Papurau Newydd Cymru
Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru
7 erthygl ar y dudalen hon
Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau
7 erthygl ar y dudalen hon
THAT NIGHT AT BUKKAPORE.
Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu
THAT NIGHT AT BUKKAPORE. When Gwenay Travers's pliotographs came 6u(, to the station, everyone was in love With them at once, and when, a year after- ward, it was announced that Miss Gwenny really expected, and the colonel went to Bombay to meet her, there was great rejoicing at Pnkkapore. Every male thing, from the brigadier to young Du bos, rejoiced on his own account partly, and also on that of Mrs. levers, the colonel's wife, whose eldest daughter vrwenny was. Mrs. Travers was the mother and con- fidante of everybody; a year before she had been home on sick leave, and it was on her Kturn that the pliotographs made their ap- pearance and began to be one of the recog- nised interests of the station. "Have you Seen the coionei's girl's photos?" "Winch do you like best, the one in the riding-habit or the one with her hair down?" "Isn't that eailor-hat vignette awfully fetching?" People had hardly got over these comments and criticisms before it was announced that gwenny was really on her way out; and then, of course, out came the "photographs again with renewed importance, that one decide, now that she was so near, what Jiiiss Gwenny was actually like. When the date for her sailing was fixed, ^rs. Travers began to fuss about fixing up pkr room. "iSite must have the pink room, Charles; it will want a lot of doing up, but shall begin at once, and-" "Not the pink room, my dear," said the Lionel, from behind his paper; "the little Dile beyond ours is more suitable." indeed, no! That's much too small for ajty young lady, and I should like the dear cmld to have a pretty, nice, cool room, that can walk about in. Wliv, at school she a tiny little cubicle like a cabin, and a girl thinks so much of her own room. 1 £ ,an think why you ve a prejudice againsi 8 pink room — it will want an entire turnout, for the ser- vants have crammed it wioh things j .e a go-down, but you wait till Rosina and llave,g°t it into order, and you'll be quite agtonished how prettv it will be." "I'd rather she had the smaller one." per- S7"t&d the colonel, and, though he did not gixle any reason, his face wore a perturbed ^ook wnich w;:s out keeping with the trifling occasion of difference, but his wife lad rustled away to take counsel of Rosin; ti}e little Portuguese lady's maid, and the pInk room might be looked upon as a settled question. .By the time the colonel started for Bombay the room was ready, and very pretty it was"; the rather faded pink of the walls'had been Hewed; there was a brass bedstead and llits "spinalied xurn.ture, winte curtains, ni P'11^ sash ribbons to tie them up new atting, and a bookcase, and a shelf of photo- graphs running around like a dado. Mrs. ravers and Rosina even aspinaileri the huge ooden cupboard built into the wall, and ^aae a smart pattern of Christmas cards to 'me the panels: then all the ladies came anri e'r handiwork, and admire it, d talk about Gwenny's coming. 3.1) asn where Mrs. Trent said. tl|en stopped. Mrs. Bogle, the doctor's 'la<^ trodden on her gown. fU]] s'" Mrs. Travers hastened to explain, Uf*!ri0f her °Wn Prowess> is where we and to- ^eeP sorts °f stores and boxes for ti the room was much too srood th °n^ ^ie co'one* -i^ec^ it up with things year I was at home. I had such work to clear it. but Rosina and I have worked yers. don't you think?" fen u assured her that the effect was eating Mrs. Trent held her tongue and m-ned the curtains; and then thev all to tea. Tv^gu0, ^ays after Gwennv arrived, and a the -f. everyone was agreed that neither Wi »■'Dv> habit nor the sailor-hat portrait s ln. it" with the Miss Gwenny who sat ng in her mother's drawing-room, making that always pleasant place a, perfect- to the brigadier, who was a disconsolate Widower of eight months standing, and to young Dubbs. and to all the various grades, ranks, and varieties, civil and military, who ^1 the wide interval between that'zenith an'\ nadir of Pnkkapore male society. ,The beautv of Gwenny Travers was that f! e smiled on all alike, and that is a very cia^i^ a-n<^ uncommon point of beauty, espe- v. an Indian military station; the W'a5 WHS a p°mp«us old bore, Dubbs ,a timid young ass, MILS. Bogle was a a atured gossip, and Mrs. Trent a mal sa^>IO'30s tattler but one and all received the sin*8 P'"il,sailt treatment—friendly, modest, firsf81"6 from the colonel's daughter, and the Wt>» Wee^ her arrival sped merrily along Tve1 a C0I1tinuous round of merry-making to 'Welcome th4 Young lady who had galvanized natu i place into life. Then, as a pror, consequence, came a whole crop of from everybody, all di- Thee to the self-same lady. rose '^adier took to wearing prim- Reh0 Tes without graduating towards Hope tn0U)rn hy any of the legitimate stages of half Cas), ru.n^' and then as suddenly left for red ^lr' ^ttle Dubbs, after galloping his five ,i 'V' Auctions, over from cantonments the .8?rs a.