Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-06-22

III you knew-but no, must not ask
you that" he said.
II love him STILL" she said, land I
pray God every night that He will send
| him back to me-"
DR.. Scott walked slowly back to the
hospital. What he had learned that
night had surprised him beyond words.
1t had brought him, too, the deeIest
pain, for he clearly saw that, as Miss
Graham had told him, his love was
hopeless.
''Unless,' he said to himself unless
Fenton was dead"
He shuddered as the thought rushed
into his mind. Fenton was at his
mercy completely; the matter of the
mans life or death rested entirely in
his hands. A twist of the scalpel an
eighth of an inch from it's proper
course, and George Fenton could not
recover. And his death would only
mean that the operation had been un-
successful. No one would ever know
that DR.. Roland Scott was murderer.
Discovery was impossible.
And how he loved this woman! He
must possess her, for without her the
world would be black desolation, life
unbearable to think of her ever as
the wife of another. He cursed aloud
the fates that juggled so with the hu-
man toys; he cast from him the idea
OF not doing his duty as it should be
done; he gave up the woman. Thus
he condemned himself to lifelong
misery. That was one moment The
next the scalpel slipped, Fenton died,
the woman he loved was his, and the
world happiness.
1t was a horrible temptation. A
hundred times he threw it from him.
but it came rushing back again. He
paced the room through the hours of
the night, and the way the devil point
ed out was the easiest. He could not
would not-give the woman up. His
head was splitting; his eyes burned as
though sand irritated them; his mouth
and throat were parched. But the time
slipped swiftly and found him unde-
cided. He sank into a chair and held
his throbbing brain between his hands.
The scalpel had slipped. That was
nine months ago. DR.. Scott had ex-
planned it all to Mrs. Fenton, though
he never said that his was the hand
that guided the keen edged knife He
only found out an hour after the mans
death that George Fenton might be
her husband, for it was not case in
which he had taken great interest.
He lied admirably, and his sympathy
with the young widow was most sim
cere.
1t was at the end of nine months
that he repeated his offer of marriage
- her. She accepted this time. Three
months passed and they were married.
Ii vas then that George Fenton came
bacS! He was as dead and buried as
man could be, but he came back the
moment that Roland Scott put the
wedding ring on Mrs. Fenton's finger.
The doctor staggered swept his hand
before his eyes, and turned CHASTITY
white.
He had been seized with a sudden
faintness, he said. And when he
looked it was, of course, his wife who
stood where Fenton had been, and it
was her sweet face on which he gazed.
1t was only hallucination, the awaken
ing of murderer's conscience.
George Fenton came every day. As
sure as the doctor sat before his wife
at breakfast or dinner she faded away,
and he dined and talked with the man
he had killed. If he took her hand and
gazed upon it for a minute it became
the bloodless hand of Fenton. Later
it was Fenton's voice that spoke to
him when Millicent opened her lips.
Scott knew full we'll it was his
mind; he knew full well that others
were ignorant of Fenton's presence;
that his wife never suspected it.
He tried to fight it down, afraid he
might, give away his secret. But it was
impossible. Others saw a terrible
change in the doctor as the days and
weeks went; he grew pale, and thin,
and nervous; he could not eat, nor
drink, nor sleep. He, too, saw the
change, and understood fully the pen
atty of his crime. He must leave his
wife-there was nothing for it-but
he loved her so!
The end came unexpectedly, and,
luckily, it came in the presence Of
others, or it might have gone hard with
Fenton and-Mrs. Scott. Some one
made some remark that caused a roar
Of laughter. Above the roar rose the
harsh rattle of a laugh, as it sounded
to SCOTS ears, that was Fenton's, and
there, where his wife had been a mo-
ment before, stood the man, laughing
at him.
With a cry of rage he rose to his
feet and hurled himself on Fenton.
He caught his throat; felt it solid and
In his grasp, and then they went to
earth. What happened after that
DR.. Scott woke from the sleep into
which he had fallen. The sunlight was
pouring into the room, but he was
snlