The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-09-15

somewhat justified in your r%eproach.
because-may I be frank with you'll
heard some time ago., certain rumors
concerning you which panied me. I
had no means Of ~ascertaining If they
were true; but If they might be, I,
thought, perhaps, your friendship for
all of us might prove a safeguard
against the temptations which beset
you in the outside world. I nev
dreamed, believe me, that you could
interpret me differently"
"And you will give me no promise
no hope for the future?"
IT can give you none she answered.
And, conscious that already he had
played ea~vesdropper too long. yet with
a great burden lifted from his spirit,
Harry moved from the spot.
"A minute later, when MI. Barclay
and Grace emerged from their retreat,
he again approached, and begged her
to go at once to his wife.
"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 I 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
message waited.
"Come at once. I am alone!" h
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 q
| minute after Harvey Barclay entered
the room.
He looked haggard and miserable, in
deed. His face was white and drawn.
| His eyes betokened that he had passed
a sleepless night.
well. Helen, my girl" he said, as
he crossed the room and took both her
hands in enc Of his for greeting. "
need have no more recriminations n
reproaches. l. asked the heiress last
night to marry me, and she refused.
| You didn't believe me. perhaps, last
night, when I told you it 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, 1t was a bitter Pill,
and I'm not sorry, my girl, that you
refused to swallow 1t nor gracefully.
So I've. come to-day to ask you to for
give me for what T said. Dead men tell
no tales, and after to-day I 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 q small revolver ~protrudtng
from it's inside pocket. "After tonight
It will All be over. You see, I 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
~ dilated, were fixed on the spot
where lay concealed that small, dead
~ weapon, as though she still could
see through the cloth.
"Harvey!" she gasped-"Harvey!"
and her cheeks and lips were bloodless.
"It's a shock to you, Helen, I know;
vet you must have guessed It was COM
ing to this. I wouldn't have told you;
but I thought 1t would be a greater
shock when all was over. And there
was another reason, too, my girl. I
felt, somehow, 1t would be easier II I
could remember that we both had
wiped out 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 If they fall
for the man you knew had loved you
better than anything else In his selfish
life"
Even as he talked. she knew that he
would sacrifice her as relentlesslY with
in the hour as he would have sacrificed
L.. Vo~k v,3ohk Saa1 o,Hoh On NrfAN0 hoon
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:
And she-she loved him as she had
loved naught else on the wide earth,
with a love that cast judgment and
reason to the winds Of heaven. and but
stepped itself in the magnetic attrac-
ton which ever kindled 1t anew.
She loved him. and he talked Of
death. He. In his strong, young man
hood, was weary Of his young life, and
fam would lay the burden down.
Harvey" she said, again., .:for Gods
sake help me to be calm! help me to
think! What matters ruin? What mat
ters poverty? Live; and begin life
anew! Things cannot be. &C desperate
as you. paint them. You an leave the
army. You can leave Washington.
You can go amid new scenes and new
faces. and Il"
"vvlll go with me, perhaps you would
say, Helen. No. my girl. Things are
not less but more black than I told you.
Leave the army?. Within the week.
when facts are known, my name will
be dropped from the rolls. Go away?
The walls Of a prison stare me In the
face. All! / am not giving up my life
for q chimera! VIII you believe now
that I was desperate last night VIII
you forgive me my cruel threat to you?
We will part in peace, Helen, and
sometimes you will give me q kindly
thought, my girl"
He watched her closely. Full well he
knew the soil on which he sowed. the
seed whose, harvest he already had an
ticipated and ordained.
rs 1t only money. Harvey?" she
asked.
And her voice was deep with its in
tensity Of pain.
"Only money!" he echoed, bitterly.
eyes, only money. Do you dream how
much? This time 1t ig not i've thou
sand, nor ten, nor twenty. I deceived
layou before, Helen. I hoped to retrieve
myself with the amount you rave me-