A Fair Emigrant, Chapter XXXVI-XXXVIII [pp. 485-508]

A FAIR EMZIGRANT.
He found the window now almost blocked up from within by
fallen rubbish, and, wrenching away the rusted bars, climbed in
through the aperture that remained. Having carefully observed
the interior as far as was possible, he ventured to enter further,
and made his way into a small space which, from the smokeblackened wreck of a fireplace visible, he judged to be the
remnant of a room lately inhabited. Sure that he had penetrated to the unfortunate Luke's retreat, he forgot the danger to
which he was exposing his own life, and groped in the semidarkness, calling loudly, in the hope that a living voice might respond to his cry; but in vain. Exploring on every side as far as
was possible, he was about to give up his search and return to
the light of day when he stumbled over something less resistant
than the stones and wreckage through which he had been moving.
The spot was so dark that he could not see what he had
touched till he struck a match, which only made a faint, evanescent gleam of light, but sufficient to show him a human hand
outstretched and clothed in rags, a clenched hand rigid in death,
protruding from a mound of stones and rubbish under which,
evidently, a corpse lay buried.
Sickening with the sight, and satisfied that he had seen all
that remained of Luke Adare, he groped his way to the window
again and stood once more under the heavens in the wind-swept
wilderness.
Men were soon at work digging away the rubbish, and the
crushed and disfigured body was laid on a bier on the grass,
while the excavators proceeded to make search for Edmond
Adare, the only other person who had lately inhabited the ruin.
Their search was in vain, and after some days it was given up,
the conclusion having been arrived at that Edmond, too, had
perished in the catastrophe which had closed the last chapter in
the history of the Adares. An inquest was held upon the body
of Luke, and he was buried with his fathers at Toome.
ROSA MULHOLLAND.
TO BE CONTINUED.
[July,
508