Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1910-11-10


a dog gave warning Of his stealthy
advance. Soon he could make out a
light in the kings house. A few steps
more and he saw that the door was
open, as 1t had been on his first visit
to the castle. He lodged swiftly from
bush to bush, darted under the win
dow through which he had seen Ma
rion. leaped lightly up the broad steps
and sprang into the great room, his
pistol cooked in his hand.
The room was empty. He listened,
but not a sound came to his ears ex-
cept the rustling of a curtain In the
breeze. The huge lamp over the ia
Bile was burning dimly. The five doors
leading from the Don were tightly
closed. Nathaniel held his breath,
tried TO still the tumultuous pounding
OF his heart as he waited for a sound
of life-a step beyond those doors. a
woman's voice, q child's cry. But
none came. The stiffness of desertion
lowered about him. He went to n
He opened 1t silently, with the a
ton of a thief, and there doomed be-
fore him a chaos of gloom.
"Hello!" he called gently. Hello
Hello"
There was no answer. He struck
a match and advanced step by step,
holding the yellow bit of flame above
his head. 1t disclosed the narrow
walls of a hall and an open door lead.
ing into another room. The match
sputtered and went ont and he lighted
another. On a little table just outside
the door was a half burned candle and
he replaced his match with this. Then
he went in.
At a glance he knew that he had
entered a woman's room. redolent
with the perfume OF flowers. On one
side was a bed and close beside it a
cradle with a child's toys scattered
about 1t. The tUmbled coverlets
showed that both had been recently
used. About the room were thrown ar.
ticles of wearing apparel; a trunk had
been dragged from a closet and was
half packed; everywhere vas the dis
order Of hurried flight. For a few
moments the depth ot his despair held
Nathaniel m%otionlesG. The castle was
Decentralization was gone! He ran
back into the great room, no longer
trying to still the sound of his foot
steps, and opened a second door. The
same silence greeted him. the same
disorder. the same evidence that the
wives and children of the Mormon
king had fed. He went into a third
room-and then a fourth.
For an instant lie paused at the
threshold of this fourth chamber. A
light was burning in the Don at the
end of the hall. The door was closed
with the exception of an inch or two.
"Marion!" he called softly, and lis
tened intently.
He went OF when there was NO re-
ply. and pushed open the door.
A candle was burning on a stand
in front of a mirror. The room was
as emplJ as the others. But there was
no disorder here. The bed was I'M
used, the garments in the open closet
had not been disarranged. On the
floor beside the bed was a pair of
shoes and as Nathaniel saw them his
heart seemed to leap to his throat
and stifled the cry that was on his
lips. He took one of them in his
hand, his whole being throbbing with
excitment. It vas Marion's shoe
incrusted with mud and torn as he
hol cann II IL, Tho fnrnct WITH hnr
name falling from his lips in a plead
ing cry he now searched the room and
On the stand in front of the mirror
he found a lilac colored ribbon, soiled
and crumpled. II was Marion's rib
bon-the n he had seen last in her
hair, ana he crushed it to his lips as
he ran back into the great room. call
ing out her name again and again in
the torture of helplessness that now
possessed him.
Mechanically. rather than with rear
son. he went to the fifth and last door.
His candle had become e~xtinguished
in his haste and after he had opened
the door he stopped at the threshold
of the black hall to light 1t again.
There was a moments pause as he
searched his pockets for a match, =
silence in which he listened as he
searched, and suddenly rs he was
about to strike the sulphur tipped
splint there came to his ears a sound
that held him chained to the spot.
1t was the sobbing of a woman; or
was 1t .. child? In a moment he knew
that it was a woman; and then the