Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-08-17
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VI the urn Il lew months since on the
pretense of i'll health. He took nearly
all the ready cash, and not until after
t, he had got safe in a foreign land did
arm that the alleged valuable as
\ sets he had left as my share of the
business were only waste paper. Worse
than the burden of debt, he left those
forged notes. / hypothecated them.
Now l am accused of uttering them!'
Can you not take them up?' insin-
uated the lawyer.
"lmpossible! L have vainly tried to
borrow. My son, a dependence usually,
has lost all interest in business and
wanders about half-crazed over the dis
appearance Of a heartless jilt. No, ruin
stares me in the face-worse, the pris-
on-docS, d%ishonor, DEATH"
Il am sorry for you"
That was all the lawyer could say.
There was a dreary lapse of silence,
but during its reign the cleaning, scin-
ullant eyes Of Beatrice Mercer told that
their owner was not idle.
She was thinking, plotting, preparing
to act. Her quick mind grasped the
situation readily, the situation she had
anticipated, and which she had come
prepared to meet. She held the rem
edy-gold. To befriend the father of
the man she loved In his dire extrem-
ity, to a v an honored family name
from reproach-would 1t not win the
gratitude pity, and pity love?
She had other final in re-
serve. She had prepared plans calmly,
Systematically. This was but the first
step. Oh! she could not fail.
She arose and stole TO the door; she
peered in. There sat the stern.faced,
implacable lawyer, the fatal documents
spread out before him. There, too,
wan-faced, wretched, lost, shrank the
father of Raymond Marshall.
She stepped boldly across the thresh-
old of the room. Not until she had
reached the table and her shadow fell
across it did lawyer and victim glance
! UP. with q vivid START
"Madam!-Why-" began the for
mer.
Il have come to purchase those docu-
ments."
Her hand pointed to the pile Of notes
and securities, almost touching them.
In profound wonderment the lawyer
regarded her. With a gasp of hope,
suspense, dread, Col. Marshall stared
at her yelled face.
you have come" repeated the
idWNer, VI
40 buy those documents"
"Why-I do not understanding what
right?"
Are they for sale?"
Her voice rang out sharply.
ITO Col. Marshall or his authorized
agent. yes, but to q stranger
Beatrice Mercer turned 10 the bewil-
dered colonel.
sT am no ctY.u lint a frianJ u,
she whispered in his dumfounded
ear. 81 came 10 a W you" and then
aloud Col. Marshall, you authorize
me to act for your
The ~half-stunned colonel could only
nod like an automaton.
Ten thousand dollars is the amount,
j believe" went On Beatrice, calmly.
There is the money. See that it is
right"
She had flashed a heap of bank
notes of large denominations before
the lawyers sight. She took up the
papers on the table.
This is the forged $1,000 note, I be-
lieve?" she said, selecting one from
the many papers. 'Col. Marshall, it
shall never trouble you again"
With two twists of her dainty but
supple wrists, she severed the fatal
document in twain.
These other papers / shall keep for
a day or two. The amount is correct?'
she demanded of the lawyer. Col.
Marshall, you are free from debt and
dread alike. / trust we all know how
to keep n secret. / would like to
speak a few words to you alone"
The lawyer had witnessed some
strange scenes in his professional ca
reer, but the denouement of the pres
ent inexplicable n left him speech
less.
Col. Marshall, like one In a dream,
followed the woman who had mysteri-
ously saved him from ruin and dis
honor from the room.
Then, realizing that he had been
snatched from the brink of a preci-
pice, he reeled to a table in the outer
office for support, and burst into tears.
Woman, angel" deliyerer!' he fairly
sobbed. "Who sent you here? You
have saved to me all 1 hold dear on
earth. My tears, my prayers shall be
yours till my last breath. / shall teach
my own to reverence you. / shall re
pay you dollar for dollar. What can I
say, what can i do to acknowledge, to
repay this ~stupendous obligation that
brushes, stuns, mystifes meT'
Zone single fayor."
"Name it-oh! name it.'
ASK no questions, feel no obligations.
I only ask that tomorrow evening at
dusk you come to the hotel and to the
apartments of Miss Leslie, and bring
your son Raymond with you"
She was gone like q flash with the
words. The colonel stood staring after
her as If she were some wIaith- His
eyes closed and he swayed like on In
a dream. He fastened after her a min.
ute later to demand a more lucid ex-
plantation of her strange i~ntercession IN
his behalf, but when he reached the
street, like the fairy in the s~tory-books,
she had disappeared utterly.
Beatrice Mercer had fastened back
to the hotel. Her face was flushed,
her eyes hopeful, ~exultant, as she laid
aside her wraps.
$50 far all Is WE'LL" she murmured,
confidently. "Now for the most difficult
part Of the plot"
When DIR. Simms came, she led hin
to a sofa, and for over an hour In lew
earnest tones she conversed with him
She told him all her plot, all her de
sires. She startled him with her Ole
ness and shrewdness. she dazzled hin
with tho prnmt,a of muYitilput re