Part 27 (2/2)
”Shall I help you carry her?”
”No,” I answered, drawing back my pure Edith from her outstretched hands ”No, I will carry her”
The woman went on without a word She led the way back to the low and dismal sheds which lay there like a vast charnel-house, and thence to a low hut some distance away from all, where she opened a door She spoke a feords to aA rude cot was there Here I laid the one whom I carried
”Come here,” said I, ”three times a day I will pay you well for this”
The wo I watched She lay un? Soared it aered it alory? Did her seraphic soul e of the holy?
Was she straying amidst the trackless paths of ether with those whoone before?
All night long I watched her as she lay with her eless smile There seemed to be communicated to me an influence from her which opened the eyes of ht to force itself upon her far-off perceptions, that so ither back to earth
The e Mid-day cae I know not hoas, but the superintendent had heard about the grave being opened, and found rave the one whom I had rescued
The horror of that request was so tremendous that it force me into passionless calm When I refused he threatened At his e that he turned pale
”Murderer!” said I, sternly, ”is it not enough that you have sent to the grave many wretches ere not dead? Do you seek to send back to death this single one whom I have rescued? Do you want all Canada and all the world to ring with the account of the horrors done here, where people are buried alive? See, she is not dead She is only sleeping And yet you put her in the grave”
”She is dead!” he cried, in er--”and she must be buried”
”She is not dead,” said I, sternly, as I glared on hiuish--”she is not dead: and if you try to send her to death again you rave except over my corpse, and over the corpse of the first murderer that dares to lay hands on her”
He started back--he and those ith him ”The row excited as I write My hand treht It was ht, and all was still She opened her eyes suddenly, and looked full at , deep-drawn sigh broke the stillness of that lone chaain”--sheht, must I be severed frouish which I had felt at the grave was renewed
”You have brought me back,” said she, mournfully
”No,” I returned, sadly--”not I It was not God's will that you should leave this life He did not send death to you You were sleeping, and I brought you to this place”
”I know all,” sheher eyes ”I heard all while my spirit ay I knohere you found me”
”I aain But this ti, interrupted by frequent sighs I watched her through the long night
At first fever came Then it passed Her sleep became calm, and she slu the superintendent came, followed by a dozen armed men He entered with a frown I ently to the bedside
”See,” I whispered--”but for me she would have been BURIED ALIVE!”
The hastly white with horror, thick drops started froered away He looked at s to one who thinks he has seen a spirit
”Spare me,” he faltered; ”do not ruin me God knows I have tried to doto fear” He turned aith his white face, and departed in silence with his men