Year: 1865

a calm, scornful look; John Gordon, with


white face and pale, tight shut lips; and


old Brown wita complacent expression


of face, that would leave the impression


with all who did not know him, that he


had just performed one of the most be-


nevolent and praiseworthy of actions.


The next day the village was startled


from its sleep with the intelligence that


Philip Conger had carried away Lefty


Gordon, and they were believed to be in


London that Martha Field, at almost


the same moment that the runaway coup


le we're commencing their flight, had been
arrested on charge of stealing money at
various times from John Gordon and was
now in the county Jail entirely refusing
to confess that the stolen money had
been directly traced to her by plan Of
John Gordon and old Brown, the differs
ent coins having been marked to lead to
detection, and spent by Martha Field at
different places in the village and that
John Gordon, upon his return from the
suuire's where Martha was committed,
and finding that Lefty had fled started in
pursuit, and was brought in half an hour
afterwards with broken arm, having
been thrown from his cart. This was
news indeed for the gossips, and great
capital they made of it. The stories that
flew from mouth to mouth did not lose in
telling. Some had it that Martha had
robbed John Gordon of many hundreds of
pounds, in revenge for his refusal to be-
stow a marriage portion on herself and
David Bigelow others that Martha was
thrown into prison by the landlord in re-
venge for assisting Lefty in a marriage
that would surely throw him out cf the
tavern stand. These cried shame, and
asked each other if John Gordon was not
rich enough TO give Lefty her little prop
erty, and if he was not old enough to give
up to younger men. 1t was strange then
how many had seen and foretold all these
things to themselves long ago; how many
knew it would be so, and were not sur


prised in the least; and how many were
ready with the charitable hope that it
would be a lesson to John Gordon, and
lead him to see that there was an insta-
bility in wealth, and nothing in reality
true but their advice.


A week rolled by, and John Gordon
left his room, with bis broken limb in
splints hanging by sling. He had alter
ed, people said, in that week to be at
least ten years older. His face was drawn
and haggard, and the rosy, healthy hue
had gone out of his cheeks. His eyes
were dim, and there was no loud hearty
laugh ringing through the house as in the
old days. The loungers and gossips
watched the old man as he went vacante
ly about the place with something like
awe. They watched him as he was con-
fronted in bis own bar, that spot which
only one short week before was his strong
hold, by another as pale and baggard as
his own, who asked for justice on behalf
of Martha Field, and was refused. Then
this man was no other than David Bige.
low, stood up before the landlord and the
curious crowd, and told how Martha Field
was guiltless, and that John Gordon
knew it, when, in bis base anger and de-
sire to remove the means of communica-
ton between his daughter and Philip
Conger, he sent an innocent girl, who
should have been as dear to him as a
child, to criminal prison. John Cor
don trembled with the rage be was oblig.
ed to suppress, and David Bigelow went
on. Yes he knew that the money
which he had marked as trap was TAX
en- by his daughter Lefty, as she had a
perfect right to do; for was not the house
and all within it--ay, and all IFS profits,
even TO the last penny, even the lands
he had bought with those profts-hers ?
Yesl And he, John Gordon, knew this,
and more. He knew that Lefty Gordon
bad taken this money as she would take
any other thing that was her own, and
had given it to Martha Field to purchase
such articles as her father wrongfully
denied her-paper, pens, and ink, that
she might write to the man TO whom she
had betrothed herself, and such things as
were necessary 10 have when she fed
from the home where she was prisoner


This be said and no more. That Mar
tha Field had refused to say anything on
the night OF her arrest, knowing that !
Lefty would step forward for her protec- |
ton at the proper time that il was Let
tvs intention to have left her home with
Philip Conger within few days of the