The mill of silence

A PRIZE STORY
In The Chicago Record’s series of “Stories of Mystery.”
THE MILL OF SILENCE
BY B. E. J. CAPES, Author of “The Uttermost Farthing,” “The Haunted Tower,” etc.
(This story—out of 816 competing—was awarded the second prize in The Chicago Record’s “$30,000 to Authors” competition.)
Copyright, 1896, by B. E. J. Capes.
Yesterday came a knock at the door—a faint, tentative knock as from childish knuckles—and I went to see who it was. A queer little figure stood outside in the twilight—a dainty compendium of skirt and cape and frothy white frills—and a small elfish face looked up into mine through shimmering of hair, like love in a mist.
“If you please,” she said, “Zyp’s dead and will you take care of poor Zyp’s child?”
Then at that moment the hard agony of my life broke its walls in a blessed convulsion of weeping, and I caught the little wanderer to my heart and carried her within doors.
“And so poor Zyp is dead?” said I.
“Yes,” answered the elfin; “and, please, will you give me back to her some day?”
“Before God’s throne,” I whispered, “I will deliver up my trust; and that in such wise that from His mercy some little of the light of love may, perhaps, shine upon me also.”