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

lt TO IflelT OWN chuS.
II suspicion attached TO Harvey, IL
would be difficult to obtain PROOF. pc
sides. he had not forged b name. Ana
now that she had hidden him hope
could she again relegate him to des-
pair? But how to obtain the sigma
ture? Well, she must trust that to her
woman's wit.
She had reached the square when
she had gained this stage Of her solllo-
ouy, and finding II, as he supposed, de-
serted, she sat down on one or It's
benches, In a spot as secluded as she
could select. Lifting her veil, she let
the cold air blow upon her brow.
The short afternoon was fast draw
ing to a close. Already darkness vas
gathering. Quiet and motionless, she
seemed a part of the falling shadows.
A light wind blew through the bare
branches of the trees. She drew her
furs more closely about her, but other
wise stirred not. 4
At last a step sounded at the extreme
end of the walk. She could distinguish
the figure of a man coming toward her
"a man her quick glance declared I'M
known to her. and so shes sat quietly
until he should pass by.
He was of medium height. broad
shouldered, thick-set. His dress was
seedy and worn. though a diamond
flashed in a bright-colored scarf loose
ly knotted about his throat.
His head was bent, as If in thought,
and between his lips he held a cigar.
He did not seem even to see the silent
figure on the bench.
He had nearly passed her by, when
he casually lifted his head, and their
eyes met.
A change. awful in it's suddenness
and character, swept over both faces.
both grew ashen, with livid lips. But
the woman was pale with the pallor of
a hideous fear; the mar white, with
the white fire of a pitiless triumph.
He stopped abruptly in his walk, and
for a full moment their eyes unfiinch-
ingly met; then, with a harsh, low
laugh. he took a short step forward,
and abruptly laid his hand on her
shoulder.
AT last, my lady-at last!" were the
words with which he broke the silence,
which, in reality, had lasted scarce
sixty seconds, but which to her, at
least had heightened themselves into
an eternity of torture.
She strove to speak, but, though her
lips moved, she could articulate no
sound. Her heart, which at first had
beat in maddest tumult. now stood al
most still. She could have counted its
measured pulse.
Repulsion. fear, horror, all had rob-
bed her face of its well-nigh unnatural
beauty, and left it haggard and aged.
The grasp upon her shoulder tight
ened until its pressure caused her phys
ical pain. The mans hot breath h
felt uron her cheek; the cigar he still
held between his now set teeth mingled
its fumes with the air until 1T suffoeat-
ed, rather than revived her.
1.-The surprise of seeing me isn't alto
gether a welcome one-eh, my grip"
AS he spoke for the second time, she
s~huddered.
I'll thought you were dead-mur-
dered!" she finally gasped out.
Grace had said, when first she heard
the voice of Harry's wife, that 1t held
more music than any voice to which
she had ever listened.
Could she have heard 1t now she
would not nave recognized it.
1t seemed to come from some vault.
and ring with the metallic echoes of
the sepulchre.
"Oh, God" breaking the horrid spell
which bound her, and burying her face
in her hands to hide this terrible flesh
and-blood spectre of her dead past
'oh, God. let me wake and find that
this is all a dreami"
80 I find you here!" asserted the
O unheeding her words. $50 at last
my long search is rewarded! In the
moment that / d~espaired, my end is
achieved: and here-here of all places
where / least looked for you! Six
hours more, and l should have turned
my back upon this place. not dream
ing in my widest dreams. that 1t held
you! Six hours only, and you would
again have been lost to me, this time,
perhaps, forever. How I have tried to
track you. How cunning you have
been! And now c~hapce-this poor ac-
cident of chance-has done for me what
all my skill-what all my counter-cun-
ming failed to do. Once more, Helen
Window, we stand face to facet .
He could have stabbed her no more
cruelty than by his words. In six hours
he would, by his WI confession, have
left the city. She would have been safe
from him forever-safe, and believing
him dead.
And but for Harvey she would at this
hour-at this nomenclature been safe
ly sheltered and protected beneath Ed
COR ReynoIdS' roof.
Already her absence might be noted
already some anxiety might arise con-
corning II.
In imagination she saw the room with
all it's luxurious belongings. where she
and Harvey had talked and plotted n
schemed. The lights were lit ere now,
the curtains drawn, the fire shed its
brilliant warmth upon the pretty pic
ture, and she was away from it all, out
here In the cold and growing darkness.
How cold 1t was! She had not felt it
before. She must go Monochrome!
Had she a home?
She almost forgot. as her fancy
painted the we'll known picture, that
between her and it had risen a sudden
barrier-the barrier formed of the
fieshless bones of the skeleton of her
long-buried past!
How many years had it been?" went