Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1901-04-04

| crime blacker than he had intended,
since death followed In its wake.
| Justice demands that / should convict
him of IL. Beatrice, one woman alone
can dissuade me from this duty. That
woman is my wife. Let that tie bind
us, and you shall ask of my hands
what you will"
A low moan burst from the girls
white lips. Reason seemed deserving
I her. Her senses reeled. Suppose that
| she were wrong in her estimate or this
man who pleaded his cause SO elo-
| uuently? Had not father, mother-aI
deceived her? Why might not her low
err have deceived her, too? Then Ran
| dolph Chester, the man she had so dis
trusted and disliked, was, after all, the
| only one true-the only prop on when
she might lean?
No, no-a thousand times no! or IL
yes, then death would be less bitter
| than that she might thus make her
escape.
Leave mel" she murmured, family.
Tomorrow you will understand
f-prescient Of her fatal meanlns
he reluctantly turned away.
For a little time she sat motionless;
then she raised her head and looked
about the pretty room, which had been
hers from babyhood.
She was very pale, but the unrest
had vanished from her face and the
| anguish from her eyes. She drew a
table toward her, n took from It's
| drawer a tiny package of letters.
They were five in number, and bore
-. e.. r-..t. h,,f oil ygATa SIGNED
by one name-Bertie!
Slowly she read them through, and a
faint color kindled her cheeks.
Il cannot leave these for other eyes,
| my darling.' she murmured; and, n
by one, she held them in the candies
| fame. ashes to ashes!" she whis-
pered to herself. "Ah, will 1t be as
easy for me to follow? VIII the end
be for me like this?'
And once more she leaned back her
head against the cushions of her chair,
and YEARLY closed her eyes
Night fell, but she stirred not. They
brought her food, but she sent 1t away
untouched, and gave orders not again
to be disturbed. The little French
clock licked on the mantle, it's sound
alone breaking the intense stiffness of
the room.
Suddenly it ceased. Startled. she
opened her eyes. Then she remem-
bered she had forgotten to wind it.
The hands pointed to half-past 10.
1T is .an omen!" she whispered.
This is The appointed hour"
She rose as she spoke and, crossing
the room, opened a small medicine
| chest, containing many remedies for
sudden illness, and took from it a bot
tie filled with a dark liquid, and Ia
beled Poison
Then. taking a small glass, she half
filled it with the bottles contents, a
bitter, pungent DIOR stealing through
the room as she did so; but her hand
did not tremble nor her cheeks grow
pale.
When this was done she knelt down
an instant, and buried her face in her
hands.
God forgive me!' she prayed. "All
that I trusted has been taken from me.
Nothing is left but this. Mother-iear,
angel mother, whom they tell me was
false to her first m~arriage-if true. thy
child forgives thee. All, thou wilt
plead for me with thy God and mine!"
A sob was in her throat as she spoke,
but her purpose had not wavered.
She caught up the glass and held It
to her lips. Another moment, and the
last drop would have been drained; but
God. looking dow on that young, un-
tried soul, had sent His messenger to
save her.
Even as the liquid touched her lips,
a shadow darkened the open window.
A man concealed in the branches of a
tree outside swung himself within the
room. and, ,dashing the glass from her
now ~nerveless hand. ii fell a mass OF
broken fragments at her feet.