Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-03-13


borhood of 40 when he came back to
the home of his ancestors. He was
a bachelor, very tall, and dark of
feature. He had been abroad 10 years,
and as I, a young physician, had but
lately settled in the adjoining town.
7 had never seen him. l had heard,
however, that he had visited many
countries, civilized and savage, and
had concluded that he was tired of
roughing it and glad for chance to
settle down beneath the roof of his
fathers.
His old acquaintances did not see
much of him after he came home. He
nodded to his former friends, or
passed them by without SO much as
a bow. Not long after his coming
home we learned that he was courting
Annie Kimball, the prettiest girl. of
the neighborhood, already engaged, as
we believed, to Steve Morgan, young
man of steady habits, but without a
1.-THE of the wealth possessed by Brant
Durivage.
Old Kimball, Annies father, was
dissipated, and, just then, financially
embarrassed, and the truth is that he
sold his child to Brant Durivage, fore
ing her to break her engagement with
young Morgan, who denounced the
bargain in bitter language whenever
he could find anybody to listen to him.
At times he swore that he would get
even" with the man who had come be-
tween him and Annie.
For several weeks matters drifted
along quietly. If Durivage heard of
Morgan's hot words and threats, he
said nothing. He seemed perfectly
contented with the conquest he had
won, the wedding day had been set,
and Annie had become resigned to the
fate from which there seemed no es-
cape.
Steve Morgan had given up his
trade, but not his daily habit of ours
ing Brant Durivage. He had lost
flesh, and his eyes had wolfsh,
vengeful look. In common with 9th.
ers, fully expected tragedy of some
kind, and went so far as to share my
opinion win the constable, who nod
ded approvingly.
The tragedy came, but not in the
manner expected. At ten o'clock on
the night before the day set apart for
the wedding man whom | knew to
be Brant Durivage's factotum. threw
open my Office door, and rushing in,
startled me with the intelligence that
his master had just been shot.
Thinking Immediately uf Steve
Morgan, promised to repair to the
house at once, and in a short time
crossed the threshold for the first
yoom, where | found the dark-faced
man lying unconscious on a bed. hav-
ing been carried to his chamber by a
servant who, standing by me, said
lat Durivage had ben shot through
the open window of the library, which
was on the ground floor.
81 pulled this out of the wound"
the man, taking an arrow
from the table, but Pm afraid there's
a bit of it left. He's shot under the
left shoulder and and from behind;
bad wound, I'm thinking" And the
servant shook his head.
l fell at once to examining my pa
tient, and discovered that while the
barb had not gone deep enough tc
touch vita; organ, the wound was
dangerous, especially ii ,ne shaft had
been poisoned. l found also that the
servant was right about piece of the
arraw head remaining n the hurt, for
| removed it with my forceps and laid
it alongside the weapon on the table.
Meantime the people attached to
the estate were looking for the person
who had attempted Durivage's life.
The town constaole had been sum
moned and the town itself was al
ready in an uproar. | remained with
Durivage until | could leave him TO
the care of a nurse, and with ar
row and the detached head, l went
back to my office. l was clear to me
that the shaft had come from some
distant land. | had seen many savage
weapons in collections, but never one
like it. The shaft proper was a light
reed. very straight and hard One
end had been cut off transversely and
the other notched in order to receive
the bow string. Next came a piece of
bone nearly three inches in length.
One end of it had been passed into
the split, or open end of the shaft.
while the other end of the bone was
slipped short piece of reed, over
which, in turn, strong wrapping of
intestine had been placed. All this
formed a socket for the true head of
tie arrow, the oone merely giving tho
shaft proper weight l saw this much
by the light of my office lamp; but |
saw more.
The head" was the piece l had e2-
tracted from the wound. 1t was of
ivory, and / now saw that it had
been attached to the bone weight in