^eek, on one excuse or other, to abont° °Ke's house, turned his steed's head °Ppos'fn^ ^vas 111 "*• gloomily cantering in the £ °ini? t 'ction when everyone else «as Wiy. 0 ^he tennis ground. It was the same ^tle and everybody felt a aPt)li and reacti<>nary in consequence, and that tK ^ave almost in a body. After fjVven ere was a general settling down, rid taste tf ravers and her mother began to ship. of home life and compani.m- her f'ia elder lady grew young again in and „'er's society, and ootu the colonel the st years that were pa<t, GiarpjejUf-^es and anxiet'es of their earlier "j>iri i ,ife> were as nothing now that the It ■» co.me home. !hanH Danvers, the colonel's Hght- ^t lrni911' i St ^iscovere-d that Gwennv was *erv ?elf at all-in fact, had altered h:TTeral,!y the couple of nonths father en in India, a fact which ler r,ain.fi mother, in their increased h.ippi- the 'm 'i1*. llever observed. At fi rst he ice (it closely' himself, and watched the girl h&d Y, ""olldermg if any love affairs wliich h^d Tv, If CO!Tlmon property on the station of certa.>' affected "her, and sighed to think Wliipij 'j'n h>ng-deferred expectations at home, ■^rest-n+i6^ h™ a poor man ami a bachelor. TVaver, ma<^e so bold as to ask Mrs. Miss pS "^e heat '.vere not very trying to quiet Wenny; she had grown so pale and so arrivain°w that the first excitement of her ssveet over, and, though she a-as as fionietta Peasant to everyone, there seemed enj0 'ln§ lacking in the spontaneity of l'tr r°oiri f11^' and Gwenny, coming into the Mother Illoment- the suddenly-awakened of eiw" at her with a hundre'd -juestioris as;,]e s r anxiety. Gwenny put tnem all fc'e!jn'.r Major Danvers got up to go, Ta-iserf. ]?rr'hly guilty at the storm he had too a« {'nere was a look in the girl's eyes, him w him go"d-bye which hiamted thino- f,-af she appealinir to him? Had ai.v- lUartf tened her ? He strode off to his ^th i1-8' eeling sorely puzzled and vexed •his a f'°o1 he had been to put the ^er ,nto a ladies' pie, and what a goose ftiorp ° T1e! s ""ife was not to take tilings her s«nsu'ly! He had only meant to 1,'ive fe\-e ttie hint, and she had flown into a ari(^ made him look like a fool lie'ore yet—yet—what on earth was '"Th M Gwenny ? ^anvZ.re,'? where I find fault with Roger jumbled Mrs. Travers to her hus- a capital soldier and a gccd man, I know, but he's dreadfully gvachi. Isow, poor aear Charley IvecLenng would never have saiu such a thing—as if a mother hadn't the sharpest eyes of anybody in the world for her own daughter Did you ever Hllh, coionei, wna* a couple Gwenny and poor Charley would have made if he had lived? He used to ca.11 her his liitle wife years ago, before she went Home to school. All, dear, dear, India takes the best of us f The colonel's wife was a very charming woman, but sue was not keemy observaant, and it had never struck her that allusions to poor uiuuley Kettering, who iiau died during tile year she was at home, and whom the coionei had nursed in his last illness, were specially distasteful to her husband. The next time Gwenny met Roger Danvers at the tennis ground, and could speak to him for a moment unobserved, she said: "Don't put ideas into mamma's head, Major Danvers. inueed, I'm all light, only a little tired some- times." "I'm so sorry, Miss Gwenny, for the oommo- tion I have raised. I could have shot myself afterwards when I saw that JL .u, trightened your mother and annoyed you but, forgive me for repeating it, you are looking very different —are you sure there is nothing the matter?" "No-o, nothing; that is Oh, if you've noticed, it must be noticeable"—and Gwenny's face grew suddenly pink and her eyes iilied with tears. "It's the nights here, Major Dan- vers. I don't know what it is, but they are terribie, always the same kind of terror, and the same figure"- She -stopper in confusion. Thev had walked to the end of the tennis ground, and were practically alone even Mrs. Trent would not have been so tactless as to disturb them, and as they ieaned against the railings Danvers could feel the shudder that shook the girl's