White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-03-12
CHAPTER vi

Tofnette was alone when she awoke
from the Inconsistencies which had
come to ease the anguish Of her mind
and body. It seemed to her she was
coming out of sleep and that the walls
which dimly met her eyes were those
Of her bedroom in the manor. That a
truth whose evidence lay so horribly
about her could be reality and not
dream broke on her senses duly at
first and then with swift understand
ing. She sat up expecting to see
Jeems. But he was gone. She was
no longer where she had fallen at her
enemy's feet. But Jeems had made
resting place for her of empty bags
and must have carried her to 1t. She
shivered when she looked at the mus
ket and the stain Of blood on the floor.
She had tried to kill him. And he had
gone away, leaving her alive!
AS had happened to Jeems, some
thing was burned out Of her now. It
had gone in the sea of darkness which
had swept over her, and she rose with
an Unconditional calmness, as IL the
tower room with it's dust and cobwebs
and store of ripened grain had become
her cloister. Passion had worn itself
away. If thought could have slain,
she would still have wreaked her ven
geance on Jeems, but she would not
have touched the musket again that
lay on the floor.
She went to the head Of the stairs
and looked down. The son Of the Eng
lish woman had left no sign except
the drip Of blood that made trail
on the steps and out Of the door.
Exultation possessed her as she
thought how nearly she had brought to
the Bulains the same shadow of death
which they and their kind had brought
to her. The thrill was gone in a
moment. The red drops fascinated
her, painted brightly by the sun.
Jeems Bulain-out there with her
dead! The boy her mother had tried
to make her regard with bitterness
and dislike from childhood-a man
grown into an English monster! She
struggled to bring back her power to
hate and her desire to kill, but the
effort she made was futile. She fol-
lowed the crimson stains.
All about her was the haze of smoke,
soft and still in the air. In the dis
lance, obscured by the fog which ran
from the smoldering ruins, she saw a
form bent grotesquely under a bur.
den. 1t was a shapeless thing, dis
torted by the sun and the smoky
spindrifts dancing before her eyes, but
living because it was moving away
from her. Behind 1t was a smaller
object, and she knew the two were
Jeems and his dog.
She watched until they were blotted
from her vision, and minutes passed
before she followed where they had
gone.
Jeems must have seen her, for he re-
appeared with the dog like were
wolf at his heels. He had found a
coat somewhere and did not look so
savage, though his face was disfig-
ured and bleeding where she had
struck him with the barrel of the
musket. She tried to speak when he
stopped before her. Accusation and
bit of ferocity remained in her soul,
but they were impotent in the silence
between them. His eyes meeting hers
steadily from under the lurid brand
of her blow, seemed less like a MUIR
derer's and held more the gaze Of one
.x,ho rauo rdnd hnr with q coId opd +or
rible pity. He did not put out help
ing hand though she felt herself sway
ing. He was no longer youth. He
was not even Jeems Bulain.
But his voice was the same.
II am sorry, Toinette."
(To BE CONT1NUED.)
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