The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-09-25

~ 10 1dCuCI uIcdu1ul, anu
haven't told anyone about my part
in it; that is, not anyone but this
Mr.. Griffin, and he had right to
ASK she said; and from this as a
beginning she told him the story of
the bank robbery in New Orleans,
and of her part in the apprehension
of the robber.
Griswold's lips we're dry and there
was an invisible hand clutching at
his throat when she came to the
end, but he made no sign.
''They arrested him in St. Louis,
you say?"
Yes; but he escaped again.
He moistened his lips to say: II
didn't hear Of that mean I didn't
read of it in the papers,"
Nor did H. she admitted. "This
Mr.. Griffin told me-
''Then he is a-a-''
"A detective; yes. It seems that
he came to the conclusion that a
woman had written the letter to Mr..
Galbraith. He took the Belle jules
passenger list and sought out every
one of the women on it till he came
here and found me. I was sorry,
but I had to tell him what I knew"
"of course But why should you
be sorry?"
How can you ask! Is it so light
thing to help ever so little to set
a snare for the poor fellow!"
GriSwO11'c 1o1oh 1.,oc 81, lo.,l
Il shouldn't waste any sympathy on
him if I were you. He is hardened
criminal, by his own admission to
you"
NO, he was not that" she said,
quickly. II understood him better
than that-better than I have made
you understand him. He was not a
hardened criminal''
Griswold's blood, which had been
slowly turning to ice in his veins. be-
gan to thaw out again at that.
"Ihen you don't condemn him ut
terly? You are willing to admit that
MS own conscience may have acquit-
ted him?''
Il am very sure that it did: or.
at least. 1 am sure that his own
point of view was so obscured bv
what he had suffered that he could
not rightly see the guilt of the thing
he had DONE"
but you saw the guilt of it?"
"How could [ help seeing it?"
True. There is no excuse for
him.
Il shouldn't say that. There NAV
be many excuses for him.
But no justification He tried
hard to make the saying of it an
1mpersonal abstraction, succeeding
so we'll that she did not remark the
note of despairing eagerness.
"Certainly not. Nothing could JUS
thy such deed of lawlessness."
1t was as he had prefgured. Her
womanly pity had in it the quality
OF mercy. 1t went out toward the
lawbreaker as the divine commission
entolds even the impenitent sinner.
but her conscience arraigned and
condemned him.
He bowed his head and went dnmb
before the woman who had Judged
him; but when he would have
changed the subject he found it.
mightier than his will to break awav
from it.
Your verdict is doubtless that a.
the world" he said. "And from
what you tell me I fancy the end
is in sight,
"Oh! Do you think SOP" she
quavered, and her voice, and the
tears in it. were of womanly incon-
sistency.
"surely. This man Griffin has
made long step on the way to the
end. When he discovers the identity
OF the man who talked to YOU on
the Belle Julie, the world won't be
big enough for the fugitive to
hide in.'
She caught her breath in a little
gasp. "And it was I who set the
hunt upon him; not only once, but
twice.
Then it was Griswold forgot his
peril and turned comforter. you
mustn't grieve about it," he said,
gently. 'You have done no more
than your plain duty. He made you
do it in the first instance; he would
have made you do it in the second
if he could have known the circum-
stances"
She turned upon him quickly and
he dared not look into her ewes.
"How do you know he did that?"
she queried; and though he would
not trust himself to look, he felt all
that he might have seen if he had
lifted his eyes to her face. But he
was equal to the emergency which
his slip had brought upon him.
"You forget what you have Just
been telling me-
did tell you that. too? I didn't
mean to-" She paused and looked
away from him, adding: "And-and
[ don't believe did,
He laughed. "Then I must have
read your thoughts. How else could
I have known it?"
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