Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-01-14

motionless IN the chair into which ne
had sunk. his eyes fixed on the flames
OF the candles. His ~unwimking gaze
created about each tongue OF flame
strange effects Of vapor, halo-like cir
cles that widened and again contracted,
colors that came n went But he saw
these things with r.: c.c=-.sSut see
ing them with his mind. 1t was not
OF them, 1t was not OF the death-co ld
room about him, 1t vas not of any
thing within sight he was thinking.
but OF Flavial
OF Flavia, who had deceived him.
duped him, cajoled him. Who, by af-
Ifecting a quarrel with her brother, had
thrown him off his guard and won his
confidence, only to betray 1t. Who,
having lured him thither, had laughed
had laughed AS he sat and thought
of her t~reachery he looked years older.
1t cut him to the heart.
At length, with a sigh drawn from.
his very soul, he reused himself and,
taking a candle, he made the round OF
the chamber. The door by which he,
had entered was the only outlet, and,
It was OF stout oak. ciamped with iron
and locked. For windows, a pair Of
loopholes, Sits sc narrow that on the
brightest day the room must be twilit.
pierced the wall toward the lake.
"ulio WClo L"O 1SCI llllCh dlluH
the groined ROOT was OF stone, hard as
the ~weathering Of centuries had left IT.
But not so hard, not so cruel as her
heart! Flavia! The word almost anne
from his lips in a cry Of pain.
Yet what was her purpose? He had
been lured hither, but why? His eyes
fell on the table; the answer would
doubtless be found among the papers.
that lay on 1t. He sat down in the
chair ser before II and took up the first
sheet that came to hand-a note Of a
dozen lines in her handwriting.
Sir" so 1t ran
You have betrayed us, and were
that all I'd still be finding it in my
heart to forgive you. But you have
betrayed also our country, our King
and our faith, and for his it's not with
me 1t lies to pardon. Over and above,
you have thought to hold us in a web
that would make you safe at once In
your life and III person, but you are
meshed in your turn n will fare as
you can, without water, food or fire,
until you have signed and sealed h
grant which lies beside this paper.
We're not unmerciful, and n will visit
you once in "a hours until he has II
under your hand, when he will witness
1t. That done, you will go where you
please, and heaven forgive you. / who
write this am, though unjustly, the
owner of that you grant, and you do
no wrong.
"FLAvIA MMURRoUGH."
He read the letter with a mixture Of
emotions. Beside it lay a deed, en-
crossed on parchment, which purpoTted
to grant all that he held under the will
Of the late Sir Michael McMurrough TO
Constantine Hussey, Esquire, Of Dup
pa But annexed to the deed was a
separate scroll, illegal but not unusual
in Ireland at that day, stating that h
true meaning was that the lands should
be held by Constantine Hussey for the
use OF The McMurrough, who, as a
Roman Catholic, was not capable of
taking them in his own name.
Fully, only too fully, enlightened by
Flavia's letter, Colonel John barely
glanced at the parchment, for, largely
as these bulked on the table, the gist
Of all lay in the letter. He had fallen
into a trap-a trap as cold, cruel, heart
less as the bosom of her who had
decoyed him hither. Without food or
water! And already the chill of the
earthen floor was eating into his bones,
already the damp OF a hundred years
was creeping over him..
He sat gazing at the paper with dull
eyes. For, after all, whose interests
had he upheld? Whose cause had he
supported against James McMurrough
and his friends? For whose sake had
he declared himself master at Morris
town, with no intention, no though, as
heaven was his witness, of deriving one
jot or one little of advantage for him
self? Flavia's! And she had planned
this, She had consigned him to this,
playing, to it's crafty end the farce that
had blinded him!
His mind Travelled back to the be-
ginning of II all, to the day on which
Sir Michaels letter, with a copy OF
his will, had reached his hands, at
Stralsbund on the Baltic, in his quar-
tiers beside the East Gate. The cast Of
his thoughts at the reading rose before
him. The recollections OF his home,
his boyhood, his father, which the
old mans writing had evoked, and the
1rmness with which, touched by the
dead mans confidence, he had resolved
TO protect the girls interest, hat the
old mans confidence should be justi-
fed. the young girls inheritance Sc
cured to her-this had been the pur-
pose in his mind from first to last.
And this was his reward!
True, that purpose would not have
embroiled him with her If 1t had not
become entwined with another-with
the resolve to pluck her and hers
from the abyss into which they were
bent on flingtng themselves. It was
that resolution which had made her
his enemy to this point. But he could
not regret that-he who had seen war
In all it's cruel phases, and fierce re-
bellions, and more cruel repressions.
in his cold prison-perish the
thought! For even now some heat
was kindled in him by the reflection
that, whatever befell him, he had
saved scores from misery, a country
side from devastation, women and
children from the worst of fates. And
though he never say the sun again,
he would at least pass beyond with
full hands, and with the knowledge
that for every life he, the soldier OF
fortune, had taken, he had saved ten
Continued Nex Week.)