slight frame. "Do you mean that you dream, and dream always of the same figure?" lie asked in a low voice. "l don't know if it is a dream, or if I am awake when the thought comes to me, but it is something horrible in my room," Gwenny said, in shaken, jerky tones. "I think I go to sleep ah right, and it is later that it oome.s on. Oh, I can't tell anybody, us go back to the others," and she turned to walk back, but Danvers saw that her face was ashy white now, and her eyes distended with real fear. "une moment," lie said, detaining her. "Can't you tell your mother?" "I want to, but she took such pleasure in making that pretty room for me, and now I can never enter it without the dreadful feeling coming over me, and it seems—on, it seems as if I were going mad "Nonsense, Miss Gwenny! xou mustn't sa" such *~aigs, even in jest. Your must tell your fatiier, then." Lie girl looked full at him as the tone of command struck her. She wa.s a soldier's daughter, and answered to it at once. "Papa? Do you think I could? is always so busy, and I never thought of daring to trouble him, but I could more ea,sily explain it to him than to mamma, I think." anen do it at once, promise me, Gwenny; to-night, without fail." the young man said, almost fiercely, for they were nearing the others now. and Mrs. Bogle's pince-nez was fixed like a burning glass upon then, "Pro- mise !"—and Gwenny promised in a quick whisper, for there is one thing a girl cannot re- sist in a man, and that is a sudden exhibition of masterfulness. Like other powerful animals it is perhaps a good tiling they do not know wherein their power lies A,,out ten o'clock that night as Danvers was smoKing and fancying lie was reading in his quarters, Colonel Tra-vers came in the young man guessed in a moment something of what had brought him, and jumped up nervously with the expectancy of an explanation on his face. "I want you to come up to the bunga- low Wiwi me, Danvers, I can tell you. what about as we go on, only look sharp," and a moment later the two men were striding quick.y over the white moonlit road. Aty girl spoke to you this afternoon about sometiung—something that troubled and dis- turbed her, and you told her to come to me. No, roil u.tl quite ri-ghtly"-as the major would have explained his seeming interferenoe-quite rightly; it is myself I blame for my blindness till now. She came and told me this evening aiB about it, and now I want your help to see me through something that requires more than one man's nerve and evidence. That poor child tells me that every iii,ht since she has been here—since she has slept in the pink room she has dreamt—she supposes it to be a dream—of a figure which stands beside her bed and urges her to come, away, to follow it; in short"- "A ghost?" Danvers asked. He was sorrv for THior little Gwenny in this, to him, self- inflicted torture, but he did not believe in I ghosts. "As the figure turns away from her bedside she invariably sees its face—and it is the face of a hanged man. Danvers." "Whew Someone lias told her the story." "I think not. even her mother doesn't know it. It happened, a,s you know, when my wife was in England, and I've taken the utmost care that the particulars of poor Jvettericg's ueath should never come to her ears—Rosina, the maid, is new the old story of Kettering being seen has quite died away. I was averse, it is true, to Gwenny having that room, but my wife had set her heart on it, and I thought it would make more stir to explain than to let it pa-ss. And all these weeks that child has been suffering in silence She says that after it ha.s shewn her its face it melts away, as it were, into the big corner cupboard. What do you Say to that?" The cupboard where he hanged himself, sir?" "The same." What do you mean to do. Colonel?" "My wife has irone to bed with a headache. I told them to make me up the dressing-room bed, and I would sleep there, as I had some accounts to go through and might be very late. I harr just sent Gwenny to bed with a dose of bronuue that will keep her fast and sound for the next nine hours. Sh-e was very good an brave about sleeping alone in the room that Siie so fears and dislikes; but I promised her that this should be the last night in it, and that I would watch her and keep her safe. Here we are"—softly tip-toeing across the veranda and letting himself in at one of the d"awinc-room windows— .1. am going to open Gwenny's door there across the passage and shall sit and wa.t.ch.and you can remain here. iust within cMl smoke if you like, but don't drop off to sleep, if you can help it, and if I see