Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-12-01

based only upon 4 knowledge of the
original plan Of attack-he neverthe-
less quickly dispatched q small scouting
party in the direction from which the
attack might come, with orders to fail
back and report at once. With a cer-
tain half irony OF recollection he had
selected Jim Hooker to accompany the
party as a volunteer. This done he re-
turned to the gallery. The surgeon
met him at the door. "The Indications
OF conclusion are passing away he
said, but she seems to be suffering
from the exhaustion following some
great nervous excitement. You may
go in-she may rally from 1t n mo-
ment.'
With the artificial step and mysteri-
Gus hush Of the ordinary visitor to a
sick bed, Brant entered the room. But
some instinct greater than this COM
mon expression OF humanity held him
suddenly in awe. The room seemed no
longer his-it had slipped back into
that austere conventual privacy which
had first impressed him. Yet he hesi-
tated; another strange suggestion--it
seemed almost a vague recollection
overcame him like some lingering per-
fume, faint, far off and pathetic, In It's
dying familiarity. He turned his eyes
almost timidly towards the bed. The
t0NNA SN NaH dIiNn ~ iitdI TIC tlIOdb
of the figure to replace the striped cot
ton gown, stained with blood and dust,
which had been hurriedly torn off and
thrown aside. The pale color, the long
hair still damp from the surgeons
sponge lay rigidly back on the pillow.
? suddenly this man of iron nerves ut
tered "A faint cry, and with a face as
white as the upturned one before him,
fell on his knees beside the bed. For
the face that lay there was his wife's.
Yes! hers. Eut the beautiful hair
that she had gloried in-the hair that
In his youth he lac thought had once
fallen like a benediction on his shoul-
ders-was streaked with gray along
the blue Veined hollows of the temples;
the orbits of those clear eyes, beneath
their delicately arched brows, were
ringed with days OF suffering; only the
clear cut profile, even to the delicate
imperiousness OF lips and nostril, was
still there in all its beauty. The COW
erlet a slipped from the shoulder; it's
familiar marble contour startled him.
He remembered how In their early
married days he nae felt the sanctity
OF that Diana-like revelation, and the
still nymph-like austerity which chung
to this strange, childless He
even fancied that he breathed again
the subtle characteristic perfume OF
the lace embroideries, the delicate en-
wrappings in her chamber at Robles.
Perhaps IL vas the intensity OF his
gaZe-perhaps II was the magnetism OF
his p~resence-but her lips parted with
n half sigh, half moan. Her head, al
though h yes were still closed,
turned on the pillow i~nstinctively to-
wards him. He rose from his knees. Her
eyes opened slowly. AS the first glare
of wonderment cleared from them,
they met HMM the old a~ntagonism
OF spirit! Yet her first gesture was a
feminine pathetic movement with both
hands, to arrange her struggling hair.
1t brought her white fingers, cleaned Of
their Disgusting stains, as a sudden
revelation to her of what had hap
pened; she instantly slipped them
back under the coverlet again. Brant
did not speak, but with folded arms
stood gazing upon her. And It was
her voice that first broke the silence.
you have recognized me! Well,
suppose you know ALL" she said with
a weak half-deiance.
He bowed his head. He felt as yet
he could not trust his voice and envied
her her own
Continued Next Week.)