The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-04-17

help you that way Stop minute and
let me think. There ought to be a way
out of it-there must be way out of it,
If only were smart enough to see it.
Don't fret. please. It exhausts vitality
and does no good Try to rest"
The closing phrases were born of pro-
fessional instinct and delivered mechan-
ically. His mind was busy with the
problem he had set himself to solve.
He was man quick to trust his own
Judgment and to form new plans. EN-
phatically nau of action, prompt in
conception. prompt also and untiring in
execution. Dr. Royals mind worked
habitually along positive lines. To rush
at difficulty and carry it by assault
was the method which most recommend
ed itself to. him, and the active. practical
life of the frontier had fostered his nat
ural proclivities There was little of the
''shivering and shaking on the bank so
condemned of the English wit about
Hart Royal To Jump in and scramble
through" as well as he could might be
reckoned his rule of conduct.
The plan he elaborated within the
next half hour might. as legal meas
ure, be open to question, but it possessed
the merit of tangibility and could be
put into immediate execution. 1t was,
in brief, that John 2oyal, fiat on his
back on that which might well be his
dying bed, In Matoacc :, should at the
appointed hour on tie following day
marry his cousin, on the other side of
the mountains, by proxy.
Il don't know how the law stands, !"
the originator of the scheme admitted,
land there isn't time to look it up. |
never heard of marriage by proxy out
side of novel, to be sure; but if man
can marry by telephone don't see why
he can't be married by proxy. To me it
looks as though it wonld give fighting
chance for Immediate possession Of the
money You can have the marriage re-
celebrated if the lady should prefer it
She will join you at once, Of course"
The sick man caught at the plan. His
own knowledge of the laws of the COM
monwe"lth in regard TO marriage was
nebulods, but to him also the scheme
proposed seemed to offer a fighting
chance, and even that appeared of price
less value. His eagerness was pitt III ;,
his insistence almost aggressive. The
poor fellow, drifting into the shadow of
: the inevitable, yet holding back with
terrible earnestness, with yearning ten
derness, not for his own sake, but for
: that of the woman left to his care, the
pathos of it dimmed Royals gray eyes
more than once, and acted as a spur to
his helpful, sympathetic nature. Il
There was no question in the mind of
either man as to who should be the repre-
sentative The bond of the order had
: done away with all strangeness or sense
of obligation between them, even before
the recognition of the deeper, human
y brotherhood had come. Royal made the
necessary arrangements for the care OF
the sick man during his absence, and
also provided himself with the wedding
ring which he found in his namesakes
pocket. The license would be waiting
at the other end of the line, John Royal
said: he had written about it from the
hospital to the gentleman in whose fam
lily his cousin had lived since their aunt's
death.
In the urgent need of haste it occurred
to neither man that DR.. Royal, being a
stranger, should have some sort Of Gre
dentials, or that it might be necessary
for proxy to have a written power of
representation, as it were, from his prin-
cipal. Nor did the thought that the
similarity of name might cause COM
plication suggest itself. The sick man
was unaware of the coincidence, and the
mind Of the other was filed with weight
Ter matters. There was little time for
detail