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Show A FELON'S LOVE. ; BY HENRY W. KESFIELD. great was his abhorrec7MiT but, as he had provided him, ,,'aas; a pack-horse well-laden with ? wltb grog, Mr. Hall could not well m him from accompanying them PrereW As matters turned out, it woln , . been very much better for Mr s e if he had allowed himself to I suaded; but the majority of dis" people, when talking the affS-enSitl!9 In after years, were decidedly nr Ver ion that It was a very good L0' every one else that he had joined n expedition. a the The commotion on the station on , morning when the expedition start! e search of the fugitives was trem.' . 'n Pack-saddles were being adh, ,U3' restive brutes who.e sole aim "nf ! ject was to kick themselves fr.'e , their encumbrances. All sorts c' v were forgotten and remembered at the last momer t Jl,sl At last the cavalcade got under and Mrs. Hall and her daughter vs!?' ed it across the plain from the v?, dah of the house until the guJ! which lined the creek for some l T' hid It from view. mlles. The expedition proceeded some ttr ty miles or more without any difficult'" in fact, the country was familiar , nearly all the riders. Several ., out-stations were passed, where bo dary riders and shepherds in Mr H,iv' eyes, and then, turning from him, moved slowly toward the fireplace, and vanished from his sight. William Luke awoke to find himself standing on the bare earth of the hut. The moon shone brightly through the open window, upon the spot where. In his dream, he had last seen his brother. This time he remembered all he had dreamed. CHAPTER XV. The finding of the piece of waist-belt waist-belt marked with Robert Luke's initials caused much excitement among the men on the station. Nothing more, however, could be discovered, and for several weeks Luke hunted about the place In vain, hoping that he might succeed in finding still another link In the chain of evidence which might lead to some trace of his lost brother. In the meantime the whole colony "He is there." he cried "foully murdered mur-dered and buried there! Heaven help me if I am going mad!" Then, rushing down to the huts where the men slept, he awakened the whole station. In less than an hour sturdy men, with lanterns to light them at their work, were busily engaged with pickaxes pick-axes and shovels in raising the hearth inside the hut. had again become interested in the affair, af-fair, chiefly from the fact that no traces could be found either of Baynes or his wife; and, as it became certain that the missing couple had not traveled trav-eled toward the coast, as Baynes had said they intended doing, the matter grew daily more and more mysterious. Days and weeks passed by, and yet nothing fresh concerning the disap-.pearance disap-.pearance of Robert Luke came to light. His brother began to despair, and at last one night he announced his intention inten-tion of returning to England. employ lived their quiet uneventf, lives. ul At one of these they halted for tl, night, much to the disgust of the oto "hatter" who lived there with hi flocks, and who nursed a wholesoJ antipathy to the entire human race "Cranky Jim." he was called, and if a love of absolute solitude entitled him to the name, he was undoubtedly de. serving of it. Had he seen two people pass that way about ten weeks ago? No, he had not seen two people pass that wav-and, wav-and, what was more, he did not want to see them. One was a woman was it? Ah, well, a woman was naught to him; he had seen enough of women in his time, he had! His oth Luke, in a wild state of excitement, was directing and urging them on to their labors. The scene was a curious one, as the whole population of the place was gathered in and around the hut speculating as to what possible discovery dis-covery there might be made. The men had removed the rough stones upon the hearth, and had dug some four feet deep into the earth, when they stopped to take breath. "Go on go on!" shouted Luke. "Deeper down yet deeper down!" "Keep quiet, Luke!" remonstrated Mr. Hall. "Your exciting yourself like this can do no good." Luke sat down upon a bench and buried his face in his hands. He could not endure even the moment's delay which the men required for rest from "It is of no use my remaining here," he said. "Besides I must go home and look after my business. I have done my best, and I can do no more. But to my dying day I shall believe that that Baynes and his wife were somehow some-how or other mixed up with the disappearance disap-pearance of my brother." That night he went up to the hut for the last time. Having strapped up the few things he possessed in his valise, he made all preparations for starting early the next morning. Then he retired to rest. Once more William Luke dreamed. This time he heard the same voice their toil. Again the hut resounded with the sound of the pick and shovel at work. But Luke looked up no more. Mr. Hall's words had soojd his overwrought mind, and he waited patiently for what might come. "Here's something anyhow," cried one of the men "a man's hand!" Luke sprang to his feet, now unable to control his excitement. "Gently we are on it now!" said one. "There is more beneath. Mercy on us it's Bob!" There, dismembered, lay the remains of what once had been Robert Luke. "At last! I knew it I knew it!" said a voice solemnly; and William Luke sank down upon a bench, shielding shield-ing his eyes with his hands from the horrid sight, and cried, "Now . may Heaven send me my revenge!" CHAPTER XVI. There was not the slightest difficulty in identifying the body, for the man's clothes, even to the other half of the broken belt, were buried with him. When William Luke narrated his dream, men looked at one atw crying out, "Help help!" He did not awake, but wearily answered an-swered in his sleep "I am here, Bob. What do you want? I have done the best I can, and I can do no more." They were the words which he had used that night when he wished the men good-by. Presently his dream took a more substantial form. He beheld the hut in which he slept lighted by a solitary "slush" lamp. Upon the bed where he lay he saw the figure of a woman, sitting with her head resting upon her hands. She seemed to be reading some old newspaper, and remained re-mained perfectly motionless, as if deeply deep-ly intent upon what she read. Then Luke heard a noise, as of some one outside out-side the hut. In