CHAPTER XIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 396, 24 August 1889, Page 4

CHAPTER XIII.

WHEN GIRL MEETS GIRL ! Tiik day had beon one of * dreamy happinoss. Wo had now almost deluded ourselves with a hope that a happier Providence than that which had heretofore been over us would still permit us to linger in each other's love, despite the whirl of war around us. The day had been one worthy of the superb scenery about us that gave a tinge of poetic romance to our love. We had beon sitting together on the verandah, looking down the slopes of the Blue Ridge, upon which a little stream van toward the plains upon which the war raged that we had grown now to look upon as very distant. Behind us the mountains rose into

he blue air, and were covered with a slight now, for it was late in December. 'Laura,' said I, giving her slight waist I a little honeymoon squeeze, 'do you remember this day three years ago ? The night of the little dance at your house — the day Secession was declared ?' ' I 'Yes, Lawrence,' she muttered, 'I have never forgotten that ; but please do not at this moment mention what reminds me of, the last three terrible year.". Here, cut off from bloodshed and trouble by that little range of hills below, let us be happy while' we can ; the time will be too short My heavens ! whose voice is that ?' At this she turned pale and began to tremble nervously, and I turned pale also, for — ' This is Aunt Mai'y's house, X reckon, isn't it, Caucus V came to us in the accents of the woman I wished least to meet on carth — Miss Belle Peyton, Laura's sister. I could hear the negro's teeth chatter ; next his voice came to me in a kind of grinning yell : ' Golly gracious ! Miss Belle's heah I Miss Belle's heah ! 'Clare to goodness, Miss Belle's heah !' He ran about the garden shrieking this out, apparently to give us warning. ' Are you crazy, Caucus ? Open the gate at once, and let me in !' said Belle, hurriedly. The next moment she rode into the garden. Pale, but firm, Laura rose to meet her sister I can .see 80110 now n«« she came running up the step«, crying : ' Laura, I grew anxious about you when Aunt Mary wrote me from Augusta saying nothing of you. I thought it curious that you were making her a visit when she was not at homo. But now I will stay a week or two with you myself. We'll have a delighttul time up in these lovely hills. We'll Oh !my soul ! This is the cause of your visit. You are staying here with this man. My sister, what does it mean ?' and Bello glared at me with fiery eyes. At this Laura said, very calmly, though there was a tremble in her voice, ' Belle, let me introduce to you my husband, Mr Lavvience Bryant.' ' Yovr husband ?' shrieked Belle. ' Oh, heavens ! this is worse than I feared !' 'My husband, whom I love and honour, and whom you must respect, Belle, if we are to be sisters. ' ' Sisters 1 When you have married one of our enemies ? TM3 man who loved the North so much that he left you to fly to it ? Oh, what degradation ! What misery ! What despair ! What will va y poor father say to — thib V and the girl began to pant with passionate rage and hysterical misery. 'He will nothing. You must not tell him— at present,' came from Laura's pale but resolute lip 3. ' But I will tell him, so that he can despise you as I do. Loving this man who would destroy us — a Yankee. 1 This last was uttered as if it was a term of contempt beyond anything else on earth. ' A Yankee !' The gill came toward me with flashing eyes, looking as if she would almost attack me. ' Oh, how I hate you !' she hissed. ' You who have lured my sister away trom her duty and her friends. A man who had not heart to tight us, but must destroy our family by making a woman love him, and she — my sister,' and she burst out crying, sobbing, and wringing her hands. I had said nothing to this, judging it best to let her exhaust her childish fury. Now I remarked : ' Miss Belle, I loved your sister before this war came to separate us. You used to like me then : can you not think a little kindly of one who regards you as — a sister ?' ' Your sister '' she shrieked. ' I will not be your sister long. I have heard that you are a criminal— a deserter from the ranks of our army twice ovor. Good- bye, Laura ! Your honeymoon will be a short one.' The girl turned to go, and almost staggered while doing fo. ' What do you mean ?' cried Laura, suddenly confronting her. ' Where are you going ?' ' I am going to the nearest military post to denounce this man you have wed, and 00 deliver him up to our authorities, that he may be shot to death. That's what they'll do to him ! Then he can call me "sister " no more. Then our disgrace may be wiped out by his blood. You shall be his widow — not his wife 1' ' You will do nothing of the kind,' said Laura, very calmly. ' You are crazy now, Belle. You will stay here until your mania is over.' ' I will stay here not a second ! Don't you try to detain me ! Keep your hands otf me !' for Laura had placed a detaining grasp on Belle's arm. ' How dare you ?' 'It is my duty,' said Laura, 'to my husband and to you to stop an insane woman from doing" what she would regret for ever. Do you suppose I will let you, in your mad anger, murder the man I love ? Do you think that I am crazy as well as you ? You will stay here until you regain your sanity !' 'Not another second under the roof that is polluted by this man. Oh, my Heaven, Laura ! how could you do it? But I will do my duty, if you forget yours, you renegade !' The two girls stood confronting each other, the dark eyes of one flashing anger into the resolution in the blue eyes or the other. ' Lawrence,' returned Laura, calmly, ' give me youi assistance. Your life depends on it. This girl is mad enough to do what she promises !' I saw that my only chance of safety was in obeying my wife's request. I came, and as tenderly as possible took hold of Belle's arm. 'Oh, you're a northern gentleman !' she hissed, ' to lay your hands on a woman ! It ■ is like you Yankees !' ' Belle, stop these insults, ' cried Laura, ' or I shall forget that you are mv sistei ! Stop them ! Lawrence, Quick ' ! /or Belle had commenced to struggle and scream in her hysterical rage. Then Laura and I, as delicately and tenderly as was possible, drew the struggling girl into the house, and securely locked her into one of the upper rooms. This apartment was a kind of attic, the windows of which were protected by iron bars fiom the assaults of negro thieves, the place being used as a family store-room. I shall never forget the look in that girl's eyes that fell on me as we left her ! The rage of 'a tigress robbed of her young' would do no justice to the picture that Miss Belle's pretty face made as we closed the door on her and turned the key in the padlock. Laura and I descended the stairs, despair in our hearts. We knew that our honeymoon was over, that the war had drifted from the plains of South Carolina into this quiet valley of the Blue Ridge. ' Laurence, we must part now. There is but one place of safety for you, and that is on the other side of the line.' ' Now ?' I muttered. ' Yes ; I know you would stay with me. You would risk your life for my happiness, for another day with me ; but you must go. It may ba a sweetheart's wish to detain her husband. It is a wife's duty to bid him Godspeed at such a time as this.' ' Laura, you must go with me !' ' I cannot ! I dare not ! I must keep this, girl here, or you will be pursiied before you t reach any place of safoty. I will join you in the North. It will not be difficult for me to take passage in a blockade-runner.

