Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 177: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

168 volver, and again pointed it at the help- less and insensible agent’s head. It would certainly be a miracle if the weapon missed fire a second time. CHAPTER XL. DOROTHY PROVES HERSELF A HERO- INE. As Dorothy Orloff was a partici- pator in some of the exciting and peril- ous events that occurred on the night of the memorable storm that passed over Madrid, and, as what she did has an important bearing on our story, we must take the reader back to Mrs. Handiford’s cottage on the evening of the day that Dykeman passed in such a maze. After supper, Mrs. Handiford had her man of all work, Needham, who was called Need for short, hitch up the horse to the top buggy, and imme- diately started to the village by the country road, with the hired man to drive for her. She would never have ventured to make the journey at that hour in the evening, and in the face of a gathering storm, had it not seemed a case of ne- cessity. A neighbor had stopped late in the afternoon, on her way home, and brought the intelligence from the vil- lage that a near and dear friend of Mrs. Handiford’s was not expected to live, and had expressed a wish to see her. As the days were long, and she would have at least an hour between six o’clock and dusk to make her visit, Mrs. Handiford felt reasonably sure of returning before nightfall. As Need was the only member of the stronger sex about the place, and in fact the only person there beside the aunt and niece, Dorothy was left alone. It was not the first time the young girl had been left so, and she had no fears. Besides, she felt assured that her aunt would return, or that Dykeman would call before night came on. But the gathering clouds and flashes _sleep. THE ARGOSY. of lightning made her anxious that -neither should get caught in the storm. Darkness came sooner than usual, occasioned by the black storm clouds, and no one arrived at the cottage. Dor- othy felt disappointed first at the non- appearance of the agent, and then, as time passed, till it was nearly nine o’clock, she became apprehensive that something might have happened to her aunt. Dykeman, she knew, might have been kept away by some unexpected business, but she could not understand the delay in the return of her aunt. Dorothy did not consider herself in her anxiety about the absent member of the family— it never occurred to her that there was anything to be afraid of. She was not a timid girl, the dark- ness had no terrors for her, and the. gathering storm was to her only a mag- nificent spectacle. She sat on the front piazza, watch- ing the vivid flashes, still low down near the horizon, and the rolling clouds marshaling themselves into battle ar- ray. She watched them closely, but her only feeling, besides that of awe, was one of apprehension that the con- ' test would begin while her aunt was on the way home. As the minutes passed, and the storm approached nearer, Dorothy became decidedly worried and anxious about her relative. She went to the sitting room, where there was a light, and tried to read a book, but she could not fx her mind on anything. Then, in spite of her anxiety, the young girl be- came very sleepy. She lay down on the lounge, prom- ising herself she would not go to sleep —in fact, telling herself she couldn’t go to sleep, and, if her aunt did not come very soon, she would start out afoot, on the road to the village, to find her. These determinations were made with energy, and in full faith, but in a few minutes they faded from her mind, her eyes closed, and she had gone to ECORRIC OO© SS) eo