anything I will call and you must come and bear witness." Danvers hardly knew whether to laugh or not at the colonel's simple ghost-trapping preparations, hut. after all, they were sensible, matter-of-fact measures, which would re-assure Gwennv to-morrow morning when she woke after a' lonf refreshing sleep, and learned that the spell wars broken and nothing supernatural p e. 1, w a, had been seen. About two hours later "Danvers come «ounded in a hoarse whisper across the passage. Ro, er was at the colonel's side in a second. What was that In the f"int light of tlie bedroom, where a niffht-light burnt, aided by the rays of the passage lamp outside, the two watchers in the doorway could see a slight, shadowy figure on the further side of Gwenny s bed—a "figure that was strangely familirr to them both, for while but its side and shoulder were to them t] ev recognised the shape and bearing of Charlie Kettering, the smartest young fellow the regiment had ever known. The thing stooped over Gwenny s pillow and held out its arms, but the girl lay perfectly still, her face hidden from them, and after w*hat seemed an hour of horror it lifted itself up and turned away. Then at the uottom of the bed it halted for a moment and slowlv cast a lingering g-lanee around the room, moving its head deliberately till it looked full in the faces of the two men—not twenty feet away- it was tiie face of Charlie Kettering as the colonel and the major had last seen it eighteen mouths oefore, living and terrible irom liia own suicidal act. "Hold back—hold bach.: Don't wake Gwenny it llJight kill her," the colonel en- treata, as Roger struggled hard to dash into tiie room. The figure was gone—gone even as they looked, melting away in the direction of the great corner eupboaxd which Mrs. Travers had decorated for her dauplter. "Here, help me with this," and stepping across to Gwenny's bed, lie lifted one end of the little mattress on which the girl lay, and signed to Danvers to take the other. "Weil have her out of this," and without another word they carried her across the pas- sage to the colonel's dressing-room, and laid her !j!s. as she was, on the colonel's bed. Her iatherlooked at her anxiously. "No, I believe res ad right. The bromide hasn't failed me; whatever that devilish thing was to-night slie has not Seen it. And to think that we have let her suffer this without finding out! Gad, man, why don't you speak? What do you think it was 7" "I don't think, colonel. I know it was Charlie Ketteiing." Xext morning Gweimy woke up very late for breakfast and told her father that she had had a splendid night—not a dream or a sound had disturbed her, as lie might see for himself if it was lie who had oarried her bodilv into the dressing-room. How in the world did he manage to lift her ard lwz, mattress like that all aione? jjut the colonel kept his own counsel, and sent Rosina to bring her her toilet necessa- ries, for he could not even bear that she should enter the pink room again. And in the course of tit" da.y, such was the colonel's talent for organisation, Mrs. and Miss Travers found themselves packed off on a visit, whici. had long been impending, but which was now de- cided on all in a hurry, as the drains of the bungalow were found to require immediate attention. And when some weeks later they re- turned to Pnkkapore, it was to find tV coionei established in brand-new quarters, for the engi- neer had given his verdict that the old hn- a- low was quite too hopeless a job to spend money over. The two ladies are immensely pleased with the chancre—Mrs. Travers because she likes her drawing-room Gwenny because she likes her bedroom better. The girl has. recovered her roses and her spirits, and has forgotten, or pretends she has forsrotten, that afternoon's confidence to RnV0" Danrers on the tennis ground—perhaps this ;s only because the major is "Sir Roger" now—the old uncle in London naving considerately "died by last mail"—and seems a little strange at first. But Danvers i i* iire his time—the colonel knows }is secret —and the colonel's lady looks more favoursblv on the baronet than she did on the maior. and has been hefi.rd to compa.re him unfavour- ablv with poor Charlie Kettering tor a Ion? time. Whether Charlie Keltmnsr lies quietly in his grave or still haunts the dismantled bim- ealow neither Danvers nor the colonel ra.-re, to inquire. Luckilv Pnkkapore is a stirrin.2 little station, where the recollection of r>oor Charlie's sad end during the fever which surelv rendered him temporarily irresponsible, has been wiped out by many happier events.
A MAN OF PREY.