Women are non-combatants. - I wilj^naeet you wherever/ you tell mo. My- life 'could hardly be pleasant now ; with you away from me it would be misery. I shall , keep Belle securely, but 'tenderly, until the danger of her denouncing you is passed.' 4 After this I did not. attempt to persuade my wife to accompany me upon the hazardous journey I 'was about to undertake. fj -I had long ago mapped out the.routel sho.uld take on leaving the Confederacy. It was across" the State line, but a few miles dis- ) tant, into North Carolina, then through the western portion of that State into the mountains of East Tennessee, entering the Union lines near K,noxville. Dangerous as this ' road was, on account of guerillas, bushwhackers and scouts, it was the best now open to me. I made my preparations hurriedly, silently, with almost a broken heart. That night my wife and I parted. Our honeymoon ended almost as- suddenly as it had begun, but I left with the joy that now, she was mine ; no other suitors could rob me of her. She was not my sweetheart— she was my wife. This journey I was to make alone. I would not take even Caucus with me, as it was necessary that he should stay by' my wife. I was thoroughly armed with a pair of navy revolvers, had a fairly good horse, and fifty dollars in greenbacks in my pocket. The balance of my hoard I left with Laura for any expenses and emergencies she might meet with and to pay her passage on some blockade-runner to Nassau then to New York. As Caucus opened the gate of the garden, and bade me good-bye, I could see the pale, distracted face of my wife, as she stood in the doorway of the house, I did not dare look back too long, and, setting my teeth, turned my head away to make my escape, for her sake as well as my own. My preparations had occupied me till perhaps nine o'clock at night. Beyond the gate of the garden, my road ran down a little lane lined with laurel trees. The moonlight, however, reflected from the snow of the neighbouring hills, made this lane quite light. I was leaning on my horse, arranging the articles that I carried with me in a knapsack slung upon the saddle, when I heard these words, ' tbat gave me a terrible start : 'By Gosh ! I've got you now, and this time you don't escape me !' Glancing hurriedly up. I saw confronting me, not ten feet away, the form of Pete Bassett, who had covered me with a revolver. Fortunately one of my pistols was in a holster hanging fiom the saddle, and my hand rested upon it. I did not move it, as I knew that any motion would be the signal for my death, but with a presence of mind born of the situation, I said quietly : *Mr Bassett, I never expected to see you again.' ' No,' he replied, ' And you don't like it, after having that nigger beat me nearly to death, and then shipping me down the river in a boat, delirious for two weeks, so I could not give an account of myself. You didn't reckon on me to find you agin, but that reward is still open from that particular friend of yours. So I come up and nosed around Columbia, and when I saw your gal's sister Belle start out suddenly tor this part of the State, I followed her, and having got a glimpse of the gal you are sweet on through the window of that house, I knew you wasn't far away. Now I have got you sure ! You don't dodge me agin. Throw up your hands !' ' Yes, Ido !' cried I, with a laugh. * Hit him again, Caucus !' With an oath the detective suddenly wheeled and faced about to confront, as he supposed, the negro once more. As he did so my hand drew my pistol from its holster, and like lightning I shot him, for I had no mercy now. This man had three times stepped between me and escape, and I knew if I did not kill him there would be but little chance for me. With a horrid yell, Bassett fell on the roadway. I btepped up to him and he gasped : ' Played me agin, Gol darn it ! and this time played out for ever ! Fust laid out , by a nigger, and then chawed up by a Yank !' With this he fainted, probably with disgust, as his hurt did not seem to be mortal. As 1 bent down over the wounded man, Caucus and my wife, attracted by the nois6 of the shooting, came running down the avenue. From her appearance lam sure that Laura thought I had been the victim, for she gave a sigh of relief when she saw me standing erect. ' What new horror is this ?' she gasped, while Caucus gave a grin and chuckled : ' You fixed him dis time, didn't you, Massa Bryant ? An' I fixed him de last time j I reckon we got to bury him dis time !' ' That would not trouble me much,' I replied. 'He has had three chances at my liberty — now I have had one chance at his life !' ' Lawrence, you must not stay here !' said my wife. 'We will do what we can for this wounded man. Go on at once, you may be pursued ! This has made your flight' even more imperative than Belle's visit !' Another hurried parting, another last kiss, and I started once more upon my journey. ( To be continued. )