Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1906-07-07 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

AIN, N.. y$ 4.,V:kr*A. t ' iarlin i' M'' 9' ' k -4 '-''.;`v444, f al'.4,i; ' -'sf •,,,-, -41,-,;.e.-- .• ,'• - , ~,, ...IL-, t ',...,1 ,T. ', P • 0;,',,.:?:::5.e` , :4 ,i,,,t 'z. ' ' "1,, ,; *." ''''' ' - !%.,"=7.;.7..., 75t,,,A,t• ..41:4,', ,4„ ~... • 4,,,-,,,,„„_, ...,... . -I._ ,r,v, '':• a ?ere ,'... - _ - _ BY N. ...-_.-- ~...:.„. .........„  at least, by the length of her arm, but she soon saw she could not get within some yards of him.. She 'jumped to her feet, and thought a moment wbether she could possibly get down the face of the cliff in any way, when suddenly, not fax from her, she , saw what looked like some old boarding or: rafter, likely washed ashore from some wreckage. It was just the thing she wanted, and she soon had it in her hand, endeavouring with its aid, to extricate the body from its jammed posi. lion. Owing to the heat of the day a heavy mist was rising. ,It now swept up over the girl's face, and to her excited imagination it felt as if David's hands were on her face—David's touch, cold, wet, and clammy in death, She shuddered and nearly dropped the board to leave Win again to nis fate, but she knew that unless she could save him somehow she would never again know an hour's peace. If David died now she would be laic less than a murderess. With a shudder and renewed vigour she worked away at her gruesome taEk. What a horrible transformation in the scene, which, bot so lately, she had been revelling in. Then all was peace and loveliness,; now the pink, soft light had failed, and, the landscape was wrapped in a cold grey pall, whilst down there, at her feet, lay that terrible body. It was not stationary now, however, but was moving up and down by the incoming tide. Rennie worked away until she was almost despairing, when suddenly the body became unwedged. It rose to the top of the water, and then turned over. Round about it the watef was stained with red, which was oozing from the mouth and nostrils, and as Rennie gazed in foseinated horror, David's pale face and glassy eyes, from which all life was gone, met her's. What was it she saw in the face that turned her heart to stone? Was it death alone that gripped the girl's heart with terror, or did she read in those horrible glassy eyes something of that which awaited her? And what were those words he had said? "Dead or living I'll come between you." And now he was dead; there could be no doubt of that, and Rennie now stood more in fear of him than she had done in life.. As her eyes fell on the deathly countenance, she gave a wild cry, and dropping the board she turned and fled lika some mad thing. Away she springing from rock to rock, her feet barely tcuching the ground in her terror, nor did she stop until at last, panting and breathless, she stcod at her father's door, and then she halted and looked back, back over the shadowy grey shore from whence she had come, but all that was to be seen was a wall of white, ghost-like mist creeping stealthily up towards her. On, on it came, sweepmg landwards, and the wind bore it up to the place where she stood, and then it passed on, but in passing cold hands had brushed her face. Death's kiss had laid its icy touch on lips and hair; David's hands—David's loathsome kiss. David wai in the mist. Death was in the mist, and pursuing her. Up it crept, ever thicker, ever colder, moved the white, shadowy cloud, and away' in the eistarice borne up with the rising tide came David's voice, "Aye, even if dead my spirit will come between you." Rennie shuddered, and hastily lifting the latch entered her father's house. She would shut out the night, the mist and death. But alas! They would not be shut out. They had come to live with her always, to live in heart and brain; to rob her youth of all joy, and to change her from a fearless child into a nervous, shrinking woman, and after that night Rennie was never seen out after dark, nor would she dare abroad when the mist was about, and deep, deep down in her heart VMS hid an ugly secret.