SHORT STORY.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 448, 17 November 1904, Page 7

SHORT STORY.

UIDEE A CLOUD. IT £ By I. If. K. Bikua. \ * IA/ELL! Good-bye, Molly, my little T~~ WW heart J In three days' time we'll be back again. I don't half like leaving ye.' * Good-bye, dear, daar, Rob !' He stooped aDd kissed her, and then she stood with her bare feet on the rocks and watched him as he rowed out to the ' White Seal.' And he sang softly to himself, for his heart was fulL.of that great happiness which comes from loving and being loved. Robin Ley was a lucky man. He had been the envy of the village ever since Captain Kingsnorth had taken him on his handsome little yacht. The Captain had anchored one night off Searock, and, to the surprise of the inhabitants, had come ashore. Perhaps it was his desire to have a stranger with him, or. perhaps, an instinctive liking for the young fi-:herman. that induced him to dismiss his own man and engage Robin to look after the ■ White Seal. ; And Robin was glad, for he liked the tall, grave Captain. He was glad, too, for it was a good berth, and ho was preparing a little home of his own. They took the little yacht for many.a cruise round the Cornish coast, alwavs returning to Searock and—Molly. To-day, Robin had arranged the wedding-day. and his thoughts were all with his sweetheart as he made read} the « White Seal.' He was so occupied with his own plans that he did not notice a dreadful look of pain upon Captain Kingsnorih's grave face. ' Captain,' he said, * I want your good wishes. The best girl in Searock is going to be my wife!' The Captain started, and seemed almost to shudder, then he pulled himself together. 'I am very glad, Ley very glad of your happiness. You have been a good friend to me.' ' What ails you, Captain?' asked Robin, anxiously. 'lt was nothing. Perhaps my own misery showed up too strongly in contrast to your happiness. Robin, you know I have not been a happy man for some time, but now I have received an awful and final blow.' Robin stretched out his hand and grasped the Captain's. ' I'm sorry,' he said. Only a few words, yet they meant the truest sympathy that one man can give to another, and the Captain smiled sadly. ' Yes, I know that you are sorry, and it does comfort me. Listen, Robin. I am very fond of you and of Molly, and I am going to.giye.you a wedding present. You will keep it and remember me. Goodnight!' He got up and went down into the little cabin. And Robin, with tears in his eyes, watched him go. He did not question the ; meaning of the Captain's words. He did not wonder. He only remembered his kind friend's look of despair and grieved i with him. Was it minutes, or hours, that Robin sat j on deck, waiting for—he know not what? I Suddenly a pistol shot rang out into the ! night air. Trembling in every limb, Robin \ went below. * Yes, the Captain had taken his own life, j What must have been the agony which had prompted such an act ? Instinctively, the young fisherman removed the hat in the awful presence of death. 1 Poor, poor Captain!' he murmured. • And Molly and I so happy!' Then he caught sight of a little piece of paper lying on the floor.

•Good-bye, Kobinl' he read. 'The 'White Seal' is my marriage present to you and Molly. ' C. Kixgsxokth," The paper fell from his hand and was blown far out over the sea. ' It will be a great shock to Molly,' he thought. 'Why should that kind, good man be made so miserable and we so glad?* He little knew that this very kindness of the Captain was to blot out the sunshine from their lives. Robin Ley was had up before the Assizes, on suspicion of the murder of Captain Eingsnorth. He had come home one night telling a strange story, of how the Captain had shot himself, and left the yacht to him. Appearances were strongly against Robin. Everyone knew tnat he was engaged to be married; and the ' White Seal' was a valuable yacht. What more likely than that he had murdered the Captain to obtain the ship ? Robin's was an improbable, suspicious story, and he had no means of proving that he spoke the truth* No near relatives of Captain Kingsnorth were, however, to b8 found—no one who could give any clue to the myatery, and the case had to be given up on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Yet, as Robin left the court, he knew that a great cloud had settled over his life. He knew that he was still suspected of being a murderer The neighbours had been jealous of him for some time: now their jealousy gave place to open dislike and distrust. He walked home along the beach to Searock, and Molly met him. * Robin, don't look so awful!' she said, as she placed her hand lovingly on his arm. ' It's all right again now.' • Nay, Moll, it's all wrong ! Sweet one, I shall have to leave you. From this moment I set you free from that dear promise which you made me. I will go away from here, and ycu will forget me ' She gave a little cry, but he went on: 4 If I ever have an unclouded name to offer you, I shall come back to Searock. Believe me, Molly, this is best.' There was something almost beautiful in Molly's rough, sunburnt face as she said, firmly: ' Robin! Look at me, and do not stop me until I have finished. I quite understand what this trouble is. I do not pretend that we can be as happy as we thought to be. But this is not your trouble alone—it is mine, too, and we must bear it together. If you go away, it will look as if you are guilty. If you do not marry me, it would look as if I thought you were guilty, and, indeed, Rob, I could not bear thatl' She seemed to grow before his eyes—he \ : felt that it was she now who was strengthenI ing, supporting him. #. * Sweetheart, I cannot let you do it,' he you must. Would you forsake v,.,; 4w if I were in trouble? Do not ask me to leave you for I cannot.' Then he took her up into his arms and they talked it all over together. He did not assure her of his innocence, he trusted her, and she trusted him too well for that. Thus they paced to and fro together and forgot the great cloud which hung over them in the radiant sunshine of each other's love. Ten years had passed. Ten years which had turned Robin into a grave, middle-aged man, and which had streaked Molly's rough hair already with grey. The world had not been kind to these two. The • White Seal' had been sold long ago, but most of the money bad gono towards a

