Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-06-23
CHAPTER xlv.-continued.

Ing wall 10 neIl me III on every SiuS
There was no sally-port in ali this wall
save one-the one that death had
promised TO open at the dawn. The
promise had been broken. True, death
had thrust the key within the lock, and
| had heard the grating OF the bolts;
and yet the key had been withdrawn
and was left a prisoner of life.
There was no hope of other outlet
Now there was space to view IL calmly,
I saw how foolish was the thought that
would conniye at any breaking or the
marriage bond. She would bear my
name, and hate me for the giving OF 1t:
would go on hating me-, | thought, TO all
eternity; but she would never take her
freedom back again, save at a dead
mans hands.
1t was thus that each fresh scanning
of the prison wall that shut me in this
dungeon of dishonor etched me once
and again TO this one sally-port OF
death. And when II came to this; that
I had searched il vain for other out
let, you Will not think it strange that |
sat down in spirit at this postern to
see If | might open 1t with my open
hands.
1t was not love Of life that made me
hesitate. At two-score years he who
has lived at all has lived his best; and
IL he live beyond the turning point OF
l yOuLnIul hTuOT lie muSl DtB hhS Ia
of men TO linger yet a little
longer on the stage which once was
his and now Is theirs.
No, IL was not any love OF life for
LIES own sake hat held me back.
Twas rather that the Ireton blood
Is linked up with hat thing we call a
conscience, a heritage from those SIM
ple-hearted ancestors TO whom the sui
eide was a soul accurst-a soul i'm
/ nANtNnHf w4+hn0n NFaHxy nlfnT hnGk of
flesh and bones they used to bury at
the crossing of the ways, with a sharp
ened stake to pinion 1t.
Twas this ancestral conscience made
me cowardly; and when the sight or
my fathers sword-Darius had res
cued and restored it TO it's place upon
the chimney breast-would set me
thinking Of the Israelitish king, and
how, when all was lost, he fell upon
his blade and died, his horror of the
suicide came to give me pause.
Besides, that way to right the dou-
BILE wrong was not so clear as 1t might
seem. AS matters stood, my living for
the present was Margery's best safe
guard. Till she became my widow and
my heir-at-law, the mercenary baronet
would play his cards to win her hon
orably. l doubted not he'd make hot
love to her; but while she stayed q
wife, and was not yet a widow, he'd
keep his passion decently in bounds, IL
pnly for the better comprising of his
end.
But from this horn of the dilemma
I slipped to fall upon the other. If my
living on as Margery's husband was
her safety for the time, 1t was an Of
i fering of idol-meats upon the altar of
he think OF me? How could ! go
about to make 1t plain that l had
robbed him for his own honor's sake?
that it was not / but fate h a was
to blame?
These questions came up answerless,
like deep-sea plummets where no bot
tom is. / saw the way no farther on
than this; that / must go straightway
to Jennifar and tell him all. Beyond
that point the darkness a Egyptian,
and I could only hope that tricky fate
would turn again and bio me out, and
make 1t plain TO Richard. and to my
dear lady, that love. and not base
treachery, had set me on to do as !
had done
In some such dismal grindings of the
mill of thought the hours of waiting
were outworn at length; and when the
sun was dipping to the mountains in
the west I rose and washed me in the
brook, and afterward constrained my
self to eat what Tomas had prepared
TOR me.
The sunset glow was fading in the
upper air, and underneath the canopy
Of leaves the wood was darkening on
to twilight, when / made ready to be
gone. Because | thought / might have
need OF it before the night was done.
| buckled on the heirloom sword; and
telling Tomas and the other blacks for
their own safety to keep an alarm
guard waking through the night, |
sailed forth upon my errand.
I've wished a thousand times, as /
! s.s here before the FIRE and int these
memories down in grabbed black on
white. that / could c~onjure up for you
some speaking picture of his scene
primeval in which the story
True, its hills and valleys are the
same; the river keeps it's course; and
In the west the mountain skyline is
unchanged. But here similitude is at
an end. You've hacked the virgin
forest into shapes and fringes where
once 1t was an ample mantle scanned
only by the rivers, n frayed here and
there at distant intervals by the set
tiers ak.
Beneath this mantle lay a world an
J like the world you know. Plunged in
It's furtive depths you felt the spell of
natures mystery upon you; the mys-
terry of the hoary wood, age-old,
STEPPED In the nepenthe OF the CEN
turtles. In brightest summer day
which, IN these forest aisles, became a
misty green translucence, the silence,
the vasrness, rrne solitude iaiu eacn a
finger on you. bidding you go softly all
the way. But in the twilight hour the
ZEAL held still more aloof. and all the
shadows bristled with dim fantastic
shapes TO awe and alright the alien
born.
I was not alien born. From earliest
childhood ] HAD known and loved these
forest solitudes. Yet now, as when ]
was a little lad. the twilight shadows
awed me. Here IL was a gnarled and
twisted tree-trunk so like a c~rouching
! panther hat / srrang aside and had
the steel half out before the clearer
vision came. There 1t was the figure OF
a man gliding Stealthily from tree TO
ltree. ii seemed; keeping even pace with
me as III with sinister intent.
I pushed on faster, drawing the
sword to keep me better company,
though inwardly / scoffed and jeered al
this new twittering OF the nerves. What
threat was there for me In silent
shadows In the wood? The dogs ]
had TO fear were bred in British ken
nels. and there was never any lack OF
ciamor when they were beating up a
cover.
Yet this persistent shadow chung up
on my footsteps until from casting
furtive glances sidewfse I came ia
holding It crafty in the tail Of my eye.
Twas surely moving as ! moved, arid
surely drawing nearer. I picked a time
and place, measured my distance, and
1 daxttuU Uuddon1v ou{da ~ant hoxwo i