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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1903)
July 12, 1003. raised It and Mid, with a trace of auger la his voice; "If you knew the man to be a traitor or an erulssury of that malignant, why did you brine him Into our presence?" "I could not be cure of him, your mujesty, and there was always a chance that he was loyal and could get through." "To raise my hopes like this and then dash them to the ground!" "Not no, your majesty. If you will par don me. Do you place Importance on this commission T" "The utmost importance. I know Tra quair, and he will raise all Scotland for me. If this commission reach him." "Then ho will malt siccar, as a faxnous Scot once said. "Ah, Ue Courcy, that was said when a treacherous murder was intended. How will you make sure that Armstrong is honest?" "I should trouble no more about Arm strong, but If you will issue a duplicate of that commission I will guarantee that It reaches the hands of Traquair. I am a Frenchman and a subject of the French kin. I carry my passport to that effect. Even If I am stopped, 1 shall resist search on the grounds of my nationality, and Cromwell Is too greatly In awe of the power of France to risk its might being thrown In the scale against him. Indeed. I doubt if I could offer a greater service to jour majesty than to be capturd aad appeal to Louis." The king's face cleared "You would not stop Armstrong, then?" "Assuredly not. If his copy gets into Cromwell's hands he may slacken his alert ness, and not be on the outlook for a duplicate. As I said before, there is a chance the Scot plays fair, but two com missions in the hands of Traquair will do no harm, and we mak siccar." "You are in the right, and your advice la always of the best. How soon will you be ready to leave?" "This very moment, your majesty. There Is no time to be lost." "True. True. True." Then to tho secretary, "Write another. Do you re member the names?" "Yes, your majesty. I have them here on a slip." De Courcy bade farewell to the king, who urged him to return ns soon as horse could bring him, and went to his room to prepare for his Journey, the duplicate com mission following him there. Armstrong strode to the inn, sied up the stairs and knocked at the door by the landing. Frances herself opened it, the determination on her fac to refuse admis sion to any other than he melting into a welcome as she greeted him. "My girl, are you ready for the north?" "Yes, yes; ready and eager. Have you Been the king?" "I have, and his royal signature rests over my heart." The Joy fled from the girl's face; she turned and walked with uncertain steps to the table. A hope had arisen that the venomous De Courcy would have prejudiced the king against the young man and that her hateful task would not be required of her, but now this last refuge had failed her. She strove not to weep. "If you would rather not go until to morrow," said Armstrong, "I can wait, but lassie, I'm desperate anxious to leave Oxford as soon as possible. We will not travel further than Banbury tonight" "I am ready," she replied with forced firmness. CHAPTER XVIII Tensloit. The road between Oxford and Banbury Is the most peaceful of thoroughfares, laid with reasonable directness, gently undulat ing in parts, passing through quiet villages and a sweet country, mildly beautiful, yet to the mind of Frances Wentworth this Innocent highway ever remained, as it were, a section of the broad path to per dition. In after life she never thought of ft but with a creepy sensation of horror. She was compelled to traverse ground that was the scene of her lover's proposal, with tht lover whom she had rejected. The futile incident, she thought, must be constantly recurring to his mind as it re curred to hers, now that they rode side by side once more along this Ill-favored street. Even though he sat silent on his horse, more gloomy than was his wont, she guessed what he was thinking. In Oxford, God be thanked, they were quit of It a grave danger was left behind, but in Branbury awaited the cruel test. There the stage was prepared fur her enactment of the part of a midnight Lady Macbeth, to rob the sleeping Scot, not of his life, but of that for which he had staked his life, and for whose preservation he stood willing to give up his life. Heretofore she lulled an accusing conscience by telling it that .her deed would preserve his life, but now that she knew him better such solace was withdrawn from her. There was little likelihood that he would travel far beyond Branbury without discovering his lose, and, while he would never suspect her of the theft, it needed no seer so pre dict his course of action. He would return Instantly to Oxford, and when next he was baffled it would be by Cromwell's troopers, and then, she had the General's own word for it, came condemnation and the noose. THE ILLUSTRATED HEE, respoadoey seemed to be the portion of William Armstrong as well as of his fair