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Dyfynnu
Rhannu
A MAN OF PREY. Toward Singapore, out of the sunset glare, a long, slashing schooner came spanking in before the soutit-w est monsoon at a pace which procured for her from prahu, lorcha and sam- pang an uncommonly wide berth. Off Pulo Panjan, however, the stranger put his helm down, got in his square canvas and went away, close hauled, west by north along the coast. "See that, Sam," and Proddy. of Proddy and JSewinan, let his cheroot go out lie gaped au<8r the flying schooner. Pioddy ha i lLl oyer to Bintang, and Sam was skipper of his little steam yacht. "Aye, sir, I see that, and I see the reason of it. too," and Sam pointed to a streaming wisp of yellow at the top of a headless palm on Panjan Point. "Schooner nauled her wir-d the instant that Dit o' buiiiting went aloft." "Private signal, eh l And quarantine colours, too Devilish odd Don't concern ns, though and Proddy, the pot-bellied, lit another Manilla. Over the domestic establishment of Simon L i'odGy. Esq., presided a lady who rejoiced in a stearine complexion, a velvety eye and hair 0 for lengtd and blackness like unto a horse's tail. but who, despite French habilimnts and an English education, was a China woman pure and simple. "A wondrful w oman. sir!' would Proddy say. "Worth any half a dozen white women I ever knew! And the best of it is that her sisters and her cousins and her aunts are God knows where! Couldn't quite stand th«m, you know!' But, all unknown to Proddy, his brevet wife possessed a father—a sophisticated old sinner, who dabbled with dubious irons in mysterious fires and Carried about as much rascality to the square inch as any in Singapore. And little thought Proddy, when lie one dav cidered off his premises a doddering, old, spectacled Chow that into that astute brain of Mrs. Proddy's respected parent there had at that very moment been born a scheme, for the con- Vv.'i"" into a valuable security of his, Prod- s' l.stantial pe son. Well, up the old Singapore strait the myste- rious schooner had let go her anchor. In here, between the back of the islaiid and the main- land, the sou'-wester came out faintly, and tHe Raphael H. Semmes, under lee of Tanjong Belu, lay stirless and silent upon an ink mir- ror. Her forestay showed no "riding light,' nor through the tarpaulin blinded skylight could come any glimmer from below, where lounged a frock-coaled and pot-hated little man of slender build, and mild. reflective eye There wasn't much to indicate the most reckless LI perado the archipelago had ever seen—a de, serter from the famous Alabama during her visit to the strait in 1865. Crocky Dixon had sinse sailed slap through many a law of inary a nation, and. though report perhaps exagge- rated in asserting that he ought long ago to z, have adorned a ya-rdarm. it is certain that he haunt acquired his pleasing appellation for nothing But now the Crocodile, w ith a black tricalnopoly in its j aws and a bottle of madeira at its elbow, appeared "a gentle beast enough and of an excellent conscience," a fact which, to those who knew the reptile best, boded very ill for somebody. "At here, master, now come. Very great "-hing to want to settle at now quick." Away among the jungle, toward the back of the island, Proddy had a gambler plantation, the overseer thereof was Whang Lo, and Whang Lo's English as above presented. Proddy understood well em.ugh. But what lie didn't understand—as lie told lie lemon-tinted Mrs. Proady—was what the devil it could be that required his presence in such a hurry If it was another coolie nabbed by a tiger, he'd wake the authorities up to some purpose The bru.es were breeding on the island like rab- bits, and the reward wasn't quarter big enough. About an hour after Proddy, growling thus, had departed into the darkness, Mrs. Pioddy, idiv turning over Whang Lo's screed, dis- covered on the back thereof three tiny Chinese characters, of which—so far had English displaced her hereditary language—she under- stood but one. That one, however, was enough—it signified "danger"—and in thiee "minutes Mrs. Proddy was on her way to the nearest police tannah. "Do not come translated the old Javani ser<Tean|t—"Danger !—the crocodile The tl ue word, this, on back!" lie added promptly. en "Bad men make he write the other—this when nobody look, he put, so Missa Proddy no come!" And then, with Mrs. Proddy, the acute old man sent off a peon to the central office. Here she had a. short interview with the superintendent, who,in turn. had twenty minutes late- a short interview with the lieu- tenant commanding her Majesty's gunboat Tickler. "Uh, that ruffian, Dixon Lieutenant Daw- son saiu. "Why, we are getting steam up now to go around and see what he's about at the back of the island. What d'ye make of this [Proddy business?" "Case oi ransom I take it! This Dixon's brought off someuiing of tÜL kind before up Peifeuig way. They ve nabbed old Proddy at his plantation by this, time, I expect, and, il ey Ciin,i;ey'll run hun over to some lien on the Bornean coast and keep him till Government ment or the merchants come down with some- thing handsome. The so-called Mrs. Proddy's father is about the biggest scoundrel in Singa- pore, and I fancy he's in this job with