Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-11-12
copyright, 1909. by Stanley j. Weyman,
CHAPTER XI-Continced.


CHAPTER XI-Continced.
'.Oct, sure, where it will be best for
YOU Og replied, with q leer.
Both of us?" the Colonel asked, in
the same ard tone.
Faith, and why'd we be separating
you I'd be asking?"
Colonel John liked neither the mans
tone nor his looks. But he was far
above starting at shadows, and he
guessed that resistance would be use
less. Very good he said. Lead on"
"Bedad, and If you'll be doing that
same, we WILL" O'Sullivan answered.,
with . grin.
The Colonel and Bale found their
hats they'd been allowed to bring
nothing else with them-and they went
down the stairs. In the gloom before
the DOR of the tower waited Two
sturdy fellows, barefoot n o
headed, with musquetoons on their
shoulders, who seemed to be expecting
them. Round the smouldering embers
of the IRE a score of figures lay sleep
ing in the open, wrapped in their
frieze coats. The sun was not yet up
end all things were wrapped in a mist
that chilled to the bone. Nothing In
all that was visible took from the
ominous aspect of the two men with
the firearms One for each, Bale
LllOuS 1t. t1llu lie JdSSJ 4 dSS pohAAbJ
showed livid in the morning light.
Without a word the four men formed
up round their prisoners, and at once
O'Sullivan Og LED the way at a brisk
pace toward the gate. Colonel John
was following, but he had not Ike
three steps before a thought struck
him and he halted. "Are we leaving
she house at once?" he asked,
"We are. And why not, I'm asking%"
only that Tve q message for The
McMurrough it will be well for him TO
have"
Sure" O'Sullivan Og answered. his
II half ~wheedling, half ~truculent,
1T il no time for messages and tribes
and the like now, Colonel. No time at
all, tell you. Ye can see that for
yourself. I'm thinking, such a morning
as this"
I'm thinking nothing of the kind"
the Colonel answered, n he hung
back, looking toward the house. Fortu-
nately Darby chose that minute to
vas pale n showed fatigue, his hair
hung in wisps, his clothes were i'll
fastened. He threw a glance Of con-
tempt at the sleeping figures lying here
and there in the wet. Thence his yes
travelled on n took in the group by
the gate. He started and wrung his
hands in sudden, irrepressible distress.
~ was as II d opdSll S1iHCu tIN itii
The Colonel called him. Darby" he
cried. Come here, my man."
O'Sullivan Og opened his mouth; he
WAS on the point of i~nterpoSing, but he
thought better of it, and shrugged his
shoulders, muttering something in the
Erse,
Darby" the Colonel said, gravely,
Nv a message for the young master,
and it must be given him in his bed.
VIII you give it,"
II will, your honor"
You will not fail?"
II will not, your honor" the old SER
want answered earnestly.
Tell him, then. that Colonel Sullivan
made his will as ne passed through
Paris, and t is now in Dublin. You
MIND me. Darby?"
The old man began to shake-he had
an Irishman's superstition. Il do, your
honor. But the saints be between US
and harm" he continued, with the same
gesture of distress. Who's speaking Of
wills"
only tell him that in his bed" Col
one John repeated, with an urgent
look. THAT is all"
And by your leave, it is now We'll be
going" Og i~nterposed sharply. I'VE
are late already for what we've to do"
There are some things" the Colonel
replied with a steady look, (which it Is
well to be late about"
Then, without further reTonstTanCe,
he and Bale. with their guard, marched
out through the gate and took the o
along the lake-that same road by
which the colonel a come some days
before from the French sloop. The men
with the firelocks walked beside them,
one on either flank, while the pikemen
guarded them behind, and O'Sullivan
Og brought up the rear.
They had not taken 20 PAGES before
the fog swallowed up the party, and
henceforth they walked In a sea of
mist, like men moving in a nightmare
from which they cannot awake. The
clammy vapor chilled them to the bone,
while the ~unceasing waiting of sea-
gulls, borne on the Tough, the whistle
of an unseen curlew On the hillside, the
hurtie of wings as some ghostly bird
swept over them-these were sounds to
depress men who had reason to sus-
pect that they were being led TO a
t~reacherouS end.
The colonel, though he masked his
apprehension under an impenetrable
tirmness, began to fear TO less than
that-and with cause. He observed
that O'Sullivan Og's followers were of
the ic-cst type of kSTTe, Islanders
in all probability, and half starved;
men whose hands We're never far from
the skenes, and whose one orderly in
StiIlCL COIioISltu III d DllHu oDtultICe
TO their chief. O'Sullivan Og himself
he believed to be The McMurrough's
agent in his more lawless business;
a fierce, INSCRIPTIONS man, prospecting
on his lack of scruple. The colonel
could augur nothing but Ill from the
hands to which he had been entrusted,
and worse from the manner in which
these savage. half naked creatures,
stumbling beside him. stole from time
TO time to glance at him, as IL they
fancied they saw the winding sheet
high on his breast.
Some so placed. and feeling them
selves helpless. isolated by the fog, and
entirely at these mems mercy, might
have lost their firmness. But he did
not; nor did Bale, though the servants
face betrayed the keenness of his anx-
iety. They weighed indeed the chances
OF escape: such chances as a headlong
rush into the fog might afford to un-
armed men, uncertain they were. But
tho colonel reflected that 1t was possible
that that was the very course upon
which O'Sullivan Og counted for a pre-
text. And. for a second objection, the
IT