companion. She surmised that he was pon dering on the events which had happened when their faces were set south over this course, and In part she was right, but tho thoughts which rankled In his mind wero those Implanted by De Courcy, and tho wily Frenchman had been accurate enough In his belief that the young man's pleasure in the northward Journey would be spoiled. He could not bring himself to ask any ex planation from the girl, nor even tell her what De Courcy had said, for he saw that already a weight of woe oppressed her, and to that burden he would not add a pressure of the slightest word. He possessed a su preme confidence In her, and only feared that she had loved this renegade once and that some remnant of this long-ago affec tion still remained. Her own words before they reached Oxford, her own action dur ing the encounter fronting the Crown Inn, disturbed him far more than the insinua tions of the Frenchman. He strove to rid himself of these thoughts, but they were very intrusive and persistent. At last with an effort he roused himself and cried with feigned hilarity: "Frances, we travel like two mutes. Tho Influence of saddened Ox ford Is still upon us both. We are long out of sight of the town, so let us be done with all remembrance of it. The meeting with the king this morning has stirred me up to a great pity for him. but vexed meditations on his case are no help either to him or to us. The spur is the only weapon I can wield for Mm now, so let us gallop and cry 'God save the king! M With that they raced together for a time and were the better of It. He had become almost cheerful again when the spires of Banbury came Into view, and thanked for tune that the first stage of their march was safely over. They found Old John and his pack horse both ready for the road again, and Arm strong was plainly loath to let such a fine evening slip by without further progress, but Frances sjemed so wan and worn that he had not the heart to propose a more dis tant stopping place, and, with a sigh, he put up his horse for the night While he was gone, the Innkeeper came furtively to her, and, after seeing the pass, led her to the prepared room and showed her the door. Much against her will, Armstrong in sisted upon her coming to supper with him, although she protested she had no appetite, and. Indeed, sat opposite him most forlorn and could not touch a morsel. In vain be urged her to eat. but she shook her head, avoiding his glance and keeping her eyes downcast. "My girl." he said, anxiously, "you are completely tired. I see that you are oa the point of being ill, if better care is not taken. Rest here a few days, I beg of you. Eager as I am to be forward, I will stay if you wish to have me near you. Or I will push on and come back for you." "I shall be well enough In the morning, most like, I am tired tonight" "And dispirited, too?" "Yes, and dispirited. Tou will excuse me, 1 know." Frances rose to her feet, but seemed so faint that she leaned against the table (or support. He was by her side at once. "My sweet lass, I am so sorry for you. Tell me what I can do for you, and, on my soul, my life Is yours If you require it" "No, no. God grant you take no hurt for my sake." He slipped his arm about her waist and would have drawn her toward him, but with more strength than he had expected her to possess she held away. His great love for her almost overcame him -and all the prudence he had gathered was scat tered suddenly to the winds. "Dear, dear lass, one touch of ourjlpa and see If all doubts do not dissolve before the contact." Now she wrenched herself free and would have escaped but that he sprang forward and caught her by the wrists, a grip aha was to remember later in the night In spite of this prisoning, her hands were raised to the sides of her face and a look of such terror shot from her eyes that he feared some madness had come upon her. "Not that Not that," she shrieked. "The kiss of Judas! It would kill me!" His arms dropped paralyzed to his sides and he stepped back a pace, amazed at the expression she had used and the terror of her utterance. Next instant he was alone and the closed door between them. Still he stood where she had left him. "The kiss of Judas!" he muttered. "The kiss of Judas! She loves him, thinks me his friend, trying to take Judas' advantage of him because we are alone together. De Courcy spoke truth. Wae Is me, she loves him and I, blind fool. O, God, pity that poor girl and this. Insanity of passion wasted on to rank a cur!" Frances fled to her room and threw her self on the bed in an agony of tears. This storm subsided into a gentle rain of sub dued weeping, and finally oeased aa she heard the heavy tramp of riding boots in the adjoining rooms. She sat up in the darkness listeaing intently. Ha closed the wooden shutters of the window, shaking them to be sure that their fastenings were secure. Then the bolt of the outer doer war thrust in their paces, but this ap parently failing