Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1900-02-28

uTC u bO0U OJ MUrI6fcfS ana 6&tOU63.'
and granny and poor Merrick, and all.
So am going to end it. You won't OK
pect me to be too hard. and you must
try not to be hard yourself. Listen!
don't know how your brother died.
can't tell you that. Nobody now living
can. The only man who could have
told you can never be brought to &C.
count by any human judgew
Mason bowed his head without any
appearance of establishment. This was
the confession he had been prepared
for.
Nobody else Is to blame NOBODY
else knew anything about 1t till you
first came. But the moment Merrick
saw you on the road. heard your voice,
he knew that your brother had-had
died mysteriously and that you, his re-
lation, had come to bring those to
blame to accountw
"Ahw
when he ran away from you, he
thought he had escaped You may
judge what his horror was when, be-
lieving that you would never be able to
find the farm without guide. he found
you here within two hours That was
why he would not come In to supper
And when you We're asleep afterward
in that very chair he came in quietly,
with Tom. and loosened the muller
round your neck to look into your face
and searched your pockets to find out
your name"
$50 1t was he! Merrick! remembers"
calculated Mason.
"Then he was frightened. and gran
ny and Tom and all Of us, for we knew
you would never get away alive to
bring the police back here with you"
what? You were SO sure Of itY'
cried Mason, with shudder.
The girl bowed her head.
II did what l could to warn you, to
save YOU"
Indeed you did. i shall never cease
to be grateful"
But all the time was torn by two
feelings-the wish to save you, to spare
him this one more crime, and the wish
to save him, too, for, remember, low
ed him. We all loved him. In spite of
all we knew and all we guessed we
loved him and would have shielded
him, for he was always good to us. SO
good that we could not believe it when
we first suspected him of-of''-
"And when was that? That you first
suspected him?"
ut was nearly five years ago. In the
winter. We We're very, very badly off.
had scarcely anything to eat, and
talked of his dealings and Of the mon
ey he had made. He was cattle deal
er and carried long leather purse
with gold"
She paused, overcome by the horror
of her recollectlons.
"And when he went on (the way was
pretty open that winter. and he knew
the roads, my father went out after
him. And when he came back he SEEM
ed just the same as ever, only he said
that he had got paid some money that
one of the farmers near had owed him
for some years. And we were as mer-
ry as could be over this piece of luck
till-till we heard Of a traveller having
been found dead In a stream some
weeks after with part of his clothes
washed away. Nobody thought of foul
play till Tom found out that it was the
cattle dealer and that there was no
money found. And then we all feared,
secretly, not telling each other what
we thought-granny and Tom and
Merrick and myself"
She shuddered and paused again.
When she went on, 1t was In Il more
rapid pace, as If she was anxious to get
the dismal tale ended.
But all the while father seemed
just the same, and we didn't dare to
speak to him. He seemed so uncon-
cerned that now and then we would
laugh ut our fears and think we had
done him cruel injustice. It wasn't
till the second and the third accident
that we felt sure. sure. And meantime
I'd had to persuade poor Merrick to
stay on. Father made me. And the
feeling that he hated to stay and that
he was only staying just for me was
bitter and hard and DREADFUL
Mason began to understand This
then was the secret of her strange cold
ness toward the man who worshiped
her.
"And then to see you suspect the
poor fellow. when knew who 1t was
that was in fault, that was dreadful
too. But yet couldn't put you right,
for it would have been putting my IA
tier in danger!'
But" said Mason. "if you thought
such Q thing l can't understand how
yol could go On caring for him"