Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1908-06-25

UICDdl III uCACdSC. A'ut LIZ" nv
declared defense to be impossible.
Who'll tell her so? asked Basil VIII
| hanson.
1--WE must get her across the from
tier" said Dunstanbury. Thereby
| st. Peters pass-the way we came.
Basil. It's an easy journey, and don't
suppose they'll try to intercept us. You
can send twenty or thirty we'll mount
ed men with us, can't you. Lukov itch?
small party we'll mounted is what
we shall want"
Lukovitch waved his hands sadly.
with the guns against us it would be
mere massacre. If 1t must be, let it
be as you say, my lord" His heart
was very heavy. After generations Of
defiance Volseni must bow to Slavna
and his dead lords will 60 for nothing.
All this was the doing Of the great
suns.
Dunstanbury's argument was sound,
| but he argued from his heart as well
as his head. He was convinced that
the best service he could render to
Sophy was to get her safely out of the
country His heart urged that her
safety was the one and only thing to
consider AS she went to and fro
among them now, pale and silent, yet
always accessible, always ready to lis
ten, to consider and to answer. she
moved him with an infinite pity and a
growing attraction. Her life was as
though dead or frozen. 1t seemed to
him as though all Kravonia must be to
her the tomb Of him whose grave in
the little hillside church of Volseni she
visited so often. An ardent and over
towering desire rose in him to rescue
! her, to drag her forth from these dim
| cold shades into the sunlight of life
again. Then the spell of this frozen
| grief might be broken; then should her
| dropping glories revive and bloom
| again. Kravonia and who ruled there
| aye. IN his heart even the fate Of the
| gallant little city which harbored them
| and whose interest he pleaded-were
nothing to him beside Sophy. On her
| his thoughts We're centered.
Sophy's own mind in these days can
| be gathered only from what others
| saw. She made no record of it. Fallen
| In an honr from heights Of love and
hope and exaltation. she lay stunned
In the abyss. In intellect calm and COL
lected, she seems to have been as one
numbed in feeling, too MANNED for
pain, suffering as though from NOR
LITIGATION Of the heart The simple men
| and women Of Volseni looked on her
with awe and chartered fearfully of
the red star; how that its wearer had
been predestined to high enterprise,
but foredoomed to mighty reverses Of
fortune, Amid all their pity for her
they spoke Of the evil eye. Some whis-
pered that she had come to bring ruin
on volseni. Had not the man who
loved her lost both crown and life?
And it was she through whom the
guns had come. The meaning Of the
guns had spread now to every hearth.
What had once been hailed as an
achievement second only to her exploit
In the Street of the Fountain served
now to point more finely the sharpen
ing fears Of superstition. The men held
by her still, but their wives were
grumbling at them in their homes
Was she not after all a stranger?
Must Volseni lie in the dust for her
sake, for the sake Of her who wore
that ominous, inexplicable star?
Dunstanbury knew all this. Luke
witch hardly sought to deny 1t, though
he was full Of scorn for 1t, and Marie
Zerkovitch had by heart the tales Of
| many wise old beldams who had proph-
| A0f0d this ond ko< 10
ment they saw the red star. Surely
and not slowly the enthusiasm which
| had crowned Sophy was turning into a
rear which made the people shrink
from her even while they pitied, even
while they did not cease to love- The
head OF Heaven was against her and
against those who were near her. said
the women. The men still feigned not
to hear. Had they not taken Heaven to
witness that they would serve her and
avenge the king? Alas. their simple
vow was too primitive for days like
these-too primitive for the days of the
| great guns which lay on the bosom of
the Krath.
| Dunstanbury had an interview with
Sophy early on Tuesday morning. the
day after Stafnitz had started for Kol-
skoi. He put his case with the blunt
ness and honesty native to him. In
his devotion to her safety he did not
spare her the truth. She listened with
the smile devoid Of happiness which
her face now wore so often.
Il know it ALL" she said "They be-
gin to look differently at me as l walk
through the street-when l go to the
church. II l stay here long enough,
they'll all call me a witch. But didn't
they swear? And Haven't I sworn?
Are we to do nothing for monseign-
eur's memory?"
What can we do against the guns?
The men can die and the walls be tum-
bled down. And there are the women
:. and children!"
! Yes. l suppose we can do nothing.
But 1t goes to my heart that thew