The Sauk Centre herald., 1904-03-17
mere boys, Jack once boasted lightly

by any such names, and talked never
| theless on all occasions. There was a
| badger. While it was out they had
| stopped the earths, and they lay
| among bracken and rocks on the edge
of Yorkshire moor waiting for it.
The moonlit dale was romantic, but
not Jack, and they were talking gh hosts.
Touching to remember how the dear
fellows chaff 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:
Cali right, old chap, but if ever
get into Queer Street"-innocent word
in, those days!-"and have to shuttle
off this mortal coil, I'll let you see.
III 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 a favorite
word of his. 81 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
spirations?
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
review of them now in long reverie
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 shiver and thrill he
had sometimes found. in situations of
quiet peril. -.>
l. tcy oil 1y~D II
Liverpool, though not by the name J
have given him. He was to have been
a 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,
through long separations, with meet
ings rather-more infrequent since the
mid nineties than before. 1t 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
fighting man, that threat of friend
ly call" had recurred, 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 dram
| with him and ate sandwich, and they
! watched the water thunder down. 1t
is a boiling white cataract between
| gray walls of granite and below it a
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
be 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"
"Ill go and look at it," said the
colonel.
He finished a second sandwich and
then rose, leaving Tib to gather up the
tackle. He was a little nervous, but
felt no hesitation, no doubts of himself
and, without a glance either at the
fierce water or about him at the para.
disc which these fine woods resemble
he carefully scrutinized the rock in
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