Mischievous Maid Faynie Part 25

With fascinated eyes he watched the antics of the thoroughly enraged animal. The bear made many efforts to climb the tree in pursuit of his prey, but the swaying sapling was too slender to give him a hold, and its bark too slippery with its coating of ice to insert the claws, which had been clipped quite close, rendering them almost powerless in taking a firm grasp.

The night had closed in intensely cold, and Halloran could feel his cramped limbs and hands slowly stiffening, but he dared not lose his grip.

The moon rose higher and higher in the night sky, shedding a white, clear, bright light over the snow-clad earth.

He knew that the animal was watching his every movement closely, as each time he shifted his position brought a savage growl from the bear, which was circling round and round the tree, eying him intently.

For long hours this lasted, until the half frozen man, hanging on for dear life to the upper branches of the sapling, thought he should go mad.

With the coming of daylight the bear changed his tactics, lying down directly under the tree, still eying his prey with his small, beady, expectant eyes, as though measuring the time that his victim could hold out.

The daylight grew stronger; slowly in the eastern horizon the red sun rose, gilding the white, glistening snow with its rosy light.

Hour by hour it climbed the blue azure height, crossed the zenith, and then slowly sank behind the western hills, heralding the oncoming of another night.

Still the brute, with almost incredible cunning, sat in the same position under the tree, watching Halloran's every move.

"G.o.d rescue me!" he cried, lifting his white face to the Heaven he had so offended.

"If I pa.s.s another night here I shall go mad--mad!"

He was famished with hunger, numb with cold, and his mouth and throat were dry with unconquerable thirst.

In those hours of suffering he thought of Lester Armstrong, and of the awful fate he had doomed him to. He realized by his own experience of a few hours what he must have endured, and a bitter groan of remorse broke from his clammy lips.

"This is Heaven's punishment," he cried. "Oh, Lester Armstrong. G.o.d has surely avenged you! If I could but atone; if it were to be done over again, I would have no hand in the atrocious crime that has dyed my hands just as surely as though I had plunged a knife into your heart!"

In his haste on leaving the cabin he had not taken time to secure his revolver; he had no weapon; he was doomed to meet the same fate that he had meted out to Lester Armstrong--starve to death slowly, hour by hour--knowing that when he was too weak to hold longer to the branch he would fall.

Oh, G.o.d in heaven! fall into the gaping jaws of the enraged animal that was waiting to receive him.

He had led too wicked a life to pray; he did not know a prayer; he could only raise his agonized eyes to the far-off sky, wondering how long his awful torture could last-how long he would be able to hold out--how long.

He felt his blood slowly turning to ice in his veins, and slowly and surely the dusk deepened and the darkness of another night fell over the world.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"SOME TERRIBLE PRESENTIMENT IS WARNING ME THAT MY DARLING IS IN DANGER."

There never was a night so long that another day did not dawn--at last--and when the morrow's light broke, Halloran was slowly but surely collapsing--giving himself up to the horrible doom that awaited him--for the bear had not quitted his position under the tree, nor had he taken his eyes off his intended victim for a single moment.

As the sun rose, Halloran watched it with dazed, bloodshot eyes, exclaiming:

"Good-by, golden sun, I shall never see you set, nor witness you rise again upon another day. I--" the sentence was never finished, for over the snowy waste rang a voice like a bugle blast:

"Keep quiet, take heart, help is at hand; I am going to shoot the animal and deliver you," and simultaneously with the voice four shots in rapid succession rang out upon the early morning air.

There was a wild howl of pain, a terrible roaring bellow, a sudden dash toward a dark figure hurriedly approaching, two more shots, and the bear rolled over dying beyond power to harm, his red blood dyeing the white snow in great pools. Halloran knew no more. His strength and endurance seemed suddenly to leave him, darkness closed in about him, his hold loosened and he fell backward down, down through s.p.a.ce.

He did not know that a pair of strong arms caught him, thus saving him from a broken neck. When he opened his eyes a few moments later, to his intense surprise he found Lester Armstrong bending over him, and the sight rendered him fairly dumb with amazement.

Before he could ask questions that sprang to his lips, Lester explained to him that owing to the dampness of the place, the fire Halloran had kindled had quickly gone out, thus saving the young man from being burned to death. He told him, too, why death had not come to him through starvation, as had been intended, and that it had taken him all that time to force apart the links of the chain, when he found that there was no one to hear or prevent, no matter how much noise he made in so doing.

He had seen the revolver, which had been forgotten, and little imagining it would be of such vital use, had thrust it in his pocket and started forth to make his way back to New York, when he unexpectedly came upon the scene of the bear under the tree, and a fellow-being in deadly peril.

"You saved me--me," cried Halloran, huskily, "your deadly foe, who tried to rob you of your life."

"It was my duty, 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,'" quoted Lester, quietly.

Halloran fell on his knees, covering the other's hands with pa.s.sionate kisses, tears falling like rain from his eyes.

"From this hour the life that you have saved shall be devoted to you--and G.o.d!" he cried brokenly. "Oh, will Heaven ever forgive me for the past? There are two bullets left in the revolver; you ought to shoot me dead at your feet, Lester Armstrong. I deserve it."

Lester shook his head.

"Do better with your life than you have done in the past," he said.

Halloran tried to rise to his feet, but fell back exhausted on the snow.

"I cannot walk," he gasped. "I--I am sure my limbs are frozen."

With a humane kindness that won him Halloran's grat.i.tude to his dying day, Lester helped him to the railway station, and to board the incoming train, taking him to a hospital when they reached New York City.

Halloran had lapsed into unconsciousness, but Lester was too kind of heart to desert him in his hour of need.

The clock was striking five as Lester left the hospital.

On the pavement he paused, asking himself if he could go to a hotel presenting that soiled, unkempt appearance. Then like an inspiration it occurred to him that the best place in the world to go to was Mr.

Conway's; and he put the thought into execution at once, reaching there nearly an hour later.

Mr. Conway and Margery were just sitting down to breakfast as he rang the bell of the humble little cottage.

Mr. Conway answered the summons.

The scene which followed can better be imagined than described.

It was hard to convince father and daughter, at first, that in telling his story he was not attempting to play some practical joke upon them.

That he had a cousin who so cleverly resembled him that even those who had known Lester intimately for long years should be so cleverly deceived by him seemed almost incredible. Margery hid her face in her trembling hands while her father gave Lester a full account of what had transpired, while the latter's emotion was great; and his distress intense, upon learning that Kendale had dared betroth himself to Margery in his name, and that the gentle-hearted girl had learned to care for the scamp, despite her repugnance to him at first.

Lester thought it best, under the circ.u.mstances, to confide in full to Margery and her father concerning his own love affair, lest they might expect him to carry out the contract his cousin had made in regard to marrying his old friend's pretty daughter.

Margery's next words, however, set his troubled heart at rest in that respect.

She looked up at him suddenly through her tears, saying shyly: