The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-15

| All this was apparently but set ung Tor the center of the circle apd visitor might justly have expected to ma something of beauty on the S.neI sIoe or the wall--a magnificent iountaln, group of statuary-a smil- ing lake dotted with water lilies. a blaze or rare gfcwers. -
 But In this he would have been dis appointed. The wall which seemed low on the side which faced the trees. sank down on the other side to a much greater depth. 1t merely enclosed a tidai pool which was joined to the creek outside by stone cuivert At high tide the pool wass halt full of muddy water and at low tide 1t was only bare patch of mud. wet glisten- ing and loathsome to look upon. Local tradition stated that the place had once been used as bathing pool and that d century ago the water was as clear crystal. But, if there was any truth in the legend, some ancient system of purifying the water must have been lost, for no self respecting person could possibly have bathed in the brown slimy liquid which surged up through the culvert twice in every twenty-four hours. John Shil one day took long pole and thrust It into the mud whill lay at the bottom. Lean ing over the edge of the wall he buried
  even then he did not reach the hard ground, beneath
 1t was here by the side of this ti- dal pool, that John Shil. after five weeks residence at Black Hall, spent an afternoon which was destined to leave it's mark forever on the story of his life. .s
 A flight of broken steps led down from the wall to the pool, and he was sitting on the last step but two with his feet almost on the edge of the water. The tide was still flowing and the surface of the pool was stirred with little currents and eddies as tho sen forced its way through the culvert.
 The tide, regular and resistleess as the advance of time, had always had strange fascination for this young man. The ebb and flow of it seemed to pulse like a human life-birth and death, ebb and flow for all eternity. And here In the silence of the clois- tered trees and the sunlit lawns, it had 8 new and mysterious charm. There was no roar of the waves. no thunder of breakers, no swirl of the water past pier-heads or groin. Yet the force was stili there. Silent and ire sistible 1t had crept up from the great sea itself, over miles of sandhank past great spaces of lonely marshland moving on and on through narrow channels till 1t had reached this spet And here it eased. in a tiny eddy of muddy waters--one of the last quiver- ing nerves in a throbhiug system that covers the oceans. of sthe world.
 This link with sthe great sea of tall ships and distant chimes had peculiar charm for John Shil in his Loneliness and his thoughts strayed to the things outside his park and the great scheme of life from which he had withdrawn himself-lfke a man overpowered In battle.
 And as> he thought of the things that had been and of all that he had lost, his heart cried out in rebellion against the decrees 4 sste.
 What have I done?" he said to him. self. Why has God broken me like worthless jar? And what .has she done, my beloved; what crime has she committed that she should be tied Tor life to a man that spe Ioasnes -
 And thenl to the music of the gur- wIirg waters, the answer came back was but for half minute, you
 "You have sinned. though 1t have sinned. Let a man die. and this is your punishment. You must suffer and she must suffer. too"
 And agaln his soul cred to God.
 "It was for such a little while. I mastered IuS ONiI biVhSht- "ONAN have saved him. Is there no return to .Paradise?"
 And again the reply came back. Too late! Too late! The doors are closed. You cannot enter now!"
 John Shil rose to his feet with clench- ed hands and the light of rebellion in his eyes, s 1e3s
 q am the master of my own fate" he cried to himself. Honour, Moral C,,hF afSo laof all these to me? These are words for the weak and the feeble. They are not words for a man. who can fight. I will return to her. will take her from him. And the child?" His train of thought came to a standstill. and then the voice of the devil whispered in his ear: