Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 30, 1894, Page 10

. be mado on you as long as it w ~ "1 MUST THE OMAHA DAILY LARENC By Bret Harte. Author of “The Luck of Roaring Camp, “Two Men of ¥andy Par," Ete. « 154, PART IL—CHAPTER Tn another instant bugles ringing through the camp, with the hurrying mass of mounted officers and the tramping forming men. The houso Itself was almost deserted. Although that single cannon shot had been created to prove that it no mere skirmishing of pickets. Brant still did not believe in any serious attack of the enemy. His position, in the previous engagement, had no strategic importance to them. They were, no doubt, only making a feint against his position to conceal some advance upon the center of the army a mile or two away. Satisfied that ho was In easy supporting distanca of the division com- mander, he extended his lines along the ridge, ready to fall back in that direction, while retarding the advance and masking the movements of his chief. Ho gave a few orders necessary to the probable abandon ment of the house and then returned to it. Shot and shell were already dropping In the fleld below. A thin ridge of blue haze sheared the line of skirmish fire. A s conical, white cloud like a bursting co pod reveoled an opencd battery in the low-fringed meadow. the pastora fulness of the house was unchanged. The afternoon sun lay softly on its deep ver andas; the pot pourrl incense of fallen rose leaves haunted it still. He entored his room through the French window in the veranda, when the door lead- ing from the passage was suddenly flung open and Miss Faulkner swipt quickly in- side, clozed the door behind her, and leaned back heavily against it—panting and breath- 1e right were as Jlarence was startled, and for a moment shamed. He suddenly realized that in the excitement he had entirely forgotten her and tho dangers to which she might be exposed. She hal probably heard the firing, her womanly fears had been awakened; she had como to him for protection. But as he turned toward her with a reassuring smile he was thocked to see that he agi! on_and pallor were far beyond any physical fear. She motionsd him desperately to shut the window by which he had entered, and said Wwith white lips: I must speak with you alone!" Sertainly. But there is no immediate danger to you even here, and I can soon put you beyond the reach of any possible harm. “Harm—to me! that!" He' stared at her uneasily. “Listen,” she said, gasping, “listen to me! Then hate, de:pise—kill me if you will. For you are betrayed and ruined—cut off and surrounded! It has been heiped on by m but I swear to you that the blow did not come from my hand! I would have saved you. God knows how it happened—Iit was fate!” In an instant Brant saw its truth instinct- tvely and clearly. But with the revelation came that wonderful calmness and perfect self-possession which had never yet failed him in any emergency. With the sound of the Increasing cannonade the shifting posi tlon made clearer to his cars, the view of his whola threatened position spread out like & map befors his eyes, the swift calculation of the tue Lis men could hold the ridge in his mind-—-even the hurried estimate of the precious moments he could give to the wretched woman before him—all this he wa: keenly alive to as he gravely, even gently, led her to a chalr and said in a critical and l:vel voice: ‘This is not enough! Speak slowly, plainly. I must know everything. How and in what way have you betrayed me?" ] Sho looked at him_implori yet awed by his gentleness, “You won't be- lleve me! You cannot believe me! But I do not even know; I have taken and exchanged letters whose contents I never saw—betwoen the confederates and a spy who comes to this house—but who is far away by this time. 1 did it because I thought you hated and de- spised me, because I thought it was my duty o help my cause, because you sald it was ‘war' between us; but I have not spied on you. ¥ swear it!" “Then how do you know of this attack?” he said, calmly. She brightened, half timidly, half hope- fully, “There is a window in the wing of this house that overlooks the slope near the confederate lines. There was a signal placed in it—not by me—but I know it meast that as long as It'was there the plot, whatever it was, was not ripe, and that no attack would visible. atemuch I-knew; that much the spy had me, for we both had to guard that in turns. I wanted to keep this dread- God! if it were only 1t ly—reassured, " i Y/ U SPEAK WITH YOU ALONE! ful thing off until—until,”” her volce trem —*until,” she added, hurriedly, seeing oalm eyes were reading her very soul, I went away, and for that purpcee I withheld some of the letters that were given wme. Bul this morning, while I wes away from the house, I looked back and saw that the signal was 10 longer there. Some one had changed it, I ran back, but I was too late, God help me, 48 you see The truth flashed upon Brant. It was his own hand that had precipitated tho attack! But a larger truth came to him now, like dagzling inspiration. If he had thus pre- clpitated the attack before it was ripe there was a chance that it was imperfect, and there was still hope. But there was no trace of thls visible in his face, as he fixed his eyes calmly on hers, although his pulses were halting in expectancy, as he said: “Phen the spy has suspected you changed it." h, no!" she said eagerly, “for the spy was with me and was frightened, too. We both ran back together—you remémber—she was stopped by the patrol!” Ked herselt suddenly, but too Iate. checks blazed, her head sank—with the foolish dis- closuro into which her eagerness had be- trayed her. But Brant appeared not fo not'ce it. He was, in fact, juggling his brain to conceive what information the stupld mulatto could have obtatued here. She must have been, like the trembling, eager woman before him, & mero ool of others. ‘D'd this woman live here?"" he said “‘No." she sald. “She lived with the Manlys, but had friends whom she visited at your general's headquarters,” With dificulty Brant suppressed a start It was clear to him now. The information had been obtained at the division headquar- ters and passcd through his camp as being nearest tho confederate lines. But what was the Information, and what movement had bo precipitated? It was clear that this woman did not know. He looked at her kesaly. A sudden explosion shook the house, & drift of smoke passed the window—a shell hugh bu;flld “l,n the garden e had been gazing at him despairingly, wistfully, but she did not blanch or mn“ An ldea took possession of him. He ap- hed her and took her cold hand. A t sinfle parted her pale lips. “You have eourage—you have devotion,' bo sald gravely, “I beliove you regret the Step you have taken. If you could undo what ¥ou haye doae, even at peril to yours:lf, dace you do it?" s,"" she sald breathlessly. “¥ou are known (o the enemy. If Iam sur- v bled and | of | by the Author) rounded you could pass through the Confed- erat: lines unquestioned.” “Yes, e sald, eagerly ‘A rote from me would pass you through the pickets cf our headquarters. But | you would bear a note to the general that no yes but his must ee. It would not implicate you or yours—it would be only a word of | again | warning “And she sald quickly, “‘would be saved! They would come to your assistance! You would not then be taken? He smiled gently. “‘Perhaps- He sat down and wrote hurriedly. “This he said, handing her a slip of pap:r is a pass. You will use it beyond your own lines. This note,” ho continued, handing her & sealed envelope, “is for the general. No one els: must see it, or know of it—not even your lover—should you meet him." My lover!" she said indignantly, h of her old savagery. *What n? 1 have no lover!" Brant glanced at her flushed faco. “I thought," he said quietly, “that there was som vyou cared for in yonder lines—some one you wrote to. It would have been an excuse—'" He stopped as her face paled again and her hands dropped heavily at her side, “Good pd! you thought that, too! You thought 1 would sacrifice yon for another man?'’ dardon me,” said Brant quickly; “I was foolish. But whether your lover is a man c a cause, you have shown a woman's devotion and in repairing your fault you are showing more than a woman's cou now." To his surprise, the color had mounted her pretty el and even flazh of n hief shone in her blue “It would have heen ‘an excuse'—yes savo a man, surely. Well, T will go. I ready.” “One moment,” he said though this past and safe conduct, thers some danger, Are 1 ) a_ braid after she h yo who knows?'* with a do you again a eyes to am eks, gravely. “Al an escort assure your is an engagen and you still reac ace am,” she said proudly, of her fallen hair. Yet a moment itated. Then she said in a lower voice: “Are you as ready to forgive?” “In either case,” he said, touched by her manner—‘and God speed you,' Ho extended his hand, ‘and left preksure on her cold fingers, But they slipped quickly from his grasp, and she turned away with a_heightened color. He stepped to the door. One or two ides-de-camp, withhell by his order against rusion, were waiting eagerly with reports The horie of a mounted ficld officer was pawing the garden turf. The officers starcd at the young girl ke Miss Faulkner with a flag to some e point of the ememy’s line. She is a non-combatant of their own, and will receiv their protection.’” He had scarcely exchanged a dozen words with the aides-de-camp before the field of- ficer hurriedly entered. Taking Brant aside, he said quickly: ‘‘Pardon me, general, but there is a strong feeling among the men that this attack is the result of some in- formation obtained by the enemy. The woman you have just given a safeguard to is suspected, and the men are indignant. ““The more reason why she should be con- veyed beyond any conscquences of their folly, Major,” said Brant frigidly, “and 1 look to you for her saf: convoy. There