1 bridled Etoile-Filnnte and ridden out of the camp without warning or fare well to any. Thus she went, knowing nothing of his fate. And with the sun rise went also the woman whom be loved la Ignorance, r' "Do not think me without feeling without sympathy, pity" "If you loved me," he pursued pas sionately "Ah, God! The very wort from me to you sounds Insult! - And yet there is not one thought In me thai sounds insult if yon loved me, could you stand there and bid me drag 01 on the air: "Who goes therer Cecil never heard It Even the old, long accustomed habits of a, soldier's obedience were killed in him. "Who goes there?" the challenge. rang again. uu ne never neara, out went on blindly. From where the tents stood ' there was ft stronger breadth of light , through which he had passed and was passing still light strong enough for It to be seen whence he came, but not strong enough to show his features. "Halt or I flrer The sentinel brpught the weapon to his shoulder and took a calm, close, sure aim. He did not speak. The password be bad forgotten as though he had never heard or never given It - Another figure than that of the sol dlej on guard came out of the shadow and stood between him and the senti nel. It was that of Chateauroy. He was mounted on his gray horse and wrapped In his military cleak, about to go the round of the cavalry camp. "It A one of my men," said the chief carelessly to the sentinel. "Leave me to deal with him." The guard saluted and resu -d his beat "Why did you refuse the word, sirf , "I did not hear." 'vnooatjor me, veneuar i "way are yon absent from your this life forever, nameless, friendless, squadron?" hopeless, having all the bitterness but There was no reply. ', none of the torpor of death, wearlnf "Have you no tongue, air! Why are out the doom of a galley slave, though you here?" guiltless of all crime?" 1 There was again no answer, : "Why speak so? Ton are unreason Cbateauroy's teeth ground out ft ru ing. A moment ago yon Implored mi rlous oath. Yet a flash of brutal de- not to tempt yon to the violation oi light guttered In his eyes. At last he what you hold your honor. Because J had hounded down this man, so long eld you be faithful to It you deem m out of his reach, into disobedience and cruel." , I contumacy. "Heaven help me! X scarce kmra . "Why are you here, and where have what I say. I ask yoa If yoa were you been?" be demanded once more, 'woman who loved me could yoa decidi "I will not say." thus?" ' - The dark and evil countenance above "These are wild questions," she mur him grew livid with fury. murtd. "What can they serve? I be' "I can have you thrashed like a dog ileve that I should I am sure that J for that answer, and I will. But first fthould. As It is as yonr friend" "Ah, hush! Friendship Is craeler thai Hate." "Cruel?" "Yes, the worst cruelty when we seek love a stone proffered us when we ask for bread in famine!" listen!! know as well as though you had confessed to me. Your silence cannot shelter your great mistress' sham. . Ah, ha, la Faustine! So ma dame your princess Is so cold to her equals only to choose her lovers out of I my blackguards and take her midnight "Lord Royallieu," she said slowly, ai ; intrigues like a camp courtesan!" if the familiar name v.-ere some tie be k Cecil's face changed terribly as the tween them, some cause of excuse for Tile words were, spoken. With tho these the only love words she bad evei I light and rapid spring of a leopard be team without disdain and rejection-; reached the side of his commander. cue ubuu ou lue uorse s mane, tue out er on the wrist of bis chief, that it gripped like an iron viae. "You lie, and you know that you lie! Breathe her name once more, and. by heaven, as we are both h Tag men," I will have your life for rour outrage!" And as he spoke witn his left hand he smote the lips that had blasphemed against her. ' r A 1 , - Chateauroy wrenched his wrist out of the hold that crushed it and drew his pistol. Cecil knew that the laws of active service would hold him but Just ly dealt with if the shot laid him dead lu that instant for bio act and hht words. "You can kill me; I know It. Wet!. use your prerogative; it will be tlu sole good you have ever done to me." . And he stood erect patient, motion less, looking into Lis cIiAf s es w::li a calm disdain, with '. ' a nuuetered challenge that for tl:e n.t moment wrung something of savage'.