Over the broad, dark river, and the snow-covered earth the cold winter
moonlight lay in great, silvery bars of light.
The terrible snowstorm of two days before was over. The sky was clear
and starry, and no trace remained of the storm save the deep, white
carpeting of the beautiful snow.
Midnight was tolling from the great bell in the city, but Queenie
Ernscliffe sat at her window staring out at the night with wide,
sleepless eyes.
On a couch at the opposite side of the room lay Mrs. Bowers snoring
audibly. She had slept in Queenie's room ever since the night she had
effected her escape and her constant vigilance had entirely frustrated
any other attempt of the kind.
While Jennie Thorn had been dwelling in her Fool's Paradise, our heroine
had been suffering all the horrors of imprisonment and despair.
She had heard very little of the farmer's pretty daughter since the day
she came to live there, but she knew she had remained with them, for she
had seen her a few times walking in the garden beneath her window,
prettily, even richly dressed, and she knew too well what that meant.
She felt very sorry for the poor girl who had been so deaf to her words
of friendly warning.
Queenie was sadly altered for the worse since these long months of
imprisonment and wretchedness. Her garments hung loosely about her
attenuated form, her cheeks were thin and hollow, and her once bright
eyes were dim with weeping, and looked too wild and large for her small,
pathetic, white face. Her days and nights were passed in sleepless
wretchedness, much to the annoyance of the housekeeper, who declared
that she could not rest well while her refractory charge kept the light
burning as she did the long nights through, for she could not bear to
have darkness add its additional gloom to the horror of her thoughts.
While she sat and stared wearily out at the midnight scene, the
housekeeper snored herself awake and began to complain.
"Mercy's sake, girl, go to bed, and put the light out. I declare I
cannot sleep a wink with the gas shining in my eyes!"
"You have been _snoring_ uninterruptedly for several hours!" answered
Queenie, coldly. "How do you suppose I can sleep when you keep up such a
noise with your breathing?"
"Well, I never!" exclaimed Mrs. Bowers. "This is the first time I was
ever accused of snoring!"
Queenie did not speak for a moment. Presently she turned her head around
and said, abruptly:
"Mrs. Bowers!"
Mrs. Bowers, who was falling asleep again, gave a grunt in token that
she heard.
"What has become of that pretty girl you brought home from Farmer
Thorn's?"
"She went away two days ago," was the sleepy reply.
"With Leon Vinton, I presume," said Queenie, scornfully.
"No, she went alone."
"Betrayed and abandoned, no doubt," said Queenie, bitterly.
"Something like that, certainly," answered the housekeeper, carelessly,
and with that she turned over and went to sleep again, leaving Queenie
to her own reflections.
They were not pleasant ones, certainly. The room was chilly, and she
took up a shawl, wrapped it about her shoulders, and went back to her
lonely vigil, pressing her forehead against the pane while she looked
out into the cold winter night.
"Oh, to be out there in the night, and the cold, and the darkness," she
murmured. "Oh, to feel the breath of freedom on my brow once more, and
hope within my heart!
"How lonely, how dreary everything seems," she went on. "How dark and
dreary the river looks except where the bars of moonlight touch it with
brightness; how ghostly and skeleton-like the trees appear, tossing
their naked arms in the breeze; how weird and melancholy the silent,
deserted earth looks at midnight!"
Suddenly she started and uttered a low cry.
She fancied that she had seen a dark form darting cautiously about the
garden beneath the windows.
She looked out again, and for a moment she thought herself mistaken, but
directly the dark form of a man appeared from behind a tree, and
skirting a strip of moonlight with cautious footsteps, disappeared in
the shadows.
"What can that man be after?" she thought. "It is not Leon Vinton. Whom,
then, can it be? Perhaps a burglar."
She continued to watch for him, and presently she saw him take up his
station under a tree near the gate as if watching or waiting for
someone.
"It must be a burglar," she said to herself. "He is waiting for his
accomplice to come that they may rob the house. Shall I wake Mrs. Bowers
and tell her?"
