The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-07-02

cNeL Uecu ODldln9u as TO ner IdCe.
The certificate of her birth had also
been taken at the same time, for
what reason was not known. The
young mother had been frantic with
grief, and her husband had employed
the best detectives and spent money
freely, all to ne purpose. His wife
died a year later. He continued the
search as long as he lived at intervals
and had his will drawn as described,
with the additional testimony that one
Harriet Carey had been a deadly and
vindictive enemy of his wife and that
he knew of no other person who would
be likely to have stolen the child. What
the reasons We're for this enmity he
did not state. AS for a description of
the girl, he could only mention one
marked popularity which would be
certain to remain as she grew up, and
that vas that willie one of her eyes
was a deep violet blue the other was
more of a dark gray. This was hardly
noticeable unless one observed closely,
but remained a distinguishable feature
by which she might eventually be
identified.
1t did not seem very likely that aft
er is years of search this discovery
would ever be made. But handsome
Harry Marsden, in the honesty of his
heart and his love of justice, %fervently
hoped that it might have been left for
him to bring the discovery to pass.
Harry was 26 and, strange as it may
appear, had never been in love. He
declared hat the reason was that he
had never met his ideal, not consider
ing that the matter of al ideal has
nothing to do with the divine passion
as experienced on this mundane sphere.
However, after he had received the
inheritance before mentioned, he had
come to wonder if a girl with a blue
eye and a gray one could be beautiful.
He had heard of the great beauty of
his uncle's English wife and wondered
if the daughter resembled her, always
providing that she was living. After
long d%eliberation he had come to the
conclusion that the phenomenon of two
colored eyes would prove rather a
charm in a fair face than otherwise
and had contracted the habit of look
ing carefully at every strange girl he
met who might be about 20 years of
age.
How he did eventually meet the girl
need not be related here. 1t was one
Of those accidents-as we count the
workings of never erring fate-that
happen every day. The world is full
of them. So Harry looked into the
delicate face, saw one blue eye and
one gray one and. saw his destiny.
Elated at the discovery (of the eyes,
not knowing yet of the other). he at
once saw his way clear to the end, or
thought he did, but found obstacles
in the path. Mrs. Carver declared that
the fact Of the peculiar eyes was only
a coincidence, that the girl was the
daughter of her son and that no one
could prove that her name was other
than Carver.
But fate was working in a manner Of
her own. and this brings us back to
Spook. crouching on the stairs, ponder
ing, %perchance plotting and planning,
as boy never planned before. There
was something in the air, a force re-
yolving about. which must be captured,
put in the form of a thought, developed
into a suggestion and thence to the eXe-
cution or act that would bring about
a desired result, a result beneficial to
Laura Carver.
A boy from the street threw a fire
cracker into the stairway. 1t fell close
beside Spook. 1t Kissed threateningly.
then exploded ~triumphantly. A mo.
ment before he would not have hear'
it any more than be heard the noiSt,
of the street. But now his mind was
at a point where the explosion came to
suddenly and made a motion across his
eyes with his clawlike hand like the
brushing away Of cobwebs.
He looked down at the spot where the
spent 6recracker still glowed duly in
the gloom: then he passed quickly
down the stairs and into the street. He
did not stop there, but FASTENED away
out of the vicinity and up the street.
He wanted some money. There was no
money in that wretched place he called
home, or if there was it was not fol-
him. The drunken aunt who was sup.
posed to care for him had no money to
waste on Fourth of July fun for the
boy. She had sold herself long ago fol
what she could get. She would sell the
boy himself at the same price, only
there was 40 buyer. That there was
money in the world that would ere long
buy him from her and place him in the
niche designed for him she did no,
dream. Neither did Spook. He only
knew that with the explosion of the
~firecracker in the dark stairway some
thing had come to him like the sudden
opening and shutting of q door through
which he had seen clearly to the end.
But he must have some money. SpooE
had never begged upon the street. His
spectral face would have been an effec.
tual mel for the purpose, but there was
something within him which absolutely
refused to do the degrading act, and nc
moun of}threats had forced him to it
But tonight le must have money Moi