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UNDER TWO CHAPTER XVIII. i his hand for them. | Coe;] closed his hand upon them. ! “Co and do as 1 bid you.” OTV that night was spent Cecil : The equerry paused, doubtful whetb- could never recall in full. I cr 01 . no t to resist the tone and the Vague memories remained with ; words. A Frenchman’s respect for the j liim of wandering over the j nVPrnry uniform prevailed. He went j shadowy country, cf seeking by bodily ( within. fatigue to kill the thoughts rising in j 7,, l.c-t chamber cf the cavavsn- liim. The full consciousness of all ; sar y Venetia Corona was sitting, list- that he had surrendered in yielding lip afresh his heritage rolled in on his memory like the wave of some heavy pea that sweeps down all before it. He moved slowly back over the desolate- tracks of land stretched between him and the Algerian halting place. He had no fear that he would find his brother there. He knew too well the nature with which he had to deal. While yet the caravansary was distant the piteous cries of a mother goat ieaught his ear. She was bleating be side a water course, into wlvTv, her kid of that spring had fallen. lie stooped and with some little difficulty rescued the little goat for its delighted dam. As he bent over the water he saw something glitter beneath it. He caught it in Ills hand and brought it up. It was the broken half of a chain cf gold, with a jewel in each link. lie changed color as he saw it. He remembered it as one that Venetia Corona had worn on the morning that he had been ad mitted to her. He stood looking at the shining links, with their flashes or pre cious stones. They seemed to have voices that spoke to him of her about whose beautiful white throat they had been woven—voices that whispered in cessantly in his car, “Take up your birthright, and you will be free to sue lo her at least, if not to win her.” No golden and jeweled plaything ever tempted a starving man to theft as this tempted him now to break the pledge he had just given. His birthright! lie longed for it for this woman’s sake—for the sake, at least, of the right to stand before her as an equal and to risk bis chance with others who sought her smile—as he had never done for any ether thing which, with that heritage, would have become bis. Yet he know that, even were he to be false to his word and go forward and claim his right, he would never be able to prove his innocence. He could never hope to make the world believe him unless the real crim inal made that confession which he held himself forbidden by his own past action ever to extort. It. was almost noon when, under the sun scorched branches of the pine that stretched its somber fans up against the glittering azure of the morning skies, he approached the gates of the Algerine house of call, a study for the colors of Gerome, with the pearly gray of its stone tints and the pigeons wheeling above its corner towers. Cecil went within and bathed and dressed and drank some of the thin, cool wine that found its way hither in the wake of the French army. The trampling of horses on the pavement below roused his attention. A thrill of hope went through him that his brother might have lingering con science. latent love enough to have made him refuse to obey the bidding to leave Africa. He rose aud leaned out. Amid the little throng cf riding horses, grooms and attendants who made an open way through the poly glot crowd of an Algerian caravan sary at noon he saw the one dazzling face of which he had so lately dream ed by the water freshet iu the plains. It was but a moment’s glance, for she had already dismounted from her mare and was passing within with two other ladies of her party. But in that one glance he knew her. He went down into the coui’t below and found her suit. “Teii your mistress' that I, Louis Victor, have some jewels which belong to her and ask her permission to re store them to her hands,” he said to one of her equerries. “Give them to mo if you have picked them up,” said the man. nutting - out WOMB’S lie™ is hard enough as it is. It is to her that we owe our world, and everything should be made as easy as possible for her at the time of childbirth. This is just what ISTKEii’S Friend the muscles of will do. It will make baby’s coming easy and