Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-04-24
every red cent you've given me tonight
him A nd don't forget If -

every red cent you've given me tonight
goes to him. And don't you forget it,
For all his vulgar frankness. she knew
he had lied to her many times before
maliciously, wantonly. complacently, but
never evasively: yet there was again that
something in his manner which told her
he was now telling the truth.
Well he began, settling himself back
in his chair, Il told you l brought him to
Heavy Tree Hill. After left you 1 wasn't
going to trust him to no school; he knew
enough for me, but when ! lett those parts
where nobody knew you, and got little
nearer Frisco, where people might have
known us both. l thought it better not to
travel around with a kid of that size as
his father. So 1 got a young fellow here
to pass him off as his little brother, and
look after him and board him, and l paid
him big price for it, too, you bet. You
wouldn't think it was man who's now
swelling around here, the top o the pile,
that ever took money from brute like
me, and for such schoolmaster work, too.
but he did, and his name was Van Loo,
clerk of the Ditch Company.
ivan Loo" said the woman, with
movement of disgust, that man.
What's the matter with Van Loo?" he
said, with a coarse laugh. enjoying his
wifes discontinue. He speaks French
and Spanish, ard you ought to hear the kid
roll off the lingo he's got from him. He's
got style, and knows how to dress, and
you ought to see the, kid bow and scrape,
wasn't exactly my style, and 1 reckon l
don't banker after him much but he served
my purpose"
And this man knows" she said, with
shudder.
He knows Steptoe and the boy, but he
don't know Horncastle nor you. Don't you
be skeert. He's the last man in the world
who would banker to see me or the kid
again, would dare to say that he ever
had. Lord! I'd like to see his fastidious
mug if me and Eddy walked in upon him
and his high-toped mother and sister some
AFTERNOON" He threw himself back and
laughed a deriSive, spasmodic, choking
laugh, which was SO far from being genial
that it even seemed to indicate lively ap-
probation of pain in others rather than of
pleasure in himself. He had often laughed
at her In the same way.
And where is he now" she said, with
compressed lip.
AT school. Where, don't tell you. You
know why But he's looked after by me,
and id well looked after, too
She hestated. composed her face with an
effort parted her lips and looked out of
the window into the gathering darkness.
Then after a moment she said slowly, yet
with a certain precision:
And his mother? Do you ever talk to
him of her? Does-does he ever speak of
me?"
What do you think?' he said. comfort
ably, changing his position in the chair,
and trying to read her face in the shadow.
Come, now. You don't know, Ell? Well
no. No. You understand? No. He's my
friend-mine. He's stood by me through
thick and thin. Run at my heels when every
body else fled from me- Dodged vigilance
committees with me, laid out in the brush
with me, with his hand in mine, when the
sheriffs deputies were huntin' me: shut his
jaw close when, If he'd Squealed he'd have
been called another victim of the brute
Horncastle, and been as petted and ca
nodded as you"
1t would have been difficult for any one
wi n fha hnf
her to have separated his british delight
In paining her from another feeling She
had never dreamt him capable of-an in
tense and fierce pride in his affection for
his child. And 1t was the more hopeless to
her that 1t was not the mere sentiment of
reclprocation, but the material instinct of
paternity in its most animal form And it
seemed horrible to her that the only out
come of what had been her own wild
youthful passion for this brute was this
love for the flesh of her flesh, for she was
more and more conscious. as he spoke, that
her yearning for the boy was the yearning
OF an equally dumb and unreasoning mater
nifty. They had met again as animals-in
FEAR, contempt and anger of each other;
but the animal had triumphed in both
When she spoke again it was as the
woman Of the world-the woman who had
laughed two years ago at the irrepressible
Barker. ITS new thing" she said, Ian
guidly turning her rings on her fingers
Ito see you in the role of a dotfne father
And may ask how long you have had this
amiable weakness and how long it is to
last?"
To her surprise and the keen retaliatine
delight OF her sex. conscious flush COW
cred his face to the crisp edges of his
black and matted beard. For a moment
she hoped that he had He'd But. to her
greater surprise, he stammered In equal
frankness: TITS growed upon me for the
last five years-ever since was alone with
him" He stopped. cleared his throat. and
then, standing up before her. said in his
former voice. but with more settled and
intense deliberation: you wanter know
how long It will last? Do ye? Well. you
know your special friend, Jim Stacy-the
big millionafre-the great Jim Of the stock
exchange-the man that pinches the money
market Of Californy between his finger
and thumb and makes 1t squeal in New
York-the man who shakes the stock mar
ket when he sneezes? Well. 1t will go on
until that man Is q beggar; until he has to
borrow dime for his breakfast and slump
out of his lunch, with q cents worth of rat
poison, or a bullet in his head! It'll go on
until his old partner-that softy George |
Barker-comes to the bottom Of his id
fool luck and is a penny -a-liner for the
papers and a hanger round at free lunches,
and his scatter-brained wife runs away with
another man! It'll go on until the high
toned Demorest. the last Of those three
little tin gods of Heavy Tree HILL viii
have to climb down. and will know what