The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1911-04-14

no fires to betray the approach of
tho enemy. Not even the barking of
a dog gave warning 81 his stealthy
advance. Soon he could make u a
llghtAn the kings house. A few steps
more and he saw that the door was
open, as it 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
r1on. 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 V e the Ia
BILE was burning dimly. The five doors
leading from the room were tightly
closed. Nathaniel held his breath.
tried to still the tumultuous pounding
of his heart as he waited for a sound
OF llfe-a step beyond those doors, a
womans voice, a child's cry. But
none came. The stiffness of desertion
lowered about him. He went to n
OF the five doors. 1t was not locked.
He opened it silently. with the eau
Con OF a thief, and there doomed be-
Tore him a chaos of gloom.
"Hello!" he called gently. Hello
Hello"
Ihere 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 out and he lighted
another. On a little table just outside
the DOR 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 Womans 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 it. The tumbled coyerlets
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 was the dis
order Of hurried flight. For a few
moments the depth of his despair held
Nathaniel motionless. 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 anne evidence that the
wives and children OF the Mormon
king had fled. He vent into a third
then a fourth.
For an instant he paused at the
threshold OF this fourth chamber. A
light was burning in the room 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 i%ntently.
He went on 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 empty as the others. But there was
no disorder here. The bed was I'M
used, the garments in the open closet
had not been d~isarranged. 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. 1t was MariOn'S shoe
incrusted with mud and torn as he
had seen it in the forest. With her
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
n crumpled. 1t vas Marion's rib
bon-the n he had seen last in her
hair, and 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 hat O
possessed him.
Mechanically, rather thar with rea-
son, he went to the fifth and last door.
His candle had become eXtinguished
in his haste and after he had opened
the door he stopped at the threshold
of the black hall to light it again.
Incl was a moments pause rs he
searched his pockets for a match, a
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 it :, child? In a moment he knew
that 1t was a woman; and then the