painless, and that without tak ing dangerous drugs into the sys tem. It is simply to be applied" to the abdomen. It the skin carry- elasticity with-it. It strengthens the whole system and prevents all of the discomforts of pregnancy. The mother of a plumb babe in Panama, Mo., says: “I have used Mother’s Friend and can praise it highly.” Get Mother’s Friend at the Drug Store, $1 per bottle. The Bradfield Regulator Co., ATLANTA, GA. Write for our free illustrated book, ■Before Baby is Born.” ’ less in the heat, when her attendant entered. She had heard the day be fore a story that had touched her of a soldier who had been slain crossing the plains and had been brought through the hurricane and the sandstorm at every risk by his comrade, who had chosen to endure all peril and wretch edness rather than leave the dead body to the vultures and the kites. It was a nameless story to her—the story of two obscure troopers, who, for aught she knew, might have been two of the riot ous and savage brigands that were common to the army of Africa. But the loyalty and the love shewn in it had moved her. When her servant ap proached her now with Cecil’s mes sage, she hesitated some few moments, then gave the required permission. “He has once been a gentleman. It would he cruel to wound him,” thought the imperial beauty, who would have re fused a prince or neglected a duke with chill indifference. He bowed very low that he might got his calmness back before he looked at her, and her voice in its lingering music came on his ear. “You have found my chain, I think? I lost it in riding yesterday. I am greatly indebted to you for taking care of it.” “It is I, madame, who am the debtor of so happy an incident.” His words were very low, and his voice shock a little over them. He was thinking not of the jeweled toy that lie came here to restore, but cf the in heritance which had passed away from him forever and which, possessed, would have given him the title to seek what his own efforts could do to wake a look of tenderness in those proud eyes. “Your chain is here, madame, though broken, I regret to see,” he continued as he took the little box from bis coat and banded it to her. She took it and thanked him without for the moment opening the enamel case as she mo tioned him to a seat at a little distance from her own. “You have been in terrible scenes since I saw you last.” she continued. “The s+ory of Zaraila reached us. Sure ly they cannot reruse you the reward of your service now?” A very weary smile passed over his face. “I have no ambition, madame, or if 1 have it is not a pair of epaulets that will content it.” She understood him. She compre hended the bitter mockery that the tawdry, meterieious rewards of regi mental decoration seemed to the man who had waited to die at Zaraila as patiently and as grandly as the Okl Guard at Waterloo. “I understand. The rewards are piti fully disproportionate to the services in any army. Yet how magnificently you and your men, as I have been told, bold your ground all through that fearful day!” “We did our duty, nothing more. We are called human machines. We are so, since we move by no will of our own. But the lowest among us will at times ho propelled by one single im pulse—a desire to die greatly. It is all that is left to most of us to do.” “Yes,” she said thoughtfully, while over the brilliancy of lier face there passed a shadow. “There must be iu- “You have found my chain, I think?” finite nobility among these men who live without hope—live only to die. That soldier a day cr two ago who brought Ins dead comrade through the hurricane, risking bis own death rath er than leave the body to the carrion birds—you have heard of him? Wiiat tenderness, what greatness, there must have been in that poor fellow’s heart!” “Oh. no! That was nothing!” “Nothing! They have told me he came every inch of the way iu danger of the Arabs’ shot and steel. He had suffered so much to bring the body safe across the plains lie fell down in sensible on his entrance here.” “You set too much store on it. 1 owetl him a debt far greater than any act like that could ever repay.” “You! Was it you?” “Yes. madame. He who perished had a thousandfold more of such nobility as you have praised than I.” “Ah! Tell me of him,” she said sim ply. Bur he saw