Stella; A TALE OF TWO HEMISPHERES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 20

Stella; A TALE OF TWO HEMISPHERES.

By Fabian Bell.

(Written for the Olago Witness.)

Part 11.

Chapter XVI. — Speak to Me— Speak !

"Speak to me !" cried Stella, with earnest entreaty, leining over the sick man's couch, ami looking anxiously in his face.

He lay quite still ; the restless movements had ceased ; the racking cough tormented him no more. His eyes were partly, butnot entirely, shut ; he seemed ' unwilling or unable to lift the tired lids ; ■, his lips were unclosed, but he had no ; power to swallow the stimulant which she placed within them ; the red flush was gone from his face, and drops of perspiration stood upon his brow, now cool as that of Stella herself. The burning fever was gone, and the life upon which it had fed was well-nigh spent. Slowly, but surely, the moments crept on, and with every passing moment the tide of life and passion ebbed away. Yet Stella, who had seldom seen death, did not read these signs aright. She thought that her patient was better, and was merely exhausted by the efforts he had made. She did not realise the fact that he was dying ; and yet had she done so, she could not have been more anxious lor the confession that seemed to be hovering on his lips • when the sudden silence closed them for ever. Vaguely she realised the fact that "delays are dangerous ;" that the good resolutions of gick men are apt to fade away with returnin? health. " Speak to me !" ahe cried. " Confess —atone," There was no answer. The laboured, difficult breathing of the dying man sounded unnaturally loud and i resonant, filling the hut, and contrasting with the long sough of the mad as it moaned in eerie whispers through the narrow gully, and announced the coming dawn.

Stella shivered ; voiceless fears rose up in her heart. The secret, which half an hour before was almost within her grasp, | seemed to be fading away, like a vision of the night, leaving no trace behind. She turned towards Walter. He still slept, and in his sleep an expression of pain and heart-weariness had stamped itself upon his features. As she watched, the pained look passed away, and a sweet smile stole round his lips, as he murmured, in yearning, tender tones, her. own name — "Stella." She had intended to wake him with a touch ; but at that sound she draw back quickly, resolving to let him sleep on undisturbed — a subtle instinct which no words could interpret making it impossible for her to rouse him at that moment.

She returned to her former post, bnt her ministrations were no longer needed ; she could not ease the laboured breathing ; and but for that the dying man might have been lifeless, so still were his hitherto restless limbs. Then, with a sudden flash of memory, hia last coherent words rang in her ears with startling distinctness. , Without an instant's hesitation, Bhewent towards the entrance of the hut, and began to examine the sods of which the wall was composed. They were fitted, almost welded, together with mathematical precision. . She passed her hands tightly down and across, trying the edges of each sod, but not one felt loose or different in any way from its fellows. Thus baffled, her anxiety only increased. She stirred the dull red coal into a momentary blaze, but the flickering light gave her no assistance. She took the candle, shielding it carefully from the draught ; but the steadier flame proved equally powerless to reveal any inequality or recent disturbance ; the wall looked as if it had not been touched since the time when it was first put together.

"I must wait for the daylight," she thought ; and then, with a sudden start, she perceived that she had been searching to the right instead of the left side of tho doorway.

" Look in the wall — two feet to tho left | of the door. One of the sods is loose ; take it out. Take out the dried fern at the back ; and then " She ropeatedthe words alonly to herself, and wondered at her own mistake. With fresh hope she returned to the search, and this time her perseverance was rewarded. Two feet to the left of the entrance, and just within easy reach of her hands, . ahe felt a sod project slightly beyond the others. With little difficulty she removed it, and placed it carefully on the ground. A black spot, about half a foot square, then appeared in the wall. Without a i second for doubt; or question, she put her hands in, and felt the dry fern ; she pushed it to the right and left in her eagerness, and the withered leaves crackled so loudly, that she Btopped, and drew her breath in nervous terror, glancing over her shoulders at the room behind. The invalid lay as she last saw him ; but Walter had moved in his sleep, and his face was turned from her. The grey morning light was beginning to struggle with that of the fire and the candle, and to penetrate the mysterious shadows that filled the hut. There was nothing to alarm her. She pushed the ferns aside, and felt among them, expecting she knew not •what. Then her fingers came in contact with some smooth, hard substance ; she graaped it firmly, and drew out— a picklebottle J

With a movement of indignation, she was about to throw the useless thing away, angry at the trick which she fancied had been practised upon her. As she moved to the door with this intention, she was able to see clearly what it was that she held in her hand. An empty bottle ] No. Truly a bottle empty of its legitimate contents, yet tightly corked, and containing a roll of white paper, neatly tied and sealed.

