The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-16
CHAPTER XVI.
A BLOW IN THE DARK.


swer. At night he felt sure it would
eeme.
When the wagon dashed up to the post
office that night it was fifteen minutes
late. He was walking up and down the
street on the opposite pavement along
the square, keeping under the shadows
of the trees. He turned quickly across the
street and stood inside the office, listen
ing with a feeling of strange abstraction
to the tramp of the postmaster's feet
back and forth as he distributed the
mail.
At last he drew himself up, walked to
his box and opened it. His heart leaped!
A big square-cut envelope lay in it ad-
dressed to him in her own beautiful
!hand He snatched it out and hurried
to his office. The moment he touched it,
his heart sank. 1t was light and thin.
Evidently there was but single sheet
of paper within it.
He tore it open and stared at it with
parted lips and half-seeing eyes. The
first word struck his soul with deadly
chill. This was what he read:
My Dear Mr. CASTOR: / write in
| obedience to the wishes of my parents to
say our engagement must end and our
correspondence cease. l cannot explain
to you the reasons for this l have ac-
quiesced in their judgment, that it is
best
l return your letters by tomorrows
mail, and mama requests that you return
mine to her at lakewood Immediately.
l leave tonight on the limited for At
lanta, where l join a friend, We go to
Savannah, and thence by steamer to
Boston, where l shall visit Helen for
month. Sincerely,
sALLIE WORTH.
For a long time he looked at the let
ter in a stupor of amazement. That her
| father could coerce her hand into writing
such a brutal commonplace note was a
revelation of his power of which he had
never dreamed. And then his anger be-
gan to rise. His fighting blood from
hundreds of years of soldier ancestors
made his nerves Jingle at this challenge.
He took up the letter and read it
again, studying each word. He open
ed the folded sheet, hoping to find some
/ detached message. There was nothing
/ inside. But he noticed on the other side
of the sheet lot of indentures as though
made by the end of a needle. He turned
| it back and studied these dots under
different letters in the words made by
the needle points. He spelled
MY Darling-Unto the Uttermost!"
| And then he covered the note with
kisses. sprang to his feet and looked at
| his watch
! 1t was now en-thirty. The limited"
left independence at eleven o'clock and
made no stops for the first hundred
miles toward Atlanta. But just to the
south where the railroad skirted the foot
of Kings Mountain there was water
tank on the mountain side where he
knew the train stopped for water about
midnight
With a fast horse he could make the
eighteen miles and board the Limited"
at this water station. The only danger
was if the sky should cloud over and the
starlight be lost it would be difficult to
keep in the narrow road that wound over
the semi mountainous hills, densely
wooded that must be crossed to make it.
"I'll try it," he exclaimed. Eyes,
will do it," he added, setting his teeth.
| ''Ill make that train"
He got the best horse he could find in
| the livery stable, saw that his saddle
| girths were strong, sprang on and gal
| loped toward the south. 1t was a quar-
ter to eleven when he started. and it
seemed a doubtful undertaking. The
| Limited" would make the run from In
dependence, fifty-two miles, in an hour
at the most. If she were on time it
would be a close shave for him to make
the eighteen miles.
He pushed his horse to the utmost
speed he could maintain for the first
twelve miles, that he might have more
! time to pick his way in the darkness
among the overlapping trees near the
stopping place. The sky clouded over
slightly before he reached this narrow
way running through these forests with
many crooks and cross roads. In spite
of his vigilance he lost his direction and
had gone a quarter of mile before a
rift in the cloud showed him the north
star suddenly, and he found he had taken
the wrong road at the crossing and was
going straight back home.
Wheeling his horse, he put spurs tc
him. and dashed at full speed back
through the dense woods. He lay low
over the saddle to save his face from
overhanging limbs and at last, tired oil
his cramped position, he raised his head
caught his necktie and tore it off. He
/ did not dare to stop to hunt it in the
dark, and urged his horse faster.
Just as he got within mile of the
tank he heard the train blow for the
bridge crossing at the river near by.
Now, my boy" he cried to his horse
patting him. Nov your level best
The horse responded with a squirt O.
| desperate speed. He had way o.
handling a horse that the animal re-
sponded to with almost human sympathy
and intelligence He seemed to breathe
his own will into the horses spirit HI
New over the ground, and reached the
train just as the fireman cut off the water
and the engineer tapped his bell TO start
He flung his horses rein over a hitch
Ing post that stood near the dark silen
i little station house. rushed to the track
and sprang on the day coach as it passed
He had intended to ride fifty miles OF
this train, see his sweetheart face tt
''#sl,.. 81