The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1899-07-06

uCrCely, ne STdSpou IL With shaking
hand. Then he rolled up his eyes, his
fingers fnmbling with the knot, his lips
drawn white. Scrawled on the chip
with a pencil was message: 1--WE
gone for good. You were kind, but
could not abide you or the country.
I've gone with one as will take me all
over the world
With his mouth working tensely he
started to drag himself back. His
brain was flying high up and down
again. Darling lights played before
his eyes. The wLirling ground leaped
away from him. Crawling on, he
reached the door, where, down on all
tours, like dog, he flung up his head
and looked around the rooms wildly
Everything in them spoke with a trum-
pet voice Of her. He let his head fall
on the sill. Then groan came heavily
from his lips, and he was calm.
The next week a new captain came
on the river steamer.
The birds flying across the river ON
their way to the south saw woman,
dressed gaudily and in vulgar fashion,
making her way from the landing to
the little house on Vance's island. AT
the door a gaunt man watched her.
With dazed stumbling he walked
forth little way to meet her.
81 have come back after these years. -
she said, LOOKING up to the little home,
which, small and poor as it was, seem
ed to hold out hope of peace to her.
But he said nothing, only staring at
her with eyes in which burned faint
spark. Once he shivered at the croaK-
ing notes in her voice.
Into the house she followed him dog
gedly. She picked up her duties where
she had left them years before, touch
ing chair here and moving something
there. She took a broom and fell to
sweeping feverishly, until she flung II
down contemptuously and sank iuto q
chair with a gasp. He had watched
her silently with slow burning eyes.
"Why don't you speak?" she cried
Her rising voice was hard and craze
king. There was faunt on her lips
Her hands on her hips conveyed an in
science Of holiness.
II have come back to you in kind
| ness" she said, her tones going higher
| and her voice growing more rasping
81 know the worth of a woman like
| me. When my captain died, l could
have had many a fair chance, but
| thought of you, and somehow l wanted
to come here. Aren't you going to
| make upY she cried angrily.
God, what a difference in those
years! His lips pressed together stern
ly.
"Why don't you speak?' she scream
| ed. "How dare you treat me like
like She paused and then laughed
| with her brazen notes.
But the dancing lights were in his
| brain again and before his eyes and
| around him boiling fame that roared
The room was whirling. He saw it all
| streaked and spangled with fierce color
the floor. the chairs, the fiat stove
| the utensils of tin. and among them hel
| face, the lips leering, the eyes staring
Staggering to his feet. he CROPPED with
his arms. His hands clutched at some
thing soft and warm that yielded under
his contracting fingers. They closed
| tightly, gripping hard to stop the whirl
| ing Of the earth. The fame shot uI
madly. and, blinded in the dark, he fell
| lying stretched ON the floor.
Years later, the upper end of the is
land settled. pity still endured among
the people for the lonely man who liv
ed on the lower end. They told stran
gers touching there of the young wife
| whom he had ne ver seen from the day
she ran away with the captain of the
river steamer and he was left to his
solitude. No one knew the whole unit
young farmer went to ask aid of the
old man at the harvesting. No re
Spouse coming to his knocks, he lifted
the latch and entered. The old mar
was half kneeling against a chair, his
dead eyes thrust out in their sockets
Before him, where the planks of the
door were torn up, were lying the
bones and skull of a woman.-NeM
| York Press.