Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-05-04

|
We're ready TO come in from the
field as soon as he had taken the cows
aheid after the milking hour. Long fter
she was out IL the moonlight she saw the
little bed glimmering white i'm the still
room. She closed the door softly behind
her and came out into the lucid. dewy
twilight. Golden clouds lay yet in the
west. but there was a brightness also in
the east as though the sun were shaking
| hands with both horizon across the
| neither world.
| Nelly Anderson was dressed in the.
/ short. clOSe-htting dress of gray country
| cloth in which she took her evening ram
/ bleS with her boy. She had made the
/ dress herself. and now wore il because it
| was Walters favorite. On her head
! there was one of Walters blue honnetS
/ with Il spray of dead hawthorne sticking
where he had placed it on the evening
! before he had gone TO Neither Neuk. Her
/ face was pale even in the flush of the
| after twilight. but her eyes were ahysSes
of deep violet, and her lips seemed to have
! collected all the color of her face. and
! shone like cluster of geraniums alone
! in the snow.
! Walters mother had not at all gone
! out of her mind. as the clash of the coun-
/ trySlde had reported to the "Hoolet."
! She had only more completely found her
mind. She thought more clearly. saw
more definitely, acted more PROMPTLY
y
only had she been the life and soul of
the Search-directing, encouraging. dis
! covering reasons of failure. and inspiring
hopes of Success-but she had gone
abroad each night along all the old roads
that she had taken with Waite. She
| explored every swamp, Skirted every
loch, pushed her way through every
blrch-fringed glen. and often did not re-
| turn to Drumquhat till the morning
cocks were growing. and Saunders. the
early riser. was stirring in his bed. Wal
ter dear Gran" the resoute and re-
/ Sourceful, was far more apparently I'M
hinged than his mother.
Tonight she set out with a determine
| ton as strong and certain as when first
she took to these nocturnal wanderingS
The mothers instinct. long in allowance
was fully developed in her now. Walter
IN ms den was sorry for his mother, and
often thought of her; but. boylke. he
found even in his forced Imprisonment
something to console himself with. and
for hours together sad to say, he lost
himself in his sand castles and the cdu-
cation of the ''Hooet' and the Dell"
Tonight Nelly Anderson has Il new
route before her. She strikes ont over
the hill with confident and eager steps.
! avoiding the drains and moss holes with
! the practlced art of Il native. She who
had been born and reared among the
| houses and paVements of a far city now
Ot TINS NrdllOWdN moor, ana under the
pressure of anxiety. has developed al
most the tinesse of Sawny Bean himself
She skirts the dyke which leads over the
moor and which continues almost direct
to the end of Peter ChryStie'S barn at
Neither Neuk. Then to the left. avoiding
| the farmhOuSeS, where Il dog is ftfully
barking from some general sense of un-
eaSlnesS. as though regretting that he
had not something definite to bark at
Then down the course of Neuk Burn
she turns. seeing as she breasts the bank
the moon showing pale and moth-eaten
edge over the Dornal hill. Soon she is
under the Hanging Shaw overhead.
Sawny Beans mansion is just round
the curve of the burn. At this
point she strikes up the bank. With
wonderful litheness and alacrity
she climbs the steep slope. handing
herself from point to point by the hazel
shoots which grow thiekly all the way up
out Of every crevice Of rock. When she
reaches the top she steps out upon
small square of turf For moment she
pauseS, painting. She looks over the tops
of the hazels and birches to the east.
! Turning, the dark figure of man faces
her suddenly III the glimmer of the late
| moonShine. 1t needs no second glance to
tell her who it is.
Il have found thee, o mine enemy
is the cry of her heart; but there is
gladness. to. in it-a kind of JOY that
hour will settle all uncertainty. She cam
not mistake Herbert Peyton, the evil
| genius of her youth. She knows the fig
ure all too well. She had tainted ut one
glimpse of it in broad day, and surround
ed by troops Of friends. at the little
bridge on the way from the CamcrOnian
| kirk i'll Cairn Edward so long ago. but
now, alone and defenSeless. she is braced
| TIL her muscles are like steel and her
blood runs warm like wine
They stand looking at each other. these
! two. Their eyes meet over the years. 1t
Is terrible meeting when eyes that once
| looked love meet in hatred. and as Nelly
Anderson looks at the man who had tried
to darken her youth, she sees him over
her dead husbands grave
The man did not move. He stood
where he had stood when Nelly Ander-
son came out of the copscwood. He
stood as though if were the most natural
| thing in the world that she should be
there. and that She should arrive in this
| manner.
We'll. Nell" he said. lightly. with a
knocking accent in his voice, who would
have thought Of seeing you upon the
| Hanging Shaw"
Nelly Anderson. with her head very
| high and her hands behind her answered
rs though she had not heard the ques-
! ton.
What have YOU done with my boy?"
IItIbtIt ~ lDH lduSIeu Il lduEH OF III
| tense enjoyment 1t was such a low and
mellow laugh that TO any but distracted
mother its mcrriment might have been
! contagious. He took in the exquisite
jest Of the situation for a long moment
! before he answered:
He's right below where you are stand
| ing at this moment
Nelly Anderson reeled as though bull
| let had struck her.
Dead. dead" she muttered. her hands
up at her throat: my hoy dead
The next moment she recovered her
self, She took a step nearer TO the man.
who stood still in the same place. sway
ing his body like one who finds his posi-
ton comfortable and does not think Of
| changing it.
Il do not believe it. liar, You have
not the courage to kill even a boy. You
have only the courage to lie she said,
| bitterly.
NO. Nelly its you that have the cour-
age to kill-and for five years You
thought you had killed me-and | am
here yet. And the boy for whom you
put the knife into me and left me for