Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-03-29

| tSciS HoIu CoIItdIiIctl
was craven indelibly on her. heart and
4 BRAIN! FL re
i s Mr.. Alfred DeY-ries was leisurely en-
] Toying his after-dinner cigar in the little
/ octagonal smokin groom, so prettily up
holstered in green leather and black
walnut, with carpet of soft graSs-green
and COL ien-brown. and silk curtains of
fthe same shade of green, with g band
of.golten-brown ut the margin, and the
! paper Of cool grey ground with narrow
stripes of green and gold at wide inter-
| walls.
/ Dir. peNries Was, deep in thought. and
not particularly pleasant thought if one
| might Judge by the expression OF his
! face. Handsome and attractive as Mr..
| DeEries. was universally conceded to be,
there was an expression on his coIIn-
| tenan ce Just at this time that nlhde it alb
! solutelya repe! .ant-an expression of
avarice. hatred, craft. and bitter, cr'lel,
relentless determination. He started
7 when the door opened, as if the VIII
dows to his soul had been let down I'M
aware. and he feared some one might
J get 4 jglf1npse therein.
| s.Ah. Moutford. he said carelesslv.
passing his hand Cover his face and
Yawnlng,sts happy to have your compa-
ny, though / bdEeve WAS asleep when
! You opened thesdoor.' = as
8s-'.' WelI You cansoo to sleep againsif
! you wish. after You have given me the
key to The OFFICE rOom-yonr key"
What do youwant of it," DeVries
asked, sharply.
t.Is opep the doorzwhat do you
r'Yes, but>what. do you want to open
! tho ,1nr,. tp,.O1- I'm, ,n--iSral
ITO so in, you foolH' Montford
cried, angrily. :. would like to know
whose house this is. sir?'
II should ike to know whose it
would have been ii it. had not been for
7 1f1ee-or rather the money it represents
not yours, Gilbert Montford, very
plainly was the taunting reply.
I .sLooL here,F Ah.' Montford said,
coming dose to him. "that is an old
| joke of yours, and it is. getting stale |
have got tired fof it, and ] think you
must be. Tye rot o pretty decent
memory, if | am not so devilish bright
as YOU are. and I remember thai You
! came to me f,'St-you offered to do the
work you throw in my teeth, now, and
| have done n hundred times since you
| begged the job-aye, begged it.' :
| .You were very willing q give it to
me. if remember" sneered DeVries.
'Yes, aftersyou tempted me. You
know never should have thought OF it
A-you know Just how shrewdly YOU laid
| the bait, counting on my necessities to
| help you--ah, you are clever, ALI, so
clever! but please don't remind me of it
I too often. ITeeEon you've madea good
enough thingeut of i'll do. Now [
! want that key.S-Hm not going to be
shut out Of any room III this house; I II
| nave u dozen keys made to the lock, if
there no other way. ~
IT VIII go up with YOU" DeVries
said, rising.
II am not going now. / want the
key so Lean 20 when, |, please Z was
the logged answer, " and L aCtW have
! it,
- know very well whose work this
aA lf DeVries," interrupted Mont
ford, a passionate fire lighting, his dull,
! Blue eyes, - I tell you that | want that
; Rey. Give it TO me, or in less than an
hour | will have Il man here to take off
the locks from both doors-mind We,
1 from 6DhiaH : i,3t'bS't J.. sal
With 4 muttered oath DeVries drew
; the Kew from an. inner brea-t pocket
| and tos cd it toward him. AS he did so
| soIlethinr fell TO the floor with q duh
ring Gle stopped hastily to recover it,
! but not until Montford saw what it was,
and exclaimed:
My lost key, And you tried to
make me believe SIC had it, you hypo-
critic, you-you sneak, you"
a sudden hand was placed over his
| mouth.
..Silence, you fool, if you don't want
me to throttle your' DeVries said, in a
low, intense voice.
There was something in his glittering,
J yellow-brown eyes and bloodless face
that frightened all the buster out of
Gilbert Montford in one instant. and
left him weak and trembling. He
slipped out from under his hand and
skunk out of the room.
I'll wonder if he looked like that
when-when he stopped abruptly.
and looked about him with a faint shud-
der. SO But, nonsense! what makes me
imagine such stuff?'' he added, quick
ly. " He fell overheard, of course he
did, didn't DeVries always say so? I
wish didn't have such silly fancics-I
don't know but / am fool with
which comforting doubt he proceeded
to the library.
Stella Blake rose eagerly when he
opened the door, but she took no step
toward him, neither did she speak. but
her whole face and attitude were in
stinctwithe eager, tremufous, passionate
hope. How beautiful she was with the
rich blood wavering in her clear cheeks,
her eyes glowing like yelled stars. her
bosom rising and falling with wild, fierce
eHotien. He came toward her. his
AllL forid face lighted with Sudden
dger, passionate admiration. p
She shrank back with an instructive
yhiver ofdisgust, Gut he did not notice
IL. He saw only the rich. bright beauty
INof the giri 2ss@1sla r %s-g
Stella" he said, putting his arm
about her-still not noticing the instinc-
tive recoil-'I have had hard fight to
l get it for you, and now you must pay
me for it, or won't let you have i'll
,swear l won'tn'
a.