that the lustrous pvm P. T. Thomas, SumiervilJe, Ala ,“1 wa3 suffering from dyspepsia when I Jco mine need taking Ko-iol Dyspep aia Cure. I took several bottles and can digest anything ” Kodol Dys pepsia Cure is the only preparation containing ail the naturaFdigestive fluids. It gives weak stomachs en tire rest, restoring their natural condition, h. b jicMaster. bent on him had a grave, sweet sad- j ness in them that was more precious ; aud more pitiful than a million litter- j aiices of regret could ever have been. ; As lie obeyed ber hands toyed with the j enamel bonbonniere, whose silver had ■ lost all its bright enameling and was i dented and dulled till it looked no more than lead. The lid came off at her 1 touch as she musingly moved it round i and round. The chain and the ring fell ! into her lap: the lid remained in her hand, its interior nnspoiied and stud ded in its center with one name in turquoise 1 e 11 o rs— Venetia. She started as the letters caught her ' eye aud turned her head and gazed at her companion. “How did you obtain this?” “The chain, madame? It had fallen in the water.” “The chain! No, the box!” He looked at her in surprise. “It was given me very long ago.” “And by whom?” “By a young child, madame.” Her lips-parted slightly. The flush on her cheeks deepened. The beautiful face which the Roman sculptor had said only wanted tenderness to make it perfect changed, moved, was quickened with a thousand shadows of thought. “The box is mine! 1 gave it! Aud you ?” He rose to his feet and stood entranc ed before her. breathless and mute. “And you?' she repeated. Ho was silent still, gazing at her. He knew her now. How had he been so blind as never to guess the truth be fore, as never to know that those im perial eyes and that diadem of golden hair could belong aloue but to the wo men of one race? “And you?" sbe cried once more, while she stretched her hands out to him. “And you — you are Philip’s friend! You are Bertie Cecil!” Silently he bowed his head. Not even for his brother’s sake or for sake of his pledged word could he have lied to her. But her outstretched hands he would not sec, he would not take. The shad ow of an imputed crime was stretched between them. “Little queen!” he murmured. It was his pet name for her when she was a child. “Ah. God! How could I be so blind?” She grew very pale as she sank back again upon the couch from which she had risen. It seemed to her as though a thousand years had drifted by since she had stood beside this man under the summer leaves of the Stephanien and he had kissed her childish lips; and thanked her.for her loving gift. And uow they had met thus! “They thought that you were dead, she said at length, while her voice sank very low. “Why have you lived like this?” He made no answer. “It was cruel to Philip.” she went on, while her voice still shook. “Child though I was, I remember His passion of grief when the news came that you had lost your life. He Las never for gotten you. So often now he will still speak of you! lie is in your camp. We are traveling together. lie will 'do here this evening. What delight it will give him to know his dearest friend is living! But why—why have you kept him ignorant if you were lost to all the world beside?” Still he answered her nothing. The truth he eoukl not tell, the lie he would not. She paused, waiting reply. Re ceiving - none, she spoke once more, her words full of that exquisite softness: “Mr. Cecil, I divined rightly. I felt that in ail things save in some acci dent of position we were equals. But why have you condemned yourself to this misery? Your life is brave, is no ble, hut it must be a constant torture to such as you.” “Leave my life alone, for God’s sake!” be said passionately. “Tell me of your own—tell me, above all. of bis. He loved ine, you say? Oh, heaven, he did, better than any creature that ever breathed save the mau whose grave lies yonder!” “He does so still,” she answered ea gerly. “Philip's is not a heart that for gets. It is a heart of gold, and the name of his earliest friend is graven on it as deeply now as ever. lie thinks you dead. Tonight will be the happiest hour he has ever known when he shall meet you here. “Why do von not answer me?” she pursued, while she leaned nearer with wonder ami doubt and a certain