The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1897-04-03

was neither good enough nor bad
enough to be wholly comfortable. Like
most compromises. the compromising
with ones conscience leaves the main
question still unsettled; and us to ben
efits, 1t was TO the giver and not TO the
receiver that the blessing was prom
ised. 1t is true that Philip had fovnd
an employment that called out the best
there was in him, and that in the bat
tie he had somehow stumbled into the
path that led away from sickness and
dependency; but at times he was tor
mented by the Thought that he had
paid too dearly for ambition and bet
ter health. II WAS IL he had sold him
self for an extension of life and the
wherewithal to make it worth the hav-
ing.
! Two grains Of comfort he had man
aged to sift out of the summers chat.
One was that Helen's sisterly letters
added no fuel TO the fires of conscience;
and the other was the news that the
bank in which the Thorndyke money
was invested was in difficulties. He
smiled at the thought that he was
able to extract comfort from this, but
so it was; the threat of disaster made
him throw himself with redoubled ar
dor into the case In equity. IT might
easily happen that his attorneys fee
would be all that was left him when
the day of reckoning came, and under
the spur of this prenonition he took
counsel of zeal and taxed his resources
yet more persistently.
And in the matter of resources Philip
had developed creditable measure of
that ingenuity which is usually but not
always the handmaiden of experience.
He had attempted through various
channels to make overtures to Prag-
more. He had tried to trace Gates and
! his convenient witness. He had ran
+, sacked the old town, ferreting out
everyone who could give him the slight
est information about Gates or Kilgrow,
the tenantry of the farm, the raid of the
revenue officers, and such other scraps
of local history as might have bearing
on the case. He had ridden for days on
the mountain in hopeless attempt to
find witnesses who could certify that
Kilgrow had not been in Allacoochee
on the Goth of May. 1885. And when all
these 'expedients had been pushed to a
fruitless conclusion, he had secured the
services of New York detective, who,
after three weeks of painstaking inves-
tigation, threw up the case IN disgust
and went back to the metropolis.
The forests on Jubal mountain were
beginning to hoist the ensign of au-
tumn when the professional thief taker
boarded the train for New York, and
Thorpdyke was already sitting his
brain for fresh suggestions, when the
laconic wires, supplemented by the tar
der but more explicit mail, brought
news of the failure Of Hallam's bank.
1t was an assignment, and-so wrote
Mrs. Thorndyke, hopefully-the pub
lished assets were much in excess of
the liabilities, but letter from Col. Van
Colt went nearer the truth. When the
affairs of the bank should be settled,
said the solicitor, there would be mon
ey enough to satisfy the depostors ahd
other creditors, with possibly small
dividend for the stockholders. AS 10
the latter, however, the colonel init
mated that Philip would do well to
leave it out of his plans for the future;
in the meantime, and for present neces-
stiles there were few hundred dollars
which he, the colonel, had taken the
liberty TO transfer from Hallam's to
his own bank out of the last semi-an-
nual dividend, which sum was subject
to Philips order.
The same mail brought letter from
Helen. The securities which had been
set aside for her marriage portion were
still safe, and her letter from begin
ming to end was an urgent appeal TO
Philip to divert the settlement to his
mother. Blinded by the dull rage
which lashes out indiscriminately be-
cause its real object is out of reach,
Philip was in no mood to search for af-
fectionate subtleties in letter which
should have stirred his better nature
to its more hopeful depths. He read II
with unreasoning bitterness; wrote a
formal reply, thanking her for her dis
interestedness, and asking to be re.
leased from an engagement which, in
view of his losses, was no longer sup
portable to him; scrubbed hurried
note to his mother, giving her the
barest outline of what he had done;
and, ordering his horse, galloped off to
Duncan farm to tell Elsie Of the new
misfortune.