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Show 0U r i S L. S R: CROCKETT, Auiftor c 'TReRcKdcddo , 8.' They had come tbgether to witness a sight never seen In Courtland b re, the dread punishment of the Ukraine Cross. It was to be done, they said, upon the body of the handsome youth, with whom the Princess Margaret was In love some even whispered married to him. At ten a great green square of riverside grass was held by the archers of Courtland. The people extended as far back as the shrine of the Virgin, where at the city entrance travelers were wont to give thanks for a favorable Journey. At eleven the lances oC Prince Ivans Cossacks were seen topping the city wall. On the high hank of the Alla the people were craning their necks and looking over each other's shoulders. Through the lane by which the gate communicated, with the tapestried stand set apart for the greater specta-tors- , the Princes Louis and Ivan, fool and knave, servant and master, took their way. And they had scarce passed R. Crockett.) The Prince shrugged his shoulder t and opened his palms deprecatingly. Madam, he said, T shall be satis10. ttf fied with twalning your bodies. In mbajii Russia we are plain men. We holy d Ol with j have a saying, No one hath ever seen1 h- ;e neck, and her lips, salt The a soul. Let the body content you! sought his In a last kiss. I of the Princes guard touched When this gentleman is what I shall him shook make him, he Is welcome to any comShe i the shoulder. com munlon of spirits to which he can I having and then, ' off, ply Paahi I her farewells, she loosened her tain with you. I promise you that, ) a hml and went slowly backward to far as he Is concerned, you shall find i the further end of the ball with me neither exigent lover nor Jealous !t I, 3ln vt ; yes still upon the man she husband! 38t And the Prince of Muscovy laughed iur;' V cried Prince Louis, In the loud and long. But Prince Louis did aha, b o t coward not laugh. His eyes glared upon the sly uneven voice of a h- pute. have prisoner like those of a wild beast a Into "you himself fury, g a caught In a corner when it wishes to upon out treachery your ill. ,r You Courtland. flee but cannot. of Prince re: :ng "He shall die this day shall be hl6 me at Castle Kernsberg, you Ichti8d E,t last. I swear It!" he cried. "He hath ; made me a laughing-stoc)y At) thrcvyhout the empire. You have- mocked me, and I will slay him with my hand. y mshared a maiden of my house, my sisWhat He drew the dagger frthn his belt verdict ter, the daughter of my father. to be But In the center of the hall the clock ihavs you to'say ere I order you "irT out from the battlements of the Sparhawk stood so still and quiet that th Prince Louis hesitated. Ivan laid a 'Swt m tower? . ntlemen and Princes," Maurice soft hand upon his wrist and as gentl) -I drew the dagger out of his grasp. Lynar answered, "that which for the sake of done I Nay, my Prince, he will give him have done T.itj r istress, the Lady Joan, and I am & worthier passing than that. So no N must die no com ( Prince Lpuis, it was her ble a knight-erran- t What say you to the v ! and Intent never to come to mon death. Z 'and as your wife. She would Ukraine Cross, the Cross of Steeds? 1 ave bfeen taken alive. It was have here four horses, all wild from bre the duty of her servants to the steppes. This squire of dames, hath, as now we ve her life, and I offered myself this r stead. My life was hers al- - know, four several limbs. By a strange for she had preserved it. She coincidence I have a wild horse for iven. It was hers to take. With each of these. Let limbs and steeds chief captains of Kernsberg I be severally attached, my Cossacks 4 that she should be seized and know how. Upon each flank let the czrrlad to a place .of refuge wherein lash be laid and well, the Princess ed f;e could ever find her. There she Margaret is welcome to her liege lords itldcs with chosen men to guard her. soul. I warrant she will not desire his I toci her place and was delivered up body any more. At this Margaret tottered, her knees that Ilernsberg might be cleared of enemies. Gladly I came that I giving way beneath her, so that her jlti pay a little of my debt to my guards stood nearer to catch her if she should fall. Louis my brother," she cried, "do not listen to the monster. Kill my husband if you will because I love him. But do not torture him. By the last words of our mother, by the memory of our father, by your faith in the Most Pitiful Son of God, I charge you do not this devilry. Prince Ivan did not give Louis of Courtland time to reply to his sisters appeal. "The most noble Princess mistakes, he murmured, suavely. "Death by the Cross of Steeds Is no torture. It Is the easiest of death. I have witnessed It often. In my country it Is reserved for the greatest and most distinguished. No common felon dies by the Cross of Steeds, but men whose pride it is to die greatly. We will show you on the plain across the river that I speak the truth. It is a noble sight and all Courtland shall be there. What say you, Louis? Shall this springald seat himself in your princely chair, or shall we try the Cross of the Ukraine? Have it your own way. Prince Ivan! said Louis, and went but without another word. The Muscovite stood a moment looking from Maurice to Margaret and back again. He was smiling his Inscrutable Oriental smile. Let the Princess pass, be cried. The guards dropped their swords to their sides. Instantly the Princess Margaret ran forward with eager appeal on her face. She dropped on her knees before the uo Prince of