awak ening dread shadowing the blue luster of her eyes, that were bent so thought fully, so searcliingly upon him. “Is it possible that you have heard of your inheritance, of your title and estates, and that you voluntarily remain a sol dier here? Lord Royallieu must yield them in the instant you prove your identity, and in that there eoukl he no difficulty. I remember you well now. and Philip. I am eerlaiu, will only need to see you once to”— “Hush, for pity’s sake! nave you never heard—has none ever told you”— “What?” He turned from her so that she could not see his face. “That, when I became dead to the world. I died with the taint of crime on me!” “Of crime?” “I was accused of having forged your brother’s name.” A faint cry escaped her. Her lips grew white, and her eyes darkened and dilated. “Accused! But wrongfully?” His breath came aud went in quick, sharp spasms. “I could not prove that.” “Not prove it? Why?” “1 could not.” “But lie-Philip—never believed you guilty?" “1 cannot tell. He may. He must.” “But you are not!” It was not an interrogation, but an affirmation that rang out in the silver clearness of her voice. “You are guiltless, whatever circum stance may have arrayed against you, whatever shadow of evil may have fallen falsely on you. Is it not so?” His head bowed low over her bands as he took them. Iu that moment half the bitterness of bis doom passed from him. He had at least her faith. He lifted his head and looked her full in the eyes. Her own closed involun tarily and filled with tears. She felt that the despair aud the patience of that look would haunt her until her dying day. ‘I was guiltless, nut none cuu:u credit it then, none would do so now. Nor can 1 seek to make them. Ask me no more. Give me your belief if you can. God knows what precious mercy it is to me. but leave me to fulfil! my fate and tell no living creature what 1 have told you now.” The great tears stood in her eyes and blinded her as she heard. “Tell no one!” she echoed. “What! Not Philip even—uot yeuroklest friend? Ah. be sure, whatever the evidence might be against you. his heart never condemned yon for one instant.” “1 believe it. Yet all'ycu can do for me. all ! implore you to do for me, is to keep silence forever on my name. To day accident lias made me break vow 1 never thought but to keep itch on numan cured In 30 minutes by Woollord’s Sanitary Lotion, This never fails Sold Dy H. B.AlcMaster, Druggist. Job Printing of all “Lord Royallieu, why look, at me so?” cred. When you recognized me, 1 eoukl uot deny myself, 1 could uot lie to you. But for God’s sake tell none of what has passed between us!” “But w hy?” sbe pursued. “Why? You lie under this charge still—you cannot disprove it. you say. But why not come out before the world and state to all what you swear now to me and claim your right to bear your father’s honors? if you were falsely accused, there must have been some one guilty In your stead, and if”— “Cease, for pity’s sake! Forget ever told you I was guiltless; blot my memory -jilt; think of me as dead, as i have been. I was innocent. But in honor I must bear the yoke that I took on me long ago; in honor 1 can never give you or any living soul the proof that this crime was not mine. 1 thought that I should go to my grave without any ever hearing of the years that I have passed in Africa, without any ever learning the name I used to bear. As it is, ail I can ask is now—to bo for gotten.” “You ask what will not be mine to give,” she answered him, while a great weariness, stole through her own words, for she was bewildered and pained and oppressed with a new, strange sense of helplessness before this man’s nameless suffering. “Re member, I knew - you so well ir: my earliest years, aud you are so dear to the one dearest to me. It will not be possible to forget such a meeting as this. Silence, of course, you can com mand from me if you insist on it. but”— “I command nothing from you, but 1 implore it. It is the soie mercy you can show. Never, for God’s sake, speak cf me to your brother or to mine.” “But why? If al! this could be clear- ed”- “It never can be.” Tiie baffled sense of impotence against the granite wall of some im movable calamity which she had felt before came on her. “Lord Royallieu,” she said softly at length, while