The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-06-13

"Have I thought of anything else
during the whole of the time? And
my girl. you see has got no one, and
now she must be friendlesS. All day
long for six months l have heard her
sobs. If we do get away from this
prison-if ever there is real chance Of
freedom again. 1 will tell you about
her. l couldn't here"
Tom said no more.
The sun went down at last with an
undignified bob, as one who is long in
making up his mind to go, and only
goes at last because he is obliged.
Immediately afterwards the color
went out of the sky and out of the
hills, and then, because there is not
much twilight in the great Nubian
Desert, the night fell, and the children
of the desert ceasing to chatter and to
scream and to quarrel, lay down upon
the sand. still hot with the days sun,
and were all asleep in a few minutes.
Presently Captain MCLAUGHLIN touched
Toms shoulder, and they arose and
looked around them. Only half a
days march to freedom! But sup
pose MCLAUGHLIN had made mistake?
Suppose he had been deceived by the
outlines of the hills? Then, as Tom
truly prophesied, they would either
starve slowly-it is lingering COM
plant, including the torture Of the
burning heat of the sun and mad
dening thirst-or they would be re-
captured, and then they would be GER
tainly speared for good. Freedom,
however, is worth some risk; for the
sake of freedom men have run the
chance of many deaths, and those even
more cruel than hunger and thirst in
the desert.
A fortnight later the same two men
lay in two beds in the hospital of the
friendly fort, now garisoned by Eng
lish as well as by Egyptian troops.
The half days march had in fact
turned out to be a march of two or
three days, with no food and no water,
because, you see, they did take that
wrong turning. When the fugitives
were picked up by accident and a good
way from the fort, they were very ter
rible to look at, black and gaunt and
ferce-eyed with thirst and hunger and
the heat of the desert under the fierce
sun and the glare of the water, be-
cause they were upon the shore OF the
Red Sea. Already they seemed to
hear the Topping of the vulture's
wings and the bark of the jackal.
when they were rescued by party of
English officers come out to shoot.
At first nobody knew them. They
were brought in and put to bed, and
for a week or so they could not even
tell their story. When that story was
fully heard those that listened mar
veled and were sore astonished, be-
cause their escape and return to their
friends was like a resurrection from
the tomb Long since, it was sup
posed. their bones had been bleaching
upon the sands with the bones Of the
poor Egyptian soldiers who could not
run fast enough to get away. Nc
Lauchlin had been gazetted as killed.
Tom Addison, war correspondent, was
reported killed. By this time their
friends would even be going out of
mourning.
"Six months, Tom," said MCLAUGHLIN
this afternoon, the room being quiet
and shaded, and the pain well-nigh
gone out of their feet, which had
swelled up and behaved in a most
abominable manner, and inflicted dis.
gusting torture upon them-'sjX
months, Tom, may go long way to
make a fellow forgotten even by his
girl. They've got the kilograms now,
and by next week or thereabouts they
will have the letters. wonder"
$50 do l." said Tom.
"-Whether Katharine will have
"Just what I was going to say" said
Tom. "There's been a good many odd
things happening in the last six months
or so, old man. When they brought
us in, and my head felt like one in
famed balloon, and my chest like
another, you began to talk Of your
Ia tharine, and I began to think we
got mixed UP somehowi You've got a
Katharine and so have I. They can't,
l suppose, be the same girl, by any
accident"
Mine is named Katharine Regina"
Tom fell back on his pillow with
groan.
$50 is mine," he said. "We have got
mixed up"
katharine Regina Willoughby,
mine is.'
katharine Regina Capel is NINE"
said Tom. There's a chance for us
vet. But isn't it odd that there should
be two girls christened katharine
Resina?"
Perhaps they are cousins. There
is always q Katharine Regina is the
Willoughby family. Who are your
girls peoples"
(To be Continued.)
The Dutch Succession.