The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-12
CHAPTER K.
THE JEwELED SERPENT.


THE UNVEILED SERPENT.
When Justin bounded from Oziels
side the leap was so unexpected that
OzieI did not for a second realize that
he was gone. The boy was half way
down the Slope before his friend scram-
bled To his feet and made after him.
OZiel heard that strange priest of bar
barous rites cry out, and saw the great
and SUD den Tightening of his sad
and troubled yet gentle face; and then,
the torch = eXtinguished, he found
himself in a blackness the more in
tense for the glare which had preceded
il He lost sight of Justin, and at the
same nome mt his foot caught in a
trailing vine and he was pitched Vio
lently down the hill, falling on his
head. The b how was a severe one, and
he lay insen sible, hearing nothing of
the angry cries of the disturbed saw
ages nor of Justin's quickly stifed
shout for aid as he was carried off.
For hours he lay there, unconscious.
The veices die6l away quickly, and the
lake shimmeretl in the faint moonlight
silently In the forest and rock-strewn
peaks of the mountains, the sullen
growl e thunder still distantly rolled,
and now and again the slope of the
hill shivered b,.neath him; but Oziel
heard. saw. nothing At last the sun
rose, an angry, glaring red; it was
morning. With gain ferocious heat.
Hardly had the fierce orb mounted the
sky, before the branches beside the lad
were parted. although the steps of the
one who separated them We're noiSeless,
and OZiel aWoke at last to find man
kneeling beside him. bathing his face
and hands with water from the lake.
OZiel looked up. dizzy, sick, and with
bewildered sense of coming into a new
world. His eyes We're met by those of
oil nj C h.g6
snake in the savage dance of the
torches.
Mistress Marian, Justin! How
where am I? What has happened?"
cried Oziel, his dreams of home.
Rest awhile. my son, and drink of
this water. SO in d. minute you will be
sound You are but stunned. No limbs
are broken
The man held a rude earthenware
cup to his lips and Oziel drank greed
lily. Refreshed. he gazed again upon
the white-robed priest, and at once
memory rushed back TO him.
Where is JUSTINE" he cried, sitting
up. And who are you2'
The old man began to shake with
excitement.
Justin he said, standing UP and
pressing his hands to his head in
passion of uncomfortable joy. Justin,
the name of my boy I heard his voice
and saw his face in the light, and he
went, as he came, in a flash. l feared
it was a dream but yOu-what brought
you to these hills? Is my boy with you?
Tell me, tell mel Have I dreamed, or
have I just awaked, and have l been
dreaming all these years
WHO are you?" cried Oziel, scram-
bling dizzily to his feet
-Ahr' the old man answered. 1T is
that ! have been asking myself for a
long time, for many years, and last
night when he cried out 70 me, Faith
err the reply came in fash. re-
member. I know, I am his father, and
! was-I am Roger HALLOWEEN
For a moment OZiel gaZed upon him
stupidity. remembering GabrierS story
as told in New York. He had seen so
much of the traders dupEcity that he
had doubted how much of the tale
might be true. At best he had expected
TO hear of Sir Roger as dead, or as
hopeless Iunatic, crazed by his miSfor-
tunes and his wounds in the wreck.
But now although the priest of the
night had borne a witlesS face and
lifeess eye, the man before him stood
erect-eXcited but sane; trembling, but
with newly reused energy; old but
hale Oziel TO, began TO tremble. So
hopeless had seemed the case Of the
lads in the power of the conspiratOrs
that the apparition of Roger Hallowell,
alive and well TO care for himself, tc
protect Justin, unnerved the faithful
fellow by its unhoped-fOr timeliness.
Tor moment ne was filled with joy
the next his heart sank, for Justin
where was he?
Tel me" cried the man, ''where is
my boy and what has brought you
here?"
Oziel did not hesitate, but at once
poured forth his story, yet he had to
pause every now and then.
MOT fast not so fast cried Sir
Roger. Il have to think and recall it
ali. My memory reviVes but slowly.
Ny wife?"
At OzieI's look he turned away and
was silent. When he looked at the lad
again his eyes were full of tears, and
instinctively Oziel hailed that as a good
sign. The eyes of the priest the night
before had been incapable of tears as Of
laughter When the tale was briefly
told. Sir Rogers excitement was ex-
tIeme.
Il see their purpose he cried, "but
first, since you are Justin's true friend.
let me in turn tell you why l am in this
dress and among these barbarous, hea-
thenish people"
With few words he told how he had
lived all these years when thought dead
by the world. If it sounded like mira
Gle to Oziel, and set him shudder1ng
wirh thought of witchcraft and demons,
days. when men believed in the powers
Of the evil ore and in his close intimacy
with humanity, placing most things
strange and unheard of TO his real and
active presence on the earth. Sir Roger
told how he had been wrecked, how he
had been thrown stunned on the island,
with many wounds, and how, when, af-
ter a long time, he awoke from uncon-
sciousness, all his past life was dead to
him, a blank. He could not remember
his name. his family, whence he had
come Such instances are known TO be
common now, but to Oziel it seemed as
a direct malignity of the devil. Wan
dering by the shore, Tallowell found
pieces OF the wreck, but they conveyed
to his mind no clear indication OF what
had happened. He felt, he knew, that
there was past for him, that great
misfortune had occurred, but his mem
DRY struggled in vain to assert itself. In
the calm after the storm he went out 10
the wreck and found there gems ana
gold He stared at them. He remem-
bered not how they were got, II they