The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-08-21


ed one may break through it at will.
But to be vagrant indeed, one must
flrst be a vagrant at heart; and Girls
void was far enough from this, now
or at any time; so far from it, that
the claims of his transformed identi-
ty were already beginning to gall
him. It was to little purpose that
he girded at his compunctions, tell
ing himself that one needs must
when the devil drives. Custom,
habit, or Whatsoever it may be which
distinguishes the law-abiding from
the lawless, would have it's say; and
from railing bitterly at the social
conditions which made his act at
once necessity and a crime, he
came presently to loathing the sub
terfuges to which the crime had
driven him.
Moreover, mingled with the loath-
ing was growing fear that he
might not always be able to play
consistently the double role whose
lines were already becoming intri.
cate and confusing. To be true tc
his mission, he must continue to be
in utter sincerity, Griswold the
brother-loving. To escape the con.
| sequences of his act, he must hold
| himself in instant readiness to be ir
| ruthless earnest what common
thief would be in similar straits
a thing of duplicity and double
meanings, alert at any moment tc
| turn and STAY in the battle of self
preservation.
He had thought that the crisis was
past when he had pawned the last
| of his keepsakes earlier in the day
for the money to buy the revolver.
But he had yet to learn that there
| is no crisis in the human span save
that which ends it; and all the in
termediate duels with fate are mere
sub-climaxes once they have been
fought-conficts critical enough at
the moment, but likely to be re-
newed indefinitely if one lives be-
yond them. And it was another of
those sub-climaxes that came in the
| hour of aimless wandering on the
| levee. More than once he was tempt
ed to buy back his lost identity at
any price; at every price, if need be-.
Not in any other moment of we'll
filled life had he been made to re-
alize what a precious possession is
the fearlessness Of innocency;
weighed against it, the thick packet
of bank notes in the red bandanna,
and all that it might stand for, was
as air-blown bubbles to gold. And
yet he would not go back; he could
not go back, since to restore the
money would be more than a confess
sion of guilt; it would be an abject
recantation, a fat denial of every
article of his social creed, and a re-
turn to primordial chaos in the mat
ter of theories out of which he could
emerge only as a criminal in fact.
When the indetermination became
blankly insupportable, he put it
aside with the resolution which was
the strong thread in the loose
twisted warp Of his character, and
addressed himself afresh to the I'M
solved problem of flight. The pos
session of the red bandanna and it's
holdings made all things possible-in
any field save the theoretical-and
the choice of dwelling, or hiding
places, seemed infinite. His first
thought had been to go back to New
York; but there the risk of detec-
tion-if risk there were-would be
greater than elsewhere; and upon
|
there was no good reason why he
should incur it.
On the other hand, his inclination
began to draw him toward a field
in which he might pursue his So
Geological studies under conditions
found in great city. In his minds
eye he saw himself safely seques-
tered in some small interior town,
working and studying among peo-
pie who were not unindividualized by
an artificial environment-a self-cen-
tered community in which the money
at his command would be more of a
controlling influence than it could
possibly be in the smallest of cir
cles in New York. The picture
pleased him, and he fell in with the
suggestion, leaving the geographical
detail to arrange itself as chance or
subsequent events might determine.
That part of the problem disposed
of, there yet remained the choice of
a line of retreat; and it was a small
thing that finally decided the man
ner of his going.
He had been lettering opposite the
berth of the Belle Julie-an up-river
steamer, whose bell gave sonorous
warning of the approaching hour of
departure-absently watching the
ant-like procession of toiling rousta-
bouts hurrying the last of the cargo
on board. They were negroes, most
OF them, but with here and there
among the blacks and yellows a
paler face SO begrimed with sweat
and dust as to be scarcely distin-
guishable from the majority. The
sight moved him. as thankless hu-
1 A-S1