Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-08-31
CHAPTER XVI.
Missing.

room at the Hopedale hotel where the
marriage ceremony between the man
she loved and the woman who had
so cruelty deceived her was taking
place, n member only of the coterie
there had caught sight of her white,
stricken face.
Lured on by the deft manipulation
of DR.. Simms and Beatrice Mercer,
Raymond Marshall had agreed to solace
the dying moments of the girl who
had saved his father from financial
ruin and disgrace by wedding her.
The bridegroom OF a few brief hours,
destined to benefit by her fortune
whether he so elected or not. too
crushed owe his grief to care what be
came OF him, he went through the
form OF a mere mockery of marriage,
and spoke the words that signalized the
elimination of the scheming sirens
deft plot.
Ii was just at the commencement of
the ceremony that he CHANGED TO glance
at the half-open door connecting with
the adjoining apartment.
The others did not see. the others
did not mark, the vivid start, the quick
pallor, the gasping breath, as he stared
before him rs If he had seen a wrath.
Edna" lie painted: and then, feeling
that Ii was a delusion of the senses,
a reproachful. haunting visitation from
the woman the memory of whose love
could never sanctify even a marriage
OF necessity and pity, he tottered
through the doorway into the next
room.
"Ednat'
His voice rang out less vaguely now.
1t was no wraith-no tricks of The
senses. She was at The threshold of
4 that hall door now. Her face flashed
Plainly, Enthusiastically, ncross his vie.
ion.
1T is she-aliye.' he gasped. ooh,
can 1t be true?"
Madly he rushed for the corridor.
The shock OF the perfect recognition,
however, had blinded, confused him.
She had disappeared, and in his excite
ment he ran the wrong way. got lost
in inextricable side passages of the
hotel, and behind the flying fugitive.
A lounger at the door told an excita-
bic story of the fleeing form, and in
Dictated the direction in which 1t had
disappeared.
J Not stopping to analyze his vivid
L tilOtlOHS IOl Nnc bllulfEt cltthtiUH III
which his acquiescencs to the pleadings
of Beatrice had placed him, Raymond
Marshall thought only of the dead
come back to life with a great, feyerish
joy and wonder.
yainly, however, he secured the vi
cinity. Edna Deane had come like a
! phantom and had disappeared like a
flash.
Jaded, perplexed. an hour later Ray
mond Marshall started back for the
hotel.
His brow was black with suspicion,
his keenest s~ensibilities aroused to the
fever-piteh OF augury and suspense.
Edna was alive-he was satisfied on
that point. AS he looked back over
the events Of the past hour, and real
lied how he had allowed his despair
| and sympathy to lead him into a net,
he realized, too, that it might all be part
| of a plot. The newspaper item was a
| falsehood! The siren had again delnded
him, and now-hc was chained to her.
| Be her illness stimulation or reality. she
was his legally welded wife. The
thought that Edna knew and understood
| all this drove him frantic. Hot with
| hate and excitement. he regained the
| room at the hotel. He would nav an
| understanding with Beatrice! She
| should at least. tell him the truth
| aSort Edna, and the mystery Of her alb
sence and reappearance.
He paused as he reached the parlor
| Of the suite. A glance into the next
| apartment rooted him to the spot. His
| father, the false nurse, the strange
| minister had departed, but there yet
fingered Doctor Simms, and there. too,
no longer the incumbent. white-faced
| dying bride. but in all her usual regal
boidnsss of beauty, sat Beatrice, con-
versing animatedly with her tool and
colleague in plotting, her cousin, the
| doctor.
Marshall has probably gone home"
the latter was saying, but / cannot
account for his strange abrupt depart
IRE. We will not think OF that, how
ever. Beatrice. Your scheme has sue
ceeded; you I his wife"
Yes" cried Beatrice. triumphantly,
my fondest hopes have succeeded
I'VE had better. therefore, hasten
our other arrangements at once. AS 1
understand Ii. you are to be removed
TO my homer"
"Still posing as the dying invalid,
YES, aSSentcu the CRAFTY Beatrice.
However little Raymond Marshall
may are for me, he will call daily { o
inquire for me. His sympathy will
cause him to do that. He will see me
gradually Gov When he finds he
has married a well woman instead OF
a dying n he will accept the situa-
ton, and my love will win him TO for
get Edna. and he will never know the
plot we have played against him"
HE knows Ii now"
The two schemers started back In
disinay. A towering monument OF
wrath, their victim suddenly sprang
into view.
In wild, fierce denunciation he thrust
the abasbed doctor aside. In righteous
Indignation he told the appalled, Be
atrice that she was unmaskod. the full
measure Of her iniquity known.
He almost cursed her In the bitter
ness OF his rage. He told her that IL
he fed to the uttermost parts of the
world, her claim upon him as a hus-
band should be the merest mockery of
formality. and then unheeding her
fruntic appeals OF love, he dashed from
the room, not even deigning TO reveal