to satisfy the doubts of the inmate there was a souud of some heavy article of furniture being dragged across the room; then tho tramping ceased and ull was still. She sat there thinking of nothing; her mind seemed to be dulled by the ordeal awaiting her and the fear of it, but there was no thought of turning back or trying to avoid It Dimly she was sorry for herself and for him, sleeping in his fancied security, yet In a set trap, but on her action this night depended her brother's life, and that outweighed all other considerations, even If her brain were alert enough to cast them In the op posite scales. Unheeding she heard the clock In a neighboring tower toll the hour; now It struck again and she counted the nots Klevrn! It was still too early. IVople slept heavier as the night wore on. She thought of their Journey; of the halt nt York; of their talk In the niche in tin hotel of the Templars; of Various Incidents along tho road; the tramp past of Crom well's troopers, four and four, all looking straight ahead, and as she remembered them they seemed to be passing; then Cromwell stopped and smote his steel breast-plate with resounding clang. She lifted her head with a start, and the clang of the breast-plate changed to tho toil of the bell In the tower Heavens, she had been asleep; her, brother's life hanging on her drooping eyelids! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! It must be midnight, and the first five strokes had been on Crom well's breast-plate. She roused herself and attempted to take off hex shoes, but her hands wre trembling so, she was forced to desist. She snt up again, telling herself it was better to wait until sll effect of the long, chiming had ceased, for the striking of twelve sometimes disturlied or awakened the soundest sleeper. The clock tower seemed dangerously near, as If it were approaching her hour by hour. At last the shoes came off and In stockinged feet she stood by the secret door, walling till the frightfully rapid beating of her heart should moderate. It theatened to choke her. Then she slid back the bar and drew open the door, all so smoothly oiled that there was not the whisper of a creak. She tip-toed into the cavern of blackness and silence, holding her spread hands In front of her, moving slowly with the utmost caution, step by step. In her mind she had estimated, from her earlier survey of the room, that nine steps wouU take her to the bed; now she realized she had taken a dozen and yet had not come to It She stood bewildered and listened. The helplessness of a person in the pitch dark thrilled her with a new fear, upsetting all her calculations. The panic of pulsation In her throat and in her ears at first rendered any attempt at listening futile, but at last she heard his regular breath ing, aa peaceful aa that of an infant, and It came from the other side of the room. For a moment this terrified her, and she wondered If ahe were really awake, or in the mazes of some baffling nightmare, but the solution came to her mind and quieted her growing agitation. It had been his bed that lie had dragged across the floor, and he now sleeping against the outside door. And all his preparations were an naurht. because of this midnight specter moving upon him! She changed her direction and, with her former stealth, came ghost-like to the edge of the couch. His doublet was open at the throat; that was so much to the good. Like a snow flake In its coldness and Its lightness, her hand stole down underneath his vest, flut tered by the slow, steady, subdued beating of his heart, running no such wild ntce as her own at that moment. It seemed In credible that at last her fingers closed on the parchment, but there It lay, and gently she drew It forth. Was the robbery to be so easily accomplished after all? Ah! she had congratulated herself too soon. It stuck fast; either the silken cord that bound It was caught or the document was secured to the vest, a contingency she had never thought of, and yet, what more natural? Twice she tagged it gently, then a third time more strenuously, when it came unexpectedly away and her knuckles struck the sleeper under the chin. In stantly, like the snap of a steel trap, his fingers closed upon her wrist and his voice rang out as wide-awake and clear as ever he had spoken to her: "Frances I" Now the racing heart stopped dead. Luck for her that at this supreme moment all action was impossible and that she was stricken Into frosen marble. She thought he was awake and knew her, and then the cold horror of her situation numbed thought at its source. "Frances!" The voice came more sleepily this time, and he re peated thrice, very rapidly, "Frances! Frances! Frances!" Feebly her heart had, taken up Its work again. She was ot to die, as she had tnougnt. Boaaen with drowsiness, his voice rambled on and came to an Indefinite conclusion. "My darling, you art) In danger. We must get out of Oxford. Everything, every your safety, ray dear. The