The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-04-09


Sunshine! A stream of it, dazzling
them almost to blindness and sending
them, one and all, pellmell back upon
each other! However dismal the ap-
proach, here all was in brilliant light
with every evidence before them Of
busy life.
The room was not only filled, but
crammed, with furniture. This was
the first thing they noticed; then, as
their blinking eyes became aCcus-
toned to the glare and to the unex-
pected confusion of tables and chairs
and screens and standing receptacles
for books and pamphlets and boxes
labeled and padlocked, they beheld
something else.
The judge was there, but in what a
condition.
From the end of the forty-foot room
his seated figure confronted them, 81
lent, staring and unmOVing. With
clenched fingers gripping the arms of
his great chair and head held forward,
he looked like one frozen at the mo-
ment Of doom, such the expression Of
features usually SO noble, and now
almost unrecogniZable were it not for
the snow white Of his locks and his
unmistakable brow.
Frozen! Not an eyelash Quivered,
nor was there any perceptible move
ment in his sturdy chest. His eyes
were on their eyes, but he saw no one;
and down upon his head and over his
whole form the sunshine poured from
a large window let into the ceiling d.
rectly above him, lighting up the
strained and unnatural aspect of his
remarkable countenance and bringing
into sharp prominence the common
place objects cluttering the table at
his elbow.
Inarticulate murmurs swelled and
ebbed, now louder, now more family
as the crowd surged forward or drew
back, appalled, by that moveless,
breathless, awe-compelling figure.
A breathless moment; then the hor,
rified murmur rose here, there and
everywhere: He's dead! He's dead!"
when quietly and convincingly bluff
masculine voice spoke from the door
way behind them:
You needn't be frightened. In an
hour or q half-hour he will be the
same as ever. My aunt has such at
tacks. They call 1t catalspsy."
Imperceptibly the crowd dwindled;
the most discreet among them quite
content to leave the house; o few, and
these the most thoughtful, devoted all
their energies to a serious quest for
the woman and child whom they con.
tinued to believe to be in hiding some
where inside the walls she had so au.
daciously entered.
The small party decided to start
their search by hasty inspection Of
the front hall, when shout and
scramble in the passages beyond cut
short their intent and held them pant
ing and eager, each to his place.
Frightened, they drew their gaze
from the rigid figure In the chair, and,
with bated breaths and rapidly paling
cheeks, listened to the distant muir,
muir on the far-off road.
What was 1t? They could not guess,
and 1t was with unbounded relief they
pressed forward to greet the shadowy
form Of young girl hurrying toward
them from the rear. with news In her
face. She spoke quickly.
1.-THE woman is gone. Harry Doane
saw her sliding out behind us just
after we came in. She was hiding In
some of the corners here and slipped
out by the kitchen way when we were
not looking. He has gone to see"
Breathlessly Miss Weeks cut the
girls story short; breathlessly she
rushed to the nearest window, and,
helped by willing hands, succeeded in
forcing 1t up and tearing hole In the
vines, through which they one and
all looked out in eager excitement
A motley thrcng Of people were
crowding in through the double gate.
way. Some one was In their grasp.
1t was Bella! Bela, the giant! Bella,
the terror of the town, no longer
terror but struggling, half-fainting
figure, fighting to free himself and get
in advance, despite some awful hurt
which blanched his coal-black features
and made his great limbs falter, while
still keeping his own and making his
way, by sheer force of will, up the
path and the two steps of entrance
his body alternately sinking back or
plunging forward as those in the rear
or those in front got the upper hand
(To BE CoNTINUEDJ
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