Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1905-06-15
| HE SOrCerer
! Of St. Giles
BY PROF. WILLIAM H. PECK
BY PROF WILLIAM H. PECK.

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. st is plain that
the young lady is not here-that she
is Tot 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
enough to comprehend his meaning;
| and then all three hurried out, leaving
Martha overwhelmed with dismay and
wonder
Clarence had taken the precantion
! 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 a 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 l think she is more
happy in being dead than in being
alive here. I believe would have
helped her to escape in the end, to VeX
| .e,to IN nd
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 hundred feet below they
saw the white lace handkerchief flut-
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 1 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 a 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
a 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 I'M
| 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 of,
my lord slack o! Pay out faster!"
told Clarence the truth.
] Hal" he thought! Bashfort Is COM
| ing down by rope held by the 9th
ers. Will he be satisfied with merely
| getting the handkerchief? I 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 caye-even into the
beginning Of the passage so 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. s3
sit is her handkerchief, my lord!''
Clarence heard Bashfort below, as the
man reached a footing on the upper
ledge and grasped the handkerchief.
care there any blood srains on the
rocks there?. shouted back Lord Cen
/ lis.
/ And though Clarence, from whore
| he crouched, could not distinctly hear
/ these words, he understood the ques-
4 ton from Bashfort's shouted reply:
mo. my lord, there are no blood
4 stains! Shall go farther down? |
see something far down, among the
rocks near the base OF the cliff, that
looks white" Is
Bashfort. at this moment, was sway
ing over the ledge or which he stood,
4 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
4 placidly heaving waves, was the body
4 OF one OF the sailors whom he had
a rolled over the edge OF the Cliff in their
y drunlran at,1n0rs Tho nrocpd}np f1ay go