king " Then the words became indistinct and died away, but, alas! the grip of iron remained, en tier wrist For a loag time atie stood there motion leas, then tried to dlsengagw her angers gently, but at the ftrat move snent the grasp tightened again. One o'clock struck. Ua alapt ae aUaotly that It K feegaa to appear to her agitated arala that sho was a prisoner of the dead. She came near to sinking from very weariness, Two o'clock tolled from the tower. Some times she fancied she slept standing there, but her five Jailers did not sleep. She kept wondering In which direction lay the Cen door, for at times the room seemed to swim around her, thus disturbing all sense of locality. She almost laughed aloud when she thought of herself free, but groping helplessly for the open door, failing to find It, and she shuddered that even the remembrance of laughter should come to her at such a time; surely a sign of approaching frenzy. Then It seemed tho fingers loosened, but hand and wrist had lost all feeling and she could not -e sure. She tottered and nearly fell. When she stood upright again she was free, he muttering to himself and his hand slash ing undirected on the mattress, as If It mtssvd something It sought drunkenly to recover. The girl could scarce repress a cry of Joy at her release. She moved eagerly In the path that should lead her to the door, but, hurrying too much, came upon his Jackboots on the floor and fell helplessly, so overwrought that even when her feet touched them sho could not draw buck. "Who's there? Who's In this room?" cried Armstrong. Sho was standing agulu, fully expecting to hear his feet on the floor, but tho bell struck 3 and ho counted dreamily, and all was still ag.iin. When she reached her mom she closed and Imrred the door lis silently as she had opened It The tension relaxed, she felt she was going to swoon. Ullndly she groped for her shcK'S, murmuring, "Oh, God, not yet; not yet. Give me a moment more." Finding her footgear ut hist, she dared not wait to put them on, but stole softly down tho stair, steadying herself against the wall. The cool nir outside struck her like the messing oi ou anil sooineo nor wnirnng head. She heard a horse champing hW hit then a whisper came out of the dark ness. "Is that you at last, madam?" "Yes," she said, sinking on the doorstep and leaning her head ugalnst the llnten, the cold stone grateful to her hot fore head. "You are not hurt, madam?" Inquired tha man, anxiously. "No, no," she gasped; then, with an eldrlch little laugh, "1 want to put on my shoes, that's all." (To Be Continued.) American Crooks Copied French swindlers, about whose methods a good deal has been written of late, are for the most part copiers of American crooks. The trick of following a woman into a store and, Just as she goes to make a pur chase, assuming the role of an Indignant husband, taking her money away from her, and getting away before she has a chanca to recover from her surprise, was worked for some time In the west. It wasn't suc cessful long here because American women are harder headed than their French sis ters, and, unlike the latter, do not assist the crooks by promptly going Into hysterica) or fainting when robbed. A simple little swindle that was successful In this city for years was worked by a man and a boy. The boy would walk up the street swinging a pitcher around his head. The man, stand lng on an opposite comer, would call at tention to tho boy's recklessness and offer to bet $5 or some larger amount that tha boy would break tho pitcher before ha reached the corner. The crook rarely failed to hook a victim. Of course. Just as tha boy reached the omer, he would breik the pitcher, and the crook woukl win Cha bet New York Sun. Passes San Francisco That Puget sound ports cut very largely Into the Alaskan trade that the merchants of San Francisco expected to get In tha days of the Klondike excitement is now familiar knowledge, but that the northern porta have overtaken and passed this city In the race for the Oriental trade la not so generally known. Government reports have some figures on this subject whlcb make rather startling reading. In tha year 1900 San Francisco's exports to tha Orient wvre valued at $40,000,000, while those from Puget sound porta amounted to only $10,000,000. The next year this city's exports declined to $33,000,000, while those of the northern cities Increased td $30,000,000. In 1902 San Francisco was passed, the northern cities having $37,000, 000 to this clfy's $36,000,000. For this year Ban Francisco's exports are estimated at $38,000,000 and those of Paget sound porta at $50,000,000. 8an Francisco Argonaut. Indiscretion 'Isn't the perfect trust and eemfldeaoe aa gaged people have tn each other perfectly beautiful!" "Perfectly idiotic, I should say." "WhyT" "Because whm I waa engaged I told say future wife ail about ray tneama and proa pecta, and now I can't apend a UUr era myself without her knowing about tC"- Jiew York Tiovea,