Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-04-03
CHAPTER I.

l.
THE RETURN OF THE TRANsGREssoR.
The telegraph operator came ont of
his Office with a sealed envelope in his
hand. He had just received message:
and that didn't happen every dav. in
Nilliston. The event was of sufficient
Importance to be noted by the men who
were standing on Capt. Henry Thomp-
sons steps. Capt. Thompson was the
village undertaken, and his shop was
directly opposite the telegraph Office.
There was languid expression of base
less speculation regarding the tele-
gram, and it developed into active in
tercst when the operator began to
walk across the street staight toward
the little group,
He gave the telegram to Samuel
Ames, one of the old residents of the
town, q man much respected for his ex-
cellent qualities, and pitied for his mis-
fortunes which had been many. Mr..
Ames took the message with a hand
that trembled a little. He looked care
fully at the envelope, and then anx-
iously at the man who had given it to
him. The telegrapher averted his eyes.
This pantomime, which would have
been incomprehensible to a stranger.
meant much to those who saw it. News
in Williston is mostly bad news. The
town is SO far out Of the way that good
news, travelling much slower than the
other kind, rarely reaches it in time.
A telegram is a thing to be afraid of
Williston women, who had sons in the
city, had been known to faint at the
sight of such an envelope as that which
Samuel Ames held. Therefore the old
telegraphers had formed the habit of
writing good news" in big letters over
the address when the contents was
not very distressing. Those words were
what Mr.. Ames' eyes had sought and
had not found.
perhaps it is all for the BEST" said
the telegrapher. cts about Ned"
Mr. Ames tore the envelope open,
and laboriously read its contents. Then
he looked straight ahead of him for
thirty seconds; and perhaps he saw the
wcather-beaten building on the other
side of the street, but more likely it
was little boys face that grew, and
changed, and vanished.
"Ned's coming home" he said, hand.
ing the telegram to Capt. Thompson.
You'll do what's necessary, Henry. l
must go and break the news to
mother"
Capt. Thompson bowed gravely. Not
a word more was spoken, but two of
the men quietly took their places be-
side Mr.. Ames, and walked with him
up the street toward his house.
When the three were beyond hearing,
the telegrapher said:
Ned Ames is coming home at last,
and he couldn't do better than come as
he does"
There was no dissenting voice. 1t
was the opinion of all present that Ned
Ancs was better dead than alive.
1t must be admitted that the young
man had done much to justify this con-
domination. His boyhood had been dill
igently employed in getting out of one
scape into another. At twenty he was
drunl1ard year later he narrowly
escaped the pcnitentiary. Then he fed
from the town, and for five years, up
to the time when this story opens, his
whereabouts had been unknown in
Williston. Rumor had located him in a
dozen prisons, and had accused him of
every crime in the calendar. No one
hoped to hear any good of him except
his mother, a woman beautiful in spirit
| whose children should have been in
capable of evil.
Just what did the telegram say,
Hcnry?" asked one of those who had
witnessed the scene which has been
described.
ale died in Boston, of diphtheria,'
responded the undertaken. His broth
err Frank was with him at the last"
How'd Frank find him?'
"The telegram doesn't say. The body
will be here on the boat tomorrow.
Frank is coming with it."
Frank Amcs was Ned's elder brother.
He lived in Boston, and was so prosper
GUS that it was even reported that he
had sent money home. Certainly he
spent it lavishly when he visited Will
liston in the summer. His parents were
proud of him, but they loved Ned's de-
graded memory better than the living
presence of the other. Thus you may
know true love; that it is thrown away.
CNed's funeral was very impressive.
There were hundred reasons why it
must he so. First, there was the mys-
teri which had surrounded the young
man. Would any record of his five
years wandering come to light beside
his coffin? Then there was great curl
ositv to hear what the minister, Rev.
Eliot Warren, would say. To speak at
the funeral of such a man as Ned Ames
is always difficult. If good alone could
be spoken Of the dead there would not
be much to say in this case. But be-
yond these mere generalities was a spe-
cial difficulty far deeper, far more pain
full. Ned Ames' name had been con-
nected with sorrow which had broken
Eliot Warren's heart and had made his
hair as white as snow in the early au-
tumn of his life.
That was the other Williston nys-
terv. What had become of Ned Ames?
What had become of Charlotte War
Ono Of fbcca Questions had been