Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-10-15
A Knave or
Conscience
By FRANCIS LXNDE.
tCopyrishr l90Q by Francis Lynde.>
CHAPTER KIT.

was the Gr;swold Of his earlier New
York days-the days of the slender
Patrlmony - who presented himself
at the counter of the Hotel Marlbor-
ough. The clerk was graciously af-
fable.
Glad to have you with us, Mr..
Griswold. Will you have room?'
Griswold thought not; not in any
case if he could get late train to
his destination. This brought on a
question and answer. There was a
train, and the clerk did know some
thing of Wahaska; knew much, in
fact, since he had lived there.
Griswold pumped the man dry, and
at the end of the pumping process
knew as much about the Minnesota
town as he could have cleaned from
a six months residence therein. Aft
erward, he went to supper in the
cafe, meaning to go thence to the
waiting Pullman at the Terminal.
He was scarcely out of sight be-
fore the dininutive 7Irishman who
had driven him came to the counter
and made cautious inquiries of the
clerk, touching the name, address
and intentions of his late fare; all
this on the pretext that the fare had
overpaid him.
The clerk knew his man and in
dulged him, even going so far as to
write Grlswold's name and intended
address on card for him. Where
upon, instead of waiting for Girls
wold's emergencc from the cafe, as
he promised to, the cabman disap-
peared.
Griswo1d had a quarter of an hour
of purely philistine contentment
while he was waiting for his supper.
At last the difficulties were all in the
past. He would resume his name
and his plans; and these last took
on all the roseate hues of their
birthday.
He would go to Wahaska, settle
down to his work, study the people,
be helpful and generous and brother
loving, using the money he had won
for the betterment of his kind. And
in time he would meet Miss Farnham
on her own ground, and she would
see the demonstration of his theory
see and be convinced. But Just
here he remembered that he could
never convince her, because she could
never know; and from this he passed
to many curious questions touching
his own feelings for this young wom-
an who had been thrown in his way
He had been calling her faultless
authors model; was she only that
to him? Assuredly she was much
more, and when he had gotten that
far, it was only a step to the admis-
sion that he was frankly in love with
her. The admission opened up a
prospect for which there was no word
save grievous. For since he could
never stoop to win her under false
pretenses, she might never be won.
He knew well enough that all the
good deeds he could ever do with
the stolen money would not atone;
that in the moment of fruition her
conscience would condemn him and
cast him out.
Perhaps it was this thought, as
much as the threat of coming ILL
ness, that made him lose his appetite
as soon as his supper appeared. But
lose it he did, and nothing the wait
er could bring suficed to tempt him.
He forced himself to eat a little in
sheer desperation, and afterward
went to the great rotunda to smoke
a cigar. 70 his great disgust, the
tobacco brought on return of the
vertigo which had assailed him on
the levee; whereupon he paid his
score and took cab for the train,
meaning to go to bed and try the
effect of forgetfulness.
The experiment was a success, tenn
porarily, at least, and he was asleep
before the Pullman porter came to
adjust the screen in the window at
his feet.
The train was made up ready to
leave when hawk-faced man saun-
tered up to the steps of the Pullman
and pecked at the porter.
"Much of load tonight, George?''
'No, sab; mighty light. Nobody
yet but de gen'rman from the MARI
borough"
"A gentleman from the Marlbor-
ough? When did he come DOWN."
The porter knew the hawk-faced
one only by intuition; but Griswold' s
tip was warming in his pocket, and
he lied at random and on general
principles.
"Been heah all de evenin'; come
down right soon after supper and
went to bald like he was tarr'd.''
"What sort of looking man is
hep"
''Little, smooth-faced, narr'-chisted
gen'lman; looks like he might be-
But the wheels began to move, and
the hawk-faced one had turned away
Whereupon the porter cut his simili-
tude in the midst, picked up his car
pet-covered step, and climbed aboard.
F.. CHAPTER XIV.
In the day of it's beginnings, Wa
haska was a trading post on the In
dian frontier. Later it became the
market town of a wheat growing re-
zion. and it was of the wheat grow
ing era that Jasper Grierson was a
product. He was a young man when
he went overland to Colorado in the
wake of the Pixies Peak excitement,
and his townsmen saw him no more
till he returned in the vigorous prime
of age, wealthy, and the father of a
daughter who presently began to re-
construct the social fabric of Wa
haska upon model of her own de-