New Ulm review., 1901-07-24

closed my eyes that they, too, might
have rest, for they felt weary and clog
ged. Then. do what would or could,
WEAKNESS and sleep took charge of me.
Tired muscles rose in open and defiant
rebellion against mind and will. The
combat was short and fierce, but matter
trlumphed over mind, and in five min
utes was in the midst Of sleep that
was heavenly with rest, unpeopled by
bad dreams with my head back against
the wall and my breathing long and
regular. Meanwhile the bed of Goals on
the hearth grew smaller and paler. The
rim of fire narrowed. Goals turned from
red to black and then to gray and crum-
bled into ashes. The darkness crept up
to the very edge Of the hearthstone and
then invaded it. The girl was complete
" in the shadows, and the pale glimmer
Of the fire was but a faint light left in
the room.
The sleeping man and the sleeping
girl were tired, very tired. and they
slept soundiy. II they had dreams, they
were pleasant ones and no thought Of
danger entered into them. The men
around the campfire had moved away
to the other side of the world, and the
little cabin was peaceful for them, in
side and outside. Sleeping thus, they
did not see the men rise from the camp
fire and approach the hut, now yelled
in a darkness which made such move
ment safe. They reached the cabin
without alarm or a sign from the
watcher who was not watching, and at
last the leader tried the shutter of the
window. He pried at it with his knife
and moved it a little. Then he put his
ear to the crack and could hear nothing
within. Replacing his ear with his eye,
he could see the feeble glimmer of the
fire and nothing more. He was sure that
those whom he wished to take were
asleep, and he exulted, for fierce anger
mingled with his other desires to recap
ture both. He pried again at the win
dow, and with greater leverage it yield
ed further, and wood scraped against
wood. He stopped and listened again,
but the inmates Of the casin never
stirred.
Putting his ear to the wide crack
that now intervened between the shut
Ter and the wall, he listened again and
heard the steady, regular breathing Of
some one inside and below. He knew it
was the breathing of sleeping man,
too loud and strong for woman, too
even for one awake, and he reached up
and pulled the shutter wide open on its
rude leather hinges Then he grasped
the edge of the window with both hands
and pulled himself up.
My sleep grew troubled at last and
then turned into nightmare Some
huge wild beast, after the fashion of
beasts III nightmares, was sitting on my
chest and blowing his breath in my
face, while 1 had no power to move a
muscle. / was cold to the marrow and
waited for him to devour me, but in
stead he dwindled away and became
misty. With one great effort / threw
him off my chest and sprang to my feet.
My head struck against somebody else s
bead as sprang up, and that somebody
else swore an oath that had the SAVIOR
| neither of nightmare nor a dream, but
of reality.
Cold air and moonlight rushed in at
the window, but most of the passage
| was filed up by the shoulders and head
of a large man whose face I could not
see owing to the imperfect light. He
held in his hand a pistol which he fired
at me, but now the imperfect light was
to my advantage and not his, for his
bullet, avoiding ME, buried itself with
a chuck in the log walls, and the re-
port confined in the small room roared