The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-07-25

/, blind fool o God, pity that poor
girl and this insanity of passion wasted
on so rank a cur
Frances fed TO her room and threw
herself on the bed in an agony of tears.
This storm subsidized into a gentle rain
of subdued weeping and finally ceased
as she heard the heavy tramp of riding
boots in the adjoining room She sat
up in the darkness, listening intentiy.
He closed the wooden shutters of the
window, shaking them TO be sure that
their fastenings We're secure. Then the
bolts Of the outer door were thrust into
their places. but this apparently failing
to satisfy the doubts of the inmate.
there was a sound of some heavy ari-
Gle of furniture being dragged across
the room; then the tramping ceased
and all was still. Unheeding she,Aeard
the clock in a neighboring tower toll
the hour; now it struck again and she
counted the notes. Eleven! 1t was
still too early. People slept heavier as
the night wore on. One, two three, four,
five, six, seven, 1t must be midnight,
and the first five strokes had been on
Cromwell's breastplate. She reused
herself and attempted TO take off her
shoes, but her hands were trembling
so she was forced to deSist. She sat
up again, telling herself it was better
to wait until all effect of the long
Ginning had ceased, for the striking of
twelve sometimes disturbed or awak-
ened the soundest sleeper. The clock
tower seemed dangerously near, as if il
were approaching her hour by hour.
At last the shoes came off, and in
stockinged feet she stood by the secret
door, waiting till the frightfully rapid
beating of her heart should moderate.
1t threatened to choke her. Then she
slid back the bar and drew open the
door, all so smoothly oiled that there
was not the whisper of a creak. She tip
toed into the cavern of blacknesS and
silence, holding her spread hands in
front of her. moving slowly, with the
utmost caution, step by step.
In her mind she had estimated, from
her earlier survey of the room, that
nine steps would take her to the bed.
Now she realized she had taken a
dozen and yet had not come to it. She
stood bewildered and listened. The
helplessness of a person in the pitch
dark thrilled her with new fear, up
setting all her calculations. The panic
of pulsation in her throat and in her
ears at first rendered any attempt at
listening futile, but at last she heard his
regular breathing, as peaceful as that
of an infant, and it came from the
other side of the room. For a moment
this terrified her and she wondered if
she were really awake or in the maZes
Of some battling nightmare, but the So
luton came to her mind and quieted
the growing agitation. 1t had been his
bed that he had dragged across the
floor, and he was now sleeping against
the outside door. She changed her di-
rection and, with her former stealth,
came ghostlike to the edge Of the couch.
His doublet was open at the throat;
that was so much to the good. Like a
snowflake in it's GOODNESS and its light
ness her hand stole down underneath
his vest, fiuttered by the slow, steady,
no such wild race as her own at that
moment. 1t seemed incredible that at
last her fingers closed on the parch-
ment, but there it lay, and gently she
drew it forth. Was the robbery to be
so easily accomplished after all? All,
she had congratulated herself too soon.
1t stuck fast. Either the silken cord
that bound it was caught or the docu-
ment was secured to the vest, con-
tingency she had never thought of, and
yet what more natural? Twice she
tugged it gently, then a third time
more strenuously, when it came unex-
pectedly away and her knuckles struck
the sleeper under the chin. Instantly,
like the snap of a steel trap, his fingers
closed upon her wrist, and his voice
rang out as wideawake and clear as
ever he had spoken to her:
"Frances"'
Now the racing heart stopped dead.
Lucky for her that at this supreme mo-
ment all action was impossible and
that she was stricken into frozen mar
BILE. She imagined he was awake and
knew her, and then the cold horror of
her situation numbed thought at its
source.
"Francesr' The voice came more
sleepily this time, and he repeated
thrice, very rapidly, Frances, Frances,
Francesr' Feebly her heart had taken
up its work again. She was not to die
as she had feared. Sodden with drow-
siness, his voice rambled on. Then the
words became indistinct and died
away. But alas, the grip of iron re-
manned on her wrist. For long time
she stood there motionless, then tried
to disengage his fingers gently. but at
the first movement the grasp frightened
again. One o'clock struck. He slept
so silently that it began to appear to
her agitated brain that she was a
prisoner Of the dead. She came near
to sinking from very WEAKNESS. Two
o'clock tolled from the tower. Some
times she fancied she slept standing
there, but her FIVE jailors did not sleep.
She kept wondering in which direction
lay the open door, for at times the
room seemed to swim around her, thus
disturbing all sense of locality. She
almost laughed aloud when she thought
of herself free, but cropping helplessly
for the open door, failing to find it, and
she shuddered that even the remem-
Of To, oh fn har