The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-01-09


turned the girl. He was just playing
a joke on the old fellowi"
"a sorry joke, indeed. Langford's
jokes generally do not require explana-
zion, but 1 hope he will be ready with u
substantial one this time" and the
speaker passed on. leaving Kate alone
with this dreadful intelligence.
And she had no alternative but to
suffer. She could not go to the miser-
able young man, though no n in the
world loved him So well. And he, as the
network of evidence closed around him,
drew himself up austerely within his
suffering self. In reply to a sad little
note of sympathy he refused Kate the
simple comfort of helping him bear his
trouble, because, forSOoth, he would
disgrace her, forgetting, foolish man.
that woman's love is his mama in the
wilderness.
The poor girl had nothing left to do
but to dread the future and brood over
the past-that beautiful Sunday morn
ing sweet with rosemary; but she re-
membercd, too, the poisonous jimpsors
they gathered, and all the chatting talk
came back TO her like mocking spirits
to increase her anxiety. Her unhappl-
ness and discontinue were complete
when she was ~subpoenaed as a witness
for the prosecution.
All, me, in the presence of that Mex
can jury all those innocent words, the
reckless fun, were like stones around
L~angford's neck, and the penitentiary,
If nothing worse. yawned before him.
Kate had not seen him since his ar
rest; and now. as she looked into his
pale face-into his sad, dark eyes. so diff
ferent from the merry ones she had
parted with-she could have cried ont
at the change. One moment he gazed
long and earnestly in her face, then he
turned ~resoluteiy away. and from
thence forward seened oblivioUs of her
presence.
The girl was recalled 10 herself, the
curious crowd in the room. and ali the
miserable circumstances by a question
from the prosecuting attorney:
You saw the defendant enter the de-
oeased's house on the day of his DEATH"
Yes. but it was Just for fun"
"Was the deceased At hOme?"
ooh. no-weIl-why, l don't think
so"
Did the defendant say he was not?"
"No-but-why. l know he wasn't.
though"
How did defendant seem when he
came out??"
why. just warm from running 10
catch up with me-"
Rather excited-red in the face, per-
haps?"
Yes, for il was very warm"
What did he say?"
Only that he had put a cactus in the
old mans bed. That's just how he lost
his handkerchief there. you see"
But the lawyer did not exactly "see"
and he continued:
What did defendant say to the Mex
lean. Garcia. in your presence, about
numbering the man S~andovaI?"
As that question was put TO Kate it
suddenly started n clew in her mind.
as a fash of lightning sometimes re-
vcals a person at your window in the
darkest midnight. For a moment the
fash of thought blinded her, and she
could not answer. even stammered and
made so bad a matter of it, when she
did, that the poor defendant repressed
a groan. Her thoughts were all the
time intensely taken up with this new
idea, even when she heard this young
man sentenced to the ~penitentiary ten
years for manslaughter.
No one pretended to believe that Lang
ford deliberately planned the murder,
only that it came about from 4 prac-
teal joke to n quarrel; thus the SEN
tence.
Kate saw LaErford n moment in the
hall. as the sheriff was taking him away.
and so crushed and miserable lie was
that her heart nearly broke at the sight
of him. With her eyes streaming with
tears she ran TO his side and cIasped one
of his cold hands in her hot ones. But
even then he would not allow his mis-
fortune to compromise her. Putting
her gently aside. he said. in tones too
low for anyone else to hear:
Please pass on. Icannot allow this,
Kate. l am a jailbird now. Good-by."
The next moment a massive door had
closed between them. Never to mee-
again? The grief-stricken girl could
have fallen where she stood al the reali-
cation OF it all. Then there was her
part in it. She wondered, in her agony
OF fear, how much her words had
weighed against him. But she did not
lose sight of her clew.
Il can work for him anyway" she
said.
Langford was innocent, of course.
Then some one else vas guilty, she
reasoned, and she had never forgotten
tic evil, covetous CLEAN in the man Gar
cia's eyes. Nobody else saw it, however,
ard nobody took any interest in her
wild words. She must work out her
problem alone, and she began with her
Spanish grammar. Her Spanish studies
took her into the Mexican quarter,
and long and earnestly she strove to
get a foothold in the man Garcia's house,
but without success; and the way he
looked at her sometimes made her heart
afraid.
One day, in her little room, she sank
down discouraged, and began thinking