Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1901-04-03


Princes scroll. "Dotard! poltroonl
that you were to take Captain Der
vents life in his stead! Your excuse
that the darkness of the night and
Captain Gordon's conduct led to your
failure avail you nothing. You have
robbed me of friend, and let my foe
go free. Expect neither reward nor
mercy from me-
She understood it all now. The In
dian whose knife had pierced Don's
breast was no other than the sepoy
who, in the secret service of the
Prince, had followed Don into Tirah.
His orders had been 60 shoot Don, but
in the gathering dusk of the nullah he
had mistaken Captain Derwent for his
intended victim. He had thereupon
graphically reported Dons every word
and action to try to account for the ex-
citement which led to the misdirection
of his own rifle; but the excuse had
weighed not at all with the naughty
potentate, whose imperlous will had
thus been frustrated.
And the sepoy, with that blind devo-
ton to his master which is the In
dams truest point, had willingly faced
death, disguised as a seaman, again to
make attempt to carry out the Princes
desire.
She realized with shudder the aw-
full strength of her royal lovers deep
rooted jealousy She felt anew the
agony of remorse doubIefo1d
In vain Diana, with her larger faith
and greater endurance, tried to solace
her. She knew intuitively that Di, in
her noble abandonment of self, would
have sacrificed her grief for the father
who was dead in order to teach the
comfort of repentance at the foot of
the cross to the living husbands suf-
fering soul,
And now Don was dying-dyingl
and that supreme privilege would new
er be hers. She might never hold his
hand and say; IF we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness," She had told Don
she forgave him, yet she had hidden
him go and work out his own re-
pentance and salvation, bereft of
earthly comfort and companionship-
DON whose nature she knew was so
weak to resist temptation or endure
hardship, who knew nothing of the
strength of self-reliance or the trust in
redeemer
All! what was her forgiveness
worth?
Colonel Gordon from Gadie arrived
at West Cowes on the second day fol-
lowing Roddy's message of Don's con-
dition. Though his son undoubtedly
held the first place in the old laird's
| heart, his nephew Don had ever re-
ceived a large share of his affectionate
solicitude, and he was profoundly
moved by the young officers illness.
Yet it was he who resolutely drew
Lille from the sick room. leaving
Roddy and Diana to watch with the
nurse through that time of dread crisis.
He saw the strength of the girl wife
was all but sapping beneath the aw-
full strain, both physical and mental;
|
verses by the wide seashore at the
brave old soldiers side that Lille
learned the greatest of faiths secrets
"He doeth all things WE'LL
And it was then-then, when her
heavyladen heart had found relief in
submission to that Higher viii than
her own, the vital wave of Don's life,
having ebbed to its furthest limit, be-
gan to flow back. The doctors verdict
went forth that it was possible Don
might live.
Oh, the agony then of those nights
and days! those alternate hours when
life and death struggled for supremacy,
and each hung in the balance!
Once more Lille lowered almost in
cessantly by Don's pillow, living only
in that hope of the first look, the first
word of recognition. She hungered for
it with an eager intensity that had no
thought of self in 1t now.
She longed to pour out in his ears
the comfort of that proof of the
Princes guilt and his own innocence.
She told herself not even death could
appal her now if but that brief COM
munlon of souls might be theirs, for
suffering had taught her even resigna-
TONS wondrous hope.
Il shall go to him, but ne shall not
return to me"
The sun was setting over the green,
slipping hills and glinted on the fleets
of yachts and little boats In the har-
Dor and on the castle at its mouth.
Away beyond inc dividing River Medi-