The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-29

"We love each other," Ephraim snarled, "and ygs going away together. There is dead gold in the sands for but she is my living gold There is room in the world for you and me So told her that was going to kill you ard she smiled.S
 Then Cafeb opened s8
 "Beuah would not have smiled" he answered.
 The knife fell from Ephrains palsied hands Slowly his relaxed; he stood up, turning his ase face upon Caebs. He passed his hand his forehead dreamily He glanced round; he saw the sinking sum- ball of fire in the west longer boodeolored light the thickets and throw their shadows over the hor- rible land Far off he seemed hear the tinleug of cattle bells where the beasts roaed kneedeep in Caro- lima meadows Then something seemed to pass out of his brain He burst into loud sobs stumbled away
 Tn the northwest great clouds had banked temseves and out of the veiVety darkness flashes of lightning played
 "The rains will break,R said Caleb "Tomorrov, the / land will be soaked sponge and the river will roaring down in spate to hide the marks that we scratched in the bed. It is well that returning home"
 Home" said the woman, softly. Come let us drink to it."
 So they drank boistereusly pledging themselves but with their eyes averted from where the woman sat by them, filing the cups they drained.
 "No more," she whispered to Ephrairn, as his bro thers head loiled on his breast "sse. he is drunk Re member"
 "I dare not do it." he rauttered
 You must you fool Do you want him 10 Eiu youF He hates you; he covets your gold. Kill him I win come with then and divide the geld with you"
 "Yes, yes" he attered rising and staggering toward his wagon. When the moon rises I will kill hH1s He saw her smile at Caleb she piled him with brandy and with the last remnants of his fugitive conscusnes he drew his knife from his belt and placed 1t inside his shirt his heart Then he groped round until he found his sleeping place and lay down.
 When he aroused himself from his stupor the camp dre had gone out and all was silent He lying upon the ground soaked to the skin from the fast- falling rain and his teeth ehattered with cold He felt for his blankets, but they had gone; the place where he lay seemed unfamiliar; yet stretching ouf his hand he could feel the wheels at his head and the wooden body of the vehicle over him; he could hear, too, his brothers light breathing overhead As he lay there, gathering his wits fer the accomplishment of something terrible and yet forgotten, that lay like a leaden weight upon his brains he shaft of light pierce through the Slowly the shining sickle of the golden passed into the sky married by drift ing clouds
 Consciousness rushed back. Fool To He there drunken when there work to be done Three times his brother had escaped his vengeance Now he yvoud make But-what it he had said about Beu- lah? With the thought mad impetus for destruction rushed him, sweeping all other thoughts away Fearfully he placed his hand his heart thapie God There stirring softly the rhythm of its pusug was his little friend his knife. He drew it forth kissed t. and prcked his thumb with sharp edge of it. Then nervng himself to his deed he crept noseessy toward the wagon and pulled aside the canvas covering He waited fearfully hearing his brothers fight breathing. So calmly he lay, so gently he slept # might girl that respred evenly before him instead of Caleb He the dim outline the figure under the blankets. He yelled his face with his arm; he poised the knife; for short seeond he held it aloft weighing his doubts and scattering them The he had thrust the blade down furously; and then bereft of he stabbed and thrust again and again till his wearied and the inanrnate thing had long since ceased to writhe and gasp beneath him Then he flung the red reeking blade away and spranE to the ground.
 At that moment, moonbeam, Altering through the clouds. pointed straight as finger at the dead.
 It the womans face, framed in it's hideous gold longer beautiful, but like devils in its magng.
 Ephraim spnang back pulling at his throat Sud- denly he began to shriek.
 Caleb Caebi" he screamed
 He was as child awakened from some int5larn6la dream Out of the darkness he saw Caleb hsrtsuinr toward him. He threw himself at his feet
 "iIl me- for Beulah's sake and for yours" 6s tEssd "I tried to murder you while you slept and have killed her instead"
 But Caleb's arms were around him and ha SlasneE him to his breast and wept over him
 "She told stab you to the heart while you as sleeping that might divide your gold" said Epe ran. "I bewitehed by her But for Gofs rnspoT in msdirecting my drunken footsteps saoui6 fEE killed you"
 "she asked me to kill you" said Cale6 ''T6aE-was why watched you We were both mad, Bphrafna Ua you remember what you read to that day sbougaha devils of the strean7 Now I know what they wern She is one of them and she has lain iu the sands waiting for perhaps thousand years. She wan6ed sou1s'
 eff had killed each other shou1d have GoaR hell" said Ephram, shuddering. "It was the guld in this accursed land that cioEged our brains and hearts Let leave it and escape to freedon, Conc. yoke up the oxen
 By moonlight they brought back tdeir 6casEa and yoIed them. They piled the whip the wheels began t revove, the wagon to creak- Caleb stooped and win effort raised something shoulder high. l. waa the with CcTefs and dusf Tahr af~4