Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-06-02
CHAPTER xxu

OdaH1ER AAlI.
But the morning proves him wrong.
Amber is no longer within tie walls OF
Carrig. When she had gone, or how. no
one knows. And to all his grief and
self-denunciation is added the knowledge
that she must have walked all the way
from Carrig either to Madam's, where
she was expected, or to the old Mill
House. In what cruel haste she had
been to knock their dust from off her
feet!,
How Hilary spends the hours after
his first certain knowledge of Ambers
going from Carrig ne himself never knows
to the end of ALL But when this short
and dying day is drifting into long
and chilly night, he suddenly goes into
the yard and orders a trap to be got
ready for him.
Coming to that part of the road that
leads up to the boreen, where Amber's
little sick boy dwells, he springs to the
ground and leads the horse up the lane,
and there gives the poor woman. who re-
members him with the most devout graf
ftude, his horse and trap in charge
Was he mad last night when he hurled
his miserable insults on her? Surely he
was mad What did it all come to after
all? A few moments spent alone with
Everard He had thought her wrong
there; but he-was it not he who had
been hideously in the wrong? He who
had accused her of falsity-falsity to
him-to the man she had said she loved /.
Certainly she had gone to see the stars
with Everard. but that was only small
fault, magnifed by him, not crime.
AS he nears the mill, little spark
from the lowest depth around it catches
his eye He blinks-stares again. Yet
surely there is a light, and in that dismal
cellar where he and Amber had buried
her rings, tina; night His heart begins
to beat! She has not gone to Madam's,
then Poor darling. He had been moth
ing bEt a grief to her from almost their
first acquaintance. But a light here
Could she be the one who had lit it?
and why come there, into the very bow
els of the earth as it were, at this dark
hour?
An unworthy thought-dismisse in
stantly with a touch of seif-horror-that
she is there to regain those rings, sends
him flying down the slope that leads 20
the old mill. More likely-far more like
ly-she has come here thinking of It as
the last place in the old mill that she
had visited with him. If there seems to
be conceit or vanity of any sort in this
thought of his, it must be combated BY
the fact that be judges her as he judges
himself. Has he not come here tonight
L.
to him by her?
And if she is here? If he should be
so wildly fortunate as TO find her here
in that melancholy vault--hen in bis
very body he can PROSTATE himself be
fore her. Can lay his apologies at her
feet. Can own to her his grief-his hat
red of himself, and-Heaven is good as
well as just gain her forgiveness.
He covers the ground between him and
the old mill in an extraordinarily swift
lime, and. gaining the dipalidated DOOR
way. steps quickly in, and 70 that hole
in the broken flooring that leads to the
cellar beneath. Very softly he steps. He
must not take her off her guard To
startle her by sudden descent would be
a cowardly thing-taking her py storm,
as it were. And yet to seem 10 spy upon
her!
lie shrinks from the thought, and final
ly besides on looking through the hole in
the floor from which the old ladder IS
hanging, and seeing her. call 10 her tell
ing her he is here-has come-oh too
poor. too poor Telling her rather list
he is here. her slave--her lover Cor life,
even though she should elect to desplse
and reject him,
He bends 5own-his eyes traverse the
vault. A sharp exclamation almost es-
capes him. Almost-not quite. Down
here in this dismal cellar Deane is kueel-
ing beside a wide opening in the earthen
floor. This opening is close to the wall,
and on the wall just above it is painted
that small black arrow, of woish Amber
and he had taken such notice. On the
side of this opening lies an old and very
large jewel case-very old. and now very
lid lifted. Hilary gazing. too
to move, can see IN the faint
light of the lantern Deane has laid be-
side it. great rays of light flashing. The
missing jewels at last How near the
discovery of them he and Amber had been
when they buried those rings: only an
inch or two this way-and
Lightly he drops to the ground So
lightly indeed that the other man. en-
crossed with his spoil, hears nothing of
rs coming. until he is almost at his ell
bow.
With frantic yell, as of a Wild beast
torn from its prey. Deane springs to his
feet, and having faced Adare for the
fraction of a second. Tags S,nself upon
him The latter grasps him ia turn. Dis
gust and rage are giving fresh strength
TO shews and Siaews, tina. require little
assistance from any source. And for a
few minutes the two men sway and wres-
tie and arr locked in deadly embrace
that means death-for one or the other
Nostrils dilated. lips parted; sway to
tNe right-victory for one; sway TO
the ieft-victory TO the otherl How will
il end2
Now a slight chance in this wild
wrestling match-a loosening of the arms
of Hiiary-gives Deane chance. He
filings Hilary from him. and with light
ming speed draws a revolver from his
breast With q low growl Of Joy he
levels il.
A second. second only. But there IS
life in second even for 4 man condemn
ed. And It is q girl-ihe girl he loves
who gives life TO Hilary, A small hand.
brown, but shapely, filings up the fatal re
rolver. that would have sent him to a
land very far away from ours, and oui-
let crashes into the rotten rafters above
their heads The revolver has taken 3
voyage very nearly as high. II comes
down now IN a distant corner. and provl-
dentally Goes not so of. Amber. witA
little spring. goes 10 il and picks II mp
Go home. Brian says the girl very
gently. and in very low voice. her
fingers tighten over the revolver, how
ever. She is calm. but looks little
broken Adare moves to her side
Those stones. those ornaments, says
he. pointing to them. belong. as OF
course you know. TO Sir Lncien Adare.
In his name l tafe possession Of themg
As for you"-he loolIs straight at Deane
with seorn and unsisguised contempt
Il give Yen Just ,a'enty-four hours 70