Crocky. if so, the negotiations would be made through him—but, meantime, its your own part to burst up this pleasing little arrangement!" Ola Proddy—for all his stomach—defended himself like a paladin and had to be knocked on the head with a boat stretcher, so that lie knew no more until, peeping through a per. at break of day, he Saw a misty shore slide slowly past him, as before a gentle air the schooner stood eastward under every stitch she could spread. "That shore, Proddy, Esq., is Obi-n Islaud. from which little suckumstance you'll jedge that we're a-standin to the eastward out of this here heii trap of a strait oi yours. An, as to what we're a-takin you, Proddy, Esq.that you'll find out before you're a powerful deal ol :er "You'll have the T;ekler after you before you're much older 1" snorted the astounded Proddy. "xxaruly thet, Proddy, Esq. You see there won't be no muss made about you before this evenin', and, as we catch the monsoon itrong again in the offin your footy little smoke pot of a Tickler will jest hev the hull univarsal ocean to overhaul for us hv to-mor Great Jefferson and down went Crocky's jaw, as. glancing throvh the port, a slender trail of smoke led down his eye to a little white hull just rounding Franklin Point. In three seconds Crocky was on deck-rapid, resolute and cool. "Chased sooner than we ex- pected, lads No. get away now with Proddy Esq.—but without him, I guess we'll fix it. Get the dingy over the side—smart, now We'll send his friends on a little excursion to rescoo him from a wat-tery groove thin three minutes the dingy was adrift, with a bit of canvas set for'ard, and Proddv- lest he should dowse it—lashed to a ringbolt in the stern sheets. The resourceful Crocky, bringing the wind upon his port quarter, stood away dnie norrth between Obin and Tukang. Aboard the gunboat there was no he.- .Lation. Reluctantly a course was shaped for the little waif, scarce visible now against the sunrise, as faster and faster the freshening wind drove her out to sea, so that by the time the drenched and stiffened Proddy had been hoisted aboard the Tickler the namesake of the Alabama's catain was being warped int oa winding off- shoot of the .Tohore River, wherein, with top- masts housed, she lay snusr till dark. Then witii je ebb. she dropped down ¡:¡C"f) in to sea. and "iinrise found her well away into the Gulc of Siaoi. Mrs. Proddv had her reward in two instal- ments. The first when before hisrh heaven the grateful Proddy confirmed her wifely status; the second when, bv the orders of the secret society of hich her estimable parent was an, ornament, her cook. a membsr also of the mixed something with her mornins coffee that speedily made of P"oddy the in- consolable wi 'ower he is to this day.
TORTURED BY A BURGLAR.
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Dyfynnu
Rhannu
TORTURED BY A BURGLAR. A burglar entered the sleeping-room of John Harrington, a tobacconist, who slept over his shop in New York, about there o'clock the other morning. He gained an entrance by a ladder through an open window. The burglar struck Mr. Harrington a. powerful blow between the eyes, and, rolling him over on his stomach, tied his hands behind his back and demanded his money. Harrington said all the money he had was in his trousers pocket hanging at the foot of the bed. With terrible oaths, and threatening to kill him, the burglar told Har- rington he lied, and asked where the safe was. Harrington told him he had no safe, and that all his money was deposited in a bank a few weeks ago when he was taken sick and went to the hospital. While the conversation was going on the burglar tied Harrington's feet to- gether. Three times he demanded that Har- rington reveal where his money was hidden. Receiving the same answer, the brute lighted a dozen matches, which he laid against Hairing- ton's left foot, burning the flesh to a blister. Harrington was lying with his face down and could not see his tormentor, The villain then left the building1, as Harring- ton supposed, and the latter, with an effort, suceeeded in loosening his hands aud crawled to a window. where he twiCR- shouted ''Murder!" The burglar, who wa.s still in the house, quickly sprang upon Harrington and pounded him upon the face and 'u^itc.' ciiti. the blood flowed and struck him over the fore- head with a dull instrument, inflicting a gash that required several Rtitches to cios-1 ;t up. A handkerchief was tightly tied about his neck until he could hardly breathe. and he was gasrered with a \v'hite shirt. His limbs were again tied, and Harrington "auk into a pool of blood. He lay stunned for fonie time. Later he succeeded an looseninar tb. errds, and crawl in a" to the front of the lW;1(li1JQ' again shouted "Murder!" This time his cries were hienrd by a neighbour, who called her husband to get his revolver. Thev Raw the burglar coming from the rear of the house, but, liearino- thip neifhljour mention the revol- ver, he shouted. "Don't shoot: I've been robbed." He was allowed to deoart. An invest?aratioa showed that the burtrlar stole :1 nopket-hooJ, containing- P,7 in cash and :1: chi°oue for £ 500. Harrington at not time saw the fa/>e of his assailant. A vonng man named OTReHIv. has been arrested on sus picion of beiiil, the burcrlar.