Is nothing in this attack to show that the enemy has received any information re- garding us. But I wouldl suggest that it would be better to see that my orders are carried out regarding the slaves and non- combatants who are passing our lines from division headquarters, where valuable infor- mation may be obtained, than in the sur- veillance of a testy and outspoken girl.” An angry flush covered the major's cheek as he saluted and fell back, and Brant turned to the aide-de-camp. The news was grave. A column of the enemy had moved against the ridge; it was no longer possible to hold it; and the brigade was cut off from its communication with the divislon headquar- ters, although as yet no combined movement was made against It. Brant's secret fears that it was an intended impact against the center were confirmed. Would his commu- nications to the division commander pass through the atfacking column in time? One thing puzzled him. As yet the encmy, after facing his line, had shown no disposi- tion, even with their overwhelming force, to turn aside to cover him. He could easily have fallen back when it was possible to hold the ridge no longer without pursuit. His flank and rear were not threatened, as they might have been by a division of so large an attacking column, and his retreat was still secure! It was this fact that seemed to show a failure or imperfection in the enemy's plan. It was possible that his precipitation of the atiack by the changed signal had been the cause of it. Doubtiess some provision had been made to attack him in flank and rear, but in -the unexpected hurry of the onset it had to be abandoned. He couly still save himself, as his officers knew, b his conviction that he might yet be able to support his division commander by holding his position doggedly, but coolly awaiting his opportunity, was strong. More than that, it was his temperament and in- stinet Harrowing them in flank and rear, contest- ing the ground inch by inch, and holding his own against the artillery sent to dislodge him, or the cavalry that curled round to ride through his open ranks, he saw his files melt away before this steady current with- out flinching. turning back a slight PART IL—CHAPTER VI Yet all along that fateful ridge, now ob- scured and confused with thin crossing smoke drifts from file firing, like partly rubbed out slate pencil marks, or else, when cleared of those drifts, pr nting only an indistinguish- e map of zigzag lines of straggling wagons and horses, unintelligible to any e but his, the singular magnetism of the chief was fell everywhere. Whether it was shown in the quick closing in of resistance to some sharper onset of the enemy or the more dogged stand of inaction under fire, his power was always dominant. A word or two of comprehensive direction, sent through an aide-de-camp, or the sudden relief of his dark, watehful, con posed face, uplifted above a line of bayonet never failed in their magie. Like all born leaders he scemed, in the emergencies, to hold a charmed life, infecting his followers with a like disbelief in death. Men dropped to right and left of him with serene assur- anca in their ghastly faces, or a cry of life and confidence in their last gasp. Siragglers fell in and closed up under his passing a hopeless, inextricable wrangle overturned caisson, at a turn of the road, re- so'ved itself into an orderly, quiet, deliberate clearing away of the impediment before the significant waiting of that dark, silent horse- man, Yet under this imperturbable mask he was keenly conzcious of everything; in that appar- ent concentration there was 4 sharpening of all his senses and his impressibility; he saw the first trace of doubt or alarm in the face of a subaltern to whom he was giving an order; the first touch of gElshness in a re- forming line; the more significant clumsiness of a living evoluton that he knew was clogged by the dead bodles of comrades; the omitous silence of a breastwork; the awful inertia of some rigidly kneeling files beyond, which still kept their” form, but never would move again; the melting away of skir- mish points; the sudden gaps here and there; the sickening incurving of what a moment before had been a straight line —all these he saw in all their fatal signifi- cance. But even at this moment, coming upon a hasty barricade of overset commis- sary wagons, he stopped to glance at a fa- miliar figure he had seen but an hour ago, Who now seemed to be commanding a group of stragglers and camp followers. Mounted on a wheel, with a revolver In each hand and a bowie knife between his teeth— theatrical even in this paroxysm of un- doubted courage-—glared Jim Hooker! And Clarence Brant, with the whole respousi- bility of the field on bis shoulders, even at that desperate moment, found himself recaliing a vivid picture of the Red Dick in “Rosalie the Prairie Flower,' as he had seen him in a California theater five years before. It wanted still an hour of the darknesy that would probably close the fight of that day. Could he hold out, keeping his offen- sive position 50 long? A hasty council with his officers showed bim that the weakness | tail of thelr position bad already infected them. They reminded him that his line of retreat | was still opsn—that in the course of the | night the enemy, although still pressing | toward the division center, might yet turn and outflank him—or that their strangely d layed supports might come up before morn ng. Brant's glass, however, remained fixcd on the main column, still pursuing its way along the ridge. 