She mused a moment, still watching the dark, mysterious form lurking
under the shadow of the trees near the gate.
"No, I will not tell her," she concluded. "What does it matter to me? I
care not what they do. Perhaps they may enter this room, and by some
means I may effect my escape."
Her heart began to beat at the thought, and the light of hope came into
her beautiful eyes, brightening her whole face.
She continued to watch the mysterious figure, expecting every minute to
see his accomplice appear on the scene; but the hours passed slowly by
and the man still remained at his post alone.
At the first peep of dawn he went away, leaving Queenie perplexed and
doubtful.
"Who can it be?" she asked herself. "It seems quite evident that he is
not here for the purpose of robbery. What, then, is he after? Can it be
some friend of mine?"
The thought overpowered her with joy.
"Oh, why did I not raise the window and give him some signal?" she
thought.
Then she remembered that the windows had been tightly fastened down by
Leon Vinton's orders, so that she could not raise them.
"I have suffered my hopes to lead my reason astray," she thought then,
with sudden despair. "Of course it is not anyone to help me. No one
knows that I am living except Leon Vinton and the wicked woman sleeping
yonder. Papa, Lawrence--all of them, think my body lies at this moment
moldering in the grave. Oh, Lawrence--oh, papa! what would I not give to
see you again!"
She little dreamed that the father she loved so fondly had died of a
broken heart over her loss.
She thought of him every day and longed to see him almost as she longed
to see the husband from whose side she had been torn at the very altar
by the vindictive malice of Leon Vinton.
The next day from her position at the window she saw the same dark
figure of a man pass up and down before the cottage at intervals at
least a dozen times. A broad, slouch hat was pulled over his brows,
effectually concealing his features from Queenie's sight.
"The mystery deepens," she thought, "the man, whoever he is, evidently
is watching this house. But with what object, I wonder?"
At night he appeared again, and passed the long, cold hours pacing up
and down the garden until dawn.
Every day for four days the man kept up this restless espionage. It
seemed to Queenie that he neither ate nor slept, so constantly did he
appear at his post. She became greatly interested in the mysterious
watcher.
"Mrs. Bowers," she said one night, "where is Leon Vinton?"
"In town, I suppose," said the housekeeper.
"When is he coming back?"
"To-morrow, I suppose. He has been gone a week and he said that he would
return in that time. Do you want to see him?"
"No, indeed--I hope I shall never see him again!" said Queenie, shortly,
turning back to the window.
The next day while she was watching the mysterious man as he paced up
and down the snowy road opposite the house, she saw Leon Vinton ride up
to the gate, dismount and tie up his horse.
Involuntarily she looked over at the mysterious stranger. He was rapidly
crossing the road toward Leon Vinton.
A gust of wind blew off his broad, slouch hat, and a startled cry broke
from Queenie's lips.
She had instantly recognized the man!
It was Farmer Thorn!
She instantly comprehended the object of his daily and nightly
espionage.
He was watching for Leon Vinton that he might avenge the wrongs of his
daughter.
Clasping her hands in breathless agitation, Queenie waited for the
_denouement_.
Leon Vinton opened the gate and passed inside. Farmer Thorn, having
replaced his hat, walked in behind him.
The next moment Leon Vinton felt a grasp of steel upon his arm.
He was whirled violently around face to face with the enraged man whom
he had wronged, and felt the muzzle of a pistol pressed against his
breast.
"Accursed villain!" shouted the farmer, in a voice of thunder, "thus do
I avenge a daughter's wrongs!"
Queenie heard the terrible words, followed by a loud report, saw a
wreath of blue smoke curling upward, and Leon Vinton fell like a log on
the snowy path. With a terrible shudder she saw his life-blood spurting
out, dyeing the pure snow with a terrible scarlet stain.
Farmer Thorn looked down at his victim, spurned him with his foot, and
replacing the pistol in his breast, walked rapidly away. At the same
moment the front door opened hurriedly, and Mrs. Bowers ran out,
followed by a servant. Both of them ran screaming down the path to the
side of their master.