Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-06-01
ward. whore Lone lighthouse reared


And away she fed, up the shelving
shore, to the little settlement OF houses
which was by courtesy denominated
village.
Katie Stanbury's house was all
ablaze with cheerful lights. They
welcomed her with unanimous cry
of delight, and gathered around her
declaring that she had come just in
time to help them out with "Othello
and Desdemona." The lieutenant
from Leesborough wrote her name
down for the first waltz, and Charles
Cotes worth whispered to her to keep
at least three dances for him.
"We've borrowed Mrs. Leslie's
white satin wedding dress for Des-
demona, whispered Katie Stanbury.
"Come up stairs quickly and DRESS
The room which they had assigned
to Desdemona, as firing chamber,
was intolerably warm. Mamie threw
open the window, and looked out to-
ward the sea.
There, still outlined darkly against
the sullen red of the stormy western
sky, Lone lighthouse seemed to lift
warning finger to her, its crystal eye
dim and dark as that of blind man.
She looked once again, more intently
than before, and began to tremble
violently.
There was no light in the lantern at
Lone lighthouse.
And when Katie Stansbury came
up to tell Desdemona that the audi
ence was waiting and wondering, she
found the white satin dress lying in
a crumpled heap on the floor, the
candles guttering in their sockets, and
the door wide open.
Goodness mel" she CALCULATED,
tragically, what has become of
Nannie?"
Mamie, with a strange foreboding
of evil at her heart, had flown swiftly
down to the beach, needless of the
lieutenant's waltzes and Charles dis
appointment, unfastened this boat, and
was shooting out to sea with long,
regular strokes.
A storm was coming up. The red
scowl of the sunset had been no false
muttered low, and the distant sealine
was edged with trembling whitecaps,
while the nearer waves breaking
against the shore, made a muffled roar,
and there was curious, lurid light in
the piled-up clouds against the western
horizon.
But of these things Mamie took
little heed, as she rowed steadily to-
ward the lighthouse-the lighthouse
III nh NEaA ptr wit ta
usual eye of fire.
SIT is not dark yet not quite dark"
she kept repeating to herself. "Uncle
may light the lantern at any minute.
He has most likely forgotten himself
over those chess problems.
And, springing out of the boat at
the foot of the lighthouse steps, she
ran through the shower of salt spray
that made them so slippery at high
tide, and, opening the heavily-nailed
door, hurried up the winding staircase
to the lanternroom.
1t was but the work of a moment to
lightsthe huge lamp. The crystal re-
Electors grew radiant at once, and the
long white banner of light streamed
out, like magic fires, athwart the sui
len surge of darkening waters below;
and then, with long sigh of relief,
Mamie turned to her uncles apart
ment
The low fire was burning in the
little coal stove; there was no light
in the room, but by the glimmer of the
red embers she could see her uncle's
figure, still bent over the black and
white squares in the window-seat. He
did not turn at the click OF the door
latch
''He is asleep" thought Mamie.
'He often falls into such brief, heavy
sleep of late, I'm afraid he is not as
well as he used to be-"
She advanced to his side, laying her
hand lightly on his, with smile.
"Unce!" she said, slightly raising
her voice.
But the shrek which she uttered,
as she snatched it back, rent the air
like dagger.
For old Moses Nairn's hand was
cold as marble, and he himself sat
there, with his head sunk down upon
his breast, quite dead.
AL HiSHt louR SuO oot IhViC, pcHo-
ing the light in the lighthouse, shud-
dering at the wall OF the storm, and
the war of the waves, and still more
at the ghostly stiffness in the room
below. And when the morning broke,
wet and windy, and she saw herself
reflected in an opposite glass, she
perceived that the one tress of hair
which dropped over her right temple
had turned as white as snow.
By the next days sunshine,a richly
freighted ship rode gallantly into port,
with half hundred passengers, who
would have been food for fishes if
Mamie Nairn had not stood valiantly
to her post.
But no earthly consideration could
ever induce her afterwards to enter
the dreary stone walls of Lone light
house; and the silver lock, shining
out from among the golden curls of
| her hair hnars an eyerlastino testi