Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1902-02-06
CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.
A terrible warning. unheeded Of
those whom 1t warned, only terrible to
those who need no such inhuman sign
of the rough vengeance Of the outraged
law.
An awful warning II men who need 1t
had thought Of what 1t meant; but
many highway robber rode merrily
by the grim sign-post. snapped his I'm
gers at 1t and muttered to himself.
mot for me; there is no tree so high.
no irons 80 strong, that they shall ever
swing me to and fro in the wind"
They would fall. some of these. to
the hangman's perquisites neverthe-
less: they were either too bold. too
reckless, or a woman was in the case.
or what not. For all that. justice won
no victories by her scarecrow.
AS the birds Of the field will feed be-
meath the empty coat. the straw man
Of the farmer, 80 were there highway
men who would sit beneath the gibbet
and divide their spoil. or pass around
the bottle.
But It was fearful business. this IN
human. awful thing. for nervous
women and girls. for old men and
young, obliged to traverse the kings
highway sometimes at night. always in
the day; this CHASTITY suggestion of a
human creature warning with the ele-
ments and the birds OF prey, attacked
by the carrion crow, and worn at last
into exhibitions Of its weather beaten
nakedness.
Old Morley. and the men who saw
Mary come home that autumn night
from the abbey. had strange visions of
the bright. gay young traveller who
had jested with them. who had flshed
in the river, who had played bowls on
the grer:l; and it was like a nightmare
Of an untimely resurrection-the figure
in its rough tarred swaddling clouts
hanging by its iron collar. waiting with
the wind and rafting its chains in the
tempest.
In the second winter. after the set
ting up of the inhuman sign on the
Kirsstall road. Mary Lockwood had,
SO old Morley and Mrs. Meadows
thought. given signs Of awakening rea-
SOL; but the hope in which they fondly
iDiulged arose simply from the fact
that Mary's constitution was utterly
breaking down.
She had grown quiet, and they in
their ignorance said thoughtful. She
walked less. and sat longer by the win
dow. looking at the sky.
When the snow came and silence
reigned over the land. she smiled at
the white flakes as they fell, and held
out her thin hand to catch them, and
would seem to wonder that they dlsap-
peared.
Then came Christmas Eve.
The new landlord Of the Star and
Garter would insist that Joseph Nor
ley should come to the inn and sip one
glass from the wassail bowl in the old
inglenook, and meet the friends who
sorrowed with him and held him in
honor and respect.
Mrs. Meadows urged him to go. She
never kept these feasts, now that Jack
had left her. 1t would content her to
spend the evening with her brother
who was an invalid, and teach Mary
to call their beloved by his name
their dear Jack-for the widow had
long since forgiven Mary the part she
had played In his voluntary exile, and
had come to regard her as q poor for
lorn daughter, no sympathetic memory
lingering In her mind Of the rival who
had expiated his crimes on tho gal
lows.
She tried to forget this shadog upon
her sons affections. and would sit for
hours and talk to Mary of her love
and OF the time when he might. re-
turn.
Old Morley went to the Inn.
The talk was Of the old days when
Morley was the landlord.
Tom waited upon him hand and foot.
Mr.. Taylor proposed his health in
some touching words Of remembrance.
glancing only at the fatal shadow
which had fallen upon his old age. and
enforcing the moral that they must all
bend to the DEGREES of Providence.
Old Morley sat and smiled in
mournful way at the kindly efforts OF
his neighbors and friends to comfor'
him.
They had sent for him In a chaise.
and promised Mrs. Meadows to see him
safely to the farm in time for her. and
him and Mary. to hear the Christmas
bells begin to ring: for. although the
bells were few and the ringers were
not experts. they did manage to salute
the holy morn" at Kirkstall. and 1t was
good. they thought. for the sorrowful.
as well as the gay, to hear the glad
tidings and to believe In them.
But the bells. II they rang for Mary.
rang in heaven.
She heard them no more on earth.