Muscovy and clasped her mi BiBin luiiiB, i uu said; "you have disgraced your family hands in supplication. In "Prince Ivan, she said, I pray you ; and yourself. Whether it be true or lraiiot that you are married to this man I for the love of God to spare him, to s let him go. I promise never to see little! Malm j -- it j9 true; j not He! said Mar him more. I will go to a nunnery. I station will look no more upon the face of recovering herself. re emi garet is the worse, then, and be shall day. "It ed and "That, above all things, I cannot aled lac said the Frlnce. "So fair a face low, ever&l must see many suns soon, I trust, in wow ; or and Moscow by my side. storl "Margaret," said the Sparhawk, it s great' Is useless to plead. Do not abase yourself In the presence of our enemy. You cannot touch a mans heart when his breast covers a stone. Bid me good-b- y and be brave. The time will not T is oa be long." tension i Like a child after its bedside prayer try, el1 lifted up her face to bp kissed. she ze the f Good-nighMaurice," she said, ? of jlty Wait for me; I shall not be simply. is taka long after! She laid her brow a moment on his parti- Then she lifted her head and breast. la is walked slowly and proudly out of the aprlstic hall. The guard fell in behind her, ruuni 4 and Maurice von Lynar was left alone with the Prince of Muscovy. a Do As the door closed upon the Princess a sudden devilish grimace of fury Mills distorted the countenance of the tlvll v Prince Ivan. Hitherto 9b had been to ttca "You are no slater of mine." studiously and even caressingly courMos& At least I can hide I teous. But now he strode swiftly up dtbi to his captive and smote him across belw prevent your shame! ,0L 1 "l new give him up; nothing the mouth with the back of his gaunt- sight d Icted hand. ixposaw cd earth shall part our love. Prince Ivan smiled sweetly, turning That! he said furiously, "that for lie scf Issouri ti there she stood at the end the lips which hare kissed hers. Toar. morrow I will pay the rest of my debt. (Copyright, 1898, 1900, by set CHAPTER XXIII. DO a-- tw-- P- -t tve k r, Ij 3 9 The Ukraine croaa when the people, mutinous and silent, surged back behind the archers guard, Back there stand back! Way foi their excellencies way! Stand back yourselves, came the growling answer. "We be free men of Courtland. You will find us no Muscovite serfs, and that or the day be done. Karl Wendelin, think shame thou that art my sisters son to be aiding and abetting such heathen cruelty to a Christian man, all that you may eat a great mans meat and wear a Jerkin purfled with gold." Thus angrily ran the taunt and Jeer, till the Courtland guard, mostly young fellows with relatives and sweethearts franamong the crowd, grew well-nigtic with rage and shame. See yonder! What are they doing? Peter Altmaar, what are they doing? Tell us, long man! Of what use is your great fathom of pump-water- ? Can you do nothing for your meat but reach down black puddings from the rafters? At this all eyes turned to Peter,, lanky, overgrown lad with a keen eye, a weak mouth and the gift of words, They are bringing up four horses from' the Muscovite camp. The folk are getting as far off as they can from their heels, began Peter Altmaar, looking under his hand over the peoples heads. "Half a score of men are at each brutes head. How they plunge! They will never stand still a moment Ah, they are tethering them to the four great posts of stone In the middle of the green square. Between, there is a table no, a wooden square stand like a priests platform In Lent, when he tells us our sins outside the church. "The Princes are sitting their horses watching. Bravo, that was well done. We came near to seeing the color of the Muscovite brains that time. One of the wild horses spread his hoofs on either Bide of Prince Ivans head! God send him a better aim next time! Tell on, Peter! Aye, go on, good Peter! (To be continued.) Fttc'-matter- New Danger to the Heron. Surgeons have long been seeking for some material ior putures and ligatures which should be more satisfactory than those at present in use, which include catgut, kangaroo tendon, silk worm gut, horse hair and sliver wire. Dr. Charles F. Kleffer has recently used and suggests in a medical Journal that the tendons of tho cranes and heron make excellent sutures and ligatures and seem to possess some advantages over the materials at present In use. Should these suggestions he genera ally approved by physicians, birds of the heron group are threatened with a new danger, which naturalists and bird lovers will deplore. Some species of heron have already so greatly decreased in numbers that they are even thought to be on the verge of extinction, and all have become much less abundant than they formerly were. The herons are not prolific birds, the number of eggs In the nests being small. The danger which threatens this group Is thus a very real one. Forest and Stream. ; t, fr of-th- e a readier way than any Be good enough to ob-this he held a dagger in bis it is a little blade of steel, but Kjstloa long, and narrow ae one of ie dlgnlA r dainty fingers, yet it will divorce vork A bjltl i best married pair In the world." dot ' 3ut neither dagger nor the bate of l0 fnn sever love, Margaret JSL t: proudly, "You may slay my nd. but he Is mine still. You twain our souls In J """.i n,m r:: J t-- I bull. ye 'l l , I Thought It Was a Cocktail, Dinner was a' little late. A guest asked the hostess to play something, and, seating herself at the piano, the good woman executed a I nocturne with precision. After von