Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-08-31
lORKVILLE, s. O., TUESDAY, AUGUS-


She bent back the little puckered
face, so as to lay bare to his sight the
Unite of a throat beneath. He leaned
down to look. Then a cry-nay, yell
burst from his lips, for on that
throat he saw a line of bright crimson,
drawn from ear to ear, as knife
might draw a fine edge, leaving the
blood to squirt behind It! Captain
Forrest clutching at empty air, stag
gered back against the wall.
| MY God!" dropped from his lips.
WELL" said the Duff woman, Ut
does look queer; but bit OF lace VIII
cover it, or a morsel Of ribbon"
| He put his hands before his shId
dering eyes
Take it from my sight" he raved;
1T is accursed! Hide its face! Don't
let me look on it again!"
Seized with a sudden panic Hannah
Duff dropped the screaming baby on
the settee beside her and flung. her
apron over it.
Captain Forrest, with a face like
| QedQ IlldH ., SldS6CiOu to"eAe S.'> 49,
where the mother lay.
Lay in a stupor like to death, with
her loose lustrous hair scattered In
torrents on the pillow-with her mar
velous face upturned, like sculptors
dream, in the wretched candlelight.
So Young, so gloriously beautiful she
was, that, lying there, she might have
melted the hardest heart that ever beat
in mans bosom, but he who stood and
looked down on her looked only IN
horror and aversion. He touched DR..
Covers arms.
II ask you again." he stammerd,
| will she live?"
"I cannot answer for her life till SUM-
rise," replied the doctor.
The other flung down, with shak-
ing hand. a roll of bank notes on the
bed.
Take your fee from this" he said,
hoarsely, "and leave the rest with this
Duff woman. Whatever happens, here
is money enough and to spare"
At that the daughter Of the Cape
DlCkeQ up neT SCdllSiSu Wito'
But the child?" said she.
Curse it," he cried, wildly, and
averting his face-hiding 1t IN his
cloak, like leper Of old-he flung past
the little bundle on the settee and van
ished through the door.
The next moment Hannah Dun
heard the roll Of wheels. She ran to
the window. Lo! carriage, horses and
driver were already disappearing In
the foggy dawn of that lonesome shore
road.
THE arch traitor!" she gasped;
"he's gone and left her here to die!"
CHAPTER II.
A week went by, and with the usual
contrariness Of her sex the beautiful
stranger at Hannah Duff's old house
was not dead, but recovering. One
day she opend her great Eastern eyes
and looked up at the hatchet-faced
woman, scented with gin, who sat by
the bed, holding with an air Of un-
conquerable aversion the young baby
it's throat like brand.
Tell mel" cried the young mother,
starting up on her pillow, with sud-
den anguish breaking into her pale
face, "how-when did he go away?"
"He-who?" quoth Hannah Duff,
cunningly.
"The man who brought me here
the man who has left me here to my
fate, and my child with me-" she cried,
wringing her hands.
He stopped long enough" answer
! ed Hannah, grimly, ito give good
look at the brat, and to curse it round
ly, and then he went; and it's been a
pining ever since, as II he had put a
blight upon it,"
A scream broke from the young
creatures lips.
He cursed it," she cried. "Oh, heav-
en-; ALL indeed, is lost, then!" and with
the look of tigress she snatched the
wailing morsel from Hannah Duff and
half smothered it with her fierce, Sob
bing kisses
"Oh, my own! my Innocent" she
walled. He can never hate you as ne
hates me! He has cursed me, as we'll;
but 1 live-oh, God yes, 1 live and
suffer still and so must you! We must
bear his curses, and we must bear his
hate!"
The child turned its head from her
wild caresses, with a weak, protesting
cry. 1t was this little movement which
revealed to the mothers eyes for the
first time that fatal mark, which cir
cled it's tiny throat.
Hannah" she screamed, look;
what is this?"
We'll" answered Hannah, its what
they call birth mark, I s'pose-born
with it, and warranted not to rub Off.
| Capt'n Forrest, as he said his name
was, did seem awfully cut up at sight
of It,"
The mother did not speak, only
| thrust out the child at arms length,
and, starting from the bed with blood
less lips and distended eyes, stared at
| that crimson brand as If she were turn
| ing to stone Then, stffening rigidly
| in every limb and without sound or
cry, she dropped the wailing mite from
her hold and fell back on the pillow
in a dead faint.
A weary while it was before Hannah
Duff could lure the life back into her
breathless body.
And Dr. Covers away" she grum-
bled to herself, land nobody to send
| for him, even If he were here. A body
might die in this house twice over and
none outside be the wiser, when Duff
and the boys are at sea-"
She slapped the senselss girls hands
numerically, burned feathers under
her nose, poured raw brandy down her
throat, and, having thus gone through
the whole lively process Of resuscita-
tion, was rewarded, at last, by seeing
her open her eyes once more on the
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