The Monticellonian., 1903-11-05

saved!"
 Banelagh lifted the dead woman as if she were a sick child. threw his cloak over her and, carrying her out to his wagon, placed her in a sitting springing into the vehicle, he drove away.
 He had a good mile to go, and half the distance had been covered when suddenly black figure sprang into the middle of the road, laid hold of the horses head and brought him to a standstill
 It was Schuyler Brant
 Hello, pr Harry You're d-d unso- ciable this evening. Ha, ha, Ina. ha. hal Why didn't you stop and ask a fellow to ride?" And ere Ranelagh could gulp his heart down. the man had leaped into the wagon beside him.
 "I'm at it again. pr. Harry" the man rattled on. But, say, has Mary | been to see your" he asked. lowering his voice and throwing a strange ten derness into it.
 i own life, and the struggle put unearth- ly Ren into his mind.
 "Sh for Gods sake be quiet. Brant!" l he whispered into the drunkard's ear. She's there behind us on the back l seat, asleep, worn-out. It's been too much for her!"
 ''Oh. what wretch I am. pr. Har- ry." moaned the man, leaning forward and hiding his face in his hands.
 At that instant the dead wife lurehed forward and sank in a heap between the seats, her chin catching on the back of the front one. Ranelagh felt her and so did the drunken husband, for her head fell forward until her forehead pressed against his back
 The doctor gasped and shivered as if someone had dashed knife irto his back, down, down to his very heart.
 Was all lost? No, not yet, There was one more card to play
 Don't stir, Brant,' lie gulped. "She is knee1ing; she is praying! Shes praying for you man! Don't stir! Let her have her sleep outf" And Dr. Ranelagh seemed to speak the truth for the shaking of the lifeless fern was terribly like the heaving of sobbing heart.
 But Brant did stir. He half turned and batting that beautiful deaths head broke out weeping:
 Take heart, dear wife. take heart, By Heaven! I will be better man! swear it. Mary. I will swear it on the little Bible mother gave mel" And then as if some other thought had sud denly flashed upon him. he whispered: Pull up, Dr. Harry. pull up, Let me out! I'll run home cross lots and wash up and put on other clothes. Speak a good word for me, Dr. Harry Com fort herr Drive slowly; get her calmed down. I'll meet you at the door" Ard shaking off the influence of the lieH0r Brant sprang lightly out Of the wagor and disappeared in the deep shadows of the increasing storm.
 Like poor wretch condemned to the peine forte ct duIe. from whose crushed breast a merciful hand might suddenly lift the mass of iron, Rane-- ltSE ltdNtu d uttp anu lOAl -tliI N IF sigh. which sounded like a brother to the blast which played around him. Then. having driven somewhat nearer to Brant's house. he alighted. took the. dead body of the mans wife. bore it into q tEicket near the roadside. laid it upon the ground, regained his wagon and drove swiftly homeward, after he had turned around in front of the drunkard's house.
 Upon the preliminary hearing. the village doctor told how the woman had come t0 him complaining of her husbands prolonged debauch: how he had striyen to comfort her and. the rain coming on, had started to drive her home; how they had met Brant: how Mary had kneeled and sobbed in' the wagon. and how Brant had leaped ouu and hastened across the field
 Ranelagh could not remember that Brant had said anything about wash'- ing up and changing his clothes. The servant was in the bedroom. undress- ing. when she heard the doctors wagon halt Tn front of the house. When questioned as to whether she heard Mary's voice downstairs, her re- ply was that she had not, but that she could hear Brant talking plainly: that he rushed wildly frcm one room to another. and that twice she had heard him cxclaim, By Heaven, am free at fastt" And she was positive that she heard the rattle of the tin basin when he took it from the nail where she had recollected having hung l 1t.
 On the eve of his trial Schuyler i Brant, driven to madness by the awful 1 though unreal, fabric of his own guilt 1 thus reared by the hand of fate. stran- gled himself to death with one of hi. braces.
 Ten years later after Dr. Henry's death, Betty Ranelagh came upon her brothers confession.
 It was mld-winter. a fire was blazing upon the wide hearth in that old New | England home and she had but enc step more to take when she fell iH 2 swoon, and tho neighbors were hastily called in and the world learned of Dr Ranelagh's crime.
 MENACE OF THE FOREST.
 Continent Will Dry ID if Present De