- respect fnd oi' sullen admiration out from the soul of his great foe. lie did hot fire. It was the only time in which any, trait of abstinence from craelty had been ever seen in bim. HO planed to the soldiers of the guard with one hand, while with the other he still covered with his pistol the man whom martial law would have allowed him to have shot down or have cut down at his horse's feet "Arrest him," he said simply. Cecil offered no resistance. lie let them seize and disarm him without an effort at the opposition which could have been but a futile, unavailing trial of brute fwce. lie dreaded lest there should be one sound that should reach her In that tent where the triad of standards drooped in the dusky dis tance. He was content with what he had done content to have met once, not as a soldier to chief, but as man to man, the tyrant who held his fate. None knew, not even Cigarette. be :;t alone, so fnr away that none sought hor out, besMa the picket Ere tli.it Lad lor.s died out, with the Ut'Je white 60s of Zaralla curled on theses riot falJsof "Lord ' Eoyalileu, ; It Is unworthy of jpou to take this advantage of an inter Tlew which I sought and sought fof your own sake. You pain me; yot wound me. I cannot tell how to an , ftwer you. You speak strangely and "Without warrant ' He stood mute and motionless befo flber. his head sunk on his chest fit "knew that she rebuked him Justly, . "Forgive me, for pity's sake! Aftei tonight 1 shall never look upon youi race again," - - "I do forgive," she said gently, while ner voice grew very sweet. "You en--dure too much already for one neediest pang u vm aaaed by me. All 1 wisn is that you had never met me, so that this last worst thing had not come unto .-you! You wrong me If you think that I could be so callous, so indifferent as to leave you here without heed as to your fate. Believe In your Innocence! You know that I do as firmly as though you substantiated it with a thousand proofs. Reverence your devotion to your honor! You are certain that I must or all better things were dead hi me. You reject my friendship. Yoi term It cruel, but at least it will be, faithful to you too faithful for nic to pass out of Africa and never give you one thought again. I believe In you Do you not know that that Is the high est trust to my thinking, that one hu man life can show In another's? You decide that It Is your duty not to free . yourself from this bondage, not to ex yose the actual criminal, not to take np your rights of birth. I dare not seek to alter that decision, but I cannot leave you to such a future without infinite pain, and there must there shall be moans through which you will let me hear of you, through which, at least, I can know that you are living." . .. She stretched her hands toward him with that same gesture with which the had first declared her faith in his Cuiltlessness. The tears trembled iu t.cr voice and swam la her eyes. lie : r;aij; echni "G.i If I f r 1 c i t ! f t' c . 1 1 her hands in his and held thorn ntrainst Lis breast one lustaut t the loud, hard ranting of his ard you! Col' keep you! z hear d rew '!V, I 1 f r :i t s 11 t v 1 1 :t we 1 f ever 1; 1 t J v. Let t I ! rt r I r I I - rt, t' e r'..-ir t j vr lr In h t: ' 1 H ' h 1 t ' r 1 'i 1 . 1 1 tl.e r 1 1 r s pi-, ( '.. 1 Kr the s hal 'h.vI 1 V ; 1 .M 1 1 CHAPTER XXIL IB warm, transparent light of an African autumnal noon shone down through the white canvas roof of a great tent In the heart of the encamped divisions at the headquarters of the army of the south. In the tent there was a densely packed throng, an immense, close, bushed, listening crowd, of which ev ery man wore the uniform of France, for they were In court and that court was the court martial of their own southern camp. The prisoner was arraigned on the heaviest charge that can be laid against the soldier of any army, and yet as the many eyes of the military crowd tu ra ta on mm wnere ne sxooa surrounaea by his guard, his crime against bis chief was forgotten, and they only re membered Zaraila. He preserved en tire reticence in court The Instant the accusation had been read to, him he had seen that bis chief would not dare to couple with it the proud, pure name be bad dared to outrage. - His most bitter anxiety was thus at an end. For all the rest be was tranquiL No case could be clearer, briefer, less complex, more entirely Incapable of de fense. The soldiers of the guard gave evidence as to the violence and' fury of the assault The accuser merely stated that, meeting bis corporal out of the bounds of the cavalry camp, he had asked him where be bad been and on bis commanding an answer bad been assaulted hi the manner ' described with violence sufficient to have cost bis life had not the guard been so near at band. The statement passed without contradiction by