Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1894-11-15
MY BET.

Alec Bradford was giving l hadn't
drunk more than three glasses of wine
in all. But have been a temperate
man throughout my life, and possibly
even this moderate indulgence made me
unwontedly rash.
Perhaps my unstrung nerves had q
good deal to do with the NIGER as well.
l had fled from the home on tyrannic-
al stepfather here in New York about
six years ago, when the merest boy,
just after my mothers death. Count
less hardships had beset me since then,
but now l had gained in the far west
at least a hopeful semblance of prosper
ity. 1 had come back with only single
purpose-to find my twin sister, Ruth
Amberley, and bring her to dwell out
there in Kansas with myself and my
beloved young wife.
fearful, yet striving to smile through
her tears, Clara had hidden me goodby.
''It's dreadful to have you go alone,
Frank" she faltered. "Still, you know,
you owe it to your sister. You never
wrote to tell her where you were for a
long time after you'd driven your tent
stakes here into Ashbyville."
II know-I know, Clara. 1t was my
jealousy, I suppose
jealousy of stepfather! And of
such shocking despot as you paint him
tool And how could Ruth have run
away with you as you proposed in your
madly boyish fashion? And as for her
not answering the letters you've writ
ten her since remorse has begun to prick
you-why, there isn't doubt that she
never received them. Her stepfather' g
probably moved away from where he
used to live, or it may be that he's died
and'-
''That Ruths dead, too," 1 broke in
dismally, "or driven out into the Bit
ter world by that same brute who drove
me therep
Twas destined to learn on my arrival
in New York that my stepfather had
died over two yea1s ago. Concerning
Ruth no one could tell me. Our former
home held new tenants. I made count
less inquiries and even put advertise
ments into newspapers. My stepfather
had left all his money, I discovered (no
great sum either, to certain relations
in Baltimore. These, answering my let
ters regarding the whereabouts of Ruth,
could only tell me that she had left her
stepfather good while before his death,
and that they believed some kind Of
quarrel had caused the separation.
''Some kind of qrfarreln I forlornly
mused. "Oh, how horrible to think that
the sister once so dearly cherished may
be in want and suffering! But of one
thing am certain. Ruth could never
go wrong, no matter what hateful crisis
overlook her. She was and will always
stay purity and refinement to her finger
? tips. Our dear dead mother taught her
that and gave it to her as we'll as the
strange and sweet sauctity of inherit
ance.
Iwrote to my wife several sad letters,
and one was so desperately repentant in
its tenor that she answered. it with a
kind of sweet savagery.
'How dare you say, Frank, that you
feel as if you had killed Ruth?'' ran her
response. eff you want to make my
loneliness, which l am trying to bear as
bravely as I can, still more distressing
to me, you will not write again in a
mood both so morbid and so absurd. "
That evening, when / dined at the
Brunswick with Alec Bradford and
John Hathaway, two friends whom 1
had made in the west. and who were in
New York for commercial reasons, far
different from my own, felt far more
wretJhedly hopeless than cared to re-
~1dal.
At the end Of dinner, while we %'ere
drinking our coffee and smoking IT
cigars, Bradford advanced his h.Gle
theory, born of some converse we had
held about the wickedness and depravity
of darker New York.
II believe I could do just what you
say I can't" came my words after a
little furry of discussion.
John Hathaway was rather flushed
with champagne. He knocked his fist
against the table and said, merrily, yet
seriously:
make him take your bet, then, Alec.
Well all go stunning together, as
they call it."
''The bet" said, "gives me big
Odds Ten dollars from myself to 500
from Alec that nothing will happen to
us if I go with both of you wherever
you shall direct and in each place make
it known that carry on my person the
sum of $5, 000p'
"Never mind" laughed Bradford in
his breezy, staccato way. "I'll stick to
my bet. !" He turned to Hathaway.