The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-09-19


should have had it month ago, sir;
but England is far away, and l have
Just come from there to New York,
from New York to you. There is your
message, sir"
Saying which. he flung letter right
into Mr.. Douglas face.
'.Fennell, will you oblige me by
reading aloud the contents of that en-
velope?" said Mr.. Crawford, quite
calmly; but the devil was in his eyes,
all the same.
And then Mr.. Cram Fennell read:
be dead. WALTER MARLowE,"
YOU" to the stranger. "were evil
dently his friend?" said Mr.. Douglas.
"His dearest" was the measured re-
ply.
''And you wish to take up his quar-
rel?"
A nod from the stranger.
- Very we'll. My friend, Col. Forrest,
will wait upon any friend of yours in
the morning."
Dame" cried the stranger, "those
little balls-the white and black-from
the billiard room!"
Mr.. Douglas shrugged his shoulders,
as much as to say ''As you will
Well, the conditions were the same
as those of a year and month before.
when the pale gentleman drew the
black ball.
Stay" said Mr.. Crawford Douglas,
as he was about to draw, "tell me,
have you a friend to avenge you after
you follow your friendp I ask out Of
mere curiosity"
II shall need no avenger. You are
bound to draw the black ball"
His tones were like ice.
Crawford Douglas did draw the black
ball.
With reckless laugh he shouted:
8 "Well, that's hard luck! Just to
think, in one year l must die! But
what year I'll liver'
"Nay, sir, you must blow your
brains out here in five minutes, or put
bullet through your heart. It's all
''Weil, if l do" roared Mr.. Gram
ford, ''may | be eyerlastingly roast
ed"
You curt" said the stranger, with e
contemptuous sneer. "And - .,
that Walter NARROW" Kept faith wit with h
such thinD Is your ~ Will
~h, the words were bitter-bitter-
bitter. | understood after. | don't
know how they arranged it, but they
met next morning, off there in the
clearing, near the lake, and Mr.. Gran
ford wounded the stranger so badly
that he had to fly the country. We
have never heard from Mr.. Crawford
since, except once, and then we learn
ed he was in the silver mines of South
America. Yes, now l do remember
that some one said that he went down
In a divlngbell, on wager, to a wreck
OFT the South American coast. and that
some of his drunken companions cut
the air tube while he was down and
flung it overheard.
The poor. dear. wounded thing was
carried in here by Col. Forrest and
Jarvis McVey, bleeding awfully, and
up to my chamber. That day, along
toward night, my boy was born. /
dldn' t think that he would live, but
the doctor said that he wished he was
as sure of the mothers life as he was
of her boys. She fingered on for a
few days-hve, l think-and then she
passed away. l learned. by shreds
and patches, her story, partly from
her rawlings and partly from what she
told me.
The pale gentleman was her hus-
band. She was the actress Mr.. Gran
ford had said was "the worst of tho
lot" that night. Her husband was an
English gentleman and very fine ac-
tor. He would have been a verv great
one had he lived. 1t was lucky for
MIR. Douglas that he undervaIued her
husbands play with the sword; for if
he had fought with swords instead Of
those little balls of ivory, Mr.. Douglas
would have been surely killed by Mr..
Marlowe, for Mr.. Marlowe was the
best swordsman in his profession ex-
cepting Mr.. Fechter.
Only a few knew that they were
married, because they thought that it
was best SO for awhile; for the public
doesn't think so much of married ac.
tress as of an unmarried one. That
seems very funny. don't understand
that at all. Well, they used to play
together in Shakspeare's plays, and
her husband was bound to become the
best player of the part of Prince Ham
let since Edmund Kean's day.-Once O
Week.