The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-02-22

trembling the, little nose wrinkled and
a series Of short. suffocating banks CIV
ing utterance to his JOY at reunion.
EN-. whose eyes had ached with look
ing out across the plain. was now ut
work in back room and knew nothing
till, looking up. she saw Gregory. with
his straw hat and blue eyes. standing
in the doorway. He greeted her quiet
ly, hung his hat up in its old place be-
hind the door. and for any change in
shis manner or appearance he might
have been gone only the day before to
fetch letters from the town. Only his
beard was gone. and his face was
grown thinner. He took off his leather
:gaiters. said the afternoon was hot
and the roads dusty and asked for
some tea. They talked Of wool and
the cattle and the sheep. and EN- gave
him the pile of letters that had come
for him during the months Of absence,
but Of the thing that lay at their
hearts neither said anything. Then he
went out to look at the kraals, and at
supper EN- gave him hot cakes and
coffee. They talked about the serv-
dutS tueu dtS tuSi luSttl III Quicl
She came and sat on footstool near
him.
"Do you wish to hear anything?" he
asked.
She whispered, "Yes. if it does not
hurt you"
Yet he lay quiet for long time. The
light through the open door showed
him to her. where he lay. with his arm
thrown across his eyes. At last he
spoke. Perhaps it was a relief to him
to speak.
To Bloemfontein. in the Free State.
to which through an agent he had trac-
ed them. Gregory had gone. At the no.
tel where Lyndall and her stranger
had staid he put up. He was shown
the very room in which they had slept.
The colored boy who had driven them
to the next town told him in which
house they had boarded. and Gregory
went on. In that town he found they
had left the cart and bought spider
and four grays. and Gregory's heart
rejoiced. Now, indeed. it would be
easy to trace their course. and he turn
ed his steps northward.
At one desolate farm the Boer had
good deal to tell. The lady had said
she liked wagon that stood before
the door. Without asking the price the
Englishman had offered ESQ for the
old thing and bought oxen worth f1O
for ZIG. The Dutchman chuckled. for
he had the "Salt-reim's" money in the
box under his bed. Gregory laughed.
too, in silence. He could not lose sight
of them now. so slowly they would
have to move with that cumbrOus OK
wagon. Yet when that evening came
and he reached a little wayside inn no
one could tell him anything of the trav-
elers.
The master, a surly creature. half
stupid with Boer brandy. sat on the
bench before the door smoking. Greg
DRY sat beside him, questioning, but
he smoked on. He remembered moth
ing Of such strangers. How should he
know who had been there months and
months before? He smoked on. Greg
DRY, very weary, tried to awake his
memory; said that the lady he was
seeking for was very beautiful. had
little mouth and tiny, very tiny feet.
The man only smoked on as sullenly as
at first. What were little, very little,
mouths and feet to him? But his
daughter leaned out in the window
above. She was dirty and lazy and
liked to loll there when travellers came
to hear the men talk, but she had soft
heart. Presently hand came out Of
the window, and a pair Of velvet slip
pers touched his shoulder, tiny slip
pers with black flowers. He pulled
them out of her hand. Only one wo-
mans feet had worn them; he knew
that.
Left here last summer by a lady,"
said the girl; might be the one you are
looking for; never saw any feet so
small"
They might have come in a wagon
and spider; she could not tell. But the
gentleman was very handsome, tall,
lovely figure, blue eyes, wore gloves
always when he went out; an English
officer. perhaps; no Afrikander, GER
taiply.
Gregory stopped her.
The lady? Well, she was pretty,
rather, the girl said; very cold, dull
AIR, silent. They staid for, it might
; be, five days; slept in the wing over
against the "stoep;" quarreled some
times, she thought-the lady. She had
seen everything when she went in to
wait. One day the gentleman touched
her. hair. She drew back from him as
though his fingers poisoned her; went
to the other end Of the room If he came
% sit near her; walked out alone; cold
wife for such handsome husband, the
girl thought. She evidently pitied him,
he was such a beautiful man. They
went away early one morning, how or
i'm which way the girl could not tell.
Gregory inquired of the servants,
but nothing more was to be learned. so
the next morning he saddled his horse
and went on. At the farms he came to
the good old looms" and "tantes" ask
ed him to have coffee, and the little
shoeless children peeped out at the
stranger from behind ovens and gables,
but no one had seen what he asked for.
This way and that he rode to pick up