MORE PIG POISONING.
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MORE PIG POISONING. Mr. Richard Kmbling, grocer, &c., living on Gibraltar, Blakenev, has had a big sow in farrow poisoned, and the loss is rather considerable. The animal failed suddenly, and was soon dead, and when it was opened the appearances were exactly the same as in the case of the pigs of Mr. David Lowe, which the county analyst re- ported were poisoned with strychnine. The situation in the neighbourhood has become grave indeed, and much a lai-m is created and main- tained by the districting regularity with which these atrocities are perpetrated. Acts of this kind are most difficult to deal with. and the local police, strengthened as they are, and alert and anxious as they may be to run down the villians who a.re at work, can scarcely be ex- pected to deal with such deeds, especially having regard to the extreme difficulties of the situa- tion which the contiguity of the open Forest provokis. A meeting of the verderers of the Royal Forest with local justices, at which the chief-constable of the eounfty attended, was held at the Speech House on Fridav afternoon for the purpose of further considering the ques- tion of permanently enclosing a large portion of the Forest, especially the part where so many evil deeds lately been enacted, and, though s-.K-h a course would be keenly resented in some quarters, it will be sure to meet with soaie local support.
.-UNIONISM IN IRELAND.
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UNIONISM IN IRELAND. A correspondent, who has just returned from a visit to Achill Island, on the extreme West Coast of Ireknd. writes to the "Timer':—To this wild part of Ireland the Balfour extension of the Midland Railway now takes you comfortably, It was opened- on May 13. My friend and myself drove all over the island of Achill and talked to the people on the flat and on the mountain. It may be pleasing to Mr. Balfour to know that they have a very lively feeling of gratitude for all lie has done for them. When we told them that he was not likely to return to Ireland as Oldef Secretary, they expressed regret and their hopes that he would obtain a high post wherever he went, as he had done so much for the poor people. With regard to Mr. Morley, on the other hand, though we designedly showed that our sympathies were with him, fherc was no response further than the remark, "that he had done nothing for them; they wanted » man who would help them like Balfour."
OLD MAiVS biOlil.
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OLD MAiVS biOlil. I don't know how I came to ask the question. v\ natever prompted it, I fouuu imm equate cause regret tne inquiry in the pas^-ug shadow tiiat mtteo over tnose features, at once nmu and venerable, wiiick for a moment had been lit up with a genial smile. "lou wish to kuu\v why 1 never married?" he said, after a brief pause. "i pray you pardon a piece of thoughtless impertinence, I niaue haste to answer. "1 cannot permit you," he re.plied-the old smiie returning with a visible tinge of melan- choly—"to characterise as impertinent a ques- tion fully justdied by the length and closeness oi our friendship." ".At least turret It," I returned, "for I per. ceive it gives you pain." '1 am not sure," he said, "out tie pain woind be lessened by giving rather than with- holding an answer to-night, for there are memories which at timeti are lightened by lJeitJg shared," For some moments we both continued silent. My companion appealed buried in thought, while I, alike unwilling to invite or decline his confidence, oouid but await his pleasure to speak lui'tner or hold his peace. "The story is not a long one," at length he began, "and if there be little in it to interest, it will, at -,ast, not weary you. ".Bertna Carleton was—well, I will leave you to judge for yourself what she wa.s," and draw- ing from his bosom a golden locket, he touched the spring, displaying a well-executed minia- ture of a face surpassingly lovely. "I need scarcely tell you, he resumed, "how pure and exalted was. the soul whose visible impress you may traoe even in this imperfect shadow. Suffice it to say. the gem was worth.y of the setting. "We had long loved each other—Bertha and I. That we should one day be married it had never entered our heads to doubt, from the days in which, as a stalwart knight on steed of wood. I was wont to rescue her from the hands of imaginary giants, and oo fierce battle with all sorts of mythical monsters in her defence. "Years passed. Our childhood's engagement was ratified alike by the judgment and deeper aifections of maturer years. At length the day for its fulfilment was fixed. The invitations to the guests weie prepared and about to be sent. I had started on a short journey to transact an affair of business I WitS desirous of having settled before embarking on our wedding tour On the way I was