The Secret Shot; Or, The Rivals Of Misty Mount — page 20: what you’re looking at

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18 THE SECRET SHOT. be very much offended,” she replied, looking quite pale. “Oh, Ida, hear me but for a moment! Let me—” “ No, sir, I will not hear you!” she ex- claimed, with spirit, “It is to your shame that you thus persecute me. Allow me to go out of the thicket, sir.” He raised his eyes and glanced at her with the bold calmness of despair, but con- tinued immovable in the narrow path. “Allow me to pass, sir!’ she exclaimed, indignantly. “Will you not hear me first ?” he asked, with dreadful calmness, a No.” “You must !” “ Sir—” A sudden gust of passion seized the young man, and bore him along impetu- ously. “Oli, Ida! Ida!’ he burst forth, flinging himself on his knees at her feet, “ hear me—hear me, or I die! Iam friendless on the wide, bleak earth. My father is a sor- did miser; my bright, gay brother is blot- ted from the living world; I am a despised and hunted man—the partisan of a sinking cause. I am friendless! friendless! friend- less 1”? iis words were almost smothered. in sobs. Ida’s resentment vanished immedi- ately. She was grieved and shocked. “ You shall not be friendless. I will be your friend, Heartstead,” she exclaimed, bending over him with brimming eyes. “There, there—do not weep!” For an instant—a brief one—his moody soul was bathed in her tenderness, and he “tnistook the feeling for a ray of hope. “God bless you for that! Perhaps you may love me, then? Perhaps—” “As a sister, only, Heartstead.” “ Oh, try—only try to love me, Ida!” groaned the wretched man, with renewed vehemence. ‘I will be your slaye—I will do your slightest behest—I will die for you; only say that you may—not that you shall, but that you may—be mine! Give me hope, or death.” “You forget yourself, sir,’ said the lady, eoldly. “I can not hear you further. Let me pass.” “Ts it so?” he eried, springing to his feet, changed suddenly from the supplicant. to the fierceness of despair. “ Why, then, you SHALL be mine !” » She saw the mad glitter in his eyes, and = : .smile to reassure her, almost sunk beneath their scorching splen- dor, ‘Then, for the first time, did this in- nocent girl experience what a terrible thing to her—what a terrible thing it must be to any woman—to confront a desperate man. The madman’ grasped her wrist. She tried to shriek, but could not; she felt his hot breath on her icy brow. She struggled, but in vain. “Tdal’ murmured the wretched young man, whom baflled passion was hurrying to insanity. “Ida! Ida!’ he mumnured ; “God meant you for me. It is idle to struggle against Fate. I will bear you toa clergyman who awaits us: You must—” She, also, through her agony of terror, caught the sound that interrupted her tor- mentor, It was the rapidly-approaching gallop of a horse, on the adjoining road. It sent a thrill of hope to her heart. Her strength was renewed; her voice returned to her aid. Shriek upon shriek she uttered, as she struggled to free herself from hig arms. She paused. by a loud halloo, She heard the horse stop scarcely a rod from where she was; then came the breaking of branches and the crushing of leaves, as if some one was bursting through the thicket to her aid. Just as Gleason had released her, and fled, with a ery of baffled purpose, her rescuer stood at her side, in the person of Colonel Cleaveland; and Ida sunk senseless to the earth. Cleayeland took her in his arms and bore her to, the edge of the river, to bathe her forehead in the wave. As he did so, and gazed upon her pure, fair brow and faultless face, so inanimate and still, a sweet, reli- gious feeling of love and awe crept into his heart, and filled him with strange thoughts., Casting a hurried look around him, he bowed his head afd imprinted a soft kiss upon her forehead. Then, as if alarmed at his own presumption, he hastily applied the cool current of the running water-to her temples. She sighed, opened her eyes, and appeared bewildered: “ Where am I ?” “With one who will take good care of you,” he replied, respectfully, but with a Then, seeing that she wished to arise, he released her from his support, and helped her to her feet. “Not so fast, my dear lady! ‘You are still feeble,” he continued, as she, tottered forward. “ There—there; lean on my arm and we will walk up together.” So saying, Her cry was answered - Com () DOOKS CO