Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-08-03
CHAPTER VII.

Raymond Marshall had swept from
the presence of Beatrice Mercer with
the joy Of a man suddenly snatched
from the deepest depths of grief and
despair.
In a fash had come 81 full realization
of the true status of affairs. He had
been grossly deceived-his bright,
bonny Edna was o faithless! The
letters he had received were forgeries,
and the plotful Beatrice Mercer, in
spired by love and jealousy, had
wrought all the misery so happily
averted by his accidental discovery OF
her duplicity.
II will find her IL I search the world
Overt he had avowed ardently, buoy
ant, exultant In his faith regained and
the power of q love able to battle the
subtle foe.
With caimness, however, while his
overpowering love sustained him fully,
Raymond Marshall realized that he was
at a terrible disadvantage, In the dark,
with not a single clew as to the motive
of Edna Deane's strange disappearance
or her possible whereabouts.
A second visit to Miss Chandler, the
lady principal of the seminary, resulted
i'm the requirement Of a very little add
tional information.
Edna's father had sent a trusted
friend or servant to take her home. He
had made 1t an express request that
the location of that home, the mystery
of Edna's life, her true name should
not be made known. Edna must aban-
don all her old friends. A new life
opened for her OF wealth and comfort,
but apparently weighted down, or at
least affected, by some dread mystery
that involved the utmost secrecy.
Reasoning all this out, Raymond Mar
shall decided that he could do but little
except to await developments. His
anxiety for Edna's welfare, however,
his impetuous, impatient spirit, drove
him to endeavor TO learn what course
Edna's mysterious companion had
taken in so swiftly spiriting her away
to her friends. He traced the carriage
to the railroad town fifteen miles dis
tant, but there the trail ended. Dis
lance or direction taken by the fugitive
there became involved points of specu-
lation.
For a week he hung around Hope
dale. His painting was neglected. His
father was involved in deep business
difficulties, which at any other time
would have commanded his attention,
but just now he could thing of rothing
but Edna.
He grew moody and taciturn, anxious
and then alarmed. No letter arrived
from Edna. He haunted the woods,
spots endeared to him by their past
meetings, but his anxious heart drove
him to distraction as the fear grew
upon him that his love was lost to him,
that either the mandate of Il stern
father or the plots of the siren-hearted
Beatrice were operating to rob linn
of the bonny bride to whom his troth
was plighted.
What did this girl know? Evidently
everything there was 10 know. With
subtle craftineSs she had owe Her
soft wiles about the innocent and trust
ful Edna, until the latter had made of
her a bosom friend-an exclusive cen
fidante. She had tacitly acknowledged
TO Marshall hat she knew where Edna
had gone, but boldly, angrily, she lad
refused to tell him what he wished 10
know. Fully comprehending the girls
resolute nature. Marshall gloomily de-
/ cided that il she alone held the fate
of his ever again meeting his loved
and lost one that event would never
transpire.
Wrought up to q maddening pitch
Of frenzy by the uncertainty and sus-
\ pense OF the hour, as well as by a sense
\ Of deep wrong and injustice, n even
ing Raymond Marshall went straight
to the seminary.
Beatrice Mercer shall tell me all she
! knows he uttered fiercely. II will
4 plead, I viii brighten her, but her secret
/, shall be mine!"
The browning surprise and disaster
I alike Of the eliminating troubles of the
I hour was announced at the very por-
i tails of the seminary.
4 Miss Mercer was gone! Blankly and
! dolefully Miss Chandler impaired the
b~ewildering information.
/ Gone? W~hen-where? Beatrice Mer-
! Ger, poor. friendless. dependent entirely
on Miss Chandeliers bounty and the
smeager means that her position MS sub
4 teacher awarded her. gone? Abandon
ing a position which seemed TO be a
/, Ife-lease for her?
q Yes, she had made the sudden au-
announcement that morning. Thoroughly
/ amazing her friends, she had packed up,
) demanding her salary, and had left
I without a word Of explanation concern
ing either her motives in ~resigning her
! position or her future intentions.
To the dumbfounded and suspense
/. fui Raymond Marshall this seemed tho
Hast AMI most cruel blow of fate. His
i final reliance was swept away. He
felt assured that Beatrice Mercer knew
! or the whereabouts of Edna. Now.
she, too, had disappeared-there was
4 mo- a clue In sight.
1 Would She join Edna in her new
ehome. and by forgery and misrepre-
! scntation wreck her faith in her lover.
] and work out her plots of Jealousy and
! revenge?
Oppressed by this torturing thought,
<RayInond Marshal left Hopedale that
. night on a blind, hopeless quest for
I some trace Of the woman he loved and
I the woman he dreaded.
4 Too late! The woman whose cruel
/ hand WAS twisting his h~eart-strings
with torture because in her wild, err
? ratio way she loved him. had twenty
B four hours start In a plot so subtle and
f3ysd that his spirit would have quailed
bad he eyen so much as guessed its
&atnistcr motives!