1t struck him suddenly however, that the steady current had stopped, | spread out along the crest on both sides and was now at right angles with its pre- vious course. There had been a check! The next moment the thunder of guns along the whole horlzon and the rising clond of smoke revealed line of battle. The di- vislon center was engaged The opportunity he had Jong:d for had come—the | desperate chance to throw himself on their rear and cut his way through the division but it had come too late! He looked at his shattered ranks—scarce a regiment remain:d. | Even as a demonstration the attack would against the enemy’s superior numbers Nothing clearly was left to him now but to remain where he was—within supporting dis- tance, and await the fssue of the fight be- yond. He was puttiog up his glass when the dull boom of cannon in the extreme western limit of the horizon attracted his attention. Dy the still gleaming sky he could see a long gray line stealing up from the valley from the distant rear of the headquarters to Join the main column. They were the missing supports! His heart leaped! He held the key to the mystery now. The one Imp:rfect detail of the enemy’s plan was before him The supports, coming later from the west, had seen only the second signal from the window—when Miss Faulkner had replaced the vase—and had avoided his position. It was impossible to limit the effect of this blunder! If tho young girl who had thus d him had reach:d the division com- mander with his message in time, he might be forewarned, and even profit by it. His own position would be less precarious, as the enemy already engaged 4n front would be un- able to recover their position in the rear and correct the blunder. The buik of their column had already streamed past him. If defeat:d there was always the danger that it might be rolled back upon him—but he conjectured that the division commander would attempt to prevent the Junction of the supports with the main column by breaking between them, crowding them from the ridge and joining him. As the last stragglers of the rear guard swept by Brant's bugles were alr:ady recalling the skirmishers. He redoubled his pickets and resolved to wait and watch But there was the more painful duty of looking after the wounded and dead. The larger rooms of the headquarters had al- ready been used as a hospital. Passing from cot to cot, recognizing in vacant faces now drawn with agony or staring in vacant un- consclousness the features that he had seen only a few hours before flushed with enthusi- and excitement, something of his old doubting, questioning nature returned. Was there no way but this? How far was he— moving among them unscathed and unin- jured—responsible? And if not he—who them? His mind went back bilterly to the old days of the conspiracy—to the inception of that struggle which was bearing such ghastly fruit. He thought of his wife until he felt his checks tingle, and he was fain to avert his from those of his prosirate comrades, in strange fear that with the clairvoyance of dying men they should read his secret. It was past midnight when, without un- dressing, he threw himself upon his bed in the little convent like cell to snatch a few mo- ments of sleep. Its spotless, peaceful walls and draperies affected him strangely, as if he had brought into its immaculate serenity the sanguine stain of war. He was awak- ened suddenly from a deep slumber by an indefinite sense of alarm. His first thought was that he had been summoned to repel an attack. He sat up and listened; everything was silent except the measured tread of the sentry on the gravel walk below. But the door ‘was open. He sprang to his feet and slipped into the gallery in time (o see the tall figure of a woman glide before the last moonlit window at its furthest end. He could not see her face, but the character- istic turbaned head of the negro race was plainly visible. He did rot cara to follow her or even alarm the guard. If it were the spy or one of her emniissaries, she was powerless now to do any harm, and under his late orders and the rigorous vigilance of his sentinels she could not leave the lines—or indeed the house. She probably knew this as well as he did; it was, therefore, no doubt only an accidental intrusion of of the servants. He re-entered the room and stood for a fow moments by the window looking over the moonlit ridge. The sounds of distant can- non had long since ceased. Wide awake and refreshed by the keen moroing air, which alone of all created things seemed to have shaken the burden of the dreadful yesterday from its dewy wings, he turned away and lit a candle on the table. As he was re- buckling his sword belt he saw a piece of paper lying on the foot of the bed from which he had just risen. Taking it to the candle, he read in a roughly scrawled hand: “You are asleep when you march. You have no time to lose. Befora doybreak the fupports of the column you have been foolishly resisting will be upon you. From one who would save you, but hates your cause.” For a moment handwriting was unknown, and evidently disguised. 