Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-08-05
CHAPTER Xxx.

II think I know how" he said.
CHAPTER Xxx.
THE STONE STAIRCASE.
Battista's prisoner stood at Tie bar
red window high up the steep side OF
the castle and stared out wistfully at
the receding infinity of blueness-his
meadow. In the three months since his
lstter had gone to France, he had
grown old. The juices of his youth
seemed dried up; his eyes were blood
shot. his skin yellow; there was no
desh on him.. The waiting and hoping
had worn on him more than the dead
level of the hopeless years before.
There was a new tenseness in the
lightly built figure, even in the long.
delicate, strong fingers. The prisoner
mad caught a whiff of the air Of home
and was choking for a full breath.
It had not been So before. The
brightness OF his temperament had
done him good service at first. Eager,
vehement. energetic. he had the heart
OF q contented little child, Inc it had
led him to play and be happy in his
prison. as a buoyant child will make
Q O of the chair in which he is set
Tor 4 punishment and sail away into
adventures. This man. developing out
Of the boy thrown into prison i've q
ago. might well prove to have limita-
lions. Full of force and fire and
~Gentleness. he had the virtues Of his
qualities. but he had their defects, too
Il might yet well be that he would fall
short In sober Judgment; it might be
that he would not be found fitted for
any complication Of responsibility. Yet
there was in him something of the
Vision of the mystic. something of that
power-called what it may be-which
In all ages worked miracles and
moved mountains. Out Of his com
panions. sea n sky and distance
out of great spaces outside and great
silence inside his prison he had drawn
power. and risen step by step in the
years. On the foundation Of the
Catholicism in which he had been
brought up he had built a religion
whose breadth reached right and left
beyond the old measure and covered
living things with the charity which,
suffers n and is kind; whose height
Things unseen All Of this had comfort
Cd him and kept the glow Of his soul
undulled.
But since Battista's son. the little
6ettiSta-who had been a fisherman
q not much known about the castle
since he had gone to France with
tnose two letters Of Francois sewed in
- VGAt 6ACGVOe ICStl08Hn0SA
al but uncomfortable had seized the
prisoner. He knew as well as his jailer
cA1ee OF men thrown into dungeons
Com1ng out many years after old and
men never coming out at
~. No crueler tyrants than the
Auotrians ever ruled, and no more
1ltiless. And now that his letters had
actually gone. now hat they might
actually be in the hands Of the people
ne loved and who loved him, unrest
tortured him. He counted the days Of
NE Journey h chances Of delay. he
Tide allowances. and at last he be-
ncved. with q thrill Of joy and Of pain
q each thought OF 1t. that little Bat
sl.te nus nave arrived at vicques, that
~ mOtner and Alike must have his let
Ss.es. With that. unrest grew eercer.
Iney could not help him. what could
S1ey 40! How could they do anything
ss1lnst q iron wall Of Austrian
70 said such things over to. him
19l5 even aloud. to keep down q hone
Snlcn ne could not bear to let grow
18th. But the hope ana ~
! it, growth. He could NOT
1esp hoping. believing that the ren-
u that PietrO. that Alike. with 4
Sesce q energy and inventtve-
1880 would vet save him. And.
- ana the fear rackod him and
away and burned g with
xQY are not well. my friend.. s.id
- eSvernor. The doctor must ses
mt Francois refused lightly ~
e1le4ed and fell 70 singing q old peas-
ones ~ ~ sEtanceS which he had re.
SsSse md dronsd i q ~ sn o ~ the ns
2HGle1Whlch Ne nrotandaA q r1~s,s w