The Washington times., 1913-05-21
CHAPTER xxi.
Refuge.
~ AINTLY the sounds Of search
- the tramping af heavy feet. the
slamming of doors, the displac-

~ AINTLY the SOUNDS OF search
~ the tramping af heavy feet. the
slamming of doors. the displac-
ing of furniture-drifted to the
close-bolted chamber where Thomsine
Musgrove lay.
She listened, family smiling. To her
own amazement, she seemed in that
hour lifted into a far. white kingdom,
beyond the reach Of fear.
For she had wrought the incredible.
She was shielding. saving. mothering
him, the brown man Of her artless
dreams made real.
The look that Erisey had spent ten
hours and much thought in stamping on
his hunted face she had wiped out in as
many minutes.
She had won him to eat Of the food
that haply was still In her chamber
from last nights guilty meal. She had
bathed that hateful cut on his head and
Of her smocks. She had put cold COM
presses-it was all that she could do
about his tortured wrists.
Who did this thing?" she asked, ages
his senior at that moment, and raging
''Erisey." He had told her half the
truth.
The dim. curtained four-poster placed
against the wall was huge, and Van
kerstenbroock, whom his friends called
kerlchen, was veritable a little chap.
With Erisey or. Musgrove or Jack
Aubrey the deed had been impossible.
even to the woman most devoted.
As II was, Thomsine, as sclf-possessed
as II she went about a task at Allen
| thorn. had drawn the upper mattress
(she thanked her stars that there were
two) never SO little toward the outer
edge of the bed. In the crevice thus
left, at the dim. far side Of the bed
slowed himself. Thomsine adjusted the
sheets and coverlets across him.
"Canst thou breathe?" she asked So
ncitously.
Aye" said he. Undoubtedly, in any
case, he would have said it,
effaced all sign of his presence in the
room. Then she crept into the bed and
lay wondering IL he had smothered in
that narrow crevice. until she could
bear the uncertainty no longer.
She spoke his name softly, and got no
answer. Then very gently she put back
the clothes, and she found, to admira-
ton. that he had gone to sleep.
She leaned and looked upon him
space longer than was necessary. He
was not the manner of man to sleep
with his mouth open, like Bab Ayskew.
Unguarded as 1t was, his tired face
showed at its best and finest. The man
that he was to men, the adorable boy
tnaI every no" ana tHeH petptU
out in him. were fused and blended in
his sleeping face in a way to pull
woman's heart-strings.
Little did Thomsine reck in that mo-
ment of the number Of men that he mad
killed or the number Of women that he
had kissed.
Thou lad" she whispered. Thou
little lad
Carefully she drew the clothes above
him in his sleep. and herself lay down.
She was smiling a little and not in the
least afraid. She folded her hands upon
her breast and lay listening to the
sounds of the search that echoed
through the great house.
Dear Lord" she whispered. surely
Thou wilt help him.
Why the Almighty should intervene In
the affairs of Karl-Ludwig Won Kers-
tenbroock convicted and Cndoubted
spy. were not perhaps clear 20 the In
prejudiced. But to Thomsina, who knew
that he had brown eyes. when he ch"se
TO open them, and that he had gone 20
sleep in perfect trust of her. II was en-
tirely clear.
She watched the light of day grow
broader in the chamber. She heard the
sounds OF search. now near. now far
She realized that at times, in listening,
he forgot to breathe.
She had a sudden vision, In a copse
by Allenthorn, long years ago. Of
partridge with a feisned hurt that ven
tured all TO save her little ones
Then Thomsine. herself almost doing