The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-28

path home. Had been more of man,
or if my visit to Mrs. Webb had been
actuated by more communicable mo-
tive, would have gone at once to the
good man who believed me to be of his
own flesh and blood, and told him OF
the strange and heart-rending adven-
ture which had changed the whole
tenor of my thoughts and life, and
begged his advice as to what 1 had
better do under the difficult circum-
stances in which found myself placed.
But the memory of a thousand past in
gratitudes, together with the knowl-
edge of the shock which he could not
fail to receive on learning at this late
day, and under conditions at once so
tragic and full of menace, that the
child which his long-buried wife had
once placed in his arms as his own
was neither of her blood nor his. rose
up between us and caused me not only
to attempt silence, but to secrete in
the adjoining woods the money L had
received in the vain hope that all Wis
ible connection between myself and
my mothers tragic death would thus
be lost You see | had not calculated
on Miss Amabel Page"
The flash he here received from that
lady's eyes startled the crowd, and
gave Sweetwater. already suffering I'M
der shock after shock of mingled sur
prise and wonder, his first definite idea
that he had never rightly understood
the relations between these two, and
that something besides justice had ac-
tuated Amabel in her treatment of this
young man. This feeling was shared
by others, and a reaction set in, in
Fredericks favor, which even affected
the officials who were conducting the
inquiry. This was shown by the diff
ference of manner now assumed by
the coroner and by the more easily inn
pressed Sweetwater, who had not yet
learned the Indispensable art of hiding
his feelings. Frederick himself felt
the change and showed it by the look
of relief and growing confidence he
cast at Agnes.
OF the questions and answers which
now passed between him and the vari-
Gus members of the jury 1 need give
no account. They but emphasize facts
already known, and produced but little
change in the general feeling, which
was one now of suppressed pity for all
who had been drawn into the meshes
of this tragic mystery. When he was
allowed to resume his seat, the name of
Miss Amabel Page was again called.
She rose with a bound. Nought that
she had anticipated had occurred; facts
of which she could know nothing, HAD
changed the aspect of affairs and made
the position of Frederick something SO
remote from any she could have i'm
agined, that she was still in the maze
of the numberless conflicting emotions
which these revelations Were calculated
to call out in one who had risked all on
the hazard of a die and lost. She did
not even know at this moment whether
she was glad or sorry he could explain
so cleverly his anomalous position. She
had caught the look he had cast "a
Agnes, and while this angered her, it
did not greatly modify her opinion that
he was destined for herself For, how
ever other people might feel. she did
not for moment believe his story. She
had not pure enough heart to do So
To her all self-sacrifice was an anom-
ally. No woman of the mental or ply
steal strength of Agatha Webb would
plant dagger in her own breast just
to prevent another person from COM
hitting a crime, be he lover husband or
son. So she believed and so would these
others believe also when once relieved
of the magnetic personality of this ex-
witness. Yet how thrilling
it had been to hear him plead his cause
so WELL SO thrilling. it was almost
worth the loss of her revenge to meet
his look of hate, and dream of the pos
sibility of turning it later into the old
look of love Yes, yes, she loved him
now; not for his position, for that was
gone; not ever for his money, for she
could contemplate its loss, but for him
self who had so boldly shown that he
was stronger than she and could
over her by the sheer force of
his masculine daring.
With such feelings, what would she
say to these men; how conduct herself
under questions which would be much