Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-09-21
Y.
HAU, HAU,

His late majesty, Henry the Fourth.
/ remember--than whom no drawer
man wore sword, who loved danger in
deed, for It's own sake, and courted Il
as n mistress, could never sleep on the
night before an action. / have heard
him say himself that 1t was so before
the fight OF Argues. Croisette partook
of this nature, too being high-strung
and apt to be easily over-wrought but
never until the necessity for exertion
had passed away; while Marie and I.
though not a whit stouter at pinch,
were slower to feel and less easy to
move--more Germanic, in fact,
/ name his here partly lest 1t should
be thought after what i have Just told
Of Croisette that there was anything
Of the woman about him-save the ten
derness; and partly to show hat we
acted at this crisis each after his man
ner. While Croisette turned pale and
trembled, and hid his eyes, / stood
da2ed, looking from the desolate house
10 the face s%tiffening in the sunshine.
and back again; wondering, though
had seen scores of dead faces since day-
break, and n plentitude of suffering In
all dreadful shapes, how Providence
could let this happen to us. To us! In
his instincts man is as selfish as any
animal that lives.
] saw nothing indeed Of the dead face
and dead house after the first convinc-
ing glance. / saw instead with hot. hot
eyes the old castle at home, the green
fields about the brook, and the gray
hills rising from them; and the terrace
and Kit coming to meet US, Kit with
face and parted lips and avid eyes that
questioned us! And we with no com
fort to give her, no love to bring back
TO her.
fnfnt ,nsnA aII-l -
creaking in the wind, reused me from
this most painful reverie. / turned
round. not quickly or In surprise or
fear. Rather In the same dull Wonder.
The upper part OF the booksellers door
was a1ar. 1t was that / had heard
opened. An old woman was peering
out at us.
AS our eyes met, she made n slight
movement to close the door again. But
l did not stir, and seeming to be reas-
sured by a second glance, she nodded
to me in a stealthy fashion. / drew a
step nearer, listlessly. "Pst! Pst!"
she whispered. Her wrinkled old face,
which 'was like a Normandy apple long
kept, was soft with pity as she looked
at Croisette. "Pst!"
Welt" / said mechanically.
lis he taken?" she muttered.
"Who taken?" l asked stupidity.
SHe HOuueu lONdTUS the IOrSdKen
house and answered.: THE young lord
who lodged there? All! sirs," she on
tinued. h looked a and handsome,
If you'll believe me, as he came from
the kings court yester even! AS bonny
a sight in his satin coat, and his rib
bons, as my eyes eve saw! And to
think that they should be hunting him
like a rat today"
The woman's words were few and
simple. But what a change they made
in my world! How my heart awoke
from it's stupor, and leapt up with a
new joy and a new born hope! did
he escape, mother, Them"
"Ay, that he did," she replied, quick
ly. That o fellow, yonder-he lies
quiet enough now, God forgive him his
heresy, say kept the door manful-
ly while the gentlemen got on the roof
and ran right down the street on the
tops of h houses, with them firing and
hooting at him: for all the world as
II he had been a squirrel and they a
pack Of boys with stones!"
And he escaped?"
Escaped" she answered, more slow
ly, shaking her old head in doubt. at
do not know about that! / fear they
ave got him by now, gentlemen. I
have been shivering and shaking up-
stairs with my husband-he is in bed.
good man, and the safest place for him
the saints have mercy upon US! But
l heard them go with their shouting
and g~unpowder right along to the river.
and l doubt they will take him between
this and the chatelet! / doubt they
WILL"
How long ago was 1t. dame? 2" I cried.
"Oh! maybe half an hour. Perhaps