The Cook County herald., 1905-07-15

not move hand, nor foot, nor jaw;
though know that could think, and
try to scream, for some time, and
couldn't. That's all know"
Listen, my lord" said Bashfort,
| pointing at the stripped bed, on which
neither sheets, blankets nor any other
| covering remained. 1T is plain that
the young lady is not here-that she
! is rot in this room; that when she es-
capped, she took the pillows and all the
bed covering with her. Therefore she
must still have been delirious-for
what sane person would have cum
bered herself with such load? Hear
me, my lOrd!'
And then he told of his own move
ments and discoveries since he awoke.
The Osreds scarcely tarried long
and then all three hurried out, leaving
Martha overwhelmed with dismay and
wonder
Clarence had taken the precaution
to empty and break that bottle from
which Martha had drunk the drugged
wine, or she would have doubtless
| have drunk from it again, as she was
now devoured by raging thirst, to
assuage which she left the room in
search of drink, muttering:
| IF the young lady is drowned it is
not my fault, and think she is more
| happy in being dead than in being
alive here. l believe l would have
helped her to escape in the end, to vex
| these three, who beat and stab, and
knock me about at every turn"
Meanwhile the three had hurried to
the verge of the cliff, and lying upon
their breasts, thrust their heads be-
yond the edge of the sheer descent,
gazing downward.
About a hundred feet below they
saw the white lace handkerchief 1ut-
tering on the narrow and not very
long ledge, but were unable to make
out what it was.
"Wait!" said Bashfort. "There are
plenty of ropes in our stores, and can
descend to that ledge and see what
that is. If it is anything that belonged
to the young lady, We may then be
certain that she fell over the cliff, and
that her body, striking the ledge, lost
some of it's clothing there, and then
bounded off into the sea below"
"True; and in that case you will GER
tainly find blood stains" remarked
Lord Genlis, with shudder, "and then
we shall know that she is dead, and
how she died.
Bashfort hurried away. and during
his brief absence the Osreds exchang-
ed not a word, but many gloomy
glances.
Their henchman soon returned with
coil of rope upon his shoulders.
Making one end of this rope fast aoa
rock on the platform of the cliff, Bash
fort began his perilous and perpendicu.
lar descent, tided by the rope, the
other end of which he had noosed
across his chest and under his arm
pits.
AS he descended, using his hands
and feet as he could, while the Osreds
paid out the rope, he dislodged those
fragments of rock which startled Clar-
ence in the mouth of the cave just un-
der that ledge toward which Bashfort
was descending.
Clarence withdrew little into the
rear of the cave, alarmed. and lis
tened, rightly conjecturing, from the
continuous and irregular showers Of
slowly and cautiously coming down
the face of the cliff.
A shout from Bashfort to the
Osreds in these words: ''Slack off,
my lord! slack o! Pay out faster!"
told Clarence the truth.
"Ha!" he thought! Bashfort is COM
ing down by a rope held by the 9TH
ers Will he be satisfied with merely
getting the handkerchief? l did not
imagine they would make any attempt
to recover that. Suppose the fellow
ventures still further down."
So thinking, Clarence withdrew still
further into the cave-even into the
beginning of the passage far that,
even were Bashfort to be lowered be-
fore the mouth of the cave, Clarence
would be invisible to him because of
the deep and dark shadows,
ut is her handkerchief, my lord!"
| Clarence heard Bashfort below, as the
man reached a footing on the upper
ledge and grasped the handkerchief.
Are there any blood stains on the
rocks there?'' shouted back Lord Cen
| lis.
And though Clarence, from where
he crouched, could not distinctly hear
these words, he understood the ques-
ton from Bashfort's shouted reply:
"No, my lord, there are no blood
stains! Shall go farther down? I
! see something far down, among the
rocks near the base of the cliff, that
! looks white"
! Bashfort, at this moment, was sway
ing over the ledge on which he stood,
as far as he dared, clinging with his
iron grip to the rope.
That which he saw but indistinctly,
far below among the rugged rocks, sew
eral feet above the reach of the now
placidly heaving waves, was the body