1t was not the purport of the mes; that alarmed him, but the terrible spicion that flathed upon him that )t came om Miss Faulkner! She had failed in her attempt to pass through the enemy's lines— or she had never tried to! She had de- celved him, or she had thought better of her chivalrous ‘impulse, and now tried to miti- gate her second (reachery by thls second warning! And he had lit her messenger cscape him! He hurriedly descended the stairs. The sound of voices was approaching him. He haited, and recognized the facss of the brig- gade surgeon and one of his aldes-ds-camp. “We were hesitating whether to disturh you, general, but it may be an affair of some importance. Under your orders a negro woman was just now challenged stealing out of the lines.” Attempting to escape, she was chased, there was a struggle and scramble over the wall, and she fell, striking her head. Sho was brought into thé guard house un- conscious.” “Very good. T will see with a fecling of r “One moment, hould be on the he was transfixed. The Ler,” said Brant, neral. We thoug! perhaps prefer to see her alon said the surgeon. For when I endeavored to bring her to, and was sponging her face and head to discover her injuries, her color came off! was a white woman—stained and disguised as a mulatto,” IFor an Instant Brant's heart sank. Miss Faulkrer, “Did you recognize her ing from on to the other her efore? ¢ , sir,"" replied the alde-de-camp. “‘But 8| seemed to be quite a superlor woman—a lady, I should say.” Brant breathed more she now?’ he asked “In the guard house, We thought it bet- ter not to bring her into the hospital, among the men, until we had your orders,” “You have done well,” returned Brant gravely, “And you will ke:p this to your- selves for the present, but see that she |s brought here quietly and with as little pub- licity as possible. Put ber In wmy room above, which I give up to her, and any nec- essary attendant, But you will look care- fully after her, doctor,” he turned to the surgeon, “‘and when she recovers consclous- ness let me know.' He moved away. importance to the you It was he said, glanc- “Had you seen freely. “Where is Although attaching little mysterious message whether sent by Miss Faulkner or emanating from the stranger herself—which he had reasoned was based only upon a knowledg? of the original plan of attack—he neverthe- less quickly dispatched a small scouting party in the direction from which the at. tack” might come, with orders to fall back and report at once. With a certain half irony of recollection he had selected Jim Hooker to accompany the party as a volun- teer. This done he returned to the gallery The surgeon met him at the door “The indications of concussion are passing away,” he sald, “but she seems to be suffer- ing from exhaustion following some great uervous excitement. You may go in—she may rally from it any moment," With the artificial step and mysterious hush of the ordinary visitor o0 a sick bed, Brant entered the room. But some Instinct greater than this common expreesion of hu- wanity held bim in awe. The room seemed no longer his—it had slipped back into that austere conventional privacy which had first tmpressed him. Yet he hesitated; another strange suggestion—it seemed almost a ague recollection—overcame him like some lingering perfume, faint, far off, and pathetic | #tained with bioad and dust | geon’s sponge, 1 | besido the bed. | ness ot lips and | sanctity In its dylng famliarity. He turned his eyes UNDAY almost timidly. let was figure —toward the bed. The cover drawf up nhear the throat of the to replawe ithe striped cotton gown which had been hurriedly torn/oft’énd thrown aside. The pale face cleanwed of blood and disguising olor, the long Wairistill damp from the sur # rigidly back on the pillow Suddenly this nfan bf iron nerves uttered a faint ory, and, with a face as white as the upturned one bbforé him, fell on his knees Tor the face that lay ther was his wife's Yes! hers! But the beautiful hair that she had gloried In—the' hair that his youth ho had thought Mad once fallen like a ben diction on his_shoulder—was streaked with grey along the blhe veined hollows of th temples; the orbits of those clear eyes, be- neath their dellcately arched brows, were ringed with days of suffering; cnly