The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-08-09
For The Term of His Natural Life
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ~~>.>~c~~<~~~~>~>-~l
BY MARCUS CLARKE

the cabin came a figure clad in black
She looked up. aid the light of the ex-
piring lamp showed her face that was
not that of the man she had expected to
see. Then a pair Of dark eyes beamlns
ineffable love and pity were bent upoE
her, and a pair of dripping arms held
her above the brine as she had once been
held in the misty mysterious days that
were gone.
In the terror of that moment, the
cloud which had so long oppressed her
brain passed from it. The action of the
strange man before her completed and
explained the action of the convict chain
ed to the Port Arthur coal wagons. Of
the convict kneefng in the Norfolk Isl
and torture chamber. She remembered
the terrible experience of Macquarie
Harbor. She rec illed the evening Of the
boat building, wien. swung into air BY
stalwart arms, she had promised the res
cuing prisoner to plead for him with her
kindred Regaining her memory thus.
all the agony and shame of the mans
long life of misery became at once APP
parent to her. She understood how her
husband had deceived her. and with
what base injustice and falsehood he
had bought her young 1--we. No ques-
ton as to how this doubly condemned
prisoner had escaped from the hideous
isle Of punishment she had quit occur
red TO her. She asked not-even IN her
thoughts-how it had been given TO him
to supplant the chaplain In his place on
board the vessel. She only considered,
IN ba~ c,.II.c -, l~o~:o~ A. o<o~~ ~
his wrongs. remembered only his marvel
GUS fortitude and love, knew only, In
this apparently last instant Of her pure.
Inflated life, that as he had saved her
once from starvation and death. so had
he come again to save her from despair.
The eyes of the man and woman met
in one long. wild gaze. Sylvia stretched
out her white hands and smiled. and
Richard Devine understood. in MS turn.
the story Of the young girls joyless life.
and knew how she had been sacrificed.
In the great cisis of our iife when.
brought face to face with humiliation,
we are suspendet gasping over the great
emptiness Of death, we become conscious
that the self which we think we knew so
well has strange and unthought-of ca
pacities. To describe a tempest Of the
elements is not easy. but TO describe a
TEMPEST of the soul is impossible. Amidst
the fury of such tempest, thousand
memories, each bearing in its breast the
corpse of ome dead deed whose inf1u-
ence haun.s us yer, are driven ike feath-
ers before the blast, as unsubstantial
and as unregarde0. The uists which
shroud our self-knowledee become trans
parent. and we are smitten with sudden.
Iiehtninc-like co1r.prehensions Of our own
misused power over our fate.
This much we feel and know, but who
can coldly describe the hurricane which
thus overwhelms him? As well ask the
drowned mariner to tell Of the marvels
of snid-sea when the great deeps swal-
lowed him and the darkness Of death en-
compassed him round about. These two
human beings felt that they had done
with life. Together thus, alone in the
very midst and presence of death. the
| distinctions of the world disappeared
Their vision grew clear They felt a.
| beings whose bodies had already per
ished. and as they clasped hands, their
| freed souls. recognizing each the lowell
ness of the other. rushed tremblinely
| together.
|
| In stately home in ssdear old Eng
land a bronxed, serious-faced man
| knows the peace and contenfment that
come only with the calm after the storm
the rare Joy of love reauited. the sol
emn satisfaction os Innocence vindjcafed.
the .gIory of sunlit lawns" and s.ereen
pastures and still waters"
They who had robbed Rufus Dawes.
| convict. of the best years of his life
could not restore their golden promise
or atone for the shipwreck of youth and
early manhood. Z
| But they could tear the false veil from
the mast The storm that swepf The
LADY Franklin to the cruel rocks driffed
| to 4 Friendly shore the man and woman n
who. clasped in each Others arms saw
love ;neffable in each Others ewes for