The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-07

flicker OF flame. He snatched the mis-
sive and glanced at it. 1t was unsealed.
In moment he returned 1t to her.
Good news, he said cheerfully. Take
1t to madame, twill be the best OF cor
dials.'
Nerina crossed herself, then laughed
with joy all over her brown face She
went like lightning up the fight of steps,
snatched up her pail and went home.
In another ten minutes her lady learnt
that her youngest born would be with
her at midnight.
II shall come to the garden door," the
note said. TELL Nerina to watch for me,
for IL 1 am taken 1t will be seven years
of prison | have been sentenced by the
military court, but have escaped"
AT midnight she and Madame Tina were
waiting in the little damp garden behind
the house, which opened by postern
door on the bastion. AS the stroke OF
midnight sounded from the church clock
young voice whispered, very low:
It's Nina. Are you there?"
Nerina wrenched the heavy door open;
the mother pressed forward and fell into
her sons arms.
At the same moment three Communal
guards seized him. leaping from the shell
ter of the laurel thicl1et on the rampant
They dragged him out from his mothers
arms and struck her servant to the
ground.
Nerina gathered herself UP. blind. sick,
reeling.
Beasts! How did you know?'
The guards laughed brutally and drag
ged Romanino away in the gloom of the
faint oil light. their pistols held to his
temples. their handouts on his wrists.
Nine Tina had dropped to the ground
in q SVnpOne She wac oarriad into bar
house and into her chamber She died in
an hours time
The doctor stood by her bed, having
spent all his science in vain He seemed
kind. plying, wise.
My Door SOUL YOU should go to your
room and rest after such shock" he
said to Nerina, where she sat mute by
the corpse.
She had never spoken a word since the
seizure of Romanino. 1t was now late in
the forenoon. She stared at him contin-
ually with her dry. fierce eyes. and the
gaze made him uneasy and troubled.
i can do no more good here he said
with regret. a little later. and rose and
left the chamber of death. The parish
priest accompanied him.
All the last services OF life were rem
dered that night by the servant of her
mistress. No other hand but her servant S
thirty hours which followed Nerina
watched by the bed, watched by the
bier. seemed dumb. seemed deaf, seemed
blind
r When all was over and she alone had
been the mourner at the tomb, her head
covered and her face .muff1ed in a black
wooden shawl, she skunk like a lost
wounded animal under the shadow of
the church, where her lady had been
Lea ~ L
side the dust of her forefathers.
Distinct, in the bewildered torrent of
her thoughts, one supreme idea stood
out as written in fire. How had they
known? Who had told them of Ro-
manino's return?
AS she went slowly across the few
score of yards which separated the
church from the house which had shell
tered her through so many years, she
saw lean, black. tall form passing
across the roadway. 1t was the figure
of the apothecary. A sudden light like
that of an electric fash through
murlxy night pierced the stupor Of her
dull brain. There was the traitor
there!
With a bound she was upon him, her
hands clutched his shoulders, her tear
less, hollow eyes blazed into his.
You sold their secret!" .
Startled and thrown off his guard by
the sudden charge he stammered de-
NAL, grew livid, shook in all his limbs.
You sold their secret!'
mo, no." he muttered. mo, no! What
I did 1 did from duty. The law must
be obeyed."
:'You sold their secret
1t was all clear to her as though
voice from heaven or from hell spoke In
her ear. He had laid his trap for her
to learn the truth for the lawmakers,
and had been paid by the law like Ju-
das. He had made her betray the
dead. He had made her betray the liy-
ing.
!, ssYou sold their secret!' she said for the
fourth time. and she read his guilt upon
his face where the yellow flicker OF his
lamp before the shrine fell on it.
"Ah, wretch! All, beast! All. Judas!
she screamed in his ear, and with all her
might she clutched him in her strong
arms and swept him off his feet as though
he were broken, rootless tree.
With whirling force, as though a noun
tain storm had entered her and lent her
all its power, she propelled him across
the roadway still lifting him off his feet
and bearing him toward the river wall.
He struggled in vain to free himself
and to shake off her hold. He was a
weakly and aged man, coward always.
and more than ever coward now,
through quivering consciousness OF quit.
AS hurricane sweeps dead wood before
1t she drove him across the width OF the
rampant road. and, with the natural
strength which was in her intensified a
hundredfold by agony, remorse and nate,
she lifted his frail body over the low wall
above the river and plunged with MIN
into the river. below.
The water was deep with the first rain
falls of autumn. They sunk together like
stones. In the morning their bodies were
found half a mile lower down the torrent:
the hands of Nerina were close locked
round the old mans shoulders, her teeth
were fastened in his throat.