The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-25
THE LADY OF THE HEAVENS.
Copyright, 1908, by H. Rider Haggard


you knelt down before your dead fath- l err? asked Rachel for the second time. l since on this point she was intensely 1 curious.
 Again that inscrutable look gathered on the girls face, and she answered Did l not tell you it was for my ear alone, O nkosazana-yZoola? I dare not say it, be satisfied. But this
 l may say. Your fate and mine are l lntertwlned; yours and mine and an- which have dWelt together in past days.''
 ''Indeed,'' said Rachel smiling for she who had mixed with them from her childhood knew something of the mysticism of the natives, also that it was often nonsense. well, Noie, love you, I know not why. Perhaps, for all you have suffered. Yet I say to you that if you wish to remain my sister in the spirit, you had better separate from me in the flesh. That jackal man knows your secret, girl, and soon or late will loose the assegai on you.'
 Doubtless she answered, doubt less many things will come about. But they are doomed to come about Whether I go or whether I stay they GALLEY--2O
 will happen. Say you therefore, La dy, and I will obey. Shall go or shall I stay, or shall I die before your eyes?'
 Tt is on your own head" answered Rachel struggling her shoulders.
 May, nay, Lady, you forget, 1t is on yours also, seeing that if stay I may bring peril on you and your house Have you then, no order for me?''
 "Noie, have answered-none. Judge you.'
 "I will not judge. Let Heaven-above judge. Lady, give me a hair from your head.''
 Rachel plucked out the hair and handed it, a shining thread of gold, to Noie, who drew one from her own dark tresses, and laid them side by side.
 "see,' she said, 'they are of the blows gently, come then to the door of the tent, and I will throw these two hairs into the wind. If that which is black floats first to the ground, then ] stay, if that which is golden, then I go to seek my hair. Is it agreed?"
 Tt is agreed"
 So the two girls went to the entrance of the tent, and Noie with a swift mo- ton tossed up the hairs. As it hap pened one of those little eddies of wind which are common in South Af- rica, caught them, causing them to rise almost perpendicular1y into the air. At certain height, about forty feet, the SUppOT WILL SGCIU0O LO Idll, CndC IS so far as the hair from Noie's head was concerned, for, there it f1oated high above them like a black thread in the sunlight, and gently by slow degrees came to the earth just at their feet. But the hair from Rachel's head, be- ing caught by the fringe of the whirl- wind, was borne upwards and onwards very swiftly, until at length it vanish ed from their sight.
 Tt seems that I stay,'' said Noie.
 Yes" answered Rachel. 'I am very glad; also if any evil comes of 1t we | are not to blame, the wind is to blame.''
 Yes, Lady, but what makes the wind blow?"
 Again Rachel shrugged her shoul- 1 ders, and asked a question in her turn l
 "Whither has that hair of mine been borne, Noie?''
 ''I do not know, Lady. Perhaps my | fathers spirit took it for his own ends. l I think so. I think it went north 1 wards. At any rate when mine fell, l it was snatched away, was not not? | And yet they both hoated up togeth- CT. I think that one day you will fol- | low that hair of yours, Lady, follow it | to the land where great trees whisper l secrets to the night"