The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1906-09-21
CHAPTER. Xxx.

CdAf lER AN.
''This is my story. Let it plead with
you"
1t had grown dark in the prison, and
as he ceased speaking, Rufus Dawes felt
a trembling hand seize his own. 1t was
that of the chaplain.
"Let me hold your hand! Sir Rich
ard Devine did not murder your father
He was murdered by horseman who,
riding with him, struck him and fed"
"How do you know this?'
Because l saw the murder commit
ted. bscause-don't let 60 my hand-I
robbed the body"
"You?
"In my youth was a gambler. Lord
Bellasis won money from me, and to
pay him forged two bills of exchange.
Inscriptions and cruel, he threatened
to expose me if did not give him dou-
BILE the sum. Forgery was death in
those days, and I strained every nerve
to buy back the proofs of my folly. I
succeeded. ! was to meet Lord Bellasis
near his own house at Hampstead On the
night of which you speak, to pay the
money and receive the bills. When I
saw him fall l galloped up, but instead
of pursuing his murderer I rihed his
pocketbook Of my forgeries. I was afraid
to give evidence at the trial, or I might
have saved you. All! you have let 20
my hand"
"God forgive your said Rufus Dawes,
and then was silent.
"Speakv cried North. "Speak, Or
you will make me mad. Reproach me!
Spurn me! Spit upon me! You cannot
think worse of me than I do myself"
But the other, his head buried in his
hands, did not answer. and, with a
wild gesture, North staggered out Of the
cell.
Nearly an hour had passed since the
| chaplain had placed the rum flask in
his hand, and Gimblett observed, with
semi-drunken establishment, that it was
not yet empty. If he didn't finish the
flask. he would be oppressed with an
everlasting regret. If he did finish it.,
he would be drunk; and to be drunk on
| duty was the one objectionable sin. He
looked across the darkness of the sea,
to where the rising and falling light
marked the schooner. The commandant
| was a long way off! A faint breeze
which had arisen with the night, brought
| up to him the voices of the boats crew
from the jetty below him. His friend
| Jack Mannix was coxswain of her. He
would give Jack drink. Leaving the
gate, he advanced to the edge of the
embankment and, putting his head over,
called out to his friend. The breeze,
however, which was momentarily fresh
ening, carried his voice away: and Jack
Mannix, hearing nothing, continued his
| conversation. Gimblett was Just drunk
enough to be virtuously indignant at this
! incivility and seating himself on the
edge of the bank. swallowed the remain
| der of the rum at draught. The eff
feet upon his enforcedly temperate stom-
ach was very touching. He made one
feeble attempt to get upon his legs. cast
reproachful glance at the rum bottle
essayed to drink out of its spirituous
emptiness. and then. with a smile of
reckless contentment, fell fast asleep.
North, coming out of the prison, did
not notice the absence of the jailer; in,
deed. he was not in condition to notice
anything. Bare-headed. without his
cloak, with staring eyes and clinched
hands, he rushed through the gates into
| the night as one VINO HleS uedulouS lIoH
some fearful vision. 1t seemed that
absorbed in his own thoughts, he took
no heed to his steps, for instead of tax
ing the path which led to the sea. he
kept along the more familiar one that
led to his own cottage on the hill. ''This
man a convict he cried. He is a hero
"a martyr! What a life! Love! Yes
that is love indeed! Oh, James North
how base art thou in the eyes Of Goo
beside this despised outcast" And 81
muttering, tearing his gray hair, ant
beating his throbbing temples will
clinched hands, he reached his Owl
room. Already he fancied he could SCI
, the speck that was the schooner NOV
slowly away from the prison shore. HI
must not linger: they would be waiting
for him at the jetty. AS he turned. tn
moonbeams-as yet unobscured by tn
, rapidly gathering clouds-fung a silve
, streak across the sea, and across tina
, streak North saw a boat pass. Wa
> his distracted brain playing him false