Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1900-09-13

E 4 SIRENS VICTIMS ;
y BY Frances Warner Walker. &
70 *
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By Frances Warner Walker.


| somewhat Justified in your reproach.
because-may l be frank with you'll
heard some time ago, certain rumors
| concerning you which panied me. !
had no means Of ~ascertaining If they
were true; but IL they might be, ]
thought, perhaps, our friendship for
| all of us might prove a safeguard
| against the temptations which beset
you in the outside world. I neve
dreamed, believe me, that you could
interpret me differently"
"And you will give me no promise
no hope for the future?"
II can give you none she answered.
And, conscious that already ne had
played e~avesdropper too long. yet with
a great burden lifted from his spirit,
Harry moved from the spot.
A minute later, when Mr.. 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 l end my
Wretched existence Z
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!" 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 looked haggard and miserable, in
deed. His face was white and drawn.
His eyes betokened hat he had passed
a ~sleepless night.
"WelI, Helen, my girl" he said, as
he crossed the room and took both her
hands in one of his for greeting. 1--WE
need have no more recriminations and
r~eproaches. / asked the heiress last
night to marry me, and she refused.
You didn't believe me, perhaps, last
night, when / told you 1t was my only
alternative. You didn't reason how
desperate my case must be to e me
from your side to utter love vows in
the ear OF any woman, though the fair
est on earth. Well, it was a bitter pin.
and I'm not sorry, my girl, that you
refused to swallow 1t 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 I can never
make any empty threats to you again.
You see this, Helen?" and he threw
back his coat and showed the shining
lo rraJ hf ~yaol rnxvnIuar prnfr,t1inU
from its inside pocket. "After tonight
IL will all be 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
ly 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. ] know;
yet you must have guessed 1t was COM
ing t this. / wouldn't have told you;
but / thought 1t would be a greater
shock when all was over. And there
was another reason, too, my girl. i
felt. somehow. it would be easier IL 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 IL 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
her last night. had such sacrifice been
the only means to his goal.
Rut what mattered the knowledge?
He was here before her: his face was
pale, his eyes heavy. and the spectre
OF self-destruction vas 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 it 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 so desperate
as you paint them. You can leave the
army. You can leave Washington.
You car go amid new scenes and new
faces. and T."
"Will 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! I am not giving up my life
for a chimera! VIII you believe now
that / was desperate last night Will
you forgive me my cruel threat to you?
We will part in peace, Helen, and
sometimes o will give me a 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.