The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-12

voice, as if in fierce triumph. Cooking their muskets the soldiers
 ran through mud and water. They Jumped into a ditch and dragged out
 two men. One was Pins convict. He | was holding desperately to the other
 and saying. T took him! Mind thatl
 I give him up to youi" Tt won't do you much good. my man" said the sergeant. handcufnng ! him.
 T don't want it to do me good" said the convict with greedy laugh. T
 took him. He knows if. That's enough | for mel"
 The other convict. who had iisid bruises looked at him with a terror that was ghastly to see. "Tfe tried to murder me-" grasped he Try and not do it?'' said Pip's con- vict. T was clear got rid of my irons. would ha' been away by now if hadn't discovered that he was here. I not only prevented him from get ting of the marshes. but I dragged him this far on his way back"
 Fall in.' said the sergeant. "MarchY. Pip succeeded in catching his con vict's eye, and slightly moved his hands and shook his head to assure him
 of hts innocence. Tse convict looked
 at him and understood.
 Before go," said he, T want to
 save any danger of suspicion along O tuSs t0pk sUiI8 bttttS4 ApQ a ne IIaB4
 the house of the blacksmith yonder." Looking at Joe he continued: You're the blacksmith. ain't you? I'm sorry to say I've ate your dinner"
 God knows you're welcome to It. so far as 1t was ever mine," said Joe, with saving remembrance of Mrs. Gargery. We wouldn't have you starved to death, poor miserable fellow creatur.' would us. Pip"
 The dneAr aatrs1A "a v,aa fata e5, ,,.o nba throat again. He turned his back. The soldiers got into motion and Pip saw the sombre little procession melt into the mist
 For long time his conscience trou- bied him sadly. and he awolxe at night in terror of being found out and sent to the Hulks for robbing Mrs. Gargery. But gradually the recollection faded and at last it was supplanted by a new and over-powering experience.
 Uncle PumbIechook, who was a ten- ant of the famous Miss Havisham, re- ceived word from her that she wanted a boy to go to her house and play there. The old humbug, who had never been permitted even to see Miss HavishanD face 10 face, ana who was quite unable to conceive what her strange request meant. forthwith drove to Mrs. Jos and announced pompously that Pip'e fortune was made With mora idtotic stare than usua1 he impressed on Pip the need of being grateful to his reia- lives. who did him good despite him. self. With equal soIemnity he deliv- cred Pip at the great dismal brick manor house with it's darkened and berred windows.
 Uncle Pumblechook's dignity was sadly rufled, however. when a very pretty and very proud young lady opened the fate to the courtyard and H.m.N A.z-. .am IA the gate In Uncle Puuhiech oolk's face, telling him that no one wanted to see him.
 She addressed Pip haughtily as boy" and led him into a room that was so curtained and ciosed as to ad-s init not a ray of the bright daylight outside. It was lighted, instead, with candles By a draped table with gilded looking glass set the strangest rgure Pip had ever seen. It was a woman dressed in rioh satin and lace. all white. She had a long white veil pendant from her hair. and she had bridal flowers in her hair. but her hair was snow-white, too. Everywhere lay rich materials. but like her dress ana veil, they -Yere all faded, like the wo- man hersEn, In whom there was no brightness left save the brightness of her sunken eyes.
 Long afterward Pip learned her story. She had been engaged to a man who had won her love merely to rob her. Having succeeded. he sent her a letter telling her that he was already mar ried. It reached her when she was dressing herself for tn he wedding.
 From that moment she never saw the sun again: and she suffered no hand to touch the rooms, but kept them just they had been in the glad turmoil of the approaching ceremony. Only one human being was permitted near her. It was young girl whom she had adopted as an infant-the pretty, naughty young girl who had admitted Pip and who was named Estella.
 A sick fancy had come to her that | she wanted to see youth at play. | Play" she said imperiously to Pip.
 Nothing was further from Pip's abil- | fly than that. He stood embarrassed | and silent until she said; Call Els telIa?
 She came along the dark passage like star. Play with this common boyl" said she disdainfuily. "Why, he is on- | Iy a iaborerg when Miss HavIsham told her to play cards with him.
 well, you can break his heart" an- swered Mss Havishan.
 Thereafter 1t became a regular part | of Pip's life 10 go to the dark old house | once week and play cards with Es- tella while Miss Havisham looked on. eager and with a weird smile. Then he would wheel her around in a chair through the dark rooms in her faded nnery ike a corpse.
 Fsaeh time ESteila was more naughty | and more insulting. Pip looked at his coarse hands and hfs common boots. They had never troubled him before. Now he wished that Joe had heen more | brought up. so that he, too. | misht be Pentieman.
 His coRitatioDs brought him 10 the decision to ret learning and soon ha amazed honest Joe hv showing him written characters. With the reor help Of the village school he stumbled l books. Blindly. biunderinely | curiously driven by hot and HnrninR naEsion nf resentment against Estelia, be forced his brain to it's new and un- wonted tasks.
 Deeply as she hurt his young heart every time h4 entered Miss Havisham's house. hA looked for her lonRinzIv each time. Each time he denarted with new shame of the forse ana the mean home and even of Joe himself.
 Then a thick curtain seemed sudden- ly to descend on all the interest and romance that had krown into hfs life Mas Havihham sent for Joe and told him that Pip would better be bound apprentice to him at once. "Pip has earned a premium" said she. ''Here gre twenty-five pounds. Give it to your master. Pip.'
 Owing to his sisters temper. horne lad never been a pleasant place to Pip put Joe had sanctihed it. Joe's love