HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4366, 25 May 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER.

(By D. Lechmero Anderson.)

“You arc to marry Alan! Oh, Janet, I never dreamt of this/’ and Ralph CUrneron’s lips quivered as ho turned hi:-: face away from the girl ho had just asked to be his wife. Had he looked one moment longer ho must have read the lovelight shining in her eves. Slowly Janet Campehell returned homo. Two hours later her mother found her lying on her bed-room floor in abject misery. “What ails you, Notta?’ Mrs Campbell asked tenderly, bub in her heart she knew the answer before her daughter spoko the words. ‘‘.Ralph loves me, mother. I dare not marry Alan.” The mother’s heart bled for her daughter Placing an arm round Janet’s waist, she endeavoured to comfort her. “Ye canna brak’ Alan’s heart. He loves you. Janet. Think how good he has been to us. Ila/l it not been for him your father would have had to give up a’, and leave your bonnic hamc beside the burnio o’ tho Broken Heart, ie didna lot Ralph kon ye loved him;' sue added fearfully. “He does not know,” and at last the scalding tears coursed down tho fair girl’s cheeks. Mrs Campbell breathed a sigh of relief. She had 1 cared Janet had betrayed her loto.

"You’ve gotten tho worst over now,' she said, soothingly. “If I am to marry him it must he soon, or I will go mad,” and as Janet spoke the tears left her eves and a hard strained look camo into her face. Evidently Mrs Campbell saw the wisdom of her words, for within two months Alan Cameron and Janet Campbell were man and wife. Ralph went about bis duties as of yore, but bis face had hardened, and his cheery laugh in the foresters cottage at Ancntencruive was hoard no more, though when Alan was present Ralph would brighten up and his dar 1 - black eyes watch his brother proudly. If there was one man Ralph worshipped it was Alan ; ho loved him with all tho passionate force of his Highland nature. Willingly would he have given his life to servo his brother. The time camo one day. Alan was tho senior by ten years. When their father died he loft Ralph, a tiny lad, to Alan’s care, and he had faithfully fulfilled his trust. He determined to make a gentleman of Ralph. Every penny ho could save ho laid past for his education, and whenever the boy was old enough he w - as sent to Aberdeen to college. For a year or two Ralph did well; he was naturally clover, but the constraint of town life told on him; he could not breath in it. The love of the .forest and the mountain was part of his life, and he could not live without a taste of them. For days ho would absent himself, and no one knew whither h® Went. When he returned the scent of the heather was strong on him ; his feet pressed the ground more firmly, and ho held himself erect. At last tho truth came out.

Ralph had turned poacher, and was detected red-handed. Four salmon lay beside him on the bank, a fifth was struggling on his spear.

The magistrates dealt gently with the young student's escapade, but the University authorities were not so lenient, and Ralph was sent back for the remainder of the session to the glens and straths he loved. Alan felt his brother’s disgrace keenly. As a forester he had no sympathy with poaching, hub ho neither scolded nor upbraided, and made excuses for Ralph in his heart. Only once was Alan known to lose his temper, and that was when Hector Murdoch, a brother forester, called Ralph a poacher in Alan’s hearing. His blood boiled and Hector Murdoch lay writhing on the grass. Alan waited for him to rise, but Murdoch, instead of attacking his assailant, slunk away muttering curses beneath his breath. From that day a feeling of enmity rose between the men. Hector made no secret of it that he would be revenged on Alan. At length the day came for Ralph to return to study, hut he refused. “No, Alan,” he said, “I will not go back; my heart is here among the mountains and the deer, I will be a forester like you.”

Alan, seeing that persuasion was hopeless, spoke to Corel Lucan, and Ralph was engaged as a forester upon the immense deer forest.

Ralph was over joyed when he heard the tidings, and went cheerfully to live in a little lonely cottage some ten miles from Auchtencrmve. He came every Saturday to see his brother. On one of those occasions h» met Janet Campbell the miller’s daughter, and fell in love with.her. and Janet, unfortunately, returned his love, but had already plighted her troth to Alan.

Ralph’s heart was broken. For the first few weeks after the marriage he almost lived in the woods, hut at the end of that time he was ordered to Auchtencruive. Lord Lucan had taken a fancy to the tall, handsome forester, and wished him nearer him. So Ralph went to live with Alan. He had hoped his love was dead, hut the sight of Janet brought it back again. One day the truth was revealed to him. Janet’s heart was his. Ralph went to the woods. For twen-ty-four hours ho lay beneath the shadow of the pines, and devils prompted him. He know he had but to hold out his hand for the love he craved for to be his, but —. Ho rose, almost tottering to his feet, and when ho sot out on his march his feet took him from Auchtencrmve. For two years Alan and Janet mourned for him as lost, then stories of a poacher, more daring and more skilful than any that had boon known before, began to reach them. The pictures grew more vivid, and at last they learnt the truth. The determined man, whose assumed name was in every forester’s mouth through miles and miles of the Highlands, was no other than Ralph. Hector Murdoch spread the story far and near, and Alan could not strike the coward for the words were true.

