The Argosy — page 245: what you’re looking at

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

228 Among Untrodden Ways. word. On came the foreigner. I tried to rise, but found it impossi- ble; my ankle was badly sprained. The next flash of lightning revealed my enemy advancing upon me. _ It also revealed us to him. : Amie flung herself across my body. Love can speak without words. Her act said ‘‘I will die for you.” “Not that!” I cried, and I put her from me. Her father—for I could not doubt it was he—now stood above us. He commanded me in French to rise to my feet. I expressed my inability, and cried wrathfully: ‘‘ Would you kill me like a dog ?” ‘““Ah my fine gentleman,” said he, ‘it is now that you find your tongue,” and I heard his voice between the thunder-claps, and saw his awful face in the lightning flashes. “Parbleu, but you did not count the cost! You tracked my dove ; but tell me, who shall track you ? who shall seek you here.” “Your child,” said I, with all the energy of desperation, ‘‘ is what I found her: the sweetest, purest thing the sun shines on.” ‘Or the storm beats on,” added he, ironically. ‘‘ Then the purest thing the sun shines on may enter paradise to-night.” The fresh voice of my darling here made music in the tumult. ‘Tt is well, mon prince bien-aimé, we are not to be separated.” The cold steel descended. I had but just flung Amie from me again, when that noble dog, who knew how dear I was to his mistress, _ covered me with his body, and received the wound intended for me, licking my face. It was intensely dark, and so near had I come to death, I had lost the power of speech. Again that terrible knife descended. This time it passed through my arm. I felt no pain, I only knew it, and swooned. I must have been left for dead; for the next thing I knew was that the sun was pouring down its rays upon the drenched earth, stained red with my blood, and that noble animal, with a gash above his shoulder, had torn away my sleeve from the wound and was licking it. Towards evening I crawled into the valley, and put my lips to the water like the dog, who had dragged himself painfully at my side. I bathed his wound, and that night he and I lay on the ruins of the little cottage; for all the interior was reduced to ashes. [I lost all count of time, but the sun rose and set again, and I tottered to my feet. Jacobin tried to follow me, but rolled over on his side. Once more I fetched water from the stream in my hat, which had remained on my head from its close-fitting shape. But the poor animal was past all help. He licked my hand, and died. I reverently buried him, using the tools of my would-be murderer. Then I said farewell to the enchanted valley, to devote each hour of freedom from work to a search for my love—my love whose very name was unknown to me. CORNICLMOOKS (E(@) m