This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...Adele's heart contracted; she knew that no sunrise ever painted that lurid and flickering glare. At last the boat halted under the cypresses. No one but Adele would have leaped unhesitatingly from log to log, to follow Mose into the brake. Were the path through quagmires she must have followed him, for now a hollow, ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...Adele's heart contracted; she knew that no sunrise ever painted that lurid and flickering glare. At last the boat halted under the cypresses. No one but Adele would have leaped unhesitatingly from log to log, to follow Mose into the brake. Were the path through quagmires she must have followed him, for now a hollow, crackling sound could be heard and showers of sparks streamed upward. Slick Mose was running, uttering his half-animal cry of pain. He chose the path so skilfully that not once did their feet sink below the surface. Fleet of foot as the idiot was, Adele kept close to him. They emerged into the open. Parson Collins's house was blazing before them, aflame now from pillar to roof-tree: but not a human creature was in sight. Mose ran to the sycamore to which the preacher had been bound. Blood-stains on the trampled ground, embers of a fire, sparks from which had probably set the house afire; on one side a litter of pawpaw bark, footprints everywhere of men and horses--one could still see these, but if Mose had left any dead witness of a crime, whose wounds might appeal to the indignation of men, the smoke and flame hid his fate. There was something tragical about the spectacle; the absence of all the stir and bustle and outcry usual to such a calamity, the lonely house, with its gaping doors and windows, burning unheeded. Slick Mose would have rushed into the flames had not Adele, half by force, half by persuasion, withheld him. Sick with indescribable apprehension, she screamed, "Mr. Collins!" and "Cousin Fair!" until her voice failed her. All at once Mose wrenched himself from her grasp and began to dart round the house, at intervals stooping to examine the ground, uttering long wails like a dog when he trees a coon. In another...
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