Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1878-03-16 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

TWICE WED.  CHAPTER XV.—(Contimsed).  ERE thewords had passed Belly's lips she was rushing up the rocky causeway, moved by she knew talt what impulsee, what dread anticipations—she reached the summit of the flowery Chine, she paused and darted keen glance around. Before her were the black rocks, almost destitute of vegetation ; hurriedly she advanced, till, clone to the edge, where the cliff fell mid. denly off to the precipice, she espied is thick fern bush, whose hardy russet foliage grew far over the edge sod down the face of the rock. As she approlched, she new the scattered handful of blue flowers whi.:ll poor Ida, in her alarm, had let fall; and the thick tuft which sheltered luxuriaatly beneath the broad leaves of the fern, showed tine to be the one she had indicated. Belly shuddered as she saw the dangerous locality to which the child had ventured; but with a quick, firm step she approached and, stooping, removed the flower., and parted the overgrown and stubborn leaves of the mountain fern. With a cry of horror she started up; her hand had touched, her eyes had fallen upon, the object which had Manned the little girl. A skeleton hand! There i lay, the rigid, bony fingers clutched as in the death agony—there it had lain, who could say how beg ?—the winds and the rains, the tempest and the sunelane. had passed over that silent relic of humanity. beneath th,, covering ferns. But she recovered hereelf ; again that impulse urged her to seek further—was there no more? or wee this the terrible bade: to a tale yet untold? ' She stooped miain ; hurriedly she plucked away the fern leaves, scattering them around, peering below into the sunless depths of the dried up earth beneath. Suddenly a glitter ~5 of metal caught her eye, nod diving down, with hasty clutch, she grasped at the object, and, amidst a handful of dust and withered leaves, she brought it into daylight A ring She sprang to her feet, and, with dietended eyes. eased upon it. An exclamation of dismay broke from her lips. The next moment she had caught up the gannt skeleton hand and was pressing it to her hoax., as she sank to her knees, and maimed, in a broken voice, "My husband ! he was murdered—and, oh ! God, forgive me!—" She had no utterance for the dread truth which rushed upon her mind with a certainty that mocked at the possibility of doubt The ring was one that had been her mother's—a I massive, uncouth jewel, of ancient and most peculiar fashion and device. It had been handed down from the grandfather of her parent, who sled found it on the beach after a wreck of which this was the sole veetige that ever came on shore. At her mother's death she had left it in charge of her daughter; and at their betrothal Nally had given it to Aaron, whose finger it had never felt. Ay, she remembered now, how on that last sad night, as he dashed his hand upon the table, she had even theta marked the glitter ot the ring, and it had half recalled her to herself, iii the thought of the tender words with which she had put the treasure on his finger. And this was how, after sorrowful years, she found it! And these—these decaying, uneepulchered bones were his! This the brave, loyal hand which in life had been her stay and protection ! As by a sudden light, all seemed made clear to her. Vague suspicions, helf•utt red words and looks, unexplained 01l now—all were recalled, and swift as thought, summed up the terrible conviction. Her husband had been foully dealt by; but one may could have motive for the deed! That man now claimed her for his wife—she shared hie pillow, and she had been the another of his eon! Flight was all that remained. As she clasped once more her darling to her breast, she hurriedly hid away the ghastly treasure-trove. and strove to calm her beating heart and trembling lint" while she planned immediate flight