His only hope was that Ralph would keep away from Auohtcnonuvo. But as the lamp has a fascination for the moth, so had Auchtencruive for Ralnh. Sometimes in the Iona; moonlight nights he would find his way through the mazes of the forests until ho could see the little cottage that ho was born in, where his brother and his wife lived. He longed to go to them, to speak to them, but—not yet. he could not trust himself. Ncx day he would be heard of twenty miles away, but the deer of Auchtencruive were sacred to Ralph. Four times that season had his steps led him there, and he had seen nothing of his brother, but the fifth time, as he annroached, the sound of a shot roveberated on the evening air. The moon was nearly full. Wondering what the shot could mean, and being fearless of any man capturing him in the forest that ho'knew so well, he slipped towards the spot from whence the shot had come. As he neered through the brushwood, expecting to recognise some poacher whom he knew, his eyes fell upon his brother kneeling beside the body of a man. Suddenly Alan stood erect, and bis face was ghastly, but not more ghastly than tho watcher's was, for from the

brushwood Ralph could Bee that the face of the dead man was the face of Hector Murdoch. Sick with terror, Ralnh heard the sounds of steps approaching them. “Alan! Alan! ” ho cried, fearfully,

“Hurry, someone is coming.” “Ralph! You!” gasped Alan. “Oh, Ralph, I never thought that you ” but here Alan also heard the crackling of the brushwood. “Fly, Ralph, fly,.” he almost screamed, rushing towards his brother. “They must not find you hero,’’ and he laid his hand, hot with tho blood of the murdered man, upon Ralph’s arm. Ralph shuddered beneath tho touch.

“For our father’s sake! for Janet’s sake go.” continued Alan, entreatingly. “Do not let them find you here,” and breathlessly he watched Ralph out of sight. Then, -walking slowly and with a look of agony Upon his face, he went to seek the man whoso steps they had heard, but he could find no traces of anyone. An hour later ho broke the news of Hectors’ murder.

It was evidently murder. There was no doubt of that. The bullet had travelled thirty yards before it struck him. Some there were who, knowing the enmity that existed between the men, might have suspected Alan, but when they learnt that Ralph had been captured some five miles from the spot, they guessed tho truth at once. The foresters who met Ralph had seen the marks of blood u/pon his coat, and they arrested him on suspicion of poaching, but no trace of a deer’s body could they find. After Murdoch’s death was known the stain upon the coat sleeve was examined and the analyst pronounced it human blood.

Ralph’s rifle was dirty, the barrel had not been cleaned.

Tho case looked black against him, but there was no direct evidence. His counsel hoped to get him off, but Ralph refused to plead. He would say nothing, but even to the last it appeared that a verdict of “not proven” might b® given. When the jury returned it was evident from their faces what the decision was. “Guilty.”

As the judge donned the black cap a woman’s scream rang through the crowded court, and for the first time the doomed man showed any sign of emotion. His features worked convulsively as he turned in the dock and looked in her direction. Fainting, Janet was borne from the court. The execution was fixed for that day throe weeks. Five minutes later the court was cleared, and a black waggon drove rapidly towards the Calton Jail. Quickly the intervening days flew by. Lord Lucan did all he could to gain a reprieve, both for Ralph and Alan’s sake, but it was hopeless. The law must take its course. Sadly Alan and Janet returned home. Janet was as one distraught. Heartbroken and miserable they sat before the embers of an expiring fire three evenings before the fatal day, when a loud knock sounded at the door. Before Alan could answer it a forester rushed in. ‘‘Oh, Alan, come! Willie Mathieson is mad,” he cried gaspingly. “What have I to do with him ?” asked Alan roughly; “I have my own grief to bear.” “You must cqme, Alan, he is speaking of Ralph, of Hector. Come,” and the man laid his hand on Alan’s arm. “What has he to say of my brother? he asked gloomily. “He says he did it. He says he murdered Murdoch; and I believe it’s true. You know Murdoch won his sweetheart from him and then jilted her. Willie's never been the same since Mary died.” The tidings proved true, and although poor Mathieson was undoubtedly insane, further inquiry proved that he really was the murderer. His gun was foutnd concealed beside the spot, and.it was his steps Ralph and Alan had heard flying from the scene.

On the morning which should have been the morning of his execution Ralph Cameron left the Calton Jail a free man, Ins name cleared before the world. As the brothers stood holding each other by the hand, each looked with a mute inquiry into the other’s face. “X thought you did it, Alan,” said Ralph with a" wan smile.

“May God forgive me, Ralph, I thought you guilty.’’ Slowly they left the spot, and finding their way to the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, together they bent upon their knees and thanked the God whose name is Love.