Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-06-11

ing his grief-stricken eyes with cold
grey ones.
"The room is over warm for ye," he
said, in a low voice, with a strong &C
cent
And they made their way quite quiet
ly, disturbing nobody, exciting no re-
mark, into the first room.
CHAPTER xxx.
Three long hours Of waiting, watch
excitement, Frank Armathwaite passed
, that night in the gambling hell by the
side of his older, ca1mer friend. Lord
Kildonan seemed to the younger man
to carry his immovable stolidity to a
point at which it was difficult to dis
tnguish it from absolute apathy; and
Frank wondered, as ne glanced furtive-
ly from time to time at the steely eyes
and hard mouth Of his companion,
whether the discovery of his wife's
treachery, the confirmation Of it by the
evidence of his own eyes, had killed all
that remained to be done was to cut
her off, to cast her adrift without a
culver, without pang. She had de-
served it-there was no denying that;
but Frank felt, as he looked at the
Scotchman's cast-iron face, and shud-
dered at the deadly patience which
made him wait, wait to carry out some
plan he had set himself, that the cold
justice the injured husband was pre-
pairing to mete out was something I'LL
worthy in it's harshness of his better,
kinder self.
Franks momentary pity for the wo-
man had given place to utter disgust
as her face grew more and more
flushed with the gamblers fever as the
night wore on, until even under her
veil the beautiful features seemed to
lose all their charm, and the unsexing
passion to change her fairness into a
lurid glow of boldness and daring al
most diabolical. Lord KildOnan had
sat down with his companion at one
of the small tables in the baccarat
both his wife and Crosmont To avoid
exciting attention they played ecarte,
the older man holding his cards as
steadily and playing as carefully as if
he had been in his own house, while
the hands of the younger shook, his
mind wandered, and the hot air seem
ed to raise films of steaming vapour
between his straining eyes and the
cards.
"You have bad nerves." said Lord
Kildonan, glancing at him with a cold
smile, and then turning his eyes,
without the least apparent effort, to
the woman and the man he was watch
ing.
If they could know, those fools-if
they had the sense to direct their eyes
to the obscure corner where their
judge, their master, sat, holding them
with a penetrating gaze that froze
Armathwaites blood by its pitiless-
ness! But they were blind, blind as
moths-she intent on the game, and he
on her. She was losing heavily.
From time to time she would turn,
with a fierce, imperious movement, to
hold out hungry, clutching fingers to-
wards Crosmont, and to hiss out an
angry, coarse exclamation of i'm
patience if he uttered low word of
protest, or delayed in putting into her
hot, dry hands the money she wanted.
At last, when it seemed to Armath-
waite as if the night must have drag
ged itself far into the next day, Cros-
mont put his hand upon her shoulder
just as the stake had been swept in
by the dealer, and she was turning
ravenously for more money
cit is quarter to three" Armath-
waite heard him say. ''You must
come"
Just one more-one more dealt"
she painted, hoarsely.
81 have no more money. Gomez"
said he.
She uttered an impatient exclama-
ton, got up with a spring, and tottered,
intoxicated by the furious excitement
of the past three hours. Lord Kildonan
was watching her with the same stony
face. But as she staggered up from
her chair, she fell against another wo-
man, an over-dressed woman, with a
face of staring pink and white, who
pushed her roughly away. At that
sight the stolid Scotchman shuddered,
and he rose quickly, with an out
stretched hand and a f1eeting look of
the old yearning kindness in his eyes;
it faded away instantly, and left him
as frigid as before, but Armathwaite
felt a shiver of relief pass over him as
he noted the humanizing look and
movement. Crosmont and Lady Kill
donan passed through the crowd, one
Or two faces turning to watch them
with passing interest.
Been here before, hasn't she?"
asked one man.
To be continued
GALLANT AMERICAN SOLDIER