The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-22

or the night and the huddled sheep
had warned him of a nearing storm,
and in the fields the high ricks of
wheat and barley lay uncovered.
The moon vanished and the wind
subsidized; on far horizons baleful
fires fluttered The flashes grew
bright as he worked to protect the
grain. Then Bathsheba was with him
and their laboring forms were out
lined in black by the green snakes
Of fire that darted venomously earth.
ward. AS she trembled in fright, Ga
briel felt her arm tremble in his great,
sheltering hand. She was another
mans wife; she did not love him; but
there was solace in the strange ways
Of fate that had brought her nearer
to him than when her heart was free.
Tragedy came when Fanny Robin
crept back home to die. Her body,
with that of her child, was brought
back to the house where she had
worked. Standing by the coffin, Bath
sheba learned that Troy had never
loved her as he had this girl who
had borne death and shame for him.
He fled from Weatherbury and word
was brought to Bathsheba that he
had been swept out to sea and
drowned.
The seasons rolled on and sorrow
gave to Bathsheba's face serious
ness that added to her charm. Bold
wood dreamed again and he was made
happy by a promise. although six
years must pass before its fulfilment.
To celebrate his joy, he planned a
Christmas-eve party, more than year
after Troy had disappeared. And it
was on this night that Troy chose to
reappear, striding like spectre
among the merry-makers. AS he ad-
vanced upon her, Bathsheba stood
like a stricken thing, half-convinced
that delusion had enthralled her. But
there was nothing ghostly in the rough
command that he shouted at her, nor
in the brutal grip that he took upon
her arm. Then only did she STIR
but she could not speak. A strangled
scream was heard, then a deafening
roar. Some eyes were on Troy, pitch
ing forward never to rise again; 9th
ers upon Boldwood. standing with a
smoking gun in his hands
Not until next August, long after it
was known that Boldwood was to be
imprisoned for life, was Bathsheba
able to walk as far as the village
street. Fate had been hard to her. Of
three men who had loved her, one had
been killed by another who would
never see daylight again. And now
word had come to her that Gabriel
honest, sturdy Gabriel-whom she had
found the one man in the world who
Gid not fail her in her ned, was leav-
ing her. She sought him in his hum
BILE cottage and he confessed that he
was going because people were coup
ling his name with hers Such a
hot ic Oh JrI- to
think of by far" she cried. When he
agreed with her that it was too alb
surd," she insisted that she had not
said that, but ito soon" Even then
minutes clicked away before Gabriel
could realize that what he so long
sought was to be his.
Their lives in calm and storm, had
been so close that, after the wedding,
the wedding, the rustics marveled at
his easy way of speaking of my wife,"
They agreed that he did not say the
words as chillingly as might a man
who had been married twenty years,
but that Improvement would come la
ter. Gabriel laughed aloud at that,
and Bathsheba smiled, for Bathsheba
did not laugh so readily as had been
her wont when she first came among
the simple folk of changeless Weather
bury.
Copyright 1919. bu the Post Publish
right in the United Kingdom. the Do
minions its Colonies and dependencies,
under the copyrght act by the Post
L. S. A. All rights reserved.
published by special arrangement
with the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
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