New-York tribune., 1900-07-08

His scheme was perfectly successful The
days passed on in monotonous succession, and
no man came near his city of refuge. Once or
twice he ventured down to the township on the
other side Of the hills rcpenish his stock OF
necessaries. Few people knew him there, and
no one eyed him askance as he came and went
Still, had he been a prisoner living the
poorest fare it could not have changed him
more His cheeks began to fall in; he hag
gard and gaunt, his bloodshot eyes had
strained listening look in them. Among the
bare, bleak hills by day and alone beneath the
illimitable stars by night his mind began to
totter- As every summer sun sprang up. red
and glorious he almost hoped that policeman
, would come for him before night and break this
awful spell of loneliness. His was not the plight
of the Ancient Mariner sailing sea so lonely
that God Himself scarce seemed there to be.
To this man The terror and the awe lay in the
fact that God did seem there beside him night
and day, the only Being in all that changeless
solitude God and the dead man and he seemed
the only realities in a universe of shifting
shadows
one day he found a late bIossoming wild
flower in the shadow of a tussock. He clutched
at 1t like a child and hugged it to his bosom,
tears springing to his eyes. He took it home
with him and had it by him while he slept He
could rot love and admire too much this homely
little thing that spoke of simplicity and com
mon everyday life, He held it in his hand and
tondled it, till the fragile flower dropped on its
long, slender stem and died. Then again he was
left alone with the majestic Implying stars,
whose million eyes burnt into his soul He re-
membered fragment Of the Psalms that he had
once known: The heavens declare the glory of
God What came after he had forgotten, but
this he had no chance Of forgetting while these
relentless ministers Of His glory shone luminous
above him night by night.
Often at dusk the woodhens would steal out
from tusscck and toomatoogooroo. croakine
shrilly- one, bolder than the rest would come
TO his very door. He had been wont to hunt
these birds unmercifuIy, but now he tried his
utmost to propitiate and tame this one He
Ionged TO stroke its speckled black and brown
plumage and have it eat out of his hand Onoe
it carried off a gaudy handkerchief he had
spread OUT TO attract it. and ne rolled himself up
in his blankets that night happy But it never
came again. Perhaps a chance stone or a dog
had ended its life
He had been almost afraid to ask for a news
paper when buying his stores, lest the very fact
should beyTay him. Yet ne had conquered his
guilty tremors bought one and unfoIded the
cracking sheets in his hut glancing his eyes
fearfuy over each column. No. there was moth
ing of-of his murder case! Perhaps the first
little country chronicle was silent when larger
papers were still full of it. Anyway. he told
himself for the mean time he was safet-safe,-
safe. He tried TO say the word jubilantIy, but
in spite of himself it had melancholy ring.
The door of the hut had evidently been made
Of new timber, for as the sap had receded the
pIanks had shrunk apart from each other. leav-
ing wide yawnng gaps through which the day
light etreanled and the wind blew To remedy
this state of affairs the dead man had pasted old
newspapers partly across the back of the door
These the present occupier would read and re-
( read as he lay Istlessy on the floor beside them.
At least. they kept his reason from going. But
one sheet contained an account of a murder
every word Of which soon seemed branded into
his hraiu, well he knew every line. every turn
of phrase in it It ended abruptly TOO, at the
turn Of the sheet on which it printed. At
the very climax Of the tragedy all became sud
denly blank. The unfinished horror of it
haunted the man. To him it made more
awful by far by this CHASTITY break in it. He
/ pondered it over and over, half unconsciousIy.
many a dreamlike ending suggesting itself to