The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-26

Hiss Helen, I can't-I can't go any farther.',
 "Then we'll sit down and rest" was the reply.
 They sat down on a fallen trunk, overgrown with soft fresh moss. Presently Susan stretched herself Hat on her back, her face strea ming with precipitation.
 "Oh," she panted, "I shall die:"
 'No, you won't die," said Miss Gray man, whose strength was sustained by a more terrible fear than Susan knew. You'll feel all right in few minutes"
 "Are you not going to return to the lodge?"
 Heaven forbidu' cried her mistress. Susan, do you know who it.is that we are running away from? It is the Sky Pirate, Alfonso Payton!"
 Susan was probably better read in the literature of piracy, especially as represented by the sensational jour nals, than her mistress, and at the name of Alfonso Payton she turned ashy pale.
 'Oh, good Lordy!'' she cried, when she recovered her breath. "You don't mean that, Miss Helen? Why, he is the wickedest man in the world! I've read all about him in the Sunday Peace. If he gets us we're gone sure! He never gives you up unless you pay him $10O.oOO. The paper said so. And if you don't pay you're killed! Oh, dear me. what shall I do? But won't Commodore Brown help us?''
 "You goosev' sad Miss Grayman, serving to animate her. Of course Commodore Brown won't help us. He's the very man.
 Commodore Brown is Alfonso Pay tonr'
 Susan could say no more. She had no words and remained staring at her mistress with gaping mouth. But where will you go, Miss Helen? We'll get lost in the woods, and where shall we sleep tonight?' she finally gasped.
 we are lost already replied Miss Grayman gravely. "I could not find my way back if I wished to. As to where we shall sleep, I don't know on the ground, under a tree, I SUD- pose''
 But the bearsp
 "We must trust in God"
 "And what shall we eat?'
 To be killed? To starve? What were these in comparison with meeting that man again? Yet, by one of those cu- rious mental freaks to which we are all subject, while Miss Grayman had thought neither of wild beasts nor of food, the idea that they would need covering at night had flashed upon her, and it was for that reason that she had sent Susan for the wraps. And now they chung to these things and lugged them along as if their lives and safety depended upon them alone.
 Miss Grayman made no reply to Su- sans questions about what they should eat. She simply pressed on, and Susan followed. Sometimes they were caught in tangles of spiny undergrowth, from which there seemed DO issue. Yet, on and on they struggled. They were wearing the stout garments that Pay ton had recommended, but even these were becoming torn and disordered.
 At last, wearied beyond expression, they had to stop. It was getting dark in the woods, and they knew that the sun was near setting. Miss Grayman selected a spot where the covering of pine needles was deep and soft, under a group of trees, and, spreading her cloak and bidding Susan do the same 1 y>- lor <1 worn out, hungry, thirsty, but they !. had no supper They wished for fire, but that could not be had. So they lay down again, close together, arms intertwined, the daughter of the great millionaire embracing her hum. bier sister, and finding a comfort in her companionship that at least warm ed her heart.
 They tried to sleep, but, in addition to the cold, noises now arose that drove sleep from their tired eyes strange sounds of the trackless wilder ness, distant, wailing screams that gradually approached and filled them with terror, rustlings among the branches, the snapping of twigs in the inky darkness, heavier sounds from the depths of the forest, animal voices replying to one another. Eyes were watching them, though they did not know it. They twined their arms closer and trembled, and at last sob bed together. The cold increased, al though, after time, the nearer noises ceased. At last, in spite of all the dis comfort, they fell asleep.
 Then dark form moved steaithily and silently from a thicket and ap- preached them. It knelt beside the troubled sleepers and listened. Final Iy it reached out long arms and eau dously spread a warm robe over them. The next instant it had disappeared.
 The sun was shining on the tree tops when they awoke, both opening their eyes at the same moment, dis turbed probably by some noise. For a few seconds Miss Grayman did not realize where she was. Then it all came back to .her in a fash. Without raising her head she said to Susan: ''Thank heaven, the night is gone! We have escaped, and today
 A scream from Susan interrupted her.
 "Oh, Lord, lookv cried the girl, who had risen on her elbow.
 r., Gens1~ ~I~4