The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-01-06

mo.ionless in the chair into which he
mao sunk. his eyes fixed on the flames
or .he candles. His u%nwinking gaze
c.eated about each tongue of flame
strange effects Of vapor. halo-like cir
cles that widened and again contracted,
IDIOTS mat came and went. But he saw
tnese Things with hts eyes without See
ing them with his mind. It was not
room about him. 1t was not of any
thing within sight he was thinking.
nut OF Flavia!
~ FIavia. who had deceived him.
s1upec him. cajoled him. Who, by at
thrown him of his guard and won his
having lured him thither, had laughed
laughed As he sat and thought
o. ner treachery he looked years older
IL cut MIN to the heart.
At length, with q sigh drawn from
MS very soul, he reused himself and,
taxing a candle. he made the round Of
the chamber. The door by which he
mac entered was the only outlet. and
u vas OF stout oak. .clamped with iron
anu locked. For windows, a pair OF
toopholes, Sits SO narrow that on the
oTightest day h oom must DO twilit,
pierced the wall toward the lake.
me walls were w feet thick and
the 8roined roof was Of stone, hard as
Ine weathering Of centuries had left It.
near: Flayia! The word ALMOST am
Yet what was her purpose? He had
2eeh iured hither. but why? His yes
Ell on the table; the answer would
doubtless be found among the papers
that lay on 1t. He sat down in the
chair set before it M took up the first
sheet that came to hand-a note Of q
dozen lines in her handwriting.
Sir so It ran
You have betrayed US. and were
tina all I'd still be finding it in my
heart to forgive you. But you have
betrayed also. u country. our King
n our faith, n for this it's not with
me 1t lies to pardon. Over and above,
you have thought to hold us in a web
your NE and your person. but o are
meshed in your turn n will fare an
you can. without water. food or fire,
until you have signed and sealed the
grant which lies beside this paper.
Were ea not p N and n win visit
under your hand, when he will witness
1t. Tha done. you will go where you
please, and heaven forgive you. I who
write this am. though unjustly, the
oWAef VI tuat you grant, ana you DO
"FLAv1A M'MURRoUGH."
He read the letter with a mixture Of
emotions. Beside 1t lay a deed. en-
crossed on parchment. which %purported
to grant all that he held under the will
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 the
true meaning was that the lands should
be held by Constantine Hussey for the
taking them in his own name.
Fully, only too fully. enlightened by
Flavia's letter. Colonel John barely
glanced al the parchment. for. largely
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 h
already the damp Of a hundred years
was creeping over him.
He sat gazing at the paper with dull
eyes. For, after ali, whose interests
had he upheld? Whose cause had he
supported against James McMurrough
he declared himself master at Norris
town, with no intention, no though, as
heaven was his witness. Of deriving one
tot or one little of advantage for him.
self? Fiavia's! And h had planned
playing to It's crafty n the farce that
had blinded him:
His mind travelled back to the be-
ginning Of it all, to the day on which
Sir Michael's letter, with a copy Of
his will. had reached his hands, at
Stralsbund on the Baltic, in his quar-
tiers beside h 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
frmness with which. touched by the
dead mans confidence, he had resolved
to protect the girls interest, that the
old mans confidence should be iusti-
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 it had not
become entwined with another-with
the resolve to pluck her and hers
from the abyss into which they were
bent on finging themselves. It was
his enemy to this point. But he could
not regret that-he who had seen war
in all Its cruel phases. and fierce re-
bellions. and more cruel repressions.
in this cold prison-perish tho
was lindled in him by the reflection
that, whatever befen him, he had
saved scores from misery. a country
side from devastation, women and
children from the worst Of fates. And
he would at least pass beyond with
full hands, and with h knowledge
that for every life he, the soldier Of
fortune. had taken, he had saved ten.