Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-12-23
IN THE MIDDLEVEST.
A Story of Life in the Great
Mississippi Valley.
BY AlVA MILTON kERe
lCoPYRIGHr. 1856, BY THE An
NEWSPAPER COMPANY
CHAPTER xu-cox

CHAPTER XXL-CoSrrSuyn
some such shadowy. wandering
wish as this last was turnino waor;l7,
about in John Earnings mind when
morning came. He had come back to
the town when he saw that the sick.
on.hg tragedy on the hill was in
e'i,aoie' and, climbing to his room
onoer the roof of Bowers Block.
paced to and fro for hours Al
last he sat down between tba din,
lamp and iukewarm stove with his
taee IN his hands and thouoht and
,hought upon the n1vriad-colored nrob-
ZEN OF existence. He could not Law
Iie Golors straight. and at last the hines
'l! pieht, and the problem seemed a
LilSh'S' swiftiy-whiriinc wheel that
ure" sparks out of the darkness bv tha
thousands and they streamed down
Tue blending spokes and entered throuob
the vast and sualike hub into what
seemed the sun itself; then he THOUGHT
the wheel was Time and the snark :
were lives, and he strained to see into
the region where they went until he
seemed 20 be going blind, and the GREAT
"heei seemed receding and GROWING
less and less, and going farther and
farther into the darkness until if dv;nN
dleu TO a single spark which seemed
10 iufh INTO the doomed book-keeper's
voice. and wall to him family from
under the fatal oak: .'See Ivyl Snaer,
see-lvyi-S-n-a-e-r.' Far and far away
III the storm it seemed, and he was
surviving vainly to go to it, when it
slowly changed and seemed the voice
OF celeste singing silverlv away I'D in
the sky. Then suddenly it seemed
summer time and he and Celeste were
hunting In the flowers and grass for
Maun grave. But they could not
ma 1t, and stood looking into each
others eyes with wondering gaze.
when Celeste said, slowly: 1T was
made here. but the grass has all grown
over lt, and 1t must be as if it had never
Deen! and he thought such look as
he had never seen there before, a look
that was kind of rosy light, come
into her face and shone into his and
nlled MN with so sweet n feeling that
he awoke, and the gray dawn W as filter
ing IN through the frosty window and
the storm was pelting against it and
beating over and securing across the
tin roof of Bowers Block.
In q moment, when the truth and his
dreams were separated, the dark past
came back upon him, and he shivered
and got up and moved sorelf about,
replacing his damp, torn clothing with
dry apparel. Then he bathed bis face,
and putting on his overcoat started
out, but paused at the door and took
from his pocket the scrap of paper adj
dressed to Fowler which he found on
that awful trail, and which contained
Maun's confession of her love for j John
Earring, and that through it she knew
of her sin, and begged that she and
Fowler might never meet again. For
some time he stood still looking at the
heart-breaking thing, and seeing all the
frightful detail of the crime, as he had
a hundred times, pass over it ''She
didn't know! She didn't Know he
whispered, and went shuddering back
to the stove, and opening it put the
teH-tale paper into the smoldering fire,
ami with it Maun's most saddening Sc
cret. Then he went down and got a
cup of coffee at the hotel where he took
his meals, hearing every where buzz
about the tragedy of the night, and
how the coroner had gone out to cut
the body down. But he said nothing;
to him the case was ended, and he
climbed the stairs to the Office of Bow
er & Woodman and refreshing the
fires, for the old. slipshod janitor had
not vet appeared. he destroyed all the
notes he had made touching the trial
and set at once to work upon some new
business. But, though turning his
mind strenuously from the torturing
field which he had just left, that cry:
..See Ivyl Snaer! see Ivyi Snaer!
kept ringing within him, immingled
somehow with Celeste's far-off, silvery
singing. He well-nigh believed it a
delusion: but he could not silence 1t,
and rot up ere long and stood at
the window brooding over it. hat
could the doomed man have meant by
calling after him? What had the
name to do with him? He repeated
it over again and again. then he went
back carefully along the pathway OF
his life irving to recall every name ne
had ever heard. Suddenly he started
and walked about excitedly. He re-
membered having heard Joel Whitney
mention this curious name years before
in connection with the murder OF MS
father. All. was he stumbling upon
the secret of that long-forgotten mys-
tery9 The blood surged into MS
TEMPLES. and he began hurriedly to
mt on his overcoat. 1t was by no
means clear what he should do, put
something must be done about TINS
At tba door he met Absalom Heater.
That lony-striding. wordless person
came directly in, and, flirting the snow
from his dark beard. threw his meal.
miller's hat upon the table anu sat
down.
.That still devil knowed something
,o,, ono-ht to know he began, look
inc little consciously at John Earring
who stood with his hand on the ooor-
knob regarding him in steady silence ,e.
land 1 wanted to make HIM splitter
out. but the boys couldn't wa,i you
heard him calm to you 'sposes
..Weu had i'm by the throttle
irwin, 70 hold it open long enough 1or
i'm 70 get rid of what was hurtln I'M
but tbey nulled the hemp on I'M III
s,ite ~ me. Think he knowed some :,
thin vo,, ought to know. ihat Esn
Snare that he was yellin' about was the
chan that got your pap's farm: su"oA
mo he Lnowed how he got it!
Ibid Won know Ivyl Snaer.
81 was a youngster tneh' D
member i'm I,or haforepn
Sometimes thought L hao; cou''n
John Earring looked at him so1er ay
a moment 3Ab," he SAID, Win hn
imploring thread in his yoi .s;,o last
Aid ro,, 6eln. do that awful tnlhS i"s'