the clear cut profile, even to the delicate imperious nostril, was suill there in all its beauty. The coverlet had slipped from the shoulder; its famillar marble con tour had startled him. He remembered how in their early married days he had felt the of that Diana-like revelation, and the still nymph-like austerity which clung to this strange, childless wcman, He ev. fancied that he breathed again the subtle characteristic perfume of the lace embroid erfes, the delicate enwrappings in her cham ber at Robles. ‘Perhaps it was the intensity of his gaze—perhaps it was the magnetism of his presence—but her lips parted, with a half sigh, halt moan. Her head, although the eyes were still closed, turned on the pillow instinctively toward him. He rose from his knees. Her eyes opened slowly As the first glare of wonderment cleared from them they met him—in the old an- tagonism of spirit! Yet her first gesture w a_ feminine pathetic movement with both hands to arrange her straggling hair. It brought her white fingers, cleaned of their disguising stains, as a sudden revelation to her of what had happened; she instantly siipped them back under the coverlet again Brant did not speak, but with folded arms stood gazing upon her. And it her voice that first broke the silence. “You had recognized me! Well, T suppose you know all,” she said with a weak half- deflance. He bowed his could not trust her own. “I may sit up, mayn't She managed by sheer force of will to struggle to a sit ting posture. Then as the coverlet slipped from the bare shoulders she sald, as she drew it with a shiver of dlsgust around her again: “I forgot the you strip women-—you northern soldiers. But 1 forgot also,” she added with a sarcastic smile, “‘that you are likewise my husband—and this is your room. The contemptuous significance of her speech dispel'ed the last lingering remnant of Brant's dream. In a voice as dry as her own he sald: *“I am afraid you will now have to remember only that I am a northern general and you a southern spy.” “So be it,” she sald gravely. Then, pulsively, “But I have not spied on you. et the next moment ske bit her lips as if the expression had unwittingiy escaped her, and with a reckless shrug of her shoulders she lay back on her pillow. “It matters not,” said Brant coldly. “You have used this house and those within it to forward your designs. It is not your fault that you found nothing in the dispatch box you opened.” She stared at him quickly; then shrugged her shoulders again. “I might have known she was false to me,’! she said bitterly, “‘ani that you would wheedle her soul away you have others, Well—she betrayed For what? A flush passed,oven Brant's face. But with an cffort he contained himseif. “It was the flower that betrayed you! The flower whose red dust fell it the box when you opened it on the desk by the window in yonder room The flower that; stood in the window as a signal. The flower I myself removed and so spolled the miserable plot your friends had concocted.” A look came into signal,” she he her head. He his voice felt and as yet envied im- me! terror and awe the in of ,mingled her” face. “‘You changed repeated dazedly; then a lower volcg:. That accounted ' for it | all!” But thé’” next = moment she turned ‘again flercely wpon Mm. “And you mean to tell mo that she didn’t help you— that she didn’t sell me—your wife—to you for—for what was it?—a look—a k “I mean to say that she did not know the signal was changed and that she herself re- stored it to its place. It is no fault of he nor of yours that 1 am not now a prisoner. She passed her thin hand dazedly acro: her forehead. “I see,” she muttered. “Then again bursting out passionately, she said: “Fool! you never would have been touched! Do you think Lee would have gone for you —with higher game in your division com- mander? No! Those supports were a feint to draw him to your assistance while our main column broke his center. Yes, you mey stare at me, Clarence Brant. You are a good lawyer—they say a dashing fighter, too. I never thought you a coward, even in your irrczolution, but you are fighting wit men drillsd in the art of war and strategy when you were a boy outcast on_the plains.” She stopped, closed her eyes, and then added wearily: “But that was yesterday—today, who knows? All may be changed. The sup- ports may still attack you. That was why I stopped to write you that note an hour ago—when I belicved I should be leaving here forever. Yes, I did it!" she went on with half-wearied, half-dogged determination. “You may as well know all. I had arrangei to fly; your pickets wero to be drawn by friends of mine, who were waiting for me beyond your lines. Well! I lingered hera when I saw you arrive—lingered to write you that note. " And—I was too late!” But Brant had been walching her varying her kindling eye, her strange masculine grasp of military knowledge, her soldierly phraseology, all 50 new to her, that he scarcely heeded the feminine ending of