Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-10-04
CHAPTER VIII.
szE PREACHER FROM THn NOUN.
TAINE.

TTIE PREACHER FROM THE NOUN.
TAINS
It waa long enough since I had
found leisure for parcel Of sleep,
and SO during the larger part Of that
day am free to confess that I slum-
hered soundly, Nais watching me.
Night fell. and still we remained
within the privacy of the temple. It
was our plan that I should stay there
till the camp slept. and so I should
have more chance OF reaching the
seabeach without disturbance.
The night came down wet, with a
drizzle of rain, and through the Sits
in the temple walls we could see the
many fires in the camp we'll cared for,
and men and women in skins and
rags toasting before them, with
steam rising as the heat fought with
their wetness. Folk seated In dis
comfort like this are proverbially
alert and cruel in the temper, and
Nais frowned as she looked on the in
clemency of the weather.
But as the hours drew on the night
began to grow less quiet. From the
distance someone began to blow on a
horn OF shell. sending forth harsh
raucous note necessarily. The sound
came nearer, as we could tell fromits
growing Loneliness, and the voices of
those by tho fires made themselves
heard, railing at the blower for his dis
turbance. And presently it became
stationary. and standing up we could
see through the Sits in the walls the
people of the camp rousing up from
their uneasy rest, and clustering to-
gether round one who stood and talked
to them from the pedestal of war en-
CINE.
What he was declaiming upon we
gould not hear, and our curiosity on the
matter was not keen. Given that all
who did not sleep went to weary them
selves with this fellow. as Nais whis.
pered, 1t would be simple for me to
make an exit in the opposite direc-
ton.
But here we were reckoning without
the inevitable busybody. A dozenp pairs
of feet splashing through the wet
came up to the side of the little tenn.
pie, and cried loudly that Nais should
Join the audience. She had eloquence
of tongue, 1t appeared, and they
feared lest this speaker who had
taken his stand on the war engine
should make schisms among their
ranks unless some skilled person
stood up also to refute his argu-
ments.
Here, then, 1t seemed to me that l
must be elbowed into my skirmish by
the most unexpected of chances, but
Nais was firmly minded that there
should be no fight. if courage on her
part could turn IL. "Come out with
me" she whispered. "and keep distant
from the light of the fires
But how explain my being here?"
There is no reason to explain any
thing" she said, bitterly. "They will
take You for my lover There is moth
ing remarkable in that; it is the mode
here. But, OIL why did not the gods
make yongwear beard, and curl it,
even as other men? Then you could
have been gone and safe these two
hours
"a smooth chin pleases me better"
$50 1t does me- heard her murmur
as she leaned her weight on the stone
which hung in the doorway, and
pushed it ajar; ryour chin"
The ragged men outside-therew were
women with them also-did not wait
TO watch me very closely. A coarse jest
or two few (Which could have found
good heart to have repaid with sword
thrust) and they stepped off into the
darkness, just turning from time to
time to make sure we followed. On all
sides others were pressing in the same
direction--black shadows against the
Night; the rain spat noisily on the
!. - ~-sf, 4