The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1915-07-23

WITHOUT uetcctlOn. but tue QUICK arm
of Arthur throws up the pistol and as
Blair fires he wrenches the weapon
from him. To avoid the shame ana
scandal, even of the inference OF the
base speaking Blair, the fren1ied Ar.
thur drags him down the pathway and
down the silent village street. us the
cocks are growing. presuging the com
Ing OF the dawn. Painting and struy-
Cling, the cousins stumble or the vii
lage highway and Into the little village
graveyard. Their feet sink into
mound Of soft earth by an open ana
newly dug grave. Standing pnnttnY
and facing each other with rage and
hate In their hearts and on their faces,
the young men pause moment in their
mad struggle. Then Arthur brings out
his own pistol and the long white silk
handkerchief that protrudes from his
breast pocket.
For what you have said about
Esther, either you or must die"
Arthur says Take one end OF this
open grave, Hold the handkerchief IN
your left hand, rs | hold this corner of
it. Now take your pistol. and when
count to 'Threet raise and fire, ana the
one of us left alive will pull the dead
man into the graye!'
Arthur counts "One!" 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 he 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 II the heart still beats, and there,
on the breast Of Blair Stanley, CLEANS
In the moon rays the eva glitter of the
diamond from the sky.
Arthur Stanley had known it's every
aspect, for the Stanley archives are
full OF It, In print and manuscript, pic
tured and described $50 there 1t 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 a cross, white and majestic
in the moonlight, he halts. The moon
shines on the diamond in his bloody
hands as he stands by the grave where
lies, as he believes, his sainted mother
Then, feeling the brand Of Cain is on
his brow, Arthur Stanley ID stumbles
On stil In, ~ tn,
the sky In his bloody hands.
In the new dug grave Blair Stanley
moaned and stirred. The wound In
his forehead had been a glancing one,
only sufficient to stun him, and now
as he came TO consciousness in the
clammy depths of the grave his first
impulse was TO clutch wildly Mt 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 shuddered 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
| for; it was to have it, TO possess it,
even in secret, that caused them to lie,
| to swindle and even to grope through
| blood for it.
| Well had the late Colonel Stanley
known the baleful history of the dia-
| mond that had fallen to the feet of his
adventurer ancestor In meteor. The
Stanley charm against harm" it was
called, and now look what harm it had
already done! Arraying brother against
| brother father against son. In the past
1t had broken women's hearts the
while, and now false heir held it
against breast that ached IN anguish
Arthur felt instinctively that the dia
mond from the sky was responsible
for Blair'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 hands of Blair Stanley.
The wild thought, the wilder hope,
that he might so elsewhere and under
new name, still holding to the dia-
mond from the sky. rehabilitate him
self and then seek out Esther in Sc.
cret and wed her now possessed Ar
thur
Among Arthurs many extravagances
which the lax administration Of estates
in Virginia permitted scapegrace
heir was the buying of a costly French
automobile. 1t was day when auto
mobiles were rarities and luxurles. and
| the young spendthrift 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 digged for another. would
not be found till perhaps noon. Even
then they might not connect his tragic
| daatb with tha br0kap p,1itor and tho