beautiful marble cross, which marked the last resting-place of Captain Kingsnorth. Koom had gone out again with his flsning-boat, but fl e had small success, and the people of Searock little knew how empty Molly's cupboards often were, And the cloud had not yet lifted. Robin was still suspected and mistrusted, and Molly had few friends. Little Bobbie often came home from school crying, because the boys had told him that his father was a murderer. And Molly would almost despair as sho comforted him. Was the cloud to rest upon their children, too? Now an awful outbreak of typhoid fever was raging in the low-lying, straggling fishing village. Scarcely a hut was left unvisited by the awful disease, and the poor fishermen were panic-stricken. Trjincd nurses were sent from the town to grapple with the fever, and among them came Nurse Margaret. She was a beautiful woman, with a whole world of sorrow in her sad, grey eyes. The illness spread to the lonely cottage of the Leys, and Robin was stricken down. Nurse .Margaret went to them. Some feeling of fellowship seemed to bind the nurse to the lonely little wife, and sho devoted herself untiringly to Robin. And Molly grew to love her as she- had never before loved another woman. She knew that Nurse Margaret was above the low suspicion which had poisoned the hearts of the women of Searock against her, and she was satisfied. One day Margaret watched alone by Robin's bedside. Molly had fallen into a tired sleep in the kitchen below. Suddenly the patient raised his head and began to repeat, in an excited,, delirious voice, the history of that. dreadful night ten years ago. ' Oh, Captain!' he cried in agony. ' You alone know that lam innocent! Must we live for ever like this? It's so hard for the children and for Molly !' The face of the nurse who bent over him grow very white, and in a voice full of suppressed feeling and excitement, ?he said : ' Did you say the Captain's name was Kiugsnorth?' ' Aye, it was Captain Kiugsnorth. He was a good master.' The sick man fell back in a heavy sleep, and the nurse buried her face in her hands. 'My Conrad! My Conrad! Why did you mistrust me so ?' Then sho roused herself. 'These poor people! This is the curse ur.der which they have lived. Thank God, I can free them from it!' She softly left the room and went down to the sleeping Molly. ' Molly, I have good news for you.' ' Rob is belter ?' ' No, it is not that. Poor Rob has been going through the. history of a terrible night many years ago.' ' Yes, it is ever on his mind, Nurse. I have wished that you might not hear of it, though I believed you would trust us.' ' Of course I should trust you, Molly.' ' That is good to hear. In the early days, I looked for trust, and did not find it. Now lean hardly understand it.' 'Molly, believe me, I should have believed you anyhow ; but now I must, for I have proof of your husband's innocence.' Molly's large eyes were fixed with hungry expectation upon Margaret's face. * Can you be calm and listen quietly to my story ? We> must be quick because of Robin.'

Molly nodded. 'Well, then, when I was a girl of eighteen, I was engaged to be married to Captain Conrad Kingsnorth, and I loved him well—as well as you love Robin. He was quiet, reserved man, and my aunt did not like him. She wished me to marry Count Rousseau, a Frenchman, and distant cousin of her own. My aunt took me to stay with the Count's people in France, and I believe she spread the report that I was engaged to him. Someone wrote to Conrad and told him this, and he believed it! He wrote to me and told me that he set me free! I was very young, and bitterly hurt at his want of faith in me, and think my very.love for him made me prouder and more angry. I replied that I thanked him for his kindness, and that I knew Count ! Rousseau would make me a good husband.' ' 'And you married the Frenchman?' Molly was following the story with the intensest interest. 'No, Molly. Perhaps you can hardly understand. . I only said that to Conrad because I did not want him to see how much he bad hurt me. I was very young and foolish, and extremely proud, and how could I tell the harm my letter was to do ! I thought he would come out to us and plead with me. God knows, how readily I would have forgiven him !' 'And then?' ' A week after I got his last letter. I have got it still, but I know the words by heart. ' Dearest Margaret, you will not be troubled by me any more. To-day Igo to a country from which I shall never return. My only property, my yacht, I havo left to my only real friend. The Count is rich, and ycu will want for nothing. Good-bye. —Yours always, ' COXBAB.' • I was ill after that, and when I got better I went into a hospital. My aunt said Conrad had gone abroad, and that she had made all possible inquiries. I have since found out that she made none. From the first I knew that he was dead!' 1 You poor thing !' Molly had forgotten what this story meant to her in her great sympathy for the other woman. ' Do not pity me, for the wound is healing now. lam glad to-day, as I am able to right the wrong which my poor Conrad, all unknowingly, did to you and Robin.' Then Molly realised that after all these years her husband's name was cleared. ' Ah,' she said. 'lt has come at last! Let us go and tell Robin." And as they went up to the little bedroom, Nurse Margaret prayed earnestly that words which would once have been life io Re bin might not now fall upon unheeding ears! The wife bent lovingly over her husband. ' Dear Rob 1' she said. 'lt is all right at last! Nurse Margaret can prove that you are innocent.' Then as she noticed the look on her husband's face, she sobbed, ' Aye, but it has come too late.' For a moment the light of recognition came into the dying man's eyes. 'ls that so ?' he murmured. ' Then it is not too late. Thank God! My little heart, I shall not now have to leave you to bear it alone," Then Molly saw once more the sunny smile, which she remembered in the early days of courtship. And as the cloud passed from his earthly life, Robin's spirit passed into that life where all doubt and darkness disappear in the full light of Eternal Day.