Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-11-01

IL naQ leIC Lue ROAD nara 10 get over.
Baylles was obliged TO trust to his
horse, whose eyes We're far better than
his masters, but the brute seemed to
have difficulty in keeping the road.
At any rate, he was constantly found
ering In some bog beside it. Baylles
encouraged him, but the mans dread
that he would not bring the doctor in
time-that on his return he would find
his wife dead-put n tremor into his
voice that was not reassuring.
The distance he traversed was un-
known to him till he came to the Gem
etery, which he knew was half way.
Then suddenly fash of lightning
the first illumination In night of
pitchy blackness-sh showed him on the
other side Of stone wall tomb
stone on which was carved the name
albert Seymour"
Baylies shuddered. He and Seymour
had been rivals for the hand of Mar
garet Burns. Baylles had won, and
Seymour had never been the same
man afterward. Stricken with dead
ly disease, he had declined treatment,
averring that he wished to die And
now the woman he loved was at
DEATHS door, and the man who had
won her was trying to save her.
Whether it was the binding effect
of the lightning on the horses eyes
or the fright that made him shy in the
inky ensuing blackness, he came
against the wall. Baylies went over
1t, and that was the last of conscious
ness for him till the first gimmer of
dawn showed him that he was lying
OH the grave Of Albert Seymour. His
horse TODD on the other side of the
wall. with his nose over It,. looking at
him. Baylies, Mortified at having thus
been delayed, got up, staggered to the
wall and climbed over to the other
side. He knew that when he had
started 1t was long past midnight, SO
he supposed he might not have been
lying long unconscious. At any rate.
he hoped not. There was but one
course for him-to go forward. One
thing arrested his attention-his horse
was painting; not rs though he had
stood waiting for his master to come
to himself; but as though he had been
galloping and had just stopped. But
there was no time for speculation.
Mounting, Baylies spurred onward AMI
in half an hour pulled up at the doc
tors door. A maid opened 1t and rec
ognizing Baylies as one Of her mas
ter's patients, looked at him surprised.
1.-THE doctor" he gasped. "Is he at
homer"
Hes gone to your house, SIR"
my house? Then they have sent
some one else for him?"
Eyes sir; they must have"
But there was no one to send"
HE was gentleman, sir, and he
came on that horse. See the cut ON
his foreleg? 1t is bleeding yet"
do you mean that you noticed this
horse and know him by that cuty'
Indeed l do, SIR
"WhoGrode him."
"a tall, thin, pale gentleman with
sandy hair and side whiskers, and now
l remember, on his finger was queer
looking gold ring made like twined
strands"
Baylies' blood ran cold. His wife be.
fore they were married had given AL
bert Seymour such ring. After her
engagement with Baylies he had beg
ged permission to keep 1t, and she hal
consented.
Without word Baylles turned and
rode back. Passing the cemetery,
there was the tombstone beneath
which slept the mortal part of the man
he had supplanted, the man whom he
firmly believed had taken up his mes.
sage and while he was unconscious
carried 1t on its way.
Baylies had hated his rival while lie
lived, and since his death had not
ceased to be Jealous of him. But now
:. as he looked at the inanimate marble
that marked the grave Of one from
whom hS-5ad taken all that made life
desirab&. there rushed upon him a
,ssense Of The selfishness of man, the
benefcence Of Immortality.
On reaching home he found the doc
tor working with Nhis wife, whom he
had succeeded in bringing out of dan
ger.
"why did you not wait for the