The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-03-17
IN III MNEHES.
BY HERBERT ARTHUR BRIGGS.

u
| waters. Harwicke was a of
vast expectations, who ~worshiped Rob-
ert for himself as we'll as for his fasci-
mating a~ntecedents.
! Not a word as to his real Grand"
exclaimed Giibraith, walking the room,
but l know we'll enough what it is
because I know his temper. He IS n
truer son of his father than 1 am, and
they never forgave a wrong. But,
good heavens! if anyon should have
gone it was 1. The boy isn't twenty
one yet. It's now two weeks since the
Gibraltar letter came. Somehow the
matter has fastened itself on my mini
tonight and for the life of me / can't
shake it off"
He sat down at the table, leaning
his head on his arms, while I muir
INJURED reassuring words. When he
again looked up, his face wore a whim-
steal expression that was almost a
smile.
VIVA DO you suppose it was that I
gave Hayden?" he asked. You will
laugh when 1 tell you. DR.. Holmes
declared, you know, that everybody
has the material in him for one story
that is, the story of his own life. Well,
Robert and / We're impressed by this
view, and so we wrote out our two biog-
raphies faithfully, dressing them up to
e as much like fiction as possible.
We used fictitious names, but otherwise
h thing 1 turned over to Hayden was
a fairly accurate history of my deeds
and misdeeds UP to date. OF course
lie doesn't know that; he thinks it is
all imaginary. / only wish it were! It
is such a miserable record of failure
that I was glad to get rid Of it-glad
to get rid of it-Robert's IS still in the
drawer there. He left it with me-"
I got up n closed the windows for
a renewed outbreak of the storm was
blowing the papers off from the table.
The failure that was ranking. then.
was the n which was responsible for
Roberts peril in a u h a should
not have been Joseph's alone Gradu-
ally the situation was unfolding.
What a night?' he said, shivering
with cold; its death to people caught
out on the water. Look here, 1 wonder
how Hayden's getting on with the
story. Let's have a look at him"
But you told him''T began.
Yes, yes he interrupted. Still. 1
must know what's being lone with my
future; that's very important. 1t will
be like having ones fortune told"
He would have it So, n We tiptoed
down the stairs. for the house was
asleep. Hayden's door stood open. and
he sat in his shirt-sleeves, writing
furiOusly. From the darkness Of the
hallway he looked wiIder-eyed than be-
fore, now wrought up to a high pitch
of mental excitement. His appear
ance there, with the lightning playing
in at the windows behind him.. re-
minded me of a gruesome account I had
once read about a corpse being given
the semblance of life and activity by
the application of an electric current.
From where we stood he appeared to
erase everything he wrote, beginning
again and hating, as if his pen baked
at the task.
This ought to be stopped" 1 NUT
tered, Indignantly. The fellow is on
the verge of nervous p~rostration." It
was evident that the limit of his nor
NAL endurance had been passed, and
that he was now sustained by a kind
Of nervous eXaltation that would wreck
him when the collapse came. I did not
like the situation at all, but Gilbraith
seemed vastly amused by it. l was as
tonished and irritated by his levity, I'M
til something forced and false in the
show Of merriment revealed it as q
mask to hide his efforts at rallying.
isn't he funny?" he whispered,
tracking his brain at two o'clock in the
morning trying to make a hero out Of
me. Do you wonder he's worried at the
prOspect?-Hello, what's up now?"
Hayden lac risen suddenly to his
feet, torn his page in halves and drop
ped back into the chair in what looked
like q very stupor of sleep. The COL
lapse had come, then! We move for
ward into the room and to the table.
which was strewn with papers. The
manuscript that Gilbraith had given
him was among them. n as soon as
his eye alighted On it Gilbraith-his pro-
tended mirth all gone-eXclaimed in an
amazed whisper:
Why it's Roberts story I've gwen
him., instead of my own"
1 could see no reason foc dismay in
his circumtance, but he was plain
ly concerned breathing like a man who
has been running. He seized upon the
first of a dozen pages which Hayden
had written and had placed in a row
to allow the ink upon them to dry.
These he read one by one, while /
peered over his shoulder. We were
conscious of no scruples in thus spying
upon the sleeping mans work.
Hayden had taken up the tale at the
point of Roberts departure on his
quest. His fancifu1 treatment of The
theme,-adopted, no doubt, in defer