the prisoner, who only repnea that the facts were, stated ac curately as they occurred and that bis roasons for the deed be declined to as sert When it was finally demanded of him if be bad aught to urge In bis own extenuation, he paused ft moment with gaze under which even the hard eagle eyes grew restless, looked across to. Chateauroy and addressed bis an tagonist rather than the president: Only this that ft tyrant a liar and a tradncer cannot wonder if men pre- rer death to submission beneath insult But I am well aware that this Is no vindication of my act as a soldier, and I. have no desire to say words which. whatever their truth, jnight become hereafter dangerous legacies and dan gerous precedents to the army." ' That was all which he answered, and neiuier ms counsel nor his accusers could extort another syllable from bim He never moved once while the decree of death was read to bim, and there was no change In the wearv calmness of his eyes. He bent bis head In ac- qaiescence. "It Is well be said simply. It seemed well to bim. Dead, bis secret would lie In the grave with him and the long martyrdom of his life be ended. In the brightness of the noon Ciga rette leaned out of her little oval case ment and, for the first time also, hap piness was not with her. They were, gone forever all the elas tic Joyahce, all the free, fair hours, all the dauntless gayety of childhood, all the sweet, harmonious laughter of a heart without a care. They were gone forever, for the touch of love and pain had been laid on her, and never again would her radiant eyes smile cloud lessly, like the young eagle's, at a sun Jhat rose fci;t ' to be greeted as only youth can greet, another dawn of life that Is without a shadow. To her It seemed." impossible:. that 'this patrician who had his passion should not return it She only thought of love as she had rlwnys seen it quickly born, hotly cLemhed, wholly indulged and without ti or restraint. "And I came without my vengeance!" she mused. To the nature that felt the ferocity of the veudrtta a right and a due there was wouudinrr humili ation In her knowledge that r.he hnd left her rival unharmed and hndVorue hither, out from his '-night and his presence, lest he should see In her one glimpse of that folly which sin would have killed herself uuder her own steel rather than have betrayed either for his contempt or his compassion. The touch of a bird's wing brushing her hair brought the dreamy compari son to her wandering thoughts. She started and lifted her head. It was ft blue carrier pigeon, one of the many 6he fed at that casement and the swift est and surest of several she sent with messages for the soldiers between the various stations and corps. She had forgotten she had left the bird at the encampment. She caressed It absently, while the tired creature sank down on her bosom. Then only she saw that there was ft letter beneath one wing. She found an old French cobbler sit ting at a stall in a casement stitching L ather. lie was her customary reader and fcciibe la this quarter. She touch ed Liai with tke paper. "Good 111 tllotu, wilt thou read this to me?" Ar.1 L f" 1 aloud: Of a woman in perfect health attracts the ere at once. Sucb a woman is all too rarely art-a. . The most of wotcci; bear scars of suffering on their free kich no smile can bide, and often in their very carriage betray the womanly weakness which oppresses them. There can be no perfect health for the woman who suffers from dis ease of the delicate womanly organ ism. Her general health is to inti mately related to the local health of the womanly or gans that these must be cured be fore the general health can be established. Dr. Pierce's fa vorite Prescript! on snakes weak women strong and sick women well. - It cures womanly dis orders and diseases; brightens the dull Se, rounds out the hollow cneeK ana ves strength for wifely duties and maternal cares. i',; ':' Ht health is the bent now that It has fccca fiv (our yeara. write Mrs. rhebe ftforrta, of Ira, Cawa Co., N. Y., Box 51 "I bav taken mh two bottle of your medicine. Favorite Pre. acripttoa and 'Golden Medical Diaooverr. These medicines have done me more good than all that I have ever taken before. I couldn't do my work only about half the time, and now I can work, all the time for a family of foor. Before I took your medicines I waa sick la bed earl half the time. My advice to all who are troubled with irmale weakness is to take Dr. Pierce's Pnvorite Prescription and 'Golden Med ical Discovery the most wonderful medicines la the world." 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