light,
a message from heaven too full of white
bIessedness to close its doors quite upon
the upreaching throats Of poor, dark hu
manity. I kept staring out into that
moonbeam and listening.
"Well, Old fellow! Good for you'll
Caithness' jolly voice rolled in. 'Pon
my word, voice has an atmosphere.
you've been at it all day, torporesque
too. Where's the girdle?''
"Was it you who brushed my arm?'
I said, going cautiously toward the
portfolio corner.
"No. haven't been here before for
an hour. Schmalenstopfer and decided
to let you go it. Yes, the internal liv
ing is all right
A sharp click, as Of the cooking of a
pistol, interrupted his words. The sweat
broke upon my forehead. Ye gods be
praisedl An undertook that we had not
noticed in the belt had Jared and shak-
en-, too, with the tread Of the glorious
South Stafordshire across the room,
and the creature within was for the
time q prisoner. But Caithness and
gave one another one look, for we knew
that the snake had moved inside that
girdle.
care you going to be on picket duty
much longer:" says Caithness. "Dil-
Ions, what are you up to? You haven't
had a bite. The sJemappes' has never
left her stateroom today. I've got to
leave you and your charge, old fellow.
I'm booked for poker with Cassner and
his crowd. I hear we shall sight Malta
in couple Of hours.
"I'll join you soon, - called back
hastily, my plan working at my very
soul. "Had never left her stateroom to-
dayp' Was she alive? quickly got my
self together, presentable, and taking
the girdle under my overcoat, with \
horrible qualm, I went on deck. The
moonlight had gone before me, though,
and lay, white splendor, on water and
sail The crowd had not yet come up
from dinner, and the promenade deck
was deserted. No! Ha, way off toward
the stern of the ship 1.-the figure.
graceful still in its sad abandonment Of
suffering, bent low in the black shadow
of the swinging, Tapping sail. 1t took
me second and a quarter to reach her
side.
She heard my step and lifted upon
me a white face like the flower Of a
moonlit field whose guests are the
ghosts Of only yesterday. She read my
ewes. She stretched out to me her white,
trembling hands, but did not speak.
And then-the long, marble silence
and control shattered in the sweet,
! white moonbeam that had brought some
one. Some one to her, her face bent up
ON her hands, and the angels and only
heard tie dropping of a woman's Gears.
A woman's heart was made to hide
naught save the heart of her lover in
her own and unsolder all his burdens
in that heat.
81 think you will let me help you,
said. choking down mighty, big gulp
in my throat and getting misty around
my eyes, confound it, with my 10 feet
Of shadow. II have the girdle. /" sat
down beside her and told her all quick
ly. lifted the coat beneath whose folds
the hideous burden lay. But held back
her hand as she reached for that burden.
Jove, I'd have chaperoned 30 snakes to
have had the bliss of that one moment.
"You will give it to me- she said,
reaching for the girdle.
eff you will tell me all. If you will
give me your solemn oath that you will
not''- She knew what I could not say.
''The word Of a lady is enough. 1 be-
lieve you.
And she told me all. Born in India,
the daughter of a celebrated srahe
charmer whose beauty had subdued a
Scotch nobleman tarrying in Bombay,
the temperament of the mother and the
strange power of the mother lived on in
the daughters veins. The father had
died insolyent, having run through the
fortunes of avast estate The daughter,
for her own support, had realized, with
a horrible start one day when there was
no money and no food, that the snake
unwinding like ribbon of green grass
among the opal flowers, wound again,
and waited poised, rejecting the tails
man Of her will in his perilous eye.
Then came the two years of wandering.
weird life as the beautiful snake charm
er. Holding herself aloof from humani-
ty, in the proud isolation of spirit in
herited from the Scotch father, the
snake had become her companion, had
saved her from the teeth of wild beasts
in many jungle day. "Why shouldn't
he save me now?' she cried. eve shall
sight Malta in an hour. Malta" she