The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1900-06-01
(Continued.)

(Continued.)
"a soldier!" cried Mary. ooh, Rich
ard, you must try If we can't do some
thing for him. I never hear OF an old
soldier without thinking Of my poor
brother, Jack. who, you know, ran
away and enlisted while was quite a
little girl, and how miserably he died
in .Nrica. Oh, what pet I used to be
Of poor Jacks! If we had heard Of any
one who had been good to him at last.
how we should have blessed him! Do
tell me all about this poor fellow. and
let us see If we can devise any way of
helping him."
II am afraid he is pretty we'll past
help" said Richard. Il left him I'M
conscious, and 1 should not be in the
least surprised if he should never come
to himself again.
"But surely he can't be left to him
self in an empty house. Richard! 1t
would be sin and a shame to leave
anybody so. He must be got to the in
Urinary"
"He won't go. have tried my best
to make him, but he is obstinate"
"Then we must bring him here. We
have more than one empty room, for
the house is far too big for us. Do let
me get bed put up in one of them"
why, Mary, you know we'll enough
we can't even keep ourselves! How
are we to keep and feed stranger as
well?"
''Oh. we must, Richard!" she cried
impulsively, her tender eyes filling
with tears. Think how forsaken and
wretched he is! Suppose it were your
brother-and he is your brother, even
II he be what you call stranger. We
mustn't shut our door on hint was
q stranger, and We took me not in
how could you bear to hear that?"
She ran lightly out of the room to
give her orders and see them carried
out, leaving Richard sitting conscience
stricken in his chair, all his subtle ar
guments scattered to the winds by a
single word.
''Took him not I'M" he echoed with
bitter laugh. ono, Lord, didn't take
him in! I knew a trick worth two of
that; so I robbed and murdered him
instead, and then swore lies about it at
the inquest. And the best of it was
that I did it all from the most exalted
motives-to promote the greatest hap
piness Of the greatest number, at no
expense except of the life Of a wretched
miser of whom the world would be well
rid, who was only burden to himself
and nuisance to everybody else!
How clear it all was! but dare not
say it to Mary, and should hate her If
she could listen to it for second"
He lay back in his chair for mo-
ment with closed eyes, a thousand old
world dreams and half-forgotten ideals
and aspirations crowding back upon
his memory and circling round the
image of his wife as he had first seen
and loved her. There were unaccus-
toned tears in his eyes as he opened
them to see her standing before him in
hat and cloak.
"Come, Richard" she cried, "you
must take me to the place at once.
There was some wine left, and I have it
In this basket I have told Alice to
make up a bed in the back room and
to have some hot soup ready in an
hour. Now get your coat on and take
me to the house. We shall need a fly
to bring him here; but we can order
that on the way
Her bright, quick eagerness carried
him along; in another minute they
were passing through the streets and
had hailed a crawling cab. Richard
regarded his wife with a kind of dazed
surprise. All the wan depression Of
her face, which had weighed upon his
spirits for weeks, was gone, and a
bright and almost joyous energy
seemed to possess her that reminded
him of the Mary of brighter days. He
seemed awakened from a nightmare
as he looked after her, and sprang
lightly down to help her as the fly
drew up in the wretched street before
the empty house. Already the early
evening was closing in, and it looked
doubly desolate and forbidding in the
twilight. "Why, surely there is no one
living here!" she exclaimed; che must
indeed be In wretched plight, poor
fellow!"
Richard tried the door. but found it
locked. He had no recollection of his
departure from the house in the morn
ing, but on putting his hand in his
pocket he found the key, which he
must have slipped into 1t on leaving.
They entered the bare outer room, and
he could hardly hear his wife's ex-
elamation Of pity and dismay, his own
heart was humping so loudly with ter
ror and suspense. Should they find
him still alive? His hand shook as he
laid It on the handle of the inner door,
the lock ratified, and for a moment he
recoiled as from living thing. Nerv-
ing himself with an effort, he pushed
open the door and went in. The room
was precisely as he had left it in the
morning; the patient lay in profound
,sisep. breathing heavily, and bathed in
10 protuse perspiration. Richard bent
over him and felt his pulse. then shook
him sharply by the shoulder and called
loudly on him to awake, but without
srousing him In the least. Shaping his
j Ace with 8 wet handkerchief raising