The Argosy — page 299: what you’re looking at

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

280 The Village Blacksmith. q who was clever enough to hush the matter up ; no one should know of it A way had suggested itself; or rather Satan had suggested a — way ; as the blacksmith sat with bowed head at the empty grate; a way which would not be difficult in Reuben’s present mood. And he | rose from his chair to accomplish it. Better for him had he died in that chair perhaps, for the deed | he contemplated was a ghastly one. He rose from his seat, com- paratively speaking, an innocent man; if he accomplished his fell purpose, he would return to it a criminal worthy of death. He ™ shivered as he rose. But it was not only cold that made him shiver, © though he thought it was, and put on a warm fustian coat to cure his chilliness. Then he lowered the lamp and crept upstairs again. | Mother and child still slept, and with feverish hands and bated | breath, Reuben lifted the child from Janet’s arms without waking ‘i her, for she was tired and slept soundly. The infant gave a faint | cry, and then snuggled up against the fustian coat, and its gentle breathing told that it also slept. Like a thief in the night, Reuhen stole downstairs with the child | and the lamp. In the kitchen he saw a shawl of Janet’s hanging on 1 the door, and he wrapped the baby in it and laid it in his chair ' while he put on his boots. This done, he put on his hat, took up the © sleeping infant, turned out the lamp, and unlocking the door, went © out into the night, locking the door behind him and putting the key | in his pocket. | His goal was a mill-pool in the valley below ; the river was too shallow for his purpose, but the mill-pool was deep and dark and silent ; it told no tales. Cradled in that, the infant he held in his arms would sleep with no fear of awakening. There it could brings no shame to its mother, no scorn on its grandfather. Down in those’ blue depths of the indigo-dyed water the babe would sleep soundly | enough, pillowed on the soft mud. | That the waters would henceforth be dyed th blood, the blood. of an innocent babe, instead of with indigo, did not occur to Reuben., All he thought of, as he strode down the steep, rough path, was his folly in not having suspected the reason of Janet’s long absence. It) was clear enough now. How blind he had been not to guess before ;) but he had trusted Janet implicitly; and as little as he suspected her: would he have suspected his sister, who was evidently in league with Janet. And then he wondered who was the father of the child he held in his arm; and then, thinking of Norah, he guessed, and he’ guessed right, ‘ He was passing the Rectory grounds when this flashed upon him, and, as he glanced over the stone wall which separated the lane he was in from the garden, he gnashed his teeth and muttered a curse On the house and its inmates. Eomilcvooks.com) ] ys } __ He was not far from his destination, for the Rectory grounds stretched down to the ii and almost immediately below the lower