her speech. It stemed to him no longer the Diana of his youthful fancy, but some Pallas Athene who now looked up’at him from the pillow. He had never before fully believed in her unselish devotion to the cause, until now, when it seemed to have almost unsexed her. In his wildest comprehension of her he had never drcamed ler a Joan of Arc, and yet that was the face which might have cc fronted him. exalted and inspired, on the battlefield itself. He recalled himself, with an_effort. “I thank you for your would-be warnin; he said more gently, if not tenderly, “and od knows I wish your flight had been suc- sful. But even your warning is unn ary. For the supports had already com up; they had followed only the second sig- nal and diverged to engage cur div on on the left, leaving me alone, And this ruse of drawing our commander to assist me would not have bien successful, as 1 had suspectel it and sent a message to him that I wanted no help.” It was the truth—t was the sole purport of the note he had sent through Miss Faulk- ner. He might wpy-have dsclosed it, but 50 great was thesteange domination of this woman still over diim thet he felt compelled to assert his supepiority. She fixed her eyes upon k “And; Miss Faulkner took your message,” she said slowly. “Don't deny it! No one elsc could huye passed through our and you gave, her a ecaf: condu through yours. Yest I might have known it And this is she egreature they sent me for an ally and ceafidant For an instant, Brant this enforced contrast Woime But he oply,said 1 did not know you sere the belicve that shel suspected wife “Why flercely. only by name, me under felt the sting of betwern the two 4 forget that py, nor do [ you were my should . ahe” she said almost “I am known among these peopl: the name of Benbam, my maiden Yes! vou pap take me out and shoot that ngme, ., without disgracing yours. ody will know that the southern 5py was the wife of the northern general You sea I have thought even of that!" “And thinking thet,” said Brant slowly, “you have put yourself—I will not say In my power—for you are in the power of any m in this camp who may know you or even hear you speak. Well, let us understand each other plainly. 1 do not know how great a sacrifice your devotion to your cause demands of you. 1 do not know what it seems to demand of me. Hear me, then! | will do my best to protect you and get you safely away from here; but, failing that, I tell you plainly that I shall blow out your brains and my own togethir." She kuew (hat ho would do it. Yet her eyes suddenly beamed with a new and awak cning light. €he put back her hair ugain and half raised herself upon the pillow to gaze at his dark, s:t face. “And as I ehail let Do other Nfe but curs be perilled in this affair,” he went on, qu etly, “and will accompary you mys:if, in some disguise, beyond the lines, we will take the risks togethst—or the bullets of the sen DEC tries that may save us both all further trou ble. An hour or two more will decide this. | Until that time your condition will excuse | you from any disturbance or Intrusion here. | The mulatto woman you have sometimes per- | sonated may be still fn this house; 1 will ap- | point her to attend you. I suppose you can trust her, for you must personate her again | escaps in her clothes, while takes | your place in this room as my prisoncr.’ ‘Clarance Her voice no longer 1 thrilling, night quickly her thin whit toward him “Let us s she had changed suddenly; it was tter and stridulous, ‘but low and he heard her call to him that | patio of Robles, He turned was leaning from the b hands stretched appealingly as 80 together, Clarence,” she sald Let us leave this horrible place these vulgar, cruel people, forever! Come with me! " Come with me to my people my own faith, to my own house, which shall be yours! Come with me to nd 1t with | your good sword, Clarence, against these in- | vad 3 1 know you! 1 have done you wrong; 1 have lied to you when I | spoke against your skill and power. You are a hero—a born leader of men! 1 know it Have T not heard from the men who have fought against you, and yet admired ang understood you, aye better than your own? Gallant men, Clarence! soldiers bred, who did not know what you were to me nor how proud I was of you, even while I hated you Come with me. Think what we would do together, with one faith, one cause, one am- bition. Think, Clarence, there is no lmit | you might not attain, We 1o niggards of our rewards and honors; we know our friends! en I, Clarence, 1"—there was A strange pathos in the sudden humility | that seemed to overcome her—"I have have | had reward, and know my power. I liave been sent abroad, in the confidence of the highest, to the highest. Don't turn from me. 1 am offering you no bribe, Clarence only your deserts. Come with me and live | the hero that you ar He turned his blazing eyes upon her. you were a man!" he began, then stopped “No! T am a woman and must fight in a woman's way,” she interrupted