The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1915-07-22

Arthur countS ''Une!' when the now
fearful murderer essays to fire. But
the watchful Arthur is too quick for
him. His pistol speaks first and, in
stinctively Juggling the handkerchief
as lie fires, Arthur drags the bleeding
Blair into the grave, prone on his face.
Arthur leaps into the grave after his
fallen foe and tears open his shirt to
see If the heart still beats, and there,
on the breast of Blair Stanley, CLEANS
in the moon rays the evH glitter of the
diamond from the sky.
Arthur Stanley had known it's every
aspect, for the Stanley archives are
tured and described. $50 there it has
been, in the keeping Of my cousin!' he
mutters, and hardly realizing what he
does, except the baleful gem is his by
every right, he tears it from the neck
of the figure In the grave and Chambers
out and stumbles on his way.
Beside cross, white and majestic
in the moonlight, he haltS. The moon
shines on the diamond i'll his bloody
lies, as he believes, his sainted mother.
Then, feeling the brand OF Cain is on
his brow, Arthur Stanley I'd stumbles
on, still clutching the diamond from
the sky in his bloody hands.
IN the new dug grave Blair Stanley
moaned and stirred. The wound in
his forehead had been n glancing one,
only sufficient to stun him, and now
as he came to consciousness i'll the
clamny depths of the grave lis first
impulse was to clutch wildly ut his
blood stained and disheveled shirt
bosom.
The diamond from the sky was gone!
The death of the good old doctor had
been all in vain. And Blair Stanley
also fled beneath the moon, bootless
and in truth blood guilty
At Stanley hall Arthur gained access
to the library and shudde9ed again as
he saw the stains on his hands and on
the great jewel that seemed to CLEAN
all the brighter for them in the glare
of the library lamp.
1t was not to show the diamond
from the sky that all men yearned
IL,
even in secret that caused them to lie,
to sWiudie and even to grope through
blood for it.
Wei had the late Colonel Stanley
known the baieful history OF the dia-
Inond that had fallen to the feet of his
adventurer ancestor in a meteor. The
Stanley "charm against harm it was
called, and now look what harm it had
already done! Arraying brother against
bfother, father against son, in the past,
It had broken WOman's hearts the
while, and now :. false heir held it
against a breast that ached in anguish.
ARTHUR felt instinctively that the ola
nlond from the sky was responsible
for Biaii's impugning the good name
Of sweet Esther, good old Dr. Lees
fair ward, but Arthur did not know
that the good doctor lay cold in death
at the h:alHl, OF Bisiif Stanley
The Wild thought, tie wilder hope,
that he might go elsewhere and unler
new name; still holding to the dia-
mond from the sky, rehabiIitate him
self and then seek out Esther in Sc
cret and wed her now possessed Ar
thur.
A1neng Arthiir's many extravagances
which the. lax administration Of estates
i'll Virginia permitted q scapegrace
heir was the buying Of costly French
automobile It was a day when auto
mobiles were rarities and luxuries, and
the young spendthlift Of Stanley hall
had preened himself with the thought
that he would be the first to own an
automobile In all Fairfax county.
Arthur reasoned that Blair, who he
supposed was lying dead In the grave
that had been diggcd for another, would
not be found till perhaps noon. Even
then they might not connect his tragic
death with the broken guitar and the
other signs Of struggle In the doctors
garden.
Meanwhile the dawn had come and
Esther, who had been aroused ct the
pistol shots. was in great agitation and
alarm. Conforted and encouraged by
the first glimpse Of dawn, she had
descended to the lower hall of the
house. The door Of the doctors study
stood ajar and she glanced within.
There in the dim light of the morn
Ing sun fiitcring through the window
shades she saw the doctor in his
Dressing gown stretched! Imply across
table. She touched his check to
rouse him and found it cold. Those
pale lips, kindly even in death, could
never keep their promise to tell her
who and what she was "on the NOR
row. Here it was the morrow. and
the lips that could tell were cold in
death.