she rose and moved to ward him. “Why look at me so?” she pursued ere he eoukl speak. “Act Low you will, you cannot change the fact that you are the bearer of your fa ther's title. So long as you live your brother Berkeley can never take it legally. You may be a chasseur of the African army, but none the less are you a peer of England.” “What matters that?” he muttered. “Why tell lue that? 1 have said 1 am dead. Leave me buried here and let him enjoy what he may, what he can.” “But this is folly, madness”— “No; it is neither. I have told you I should stand as a felon in the eyes cf the English law. I should have no civil rights. The greatest mercy fate can show me is to let me remain for gotten here. It will not be long, most likely, before I am thrust into the Af rican sand to rot like that brave soul out yonder. Berkeley will be the law ful holder of the title then. Leave him in peace and possession now.” She stood close beside him and gazed once more full in his eyes, while the sweet, imperious cadence of her voice answered him; “There is more than I know cf here. Either you are the greatest madman or the most generous man that ever lived. You choose to guard your own secret. I will not seek to persuade it from you. But tell me one thing—why do you thus abjure your rights, permit a false charge to rest on you and con sign yourself forever to this cruel ag ony?” His lips shook under liis beard as he answered her: “Because i can do no less in honor. For God’s sake, do not you tempt me!” A quick, deep sigh escaped her as she heard, her face grew - very pale, as it had done before, and she moved slightly from him. “Forgive me,” she said after a long pause. “I wall never ask you that again.” Heavy as had been the curse to him of that one hour in which honor had forbade him to compromise a woman's reputation and old tenderness had for bade him to betray a brother’s sin, he had never paid so heavy a price for his act as that w hich.he paid now. Through the yellow sunlight without, over the barren dust strewn plains, in the distance there approached three rid ers. accompanied by a small escort of spaliis. Sbe started and turned to him: “It is Philip! He is coming for me from your camp today.” His eyes strained through the sun glare. “Ah, God! I cannot meet him. I have not strength. You do not know”— “I know how - well he loved you.” “Not better than I him! But I can not, I dare uot. Unless I could meet him as we never shall meet unon earth A Pafe Face is a prominent symptom of vitiated blood. If covered witb ' covered is, comp] way of warning you evidence is complete. ,’OUOfj F imples, the t’s nature’s yourcondition. Joiinston’s Sarsaparilla never falls to rectify all'disorders at the blood, slight or severe, cf long standing or recent origin. Its thirty years record guarantees its efficacy. Sold everywhere. Price S1.00 ner full quart bottle. Prepared only by MICHIGAN DliDO COMPANY. Distillers cf PURF. CORN Whiskies. t or *.!:• by il. B. }Ic3US7 KK, Wajncsiwro, Ga. we must tte apart forever. For heav en’s sake promise me never to speak my name!" “I promise until you release mo.” “Aud you can believe me innocent still in face of all?” Sbe stretched ber bands to him once more. "1 believe, for I know - what you once were.” Great burning tears fell from his eyes upon bar hands as he bent over them: “God bless yon! You were an angei of pity to me iu your childhood. In your womanhood you give me the ouly mercy I have known since the last day you looked upou my face! We &ball be far sundered forever. May I come lo you once more?” She paused iu hesitation and in thought awhile, while for the first time in ail ber years a tremulous tenderness passed over ber face. Sbe felt an un utterable pity for this man and for his doom. Then she drew 7 her hands gently away from him: “Yes. ! will see you again.” So much concession to such a prayer Venetia Corona had never before given. He could uot command his voice to answer, but he bowed low before her as before an empress. Another mo ment and she was alone. “Is he a madman?” she mused. “If uot. lie is a martyr, one cf the greatest that ever suffered unknown to other men.” In the coolness of the late evening in the ecurt of the caravansary her broth er and ids friends lounged with her and the two ladies of their