Part 65 (2/2)

”Read that, if you please.”

Opening the letter, these lines stared Belknap in the face:

You have broken your pledge, Jerry Belknap. I have had you under my eye constantly. Fortunately for yourself, I can make use of you.

Follow the instructions of the bearer of this _to the letter_ now and until further notice, if you hope for any mercy from

BATHURST.

He stared at the open letter as if it possessed the eyes of a basilisk.

Instantly he recognized the power behind the scenes, and was no longer surprised at his failures. And he turned upon his companion a look of sullen submission.

”I know better than to kick against Bathurst,” he said doggedly. ”What does he want me to do?”

”That's just what we are going to talk about,” said the stranger, coolly. ”Draw your chair up closer, Jerry.”

CHAPTER XL.

”TOO YOUNG TO DIE.”

Over days, filled with weary waiting and marked by few incidents and no discoveries, we pa.s.s with one glance.

Clifford Heath's trial follows close upon his indictment. A month rolls away, and with the first days of winter comes the a.s.sembling of judge and jury, and his case is the first one called.

During the weeks that have intervened between his arrest and this day of his trial, Constance has been his bravest champion and truest friend; she has stimulated him to hope, and incited him to courage, with loving, cheerful words, while clinging desperately to a last remnant of her own sinking hope.

Day by day, during all this time, the ancient gig driven by Doctor Benoit, deposited that gentleman before the doors of Mapleton. Sybil's delirium had ended in a slow, wearisome fever, which left her, as the first frosts of winter touched the land, a white, emaciated shadow of her former self, her reason restored, but her memory sadly deficient.

She had forgotten that dark phase of her life in which John Burrill had played so sinister a part, and fancied herself back in the old days when her heart was light and her life unfettered. She had dropped a year out of that life, but memory would come back with strength, the doctor said; and Mrs. Lamotte dreaded the days when that memory should bring to her daughter's brow, a shadow never to be lifted; into her life a ghost never to be laid.

Evan, too, had narrowly escaped death at the hands of his rum demons; after four weeks filled with all the horrors attendant upon the drunkard's delirium, he came to his senses, hollow-cheeked, sunken eyed, emaciated, with his breath coming in quick, short gasps, and the days of his life numbered.

Brandy had devoured his vitals; late hours and protracted orgies had sapped his strength; constant exposure in all weather and at all hours had done its work upon his lungs.

”If he outlasts the Winter, he will die in the Spring.” This was the doctor's _ultimatum_.

News from the outside world was strictly shut out from those sick ones.

The name of John Burrill never was breathed in their presence, and both were ignorant of the fact that Clifford Heath, an old time favorite with each, was on trial for his life.

The morning that saw Clifford Heath quit his cell to take his place in the felon's dock and answer to the charge of murder, saw Sybil Lamotte lying upon a soft divan, before a merry Winter fire. It was the first time since her illness that she had quitted her bed. And Evan, too, for the first time in many weeks, came with feeble, halting steps to his sister's room, and sitting near her, scanned her wasted features with wistful intentness.

”Poor sis!” he murmured, stroking her hand softly. ”We've had a pretty hard pull, you and I, but we're coming out famously.” And then he added to himself, ”More's the pity, so far as I am concerned.”

”What made you ill, Evan?” she whispered feebly. ”Was it worrying about me?”

<script>