The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1915-07-22


who comes in answer to his serenade
aud to receive his contrite pleadings
for forgiveness. He reaches out TO en-.
brace the gentle girl, only 20 find he
has clasped the stalwart. struggling
frame of man. The moon breaks
through cloud as his prisoner strug.
giles. and its rays illuminate the face
Of Blair Stanley.
what are you doing here, coming
out of DR.. Lees house at this hourT'
whispers Arthur, tensely.
Keep quiet, you fool"' Blair Stanley
Kisses, like snake. "a girls good
name is at stake"
AS Arthur staggers back in horror at
the shameful inference. Blair Stanley
with rapid movement draws his re.
volver and fires. He would do double
murder and win an earldom and the
diamond from the sky. if he can escape
without detection. But the quick arm
Of Arthur throws up the pistol and as
Blair fires he wrenches the weapon
from him. To avoid the shame and
scandal, even of the inference of the
base speaking Blair, the frenZied Ar
thur drags him down the pathway and
down the silent village street, as the
cocks are growing, presaglng the com
ing Of the dawn. Painting anu strug-
Cling, the cousins stumble off the vii
lage highway and into the little village
graveyard. Their feet sink into a
mound of soft earth by an open and
newly dug grave. Standing painting
| and facing each other with rage and
hate In their hearts and on their faces,
the young men pause n 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
handkerchief and stand across this
open grave. Hold the handkerchief in
/ your left hand, as hold this corner of
1t. Now take your pistol, and when
count to 'Threer raise and fire, and the
one of us left alive will pull the dead
man into the gravew
, Arthur counts "Onew 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 If 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 its every
aspect, for the Stanley archives are
full Of it, in print ana manuscript, pic.
tured and described. $50 there it has
been, in the keeping of my cousin!' he
mutters, and hardly realizing what he
does, except the balcful gem is his by
of the figure in the grave and chambers
out and stumbes on his way.
Beside n 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 % 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 IL
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 frs
impulse was to clutch wildly at his
blood stained and disheveled shir
bosom.
The diamond from the sky was gone
The death of the good old doctor haC
been all I'm vain. And Blair Stanle!
also fed beneath the moon, bottles
and In truth blood guilty.
At Stanley hall Arthur gained access
TO the library and shuddered again a
he saw the stains on his hands and oil
the great jewel that seemed to CLEAN
all the brighter for them In the glar
of the library lamp.
1t was not TO show the diamon
from the sky that all men yearne,
for; It was to have 1t, to possess II
even in secret, that caused them to lie
to swindle and even to grope throus
blood for 1t.
Well had the late Colonel Stanle
known the baleful history of the did
mond that had fallen to the feet of hi
adventurer ancestor in meteor Til
Stanley charm against harm" 1t wa
called, and now look what harm 1t ha
already done! Arraying brother agains
brother, father against son, in the pas
| It had broken women's hearts I'll
while, and now false heir held
against a breast that ached in anguish
Arthur felt lnstinctivey that the dii
mond from the sky was responsible
for Bair's impugning the good nam
Of sweet Esther, good old DR.. Lee
fair ward, but Arthur did not know