The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1904-03-18

VI b 4OIhSuAo mOOA "0AtAA6 AVA ~
The moonlit dale was romantic, bu
not Jack, and they were talking ghosts
Touching to remember how the deal
fellows chat had never hurt him! But
Jack provoked him to say-he recalled
quite freshly the mood in which he
spoke bantering, but still with de-
lightful, creepy sense of committing
himself to something risky:
''Al right, old chap, but II ever
get into Queer Street"-innocent word
in those days!-"and have to shuttle
off this mortal coil, I'll let you see.
I'll be an apparition myself and make
a friendly call in search of sympathy.
Go away says you, you're an imposi-
ton. Besides, l never feel for spec
Tres"
1t startled the colonel to see himself
half aware of the end SO very long
ago. Fate! Thought stood still at
The great, surefooted mystery. And
what Jack Alleyn said was far from
serious, like the end Of that nights
adventure.
"Rot!' it was rather favorite
word of his. Il can go one better,
sonny. I'll undertake to make my call
on you before you do the shuttle"
How lightly life is looked at before
We come to live it, and still one plays
the man! But is not this, thought
Col. Sale--alone with his soul now
is not this the great and ultimate test,
that manhood be true to the boys in
SEPARATIONS?
The notion held him. If, indeed, we
must all "give an account Of the deeds
done in the body" was that test he
could undergo himself sans peur ct
sans reproche? He quaked; the stand
ard boyhood sets is high. He had not
tried to pull it down, thank God, but
inspirations, or only aspirations, the
depressed him; he had to brace his
courage and play the man at last.
And it pleased him, because of the
shattered ideals, to snatch at one light
word which he might yet fulfill. If
such things were, he would keep his
engagement with Jack.
The purpose leaped into his mind
and gave him the SILVER and thrill he
had sometimes found in situations Of
quiet peril.
Mr.. Jack Alleyn is we'll known In
Liverpool, though not by the name
have given him. He was to have been
q soldier with his friend; he became a
cotton merchant. AS for this friend
ship of which the story tells singu-
lar outcome. it had endured, of course,
long separations, with meet
ings rather more -infreQuent since the
mid niuettes th4n before. It was the
summer of this year, and Jack had not
seen his old chum at all since the war
in South Africa. But he had longed
to do so, and to him, as we'll as to the
man, that threat of friend
ly call" had required. though not his
own jesting answer. 1t had even re-.
Cured more than once when scanty
news made him fearful, but he would
have been immensely surprised to see
it fulfilled at any time. He is among
the most practical of men. The colonel
was right-Jack would have known a
better way with debts of honor.
In the house where Col. Sale was a
guest he enjoyed the perfect liberty of
an old and dear comrade. 1t was not
until the fourth day that he could think
of his purpose. resolutely. The Wharfe
was in spate then, after rain among
the hills, and he went out to fish with
worm below those woods in which the
Strid is situated His host being no
fisherman, Col. Sale took with him, by
an arrangement made overnight, an
old water bailiff of whom he was fond.
They reached the Strid about the
luncheon hour. The spate had fallen
and left the rocks exposed. and the
place looked more than ever fitting
for his design, suicide to be accom-
plished without suspicion in another
mans presence. Col. Sale took a dram
with him and ate sandwich, and they
watched the water thunder down. It
is a boiling white cataract between
gray walls of granite and below it
long, deep pool lies All had gone well
for the colonel's evasion. 1t was the
old man himself who had suggested
that some of the upper reaches should
lie tried, as he knew them best, and
the rocks were slippery.
What was that old tale of the boot
less bene?'" the colonel shouted in his
ear Isn't it here the boy jumped
across, Tib?"
Tried it," his companion answered.
"See yo' that rock at points across an
dips. That's where t wor. Fro tn
other side it's simple, but not this, for
no man alive"
"I'll go and look at It," said the
colonel.
He finished a second sandwich and
then rose, leaving lib to gather up the
tackle. He was a little nervous, but
felt no hesitation, no doubts of himself,
and, without glance either at the
fierce water or about him at the para
disc which these fine woods resemble,
he carefully scrutinized the rock in
face. His leap must look like a real
attempt. Presently he turned away,
satisfied and waited for the old mans