Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-01-26

| Old Blazers Hero
By DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY
q e e e 81 a3E

almost invariably rewarded by the earlier
or later detection of the figure Who the
man was and why he was there she could
not guess. But one night, as she sat
in the darkness in the lower room be-
fore the hour of moonrise, she was
aware of the shadowy watcher pacing
dimly up and down, trusting solely in the
darkness, and taking no advantage this
time of the shelter of the hedge.
Vaguely as she had made out his as
pect, she knew him for the same, and
she watched his goings to and fro the
door Of the neighboring house was sud
denly thrown open, and a broad ray of
light darling from it fell full upon the
mysterious providers face. The face
was, of course, Ned Blane's.
Mary was in a permanent mood now to
be easily indignant, and she rose up in
wrath against this intrusion upon her
privacy. What right had he, or any
man. to hang about in that way, watch
ing her and spying upon her? Some sense
of the unobtrusive and wordless devotion
of the watcher touched her here, and
brought her down from the heights of
anger. And yet the proceeding was in
tolerable, and sooner or later was sure
to be discovered, to bring about new
whisperings of scandal and new unmerit-
ed sorrow.
Blame had recoiled at the sudden ray
of light, and had disappeared before
these varying thoughts and emotions had
well had time to course through her
heart and mind. But now he was back
again, pacing up and down in the dark
ness. She could see the pale blur of his
face turned steadfastly toward the house.
| She determined to ignore him, and
withdrew herself from the window She
would not even know of his being there,
but that was difficult. Even when she
had gone to her bedroom, and having
| prepared for her nights rest blew out the
| light. she peeped again through an in
terstice in the blind and saw the dim
| figure still going up and down.
The morning after this discovery
Mary received a second letter from the
mysterious Hargreaves. enclosing a sec
ond remittance, with the same formula
| as before. At first she did not notice
any difference of address, but by and by
her eye lighted upon the first line of the
communication, and she saw that it was
mated, not from Keston, but from Kirton
! Square. The forger had relied upon his
memory, and his memory had played him
! false.
| She set out at once for the great town.
/ determined, if possible. to unravel the
mystery, and at least to discover if Kir-
ton stood in as airy situation as his
/ forerunner. There was no Kirton Square
TO be found n heard of, and she came
back troubled.
l 81
painful fascination impelled her by this
time to keep as regular a watch for him
as he evidently kept upon the house, and
as he came in sight suspicion burst
upon her mind with so vivid and sudden
la light that it looked like certainty. She
| lit candle hastily, ran upstairs, and
! emptied the contents of a drawer upon
| the bed. and from the tumbled heap of
/ papers before her. after search of a
moment or two, took a letter from Ned
| Blame to her husband, and setting this
and the communication from John Har-
greaveS side by side, cane in spite of
the stiff disguise of the legal-looking cali
graphy, to the swift conclusion that they
were written by the same hand.
1t was bitter enough in all conscience
TO have been deserted by her husband
even though she confessed to herself that
she had never loved him; it was heart
breaking TO be deserted by the people of
her own flesh and blood; but to be in
suited by the cheating charity of a reject
ed lover seemed tenfold worse than all
She descended to the dining room, and
taking the bank note from the table on
which it lay, crumpled it wrathfully in
her hand and walked swiftly from the
room into the hall. and from the hall into
the roadway. The furtive watcher was
away at a -ound pace in an instant, but
she follow ed and called upon him by
name.
MIR. Blame! / will not be avoided.
order you to listen to me-"