Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-08-04

! name might be-and her carriage COM
panion were as exquisitely gowned as
any women to be seen on the boule-
wards or In Hyde park of an afternoon.
1t was late in the afternoon when
| they returned to the hotel. After din
ner, during which they were again OBJ
jects of interest, they strolled off to-
ward the castle, smoking their cigars
| and enjoying the glorious air Being
stranger In strange land, Lorry acted
Oh the romantic painters advice and
also stuck revolver in his pocket lie
laughed at the suggestion that there
might be use for the weapon in such a
quiet, model, well regulated town, but
Anguish insisted:
give seen lot of these fellows
around town who look like genuine
brigands and cutthroats, and think it
just as we'll that we be prepared" as
serted he positively, and his friend
gratified what he called whim.
At 10 o'clock the slender moon
dropped behind the mountain, and the
valley, which had been touched with
Its tender light, gradually took on the
somherness and stiffness of starlit
night. The town slumbered at II, and
there were few lights to be seen in the
streets or in the houses Here and
there strolled the white uniformed DO
lice guards, occasionally soldiers hur-
ried barrackward, now and then belat-
ed citizens moved through the dense
shadows on the sidewalks, but the
Americans saw still life in its reality.
Returning from their stroll beside the
castle walls far to the west of where
they had entered the grounds that aft
ernoon, they paused in the middle of
kCastle avenue near the main gate and
looked down the dark, deserted street.
Far away could be seen the faint glare
from their hotel. One or two street
lamps burned in the business part of
the city. Aside from these evidences of
life there was nothing but darkness,
silence, peacefulness, about them ev-
erywhere.
"Think of Paris or New York at IL
o'clock said Lorry, trif1e awed by
the solitude of the sleeping city.
Its as dead as a piece of prairie
Eland,' said his friend. Cad, it makes
me sleepy to look down that street. It's
a mile to the hotel, too, Lorry. We'd
tbetter move along.'
Lets lie down near the hedge.
smoke another cigar and wait till mid
night. 1t is too glorious a night to be
Host in Sleep urged Lorry, whose
heart was light over the joys of the
day to come II can dream Just as
well here. looking at that dark old cas-
tie, with its one little tower light, MS
I could If / tried to sleep in hard
bed down at the hotel"
Anguish, who was more or less of
dreamer himself. consented, and after
lighting fresh cigars they threw them
selves on the soft, dry grass near the
tall hedge that fenced the avenue as
1t neared the castle grounds. For half
an hour they talked by fits and starts,
one thinking of the face he had seen,
the other picturing In his artist eye the
painting he had vowed to create from
the moonlit castle of an hour ago.
"Some one coming" murmured the
painter, half rising to his elbow at
tentively.
Soldiers" said the other briefly.
They'll not disturb u.s.
They'll not even see us, 1 should
say. It's as dark as Egypt under this
hedge. They'll pass if we keep quiet"
The figures Of two men could be seen
approaching from the city, dim and
lghostly in the semiblackness Of the
night Like two thieves the Ameri-
cans waited for them to pass. 70
their exceeding discontinue, however,
the pedestria halted directly in front
of their resting place and seated them
selves leisurely upon broad, fiat
stone at the roadside. 1t was too dark
to see if they were soldiers, notwitl- !
standing the fact that they were less
than fifteen feet away.
''He should be here at 12" said one
of the newcomers in a low voice and
in fairly good English. The other
merely grunted. There was a silence
of some duration, broken by the first
speaker.
eff this job fails and you are caught,
it will mean years Of servitude."
"But in that case we are to have TO-
600 gavvos apiece for each year we lie
in prison. It's fair pay-not only for
our failure, but for our silence" said
the other, whose English was more
difficult to understand.
Anguish's fingers grfpped Lorry's leg,
but there was no sound from either of
the thoroughly aroused dreamers. ga
plot, as l live" thought each, with
thrill.
eve must be careful to speak only in
English. There are not twenty people
in Edelweiss who understand it, but
the night has ears. 1t is the only safe
tongue. Geddos speaks it well. He
should be here" 1t was the first speak
er who uttered these words, little know
ing that he had listeners other than the
man to whom he spoke.
A dark figure shot across the road
way, and, almost before the Americans
were aware of it, the party numbered
three.
"Ab, Geddos, you are punctral."
II have found it ever a virtue" re-
ru~~~ .1nrYL L..