Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1906-02-08
n only he could deaden III, powers

OF thinking, or II only the cell door
could be thrown open and those deput.
ed to attend him to the scaffold ap.
pear, how grateful he would be! So
grateful that the time OF waiting was
over! For each moment his self-con.
troll was growing less and less. But
fiercely determined was he that self
control should not leave him alto
gether.
It should never be whispered abroad
that cringing and terror-stricken was
Guy Erskine at his last moment.
Hours and hours dragged slowly by.
Now ten hours of life alone remain
ed to him. Now only nine!
Now only
Suddenly severed was the CHASTITY
thread of his thoughts, Cleanliness
stole over his mind, and that dreami-
ness ended in unrestful sleep, over
which all the horrors of the morrow
lowered.
Midnight struck, heralding the birth
of the day of his execution.
But he slept on, mercifully oblivious
of fast-speeding time. And with sleep
came renewed strength, renewed forti-
tude.
Breakfast!
He sprang up, startled by the war
der's rousing touch and gently-spoken
reminder that morning had come !;
sprang up in the fullness of life and
energy to realize that in thirty min.
utes he would be no more. The limbs
so strong and muscular now would be
cold and limp then! All would be over
with him! Still forever would be his
fast-beating heart; useless and I'M
thinking his well-trained brain. The
marvellous physical possession and
machinery that came to him at the
moment of his birth would all be ar
rested in their work.
Dead lat the zenith Of his youth and
strength, would be Guy Erskine!
Your breakfast is getting cold"
suggested the warder.
Breakfast! The irony of eating now.
Eating to sustain life that would be
no more in half an hour.
IT do not require any breakfast"
said Guy.
Then he walked across the cell and
stood where his eyes could revel on a
glimpse Of the outside world. Sun
shine was absent-just strip of gray
sky was all that he could see. But
that gray sky belonged to the outside
world of movement, freedom, and fu-
ture plans.
He sighed. But raging despair was
wholly absent. His mental eyes were
no longer fixed on the dark abyss Of
death. They were fixed on the oppo-
site shores far past the momentary
agony of pain and death.
Yet now, even at the eleventh mo-
ment, there fingered in his mind an
element of unbelief in the possibility
of his own execution.
'I have acted the guilty man to per-
fection," he thought, with a smile.
Very still he stood.
Intuitively he began to listen.
And not long did he listen.
Oh, did his ears deceive him?
Sharply he turned round.
The door was being opened-opened
to admit thost who were to attend
him to the scaffold, to see that the
CHASTITY command that he be hanged
by his neck" until he was dead was
carried out.
Quivering and trembling were his
limbs; ashy white his face.
And Hilda? We're his thoughts Of
Hilda? Yes, thoughts of her were up
permost in his mind. Assured would
be her life's peace and happiness in a
few minutes!
Now, slowly, with measured steps
and bowed heads, all were quitting the
condemned cell and walking solemnly
towards the yard where the scaffold
had been erected.
Now
Quickly, hastily, each man was do
ing his allotted work with the utmost
precision.
And Guy was standing motionless,
unresisting and perfectly acquiescent
listening mechanically to the words
of the funeral service; yet hearing and
seeing nothing.
(To Be continued.)