Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-08-31

She rose hurriedly and took from a
peg behind the door an old dread
naught belonging to her sailor hus-
band. She flung 1t over herself, head
and ears, then strode to the bed,
snatched up the forsaken baby, and,
hiding 1t under the garment, fled forth
into the night.
She took the way leading to the
beach. The tide was just on the turn.
The wind was tanning fitfully through
and through the dark. She scrambled
down the black Beverly rocks, and,
glancing furtively around, saw a strip
of sand left bare by the receding wa
ters, which, a half hour later, would
again be seething, roaring sea- Here,
In the lee of a rock, the woman, stand
ing under g. heaven without star to
accuse her, laid down the abandoned
child, hung breathlessly above 1t one
moment, listening to the sea creeping
up nearer and nearer, and then turn
ed and fled back to the house.
She fastened her door with tremb-
ling hand, put away the money and
Jewels, and, fortifying herself with an
other pull at the bottle, she went back
to her settle to sleep.
Vain! The chimney was full Of a
child's wailing cries-she heard them
at the windows, in the corners-above
and below, all about the house! Shak-
ing in every limb, and with a cold
sweat breaking from her lean body,
Hannah Duff started up at last and
pulled down the dreadnaught from its
nail again. The clock was just upon
the stroke of twelve. With a shaking
hand she wrenched the bolt back from
her door, and, as If thousand devils
were pursuing her, tore off for a Sec
ond time to that fatal beach.
Down the rocks she stumbled, the
shattering surf below roaring louder
in her ears at every step. Presently a
great wave, uplifting in the darkness,
smote full upon her and dashed her
back breathless and dripping. A scream
broke from the woman's lips. Lo! the
tide was raving wild and white for
yards above the rock where the child
lay-raving and seething white as
shroud, and Hannah Duff stood above
and listened and stared down at the
fatal spot with distended eyes and
bloodless lips-a murderess!
Just one year from that fatal night,
in a windy spring cleaning, a carriage
came rolling over the lonely Cape road
and stopped at the weather-beaten
house standing by the wayside facing
the sea. From this carriage descend
ed a yelled lady in deepest black and
knocked at the door for admittance.
There was no answer. The house SEEM
ed dark and silent pJ tomb. The
visitor then tried me latch. 1t yielded
to her hand. Sic opened the door and
glided unanrounced into Hannah
Duff's living room.
Darkness there, broken neither by
light Of candle nor glow Of fire; but
at sound of that strange step on the
floor a voice from the bed in the cor
ner called out, with quavering utter
ance, who's there?"
Like one familiar with the place, the
visitor made her way to the mantel
and groped for a match. Directly the
feeble beam Of a tallow dip broke on
the darkness of the room. 1t revealed
the bed in the corner, and, stretched
upon it, the ghastly, emaciated, dying
body Of that hatchet-faced Cape wo-
man, Hannah Duff.
Who's there?" she cried again, and
lifting her gray head from the pillow,
she glared at the black shape that
crossed quickly to her side. Throwing
back her veil the visitor leaned over
the bed with pale, luminous face.
II have come back" she cried, in a
clear, vibrating voice. Look! do you
know me? Where is my child?"
Hannah Duff's lean jaw dropped
She stared at her visitor with hollow
eyes that seemed starting from their
sockets, but from her livid lips came
no sound-no answer
my child" repeated the other, and
a trembling passed over her and sne
looked around the room eagerly; "she
that left to you and DR.. Cover one
year ago tonight. Speak to me! Is
she here or with him?"
A wild. awful shrek burst from
Hannah Duff. Convulsed with some
mortal terror, she sank back on the
bed
"You!" she cried; you come for
your brati Oh, Lord Of heaven!"
The woman in black snatched her