bitterly. ‘T entreat, I implore, I wheedle, I flatter, I fawn, | [ lie! 1 creep where you stand upright, and pass through doors to which you would not bow. You wear your blazen of honor on your shoulder. I hide mine in a slave's gown And yet T have worked and striven and suf. fered! Listen, Clarenco—" her volce again sank to its appealing minor. “I kuow w you men call ‘honor'—which makes you el to a merely <poken word and an empty oath Well, let that pass! I am weary; I hav done my share of this work, you have done yours. Lot us both fly; let us leave the fight to those who shall come after us, and let us 0 together to somo distant land where th sounds of these guns or the blood of our brothers no longer cry out to us for ver geance! There are those living there—1 hav met them, Clarence—" she went on huriredly, “who think it wrong to 1ift up fratricidal hands in the struggle, yet who cannot live under the northera yoke. They are— volee hesitated, “good men and women aro respected—they are—r" “Recreants and slaves, before whom you, £py as you are, stand a queen!” broke in Brant, passionately. He stopped and turned toward the window. After a pause he came back again toward the bed, paused again, and then said in a lower volce: “Four years ago, Alice, in the patio of our house at Ro- bles, T might have listened to this proposal, and I tremble to think I might have accepted It. T loved you; I was as weak, as selfish, as unreflecting, my life purposeless, but for you, as the creatures you speak of. But give me now at least the credit of a devotion to causo equal to your own, which I have never denied you. For the night that you left me I awoke to a sense of my own worthlessness and degradation—perhaps I have even to thank you for this awakening—and I realize the bitter truth. But that night I found my true vocation, my purpoze, my manho: A bitter laugh came from the pillow on which she had languidly thrown herself. *I believe I left you with Mrs. Hooker—spare me the details.” The blood rushed to Brant's face, and then ded as suddenly. You left me with Captain Pinkney, who had tempted you, and whom I killed?” he said furiously, They were both staring at each other. Sud- denly he said, “Hush!” and sprang toward the door, as the sound of hurried footsteps echoed .along the passage. But it was too late; it was thrown open to the officers of wid| passionateyl, I3 her they r the guard, who appeared standing on the threshold. “Two confederate officers arrested hovering around our pickets. They demand to see you." Before Brant could interpose, two men, in riding cloaks of confederate gray, stepped into the room with a jaunty and’ self-con- fident air. “Not demand, general,” said the foremost, a tall, distinguished-looking man, lifting his hand with a graceful, depreciating air. “In fact, too sorry to bother you with an affair of no importance except to ourselves. A bit of after dinner bravado brought us in contact with your pickets, and, of course, we had to take the consequences. Served us right, and we were lucky not to have got a bullet through us. Gad! I'm afraid my men would have been 1 rect! I am Coleael La. grange of the Fifth Tennessee; my young friend here s Captain Faulkner of the First Kentucky. Some excuse for a youngster like him—none for me 0 He stopped, for his eyes upon the bed and its occupant. Both he and his companion started. But to the natural and unaffected dismay of gentlemen who had unwittingly intruded upon a fady's bedc ber, Brant's quick eye a more trous concern superadded. Colonel Lerange was quick to recover himself, as they both removed their caps. “A thousand pardons,” he said hurriedly, stepping backward to the door. ‘“But I hardly need say to a fellow ofiicer, general, that we had no idea of making so gross an intrusion! We heard some cock-and-bull | story of your being occupied with an es- caped or escaping nigger, or we should never have forced ourselves upon you." Brant gle quickly at’ his wife, face had apparently become rigid on the entrance of the two men; her eyes were coldly fixed upon the celling. He bowed for~ mally, and with a wave of his hand toward the door, said “I will hear your story below, gentlemen.' He followed them from the room, stopped to quietly turn the key in the lock, and then motioned them (o precede him down the staircase, suddenly fell Her | (To be Continued.) IMPERIAL Hair Regenerator, Porfectly r color. mak to a rieh, 1ustrous the hair healthy, Incleim. - Stoaming, salt or 1 biths do not effeet 1t 1t 13 4 uril s uature, Dotoetion fmpossi bl Your proparation has my co commendation. 1 believe there s othig 1o the world for e hair ke I1° ADELINA PATTI-NICOLIN | 1, B 2, Dark Brow Hrown: 4. Chestaut; g ) - Gold Blond; 7! Ash Blond. Price 81,50 and 83, ple bottle of the fiaest rouze “Im Bt o SRIAL CHEMIC . New York SHERMAN & McCONNELL; 15313 Dodgo St. D g su Experts in Painless Extraction without chloroform. 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