V.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 235, 31 December 1887, Page 2

Y.

beuben's keturu". Reuben Armstrong, with,, his, hands tied, i behind him, and that fearful plaster on his;, face, when he si angered from the old church- 1 yard, made his way towards his own ,hoinej .. and early on the morning of Christmas day his daughters were awakened by a knocking^. | at their cottage door. 'Don't stir, Margy,' cried Joan, 'don'f> k ,stir !' , *"-•,»-. 'It's best 'dlj see at wlia's knopkiaV said Margy, rising, and, notwithstanding,;; Joan's entreaties, she opened the little case,; ; ,ment near the caye,'aud called out to knowy;? who was there. „ • I ' -* There was no answer. ' ', . i Through the foggy air thb faint light of. , the now aescericling moon just, enabled her. to make oi\t that there was a below^ • and, from t.hp^'ieigbjt she thought , it >was. v that of a mahj , ", „,.,, , \ * ' , .->• 4 He seemed to look up, and then.knockea again.

'What's yovf errand ?' she cried. ' I*ll no open no doors till ye tell me/ and then, ■finding tb«re was ho answer, . she closed the casement, and bade Joan, scared- whether he means good or ill he cann*' ge fc in '' . , . , ... „ There was more knocking, ana until tne daylight came, they heard tread still going about the place, for the unfortunate Reubpn, unable either to speak or to give the signal that his daughters were familiar with, could do nothing to resist the severe cold bub walk about. In much alarm the girls got up and •Pressed themselves. What could anyone mean by walking about their door that way in the dark ? When the first grey light of the returning , day made objects visible, Margy looked out a^ain, and called to the man to know what he wanted ? , . , •, He turned towards the window, and looked up. With one wild cry, Margy sprang past her sister, and down the ladder that led to the loft they slept in, and rapidly unbarring the door, her father, speechless, handcuffed, and half choked, staggered in. How the girls cut the ty ings off his hands, and released -his unhappy" mouth from the dreadful plaster : how they lit a great fire, and rubbed and chafed his half -frozen limbs, and as they did it, all pried with pity for the state he was iv ; and how Marery rushed away and told the Horstons -that the eiiatcherß and the evil one together had rifled little Ben's grave. J To tell it all would require a longer story than this ! That these two parties should combine was only in accordance with ail that was known of them, but after describing the matter that first day to his daughter and the Horstons, being all who had any right to ask about it, Reuben became silent on the subject. * Uncanny things were aye best ' let sleep,' he said, and he * would like to forget that the de'il had been sac near him. In his waistcoat pocket) he found three sovereigns, and remembering the moment when he lay breathless beneath the mysterious hands, and thought they meant to kill him, he would not use the money. He could believe anything of Appollyon after seeing him, and the gold might have been. his. Margy laid it by. There came a time • when she took it out, looked lovingly at it, and being sure it was this kingdom's lawful coin, relieved with it a time of family pinch and straigbtness. The real' secret was well keptThe chief actors in it had but one accomplice -the man who drove the cart, and he •was pretty safe, being as liable to prosecution as the others. As for Dr Torrens, he never was so glad to get hold of anything as of little Ben's ■oroo.ked frame, that is, of any thing surgical; and it is to be hoped that his added wisdom repaid the anxiety it cost him. One thing is certain, thab the highest medical journal then published received communications from him regarding spinal curvature that may have helped to establish and develop the niore enlightened and far less severe treatment of this complaint which is now adopted.