his vision his sense of hearing seemed almost painfully acute. The woman also heard the noise, and raised her head as if In alarm. He could not catch a glimpse of her face, for as she sat upon the edge of thf bed her features were turned way from him. Saddenly he heard a voice speaking from without. Luke started in his sleep, for it was the voice of his brother! were so full of imprecations and blasphemy blas-phemy that Mr. Hall ceased to interrogate interro-gate him. On the second day they halted about noon in sight of the sand-hills. This was the great barrier which they knew lay between the grass country on the Barrier side and the Gray Ranges. Mr. Hall had wisely insisted upon all the water-bags being fifilled up at the last good water-hole; and he felt convinced con-vinced that, with the supply they carried, car-ried, the fifty or sixty milesi of desert ought to be safely crossed by man and beast. It was within two hours of sundown when the little party entered the unknown un-known region. The horses staggered wearily along, occasionally sinking into in-to the sand up to their knees, and struggling through the scrub aad prickly mimosa which grew plentifully in places upon the low hills. Nightfall came on, and the cavalcade encamped; there was no sign of water, and they had to draw upon the supply they carried with them. Jack Hall had more than once entered enter-ed these inhospitable regions in search of lost cattle, and he was under the belief be-lief that a more fertile country lay beyond be-yond it how far distant of course he could not say; but, from what he had gathered from the blacks he believed three days would see them through the worst of it. For two long days the travelers tolled on through the heavy drifts of sand, but towards sundown on the third day they beheld trees ahead, at the sight of which their spirits rose amazingly. Mr. Hall ordered half-rations of water wa-ter to be served out to the men and horses, for he was by no means confident, confi-dent, because he beheld trees in the dim distance, that he was going to find a lake or an inexhaustible well. aghast. Even the most skeptical could not doubt that he had actually seen a vision of the murder as it really happened. hap-pened. The one thing that grieved him was that he had been unable co see the face of the woman in the hut; and thus his suspicions as to the connection con-nection between Edward Bartlett, Anne Dodson, and the late occupants of the hut remained as unconfirmed as before. be-fore. Mr. Hall at once communicated with the police at Mount Gipps, and early the next morning four troopers and some black trackers appeared on the scpnp Mrs. Baynes," it said in a clear, low tone "Mrs Baynes, would you kindly givve me a drop of brandy, if you have such a thing? I am sorry to trouble Fou at this time of night, but I am not very well. I am Luke Bob Luke." The woman, as she listened, clasped her hands together as if in mortal terror, ter-ror, but she answered not a word Presently the voice came again, this time louder and with a more determined deter-mined accent. "Mrs. Baynes d'ye hear, Mrs Baynes?" The woman rose stealthily from her sitting position and stepped toward the fireplace. Unhooking the ero.it wn. Sullivan was the best-provided person of the company, for, besides two huge water-bags, he had a liberal supply sup-ply of spirituous liquors, which he was very liberal in dispensing to himself. (To be Continued.) Nearly two months had elapsed since the departure of Baynes and his wife and nothing at all had been heard of them. That they had murdered Robert Luke there could be no possible doubt The excitement on the station was intense, and people flocked from all parts of the country to witness the scene or the awful crime and to behold the man who had dreamed that fearful dream. It was suggested that an expedition should be sent out to hunt all the country round about. "If they are anywhere in the colony " said Mr. Hall, after a long consultation with the sergeant of the police "it is my opinion that they have taken to the back country somewhere in the direction direc-tion of the Gray Ranges. There they might exist for years, if they happened to drop across a good water-supply unseen un-seen by any mortal eye." "But there is a vast sandy tract of country between this and the Gray is there not?" inquired the sergeant Yes, replied Mr. Hall; "but it is just possible that they succeeded In rossing n. This has been an unusual-iy unusual-iy wet season; and, from whit t, aSaVh Wd ' are ful oT? TUt In that tn wel, w 61'- knWS tIle co- out for weeks together of? e" cattle that have gothat way "I awimn1; tSh'd" thG think beS "8 d What-er you may paek-hor.es, and tZ I that hung from an iron bar by a chain she noiselessly removed the bar from its place and stood clutching it in her right hand, as if prepared to use it as a weapon of defense. William Luke seemed to strain every nerve in his sleep as he endeavored to cry out; but his voice appeared to have left him and his limbs refused to do his bidding. He was like one paralyzed for the time being, with the powers of hearing and seeing alone left to him Then he perceived that the door was being pressed in from without The top part, where there was no bolt showed signs of giving away; another heaving of the door, and yet another loud crash, and William Luke beheld his brother! For several seconds, as it seemed to the dreamer, the figure of Robert Luke stood silently gazing at the woman who stood defiantly facing him Wil' Ham Luke beheld only the face of his brother. The woman's back was turned to him. Robert Luke appeared to be dazzled with the light and unable to see distinctly dis-tinctly the objects around him. Suddenly Sud-denly however he seemed about to speak, but a noise from without the hut, like the sound of a horse galloping gallop-ing up to the door, caused him to look round. The woman, quick as thought, raised the cruel bar of iron in her hands and dealt him a heavy blow unon his skull; and with a wail of "Help help'" Robert Luke fell face downward upon the floor. Then came a blank In the dream, and William saw no more. Presently however he beheld the figure of his brother standing near the bed. Raising Rais-ing himself slowly, he gazed into his face, and, holding out his arms, he endeavored en-deavored to embrace him. His brother looked sadly into his across their tracks " WUllao uE 1 2 Jct' Hall. |