Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-08-31
GREATEST OF THREE

UREAlEOI vi lHREE
He was first OF ali her husbands
friend, and then her own, and this is the
story of how she saved him in a time of
great danger and stood herself on the
brink of another and greater peril
Eyey Lancaster was one of those WOm-
EN- who marry men they avera gely love
and are faithful wives and devoted
mothers so long as passion, going down
the country lane of their peaceful lives,
passes them by on the other side. She,
perhaps, loved. her husband more than
these women usually do. but then she was
made OF sIerner stuff. and where there Is
more to conquer there is more to suffer:
Small blame to her, since heaven had
made her charming Small blame to Ed
ward Nereker, her husbands friend, since
he found her so. and he himself as g0odly
a man as you would meet on any sum-
mer's day. Her husband David I4ancas-
ter. was gOOdly man, too, and worthy
of her and Of Edward Eereker. his friend.
But there were three of them, and
three is an evil number concerning men
and women.
1t was during the summer of 1893 that
Edward Eereker and Evey, his friends
wife, began to be more than friends. He
was staying with the Lancasters down
in Surrey IN their pretty little red house
er, and David was going ND and down
to London every day, because 1t was yet
early, and the various vacations and hoh-
days had not begun. So he and she were
left a good deal on one anothers hands.
Satan found mischief, not for those idle
hands, but idle eyes, for that summer
ones hands remained in ones lap and it
was too hot even to talk, but it is as easy
to look at ones neighbors as to stare
blankly into space, and eyes can Go
great deal by themselves, take 1t alto
gether
SO these two sat in the shady garden
under the big cedars and looked at one
another for want of something better to
do. and found the occupation suffice for all
their needs.
Evey Lancaster was a good woman
by nature, not by art. L mean she was
naturally good, and had not become so by
trying hard. She had been well brought
UP: she read decent books, and, there
fore. only a few, and she meant every
word of her share in the marriage service.
But alas and alas! she was Il woman,
and a pretty one, and Edward Nereker
was good looking and 4 man, though
somewhat unusually moral and possessed
of Il sense Of honor. Moreover, they both
loved David. But David was away all
day-and I mistrust June ana the devil
in a green garden!
[ don't know that anything would have
Adelphi tragedy, battle. murder and sud
den death III one of its most appalling
forms in the shape of hydrophObia.
Evey and Edward had been unneces-
sarily energetic that day. Perhaps they
both intentionally realized that sitting
under the trees saying nothing was becOm-
ing a little exciting. At any rate, Evey
went TO the gunrOOm and brought out
Smith & Wesson of her husbands, and
they set up a mark in the meadow out
side the garden, and, having prudently
removed the cows, practised shooting in
the cool of the day. They shot very bad
~, but they had to look at the target,
and that was comparative safety. They
got tired Of it at last. and shH sat down
under one of the great oak trees thanking
the garden, with the revolver in her lap,
while he saunt6red across the grass to re
arrange the somewhat shaky target.
She was near the gate leading to the
road. and it was open. for the COWS had
gone that way to the farmyard, and in
June 1893, gates that it was not an i'm
perative necessity to shut remained open
for co0lness' sake.
And here the AdeIphia melodrama
came in; and through the open gate, too,
heralded by ''shouts outside"-a strange
Notwithstanding clamOr coming up from
the hush of evening distance-hoarse,
scared Leils. and the tramp of running
feet and confused directions apparently
issued IN many voices. And through the
open gate a horror rushed, creature
with dripping jaws and staring eyes,
Dig. black retriever, bearing in it's
strange. altered state, but little resem-
PIance TO the friendly, kindly dog of few
days back, and at its heels a cOncOrrse of
men armed with sticks and farm nipple
ments and any weapons that could be
hastily snatched up, but none, alas, with
4 gun.
Eyey Lancaster, revolver in hand, with
5y,=,N-
chambers, saw the mad dog enter the
meadow and make straight across it out
over the sunburned grass to where Ed
ward Nereker was walking toward the
target. She was under the shadows of
the hedge, broadside on. as it were. and
the dog never noticed her.
Edward Nereker turned on his heel ut
the sound of the noise at the gate. and.
like Evey, took in the situation at a
glance. But he was absolutely unarmed
he had not even stick, and he was
alone in the midst of a wide field with
death in its foulest form not thirty yards
from him.
Then Eyey Lancaster, from where she
knelt on the grass under the hedge. took
aim and fired. She was his friend. and
knew that his life was at stake, and that
NquicEened the presence of mind and the
courage within her. She was made of
British stuff, and that steadied the shak-
ing hand and kept the revolver straight,
and though the first bullet went wide, the
second carried true. and the mad dog,
with hideous yell, dropped disabled with
a shattered shoulder, not fifteen PAGES
from him. Then the crowd closed in and
put an end TO everything
Five minutes later Edward Vereker and
the woman who had saved him, leaving
the excited villagers still clustered around
the horror on the grass, went back into
the garden.
It was as much as she could do to walk
now that the strain was past, being only
a woman after all, and the green garden
was going round and round in a dim mist
that smelled of gunpowder and grew
blacker at every step.
He saw her falter and stop and was
only in time to catch her in his arms to
prevent her collapsing on the lawn at
his feet The earth and sky might
wheel and melt into blackening mist
at will, but pair of strong arms were
round her, and her cheeks on protecting
shoulder
Strong emotions make us view the