touring and sketching party, while they drank their sherbet and talked of the Gerome col- ers of the place and watched the flame if the afterglow burn out and threw millet to the doves and pigeons stray ing at their feet. “My dear Venetia,” cried the Seraph carelessly, tossing handfuls of grain to tiie eager birds, “I inquired for your sculptor chasseur—that fellow Victor— but I failed to see him. for he had been sent on an expedition shortly after 1 reached the camp. They tell me he is fine soldier. But by what the mar quis said I fear lie is but a handsome blackguard, and Africa, after all, may be his fittest place. There is a charm ing little creature there, a little fire eater—Cigarette they call her—who is in love with him. I fancy. Such a pic turesque child! Swears like a trooper, too,” continued I10 who was now 7 Duke of Lyonnesse. “By the way, is Berke ley gone?” “Left yesterday.” “What for? Where to?” “I was not interested to inquire.” Her brother looked at her earnestly. There was a care upon her face new to him. “Are you well, my darling?” he ask ed her. “Has the sun been too hot for you ?” She rose and gathered her cashmeres about her and smiled somewhat weari ly her adieu to him. “Both perhaps. I am tired. Good night-” [to be CONTINUED, j G uarai.tee Wines t n<i Beer, <’ aimbtv find proof, per Gal. $1 50. JUG TRADE OF BURKE Solicited. KEAKSEY & PLUMB, 12&» Broad .Street, AUGUSTA, GA. AUGUSTA Dental Parlors, P\IX!jES'< ilE.UI-.iHV. D west Prices Ail Work GuarnrPeed {'row;; and Bridge Work » specially. POORE & WOODBURY. 821 Broad S. - ., Augusta, Georgi -.. Be ! Phone. 520. ! WOODWARD LUMBER CO., Manufacturers of Lumber, Sash, Doors, Blinds, Etc., Roberts freer, AUGUSTA, GA, osr Your orders solicited. Etc. Baw Mill Machinery, we manufacture the best . SAW BULLS' GINNING MACHINERY. MARKET. COMPLETE : SAW : MILL : OUTFITS : A = SPECIALTY. i.et us have your orders for Mill Supplies or Shop Work. MALLARY BROS. MACHINERY CO., MLACOiSr, GEORGIA. junel.’OOl — ~ m Howiseu Will Serve on I3card. Washington, Aug. G.—Rear Admiral Henry L. Howiseu iias been selected to fill the vacancy on the Schley court of inquiry, caused by the inability of Rear A imirai Kimberly to serve. Admiral Howisen’s name is one of several offi cers whom Admiral Schley notified the department was satisfactory to him. The appointment is also satisfactory to Captain Parker, Admiral Schley’s as sistant counsel. James White. Bryautsviiie, Ind., says DeWitt’s Witch Ilaz^l Salve healed running sores ou bo ! h legs. Ho had suffered (? years Doctors failed to help him Get DeWirt’.-. Accept r:n imitations 11 B McMaster Ou improved Farms in Burke and Jefferson Counties, pf? No Commissions. Lowest Rates. Long time or installments. fvf ALEXANDER & JOHNSON, | 705 Broad^ Street, 70 AUG-USTA, G-JL.. FURNITURE!! We have tbe largest and best stock o Furniture ever brought to Augusta, and our prices are as low as tii-f lowest. Eiegant PARLOR “ d CHAMBER SETS, SECRETARIES, BOOKCASES. i Couches, Sideboards, Bedsteads BUREAUS. WASHSTAND3, * j Rocking Chairs, straight Chairs, IRON BEDS $3,75 UP. Mattings. Rugs, Etc, Each department In our business is full and complete, and everv article is the very bei that can be had for the money. We do not hesitate to assert that r.o other Furniture house is quite so full of beauty, elegance and style as ours. When in Augusta be sure to call and fueming bowi.es, 904 Rrofl.,1-Stroll. AUGUSTA. GA msmmmmmi Bf ^GOnOTHE-GIRARD^PHARKfleYl] For your Gar den Seed, On ion Sets, Early Rose and Bliss Irish Potatoes. We have just received a fresh supply of D. M. Ferry & Co’s Seeds. They are noted for putting up the most reli able Seed sold. Iheir seed are always fresh and gives the best results. Our prices are as low as the lowest. olso remember we carry a complete line f DRUGS and everything generally kept in a first-class Drug Store. We have a competent Druggist who has had 15 years experience. BUXTON & HAESELER, GIRARD, GEORGIA. HELLO! Who is That ? “No. 73, The Waynes boro Pressing Ciub !” M. BUXTON. Proprietor. Clothes cleaned, Pressed and Repaired for §1-00 per month. Gent s buits aud Pants made to measure from $2.50 io $10. Suits from $10 to $35. Ladies’ cleaning aud dyeieg -1 specialty. Work calied for and delivered. All work guaranteed to fit. ■