Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1900-09-13
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|: A.SRENS VICTIMS ;
= By Frances Warner Walker. &
- NAA wi& nM 81 oi
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By Frances Warner Walker.
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| utiitNc my ISenUg warmer imam
friend, your regret Is not more keei
than mine. ] feel perhaps you ar,
somewhat justified In your reproach
because--may / he frank with you?--I
Il heard some time ago certain rumor.
4 concerning You which pained me.
had no means OF ascertaining II they
were true: but IL they might be.
thought, perhaps, your friendship fol
all Of us might prove safeguard
against the temptations which beset
you In the outside world. l neve,
ldreamed. believe me, that you could
i Interpret me differently"
And you will give me no promise
no hope for the future?"
i II can give you none. she answered
And, conscious that already he had
played eavesdropper too long, yet with
a great burden lifted from his spirit
Harry moved from the spot.
II minute later. when Mr. Barclay
land Grace emerged from their retreat
| he again approached. and begged her
to go at once to his wife.
4 You are spared the telling OF your
story and I OF mine. I have cast my
die and failed. Ruin-utter and COM
plete--stares me in the face. Do you
care TO see me again before end my
wretched existence?"
These few lines, written in a hurried,
trembling hand, reached Helen Rey-
nolds on the afternoon of the follow
| ing day.
The messenger who had brought the
| MESA ge waited
Come at once. am alone" she
| hurriedly wrote in answer; and then
she waited in a fever Of impatience.
Half an hour had not elapsed before
| she heard the peal OF the bell, and a
minute after Harvey Barclay entered
| the room.
He locked haggard and miserable, in
deed. His face was white and drawn.
His eyes betokened that he had passed
a slcepiess night.
well. Helen, my girl!" he said. as
he crossed the room and took both her
hands In ono of his for greeting, Eve
need have no more recriminations and
reproaches. asked the heiress last
night to marry me, and she refused.
You didn't believe me, perhaps, last
night. when j told you IL was my only
alternative. You didn't reason how
desperate my case must be to send me
from your side to utter love vows In
the ear of any woman. though the fair
est on earth. Well. II was bitter pin.
and I'm not sorry, my girl, that you
refused to swallow II more gracefully.
So I've come to-day to ask you to for
give me for what said. Dead men tell
no tales, and after to-day can never
make any empty threats to you again.
You see this. Helen?" and he threw
back his coat and showed the shining
barrel of small revolver protruding
from its inside pocker. 'After tonight
1T will all he over You see. came to
ask, not a welcome but a good by"
His coat he again had buttoned
across his chest, but the great eyes,
with their strange, golden pupils. wild
ly dilated. were fixed on the spot
where lay concealed that small. dead
iy weapon. as though she still could
see through the cloth.
Harvey" she gasped-"Harvey,"
and her cheeks and lips were bloodless.
ITS a shock to you, Helen. I know;
yet you must have guessed It was COM
ing to this. I wouldn't have told you:
but thought 1t would be greater
shock when all was over. And there
was another reason, too. my girl. I
felt, somehow. II would be easier II i
could remember that we both had
wiped cut last nights words--we have
not often quarreled-and that the tears
you shed for me--for you will shed a
tear--would be less bitter II they fail
for the man you knew had loved you
better than anything else in HIS selfish
life."
Even as he talked, she knew that ne
would sacrifice her as relentlessly with
In the hour as he would have sacrificed
her last night. had such sacrifice been
the only means to his goal.
But what mattered the knowledge?
He was here before her; his face was
pale. his eyes heavy. and the spectre
OF self-destruction was stalking by his
side. ass.
And she-she loved him as she had
loved naught else on the wide earth,
with love that east Judgment and
reason TO the winds of heaven, and but
stepped itself In the magnetic attrac-
tion which ever kindled II anew.
She loved him, and he talked OF
death. He. In his strong, young man
hood, was weary of his young life, and
fain would lay the burden down.
Harvey" she said. again. "for Gods
sake help me to b. calm! help me to
think. What matters ruin? What mat
ters povertyf Live. and begin life
anew! Things cannot be SO desperate
as you paint them. You can leave the
army You can leave Washington.
You can go amid new scenes and new
faces. and t."
"will so with me. perhaps you would
| say, Helen. No. my girl. Things are
not less but more black than told you.
Leave the army? Within the week.
| when facts are known, my name win
be dropped from the rolls. Go away?
| The walls of prison stare me In the
face. All! am not giving up my life
| for a chimera! VIII you believe now
that was desperate last night VIII
you forgive me my cruel threat to you ?
We win part In peace. Helen. and
sometimes you will give me a kindly
thought, my girl"
He watched her closely. Full well he
knew the soil on which he sowed. the
| aoed whose harvest ne already had an