Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-02-11

| They arrested him in ST. Louis,
you say?"
"Yes; but he escaped again."
| He moistened his lips to say: SCI
didn't hear of that mean l didn't
read of it in the papers,
Nor did l." she admitted 'This
Mr.. Griffin told me-
"Then he is a-a-'
"A detective; yes. It seems that
he came to the conclusion that q
woman had written the letter to MIR.
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. l YVES sorry,
but had to tell him what 1 knew
"Of course. But why should you
be sorry?"
How can you ask! Is it so light a
thing to help ever SO little to set
a snare for the poor fellow!"
Griswold's laugh was almost harsh.
II shouldn't waste any sympathy on
him if 1 were you. He is hardened
criminal, by his own admission to
| you"
mo, he was not that" she said.
| quickly. 81 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.
Then you don't condemn him ut
terly? You are willing to admit that
his own conscience may have acquit-
ted him?"
II am very sure that it did; or,
at least. l am sure that his own
point of view was SO obscured by
what he had suffered that he could
not rightly see the guilt of the thing
he had done"
"Rut you saw the guilt of it?"
'How could l help seeing t?'
True. There is no excuse for
him.
81 shouldn't say that. There may
be many excuses for him."
But no iustifcation?" He tried
hard to make the saying of it an
impersonal abstraction, succeeding
so well that she did not remark the
note Of despairing eagerness.
certainly not. Nothing could JUS
tify 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 compassion
enfolds even the impenitent sinner.
But her conscience arraigned and
condemned him.
Ho hO1vo1 ;e Lool
| before the woman who had judged
him; but when he would have
changed the subject he found it
mightier than his will to break away
from it.
Your verdict is doubtless that OF
the world" he said. "And from
what you tell me 1 fancy the end
is in sight"
"Oh! Do you think 500" 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 M
She caught her breath in a little
gasp. "And it was 1 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
it he could have known the circum-
stances"
She turned upon him quickly and
he dared not look into her eyes.
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 lust
been telling me-"
did / tell you that. too? I didn't
mean to-" She paused and looked
away from him. adding: "And-and
l don't believe 1 did,
He laughed. "Then I must have
read your thoughts. How else could
l have known it?"
| II don't know" she said, absentlv:
and at the end of the silence which
fell between them the talk went