The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-23
CHAPTER J.
THE. SHOCK IN THE MARSEILLES
DEPOT.

DEPOT.
Il wonder if l can head off those
cursed Corsican murder enthusiastic ~
he stands on the deck of the French
steamer with Marseilles looming up in
the heat mist ahead of him.
1t is a bright day upon the tideless
Mediterranean. The waters of the
Iandlocked sea ripple in silver waves
beneath the rising sun this May morn
ing of 1883, after the escape of the
bridal party from Corsica.
Barnes has just arisen from the first
nights sleep he has had in four days.
and having got hold of his valise at
AjacciO and placed himself under the
ships barber this morning, now feels
himself again-that is, American and
normal.
There are very few passengers,
Barnes gold having sent the steamer
back on her return voyage to Mar
settles within two hours after her ar
rival at Ajaccio.
Being almost alone upon the deck,
the American is rather careless of his
attitude, and though Marseilles and
the modern world are ahead of him,
also London. where the beautiful Miss
Enid Anstruther has promised to be his
bride three days from now, his glance
is turned contemplatively beyond the
whirling, eddying wake of the propel-
ler's foam toward that curious island
of a Semi-mediaeVal race, 200 miles be-
hind him, whose rugged mountain
slopes and chestnut valleys are the
home of that undying revenge that
the Corsicans think is noble: that they
worship, idealize and call THE Ven
delta"
The representative of New York
fashion, American craftsmanship and
modern materialism, who has fitted
to the island and plucked not only the
young English lieutenant, Edwin Ger
ard AnstrutheT, but his bride, Marina,
the daughter of the Paolis, from the
meshes and entangiements Of a feud
that only ends with death, notwith-
standing mis- reward is to be the hand
of the beautiful girl he loves. emits a
low, cOntemplative, melancholy whis-
tie
lie mentally glances back and sees
the house of Musso Danella in the
moonlit chestnut groves of BOcognano,
and Marina in her brides gown with
white mandile and faldetta, her sensi-
tive. passionate face filed with that
weird mixture of undying love and
uncanny horror as she shuddered from
the arms of the man she had Just
sworn TO cleave to through life and
muttsTed. "AntOniO's murderer" Next
he remembers the strange proof that
brought back the wild happiness to the
brides face as she learnt there was no
faint of her brothers blood on Edwin
Anstruther. her husband: that her hor-
rible belief was due to circumstantial
evidence and the jealous and crafty
plot Of Musso Danella. her guardian.
the man lying dead upon the floor of
the bridal chamber. TomassO's dagger
in his heart: and then had fallen faint
ing into her bridegroom arms.
With this. the mind of Mr. Barnes
reVerts to his desperate efforts to get
the whole party 10 Ajaccio before the
natives Of the little commune OF Boco-
gnaHo learnt they had now another to
avenge, and to the death of Marina's
brother on the beach in the duello had
beer added that of Danella. their old
time friend. and to his peasants their
kind maestro and proprietor.
Additional concern makes the face of
the American even more grave as he
hears the distant ringing of
the rifles on the mountainside as the
carbineers shot old Tomssso MonaIdi.
who having become an assassin. had
fled as a bandit. as the party made
their weird ride to the Corsican seaport