News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1913-10-08

neck, making big pool on the oil.
cloth. You know the thing you make
with a stick and q scarf to twist up?
A tourniquet, yes. Well, 1t choked the
swine, so l quit. He whispered some
thing about my thumb hurting the
wound, so told him my fathers neck
hurt worse.
up to that I thought he was just
acting. playing pathetic to touch my
feelings. Once he muttered your
name, and then he was dead"
Brooke dead!"
Eyes, he'd been shooting Polly. too.
I traced her blood tracks all the way
to the front door. Hello, what's that?
I thought heard"
I listened and there was only the
sound of the rain.
81 suppose it's all right" said Billy,
"we'd better close that door, though"
But before he could reach the door,
Nurse Panton called him away to her
corner, where she spoke in q whisper
so that l should not hear, sending
him, perhaps, for her cloak. Mean
while came from behind the counter
to my former seat before the open
doorway, where / sat staring into the
darkness, unable to feel any more, but
Just benumbed. Across my WEAKNESS
fiickered the mournful soliloquy of a
poor barn-door fowl-"Y esterday an
What's the good Of anytin', why,
nothin'."
Then I, too. heard a sound in the
night, and because Billy and the nurse
were muttering, I stood up with the
candle-light behind me, trying to see
in the darkness. Billy said afterward
he had moved quickly, to shut the
door, but waved him back just as the
shot rang out.
The explosion blinded, deafened,
seemed even to scorch me, while the
mirror on the wall came crashing
down. Stunned, dazzled, Mortified, 1
felt a dull rage at this attempted
murder.
A second revolver-shot stirred my
hair, and I'm afraid then that I lost
my temper. I am not a fish-fag that
should stoop to fighting creature
such as Polly, but I would have died
rather than let her see one trace OF
fear.
Billy rushed past the firing to reach
the door and close it, but I ordered him
to desist, then grasped the candle and
held it out to show a better light.
Lower your lights!p l shouted into
dark, ''you fired too high"
A revolver crashed on the doorstep,
and low down within three feet of the
ground, l saw dreadful face convuls-
ed with rage, changing to fear. The
woman was sinking to her knees, she
buried her face in grimy, blood
smeared hands, and rocked to and fro |
in awful abandonment of grief.
The danger was over now, the men,
ace of evil in the night had vanished.
felt an immense relief, with hands
vet, mouth parched, knees shaking, |
and great need of tears. l knew the |
strain had been beyond endurance, but
now it was gone, although a velvet |
darkness closing round me, black night |
swinging round me, sickness-I must
not faint, when had to fight, to keep |
Command, to set an example worthy
of Jesse's wife, And there I was sit
ting in my chair, with drops of sweat
forming and pouring on my forehead.
Billy, cropping on the floor at my feet,
lad found and lighted the candle, and
was holding the fame in the palms Of
his hands till it steadied and blazed
up clear. Buck up, missus," he was
saying. "Cheer-oh. Don't let 'em know
and make it proud Of you. That's
right Laugh, mum! Laugh! Wish'd
I'd half yer grit"
II had come to myself and only Billy
knew, who was loyal. AS the candle
blazed up l saw the Chinaman glib
bering like some tooth!ess mask OF
yellow india-rubber, but that nurse
still kept up her silly screaming, I'M
til l ordered her to shut her mouth,
which she did in sheer surprise.
There lay Polly prone across the
doorway on her face, racked with con-
vulsive sobs, until feeling, l suppose,
the flashing rain ON her back, she rose |
On hands and knees like some forlorn
wild animal crawling to shelter, while
Behind her stretched trail of wet
and blood l stared until in shame she
sat up, still for all the world like
IN animal lost to human feeling and
10 woman's dignity, until as she looked
At me wan shamed smile seemed to
apologize. She sat back then against
the log wall, limp, relaxed with weak
ness
Nurse" I called, still with my gaze
IN Polly, "this woman is wounded.
You are a nurse. You claimed to be
3 nurse"
(To be Continued.)