Chopin Lynars I upon the white of Maurice chin and trickled slowly downwards. I she had finished there was still an In But he uttered no word. Only he terval of waiting to be bridged. looked his enemy very stralghtly In the the grim silence she turned to an old on her right and said: eyes, and those of the Muscovite gentleman "Would you like a sonata before droppod before that manful regard dinner? CHAPTER XXIV. an-sx:r- J5 untMf J e InccP, f The Ukraine Cross. Upon the green plain beside the Jla a great multitude was assembled. s prison life. Mother Ann Lee, who founded the Shaker sort, was a remarkable woman, says the New York Press. Like most founders of religions the subliminal was on top in her, and she dreams. saw visions and dreamed Powers were claimed for her which correspond to what are known as clairvoyance and healing by suggestion nowadays. She had a career which shows her to have been a strong character, and probably had her followers lived the ordinary family life the sect would have been a replenished flourishing church high type of character and Intel!!- - tn generation with the children gence. Indomitable workers, the pro- of the members. ceeds of their toil put Into a common Mother Ann had some very adtreasury made the community rich, al- vanced IdeaB for her day. For ininno members possessed though the believed in the absolute dividual property. The buildings and stance, she of man and woman, and equality of full comforts are grounds Shakerdom has always been conductand improvements which have been on that basis.' But democratic ed added by the busy, skillful hands of was not known in her government one generation after another. and made the rule of her she day, It would seem as if plenty of peocommunities despotic, through an nor comfort In who live neither ple, and elder at the head of each eldress plenty outside, would be thankful to their own succes enter this peaceful retreat and know family, appointing no on their aucheck with and sors, they were provided for for life, with thority. no harder work than they would do Eldress Anna now holds the reins anywhere. But they do not come. The with a hand of Iron in the North famShakers are anxious to get new members. They do not want the sect to ily. She Is of the type of the born Her face is that of the ascetic perish from the face of the earth. Its priest. and the devotee. She Is able, consciof a matter are numbers dwindling distress to them. It is for this reason entious and profoundly religious, hut that they have within recent years she is an autocrat. One 8candal In Community. adopted a more liberal policy. In forThere was one scandal at Mount mer years the world was never permitted to enter their gates except for Lebanon once, Just once, but It is with bated breath. Two still whispered strictly necessary business. now in his 60s, entered One took brother, the unprecedentyears ago they ed Btep of calling a peace convention, the community at 13, bringing $4,000 which attracted many distinguished with him. With the flight of years he( able' speakers and visitors. They serve was made elder, being a most dinners through the pleasant weather and devoted member. A few years now, and the automobile folk from ago, after the brother had spent nearLenox and Stockbrldge find these an ly 50 years in service of the comagreeable goal. Last summer, for munity, a new sister entered. She the first time in history, one of the was a stranger, young and fair, but most exemplar? in her conduct and families took summer boarders. These activities have been profita- obedience. To the horror of the whole family ble, but morthan profit the Shakers to-da- 1 h in n let-ter- to-da- New York. Up in the Berkshire Hills there is a vast estate, containing many thousands of acres, In one of the most beautiful regions of America, and which belongs to a small community of which the large must soon pass away. majority Seven miles this estate runs along the country roads. Spurs from the Berkshires cross it and lovely valleys lie between. In one of these valleys clusters a group of houses which have slowly accumulated during a hundred years and more. Good houses they are, well-buiand large, filled with every convenience and comfort, and surrounded with trim gardens, shaded drives It looks and deep fruited orchards. like a little paradise in summer. The place woqld be suitable for a great charitable or educational institution, sanitarium or summer boarder enterprise. There are many rich farms In the great estate. In the hands of those who knew how to manage it the whole would form a holding of great value. As it is, the title rests in a community of about 80 persons, of which the majority must in the course of nature die within the next few years, and into which no new members are entering. Who Is going to become the final owner of the great Shaker property at Mount Lebanon, N. Y.? Which of the younger women of the community will be the last survivor of an organization formed more than a century lt TV, woman-mumme- Eldress Anna would read all she sent or received, and she would ask the eldress permission for avery act of her life, as a child does its mother. At the end of six weeks she loft to begin her struggle with poverty again, preferring that to her. , I He gave a start of surprise and pleasure. "Why, yes, thanks," he said. had a couple on my way here, but I think I could stand another. ' $? reIt awakened one morning to find Broago; and what will she do with this sought new material from which to numbers. ther Ephraim and the new sister their dwindling when plenish