Stella changed her intention ; instead of throwing it away, she clasped it firmly in both hands, conscious that she held a priceless treasure, the exact value of which she could not as yet estimate ; but it was, undoubtedly, the first step towards the attainment of that hope which had brought her from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere — the hope of finding her husband, and reconciling him to the life from which he had fled. " Oh ! for light !— more liglit !" She lifted her face to the sky, and saw tho first pink clouds mount above the encircling lulls. No Gheber ever watched his Sun-god rise with greater eagerness.

She might have sought the fire or the candle, but she preferred to wait for the pure light of day.

Soon, very soon, the last shadows of night gathered themselves together, and crept swiftly away.

Then she drew the cork, using her small white teeth to aid her trembling fingers, and extracted from the bottle its novel contents. Some few sheets of foreign note-paper, tightly rolled together, tied and sealed, and addressed to-

"Mrs Stella Ley don." And so the long-sought secret was at last in her hand 3, for that the manuscript contained the dying man's confession she could not for a moment doubt.

Sho held it tightly, uncertain whether to break the seal at once or wait for a more opportune moment. A trifle decided her, as a trifle generally does decide the most important actions of our lives.

The heap of blankets which covered Long Tom's recumbent form was thrust on one side, and the Yankee slowly rose to his feet, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

Stella at once determined to defer reading the important paper.

She looked around for some safe spot in which to bestow it ; her riding-dress contained no pocket ; her bag had fallen down by Walter's side, and had been unconsciously appropriated by him as a pillow. Under these circumstances, she thought that the hiding-place which had already proved efficient might be trusted to hold, the secret safely a little longer. ..Accordingly she thrust the roll into the 'bottle, replaced the cork, and pushed the bottle itself back into the spot whence, she had taken it, fitted in the sod, and turned to meet the digger, who asked her permission to enter the hut.

Their whispered conference aroused Walter Alleyne. In a moment he sprang 1 up, and went to the patient's side. Stella and Tom followed him. ".He is better?" she said, interrogatively.

"He ia sinking fast," answered the surgeon ; and indeed the grey hue of death was unmistakably visible oa the face before them.

"Should I have' called you?" asked Stella, in a low, awe-struck tone; "you were sleeping so quietly, and 1 thought he was better." " I could have done nothing ; I can do nothiug now. He is past human aid." . So they watched him, those three, so strangely united in the last offices of Christian compassion.

He breathed ; but for that they would have thought him dead, for he had no power to move or speak. Walter drew Stella on oac side. " Has he told you anything ? Has ho confessed f'

I Then she related all that had happened I — the finding of the paper, and what she sxipposed its contents to be. "That is well," replied the surgeon; " for he will not speak again." " Will ho die like that, without one word of repentance or of hopo 1 That is terrible." ' ' It is how most people die who are killed by acute disease. The vital powers are entirely exhausted — speech and consciousness fail — the patient sinks into a state of coma, aud so passes away, mercifully oblivious of all pain, past, present, or future." To Stella this seemed terrible. " If he con Id only say one prayer," she murmured. " Such a prayer would be a more incantation," observed Walter, gravely. "You, whom on earth this man has most deeply injured, have freely forgiven him. Do you think that He who made the ' very

secrets of the heart,' is less merciful to His creatvire tlian you would be ? Not so. ' Who art thou, that judgest another man's servant ! to lii 3 own master lie standeth or falleth.' "

Long ere noon the troubled breathing ceased, and a solemn silence reigned supreme where, a few houra before, a suffering human form had tossed and raved in fever and delirium. The soul which had sinned, and the body which had suffered, were separated for a time, if not for ever ; and while the latter lay rigid and stiff under its shrouding sheet, waiting to be consigned to its kindred dust, the former laid passed that "bourne, whence no traveller returns," and wa<*, doubtless, in a position to answer some of those questions concerning the * " Spirit Land," which, ixx our day ; excite so much

curiosity and interest, because now, as in ' past ages, they " puzale the will."

The horses were saddled ready for departure, and Stella went into the hut to secure the precious document. She j removed the sod, and put her haad into the hiding-place it had concealed. Once, twice, she thrust it in, and withdrew it empty. A third time she searched every corner, with desperate earnestness, crush - ing the dried leaves, and flinging them on the ground, j Walter looked at the digger. " She is a long time," he said, and followed her into the hut. . She stood just by the entrance, 3till as a statue, dead leaves scattered around her ifeet, and a face of such awe-struck pallor, : that he knew in a moment that some new ' calamity had happened. . " What is it ?" ho cried.

', She showed him her empty hands, and pointed to the hole, now bare of every leaf aud clod of dust, and cried, in piercing accents — ," It is gone!" (To be continued.)