overtaken by my friend Geoffrey Calcraft. who delivered me a letter by which I was summoned to the bedside of my father, who was represented to be lying at the point of death in a distant city. "Penning a hasty note to Bertha, explana- torv of the ill newt, that had reached me and of the absence it necessitated, and requesting her to with-hold the invitations till my return, which would be at the earliest possible moment, I entrusted it to my friend for delivery, and at once set out in obedience to the call of duty. "Fatigued and travel-worn, for I had rested neither day nor niggiit, I readied my destina- tion, only to find that I had been made the vic- tim, as I then supposed, of a wretched practical joke, for little did I suspect that the trick played upon me had any deeper significance. My fat.ier was in his usual health, the story of his illness being a sheer fabrication. Chagrined and vexed at having been the dupe of an imposture so stupid—from all com- plicity in which I exonerated my friend, how- ever, in whose instrumentality the deception I felt sure was innocent—without a moment's delay for repose or refreshment, I hurried to retrace the weary distance—in my impatience it seemed almost immeasurable—that held me back. like some cruel hand, from all earth held in store for me of life and light and happiness. "The day originally fixed for the wedding had already passed, and I was still many miles from my journey's end, when I was met by Bertha's brother. "I was amazed to find my words of friendly greeting returned with a rude and biter speech, and to receive, instead of the explanation I demanded, a blow. "For such an insult- the usage of the tim? admited but one satisfaction—that 'commonly recognised among gentlemen,' it was styled. "Had I taken time for reflection, I am con- vinced deadly as the provocation was. I could not have raised my hand against her brother's life. Deference to a pernicions custom might have induced me to challenge him and then receive without returning the fire, but the thought of shedding blood of hers would have filled my soul with horror. "As it was we fought almost on the spot. My p ass ions, were roused, and they blinded me. We both fell—he mortally, I desperately wounded. "Through days and nights—I know not how many-of raging fever and delirium, I lay toss- ing on my restless couch, haunted by horrid visions that would not leave me. or if they did, it was only to give place to others still mol\ hideous. "A peaceful unconsciousness at length dis- pelled these phantoms. I awoke from it re- stored in mind, but to remorseful memories not less tormenting than the visions they had suc- ceeded. "The face at my bedside was not the one I expected to see there. It was not Geoffrey Calcraft's, out that of another friend my eyes encountered. 'Bertha—' It was all I had strength to utter. I had probably often repeated her name in my ravings, for my friend returned no answer. He seemed to think my mind still wandered. W 'Her brother—did he die?" I managed to ask, with great effort, at the same time endeavouring to speak in a manner to give as-urance of the restored condition of my facul- ties. "My friend's look answered me. My worst fears were realised. "'And Bertha—' Again my strength failed me. 'Ca'm yourself," my friend remonstrated, "you are too weak for conversation now, and your safety depends on absolute quiet.' "It wa,8 days before they ventured to tell me all. I then learned tliat the note I had written to Bertha never reached her: that. ignorant of my journey and its cause, she had dispatched the invitations to our marriage that on the weddine day, when the guests were assembled, and nothing but my presence was wanting for the ceremony to proceed, a letter was placed in her hands—in the writing and signature of which my own were perfectly simulated--coldly renouncing our engagement; that. stung by the insult offered to' his sister. Bertha's brother, guided by a clue obtained from Calcraft, my perfidious friend, who secretly loved my betrothed, and for purposes of his own had contrived the whole devilish plot, had sought me out and forced upon me tiie quarrel that cost him his life. And when they told me how Bertha's gentle, loving natura had drooped, and then gavie way beneath an a "cumulation of sorrows beyond its s. retii'th to bear how. in that troubled time, when my fevered fancy would crive me no rest, she had calmly a.nd peacefully died—died be- lieving me as guilty as I seemed, and yet for- giving and blessing me—I could but bow my hend and pray that the period of our separa- tion might not be prolonged beyond that neces- sary to fit me for her companionship in that blest abode where no evil thing can come to mar our union. The old man's story was finished. For some minutes neither of us spoke. Then he rose pressed my hand and bade me "Good-night."
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