it vast, deserted place by law gone. Worse yet. Brother Ephraim, Conservatism Triumphed. passes Into her hands? For no new who handled the banking business of members are entering the Shaker This policy seemed good at first not only his commounlty to remain permanently. During the summer of the peacecon-ventlo- n the family, had taken own but more, being $6,000 $4,000 .The community is slowly but surely new entered members seven ready dying out. the North family. By winter all were every cent of the familys shame Rather Its than money. betray of two of is them gone. The history Survivors Will Be Women. to the world the family made no sign The last survivors will undoubtedly an example of the rest Both were and never strived to recover Its $10,-00an one In of men the life; prime be women. The great majority of the members are now women, about 66 American who had been the financial One morning, all wet with sleet out of the 80. The younger members editor of a big daily paper, the other and cold as tee, Brother Ephraim are all women. These younger women a London merchant Both belonged came creeping In and told his tale are mostly In the fifties, although the to that small but persistent percentto whom com- with aobs and tears. He followed the youthful appearance of age of the population remarkably of Adam strictly and laid it all Shaker women makes them look munistic life is attractive. Otherwise authority woman She had bewitched on all the to to waa take them there nothing In many cases at least 15 years him, he said. He could not resist receives no for Shaker the any all place, of The younger. great majority but Just as soon as the money the members are aged women, ran- personal emolument All goes into her, was gone she had left him, and then common the treasury. well from seventies the along ging These two men saw possibilities in be aobbed again. He brought bnck toward the nineties. one dollar of the $10,000. It had Eldress Harriet Bullard, who Is at the place. They advanced various not flown with wings, for they lived high. more profitable. for it making plans the bead of all the Shakers in the After CO years of celibacy, Brother United Statea, la well over 80. So is They entered with enthusiasm into whole Ephraim had gone on one grand of the the idea ihodernlnzlng head of the Anna the Eldress White, bust." In touch It with North family, the moat distinguished organization, bringing In the world, woday The crime waa one even more depreesnt getting old Shakerdom. In These family men are marvels of activity and fresh blood and building up a strong, testable to the Shakera than to ordimore. nary folk. But Brother Ephraim was achievement for their age, like all growing organization once to do allowed were so useful a man that they had been at nothing. They Shaker women. Yet they can hardly live many years longer; and consider- Everything they proposed was vetoed their wits ends to get on without be- him. So they took him back and set ing the large number of them of about by those In authority, and they the same age there must within the came conscious of an unspoken but him to work, and he lives a chastened and humbled man, and a firm believer next few years bo a marked diminu- acute Jealousy. Gradually they aaw they were to be In the superman. tion of numbers. How will the few who remain man- reduced to simply two pair of hands, End Must Be 8oon. orage this great place, already too vast doing the manual tasks that were for the survivors? Miles of Shaker dered, like little boys. Their brains That la the only scandal Shaker-lan- d territory He unoccupied and unproduc- were not wanted, their new Ideas ever had. They are clean, hontive. One great house in the valley, were not wanted, and they had to est, people, who live the with its big barns and outbuildings, take orders from men who were men- simple life, with plain living and high went Then Inferiors. their they stands vacant It family died out tally None of the vices of the thinking. within a fow years past and it is away, and by winter the rest of the age are theirs. Yet year by year seven had followed them. quietly falling to decay. there are more of those strange, silent now. the Joins Shakers Nobody One Woman's Experience. Shaker funerals, when by night, withPeople enter from time to time, stay A young woman went to, Mount out music, flowers or weeping, they a few weeks or months and then go Lebanon last summer, thinking, per- carry out a rough plank box to a away. The Shakera have taken chil- haps, she might Join. She was a nameless, unmarked grave. Nobody dren from time to time to ralae and dreamer and an idealist. She had comes to fill the vacant chair, and have raised them well. But when they had a hard and poverty-strickelife soon a picturesque, historic experiwore grown these children nearly al- for a few years, and she waa ment, the only experiment In Ameripenniways slipped quietly away Into the less. The life attracted her, the work can Protestant monastic life, will see big world outside. waa congenial, she liked all the Its end. The only question is which conditions. But she found that of the Shaker sisters will be left the Rich and Prosperous Yet a hundred yeare ago that valley should she become a member she last possessor of that seven miles of at Mount Lebanon was a busy hive of would never azaln have a moment's land and the group of great empty Working or sleeping, an houses with their century old Industry, Inhabited by hundreds of privacy. hardy, thrifty New Englanders of a otbar woman would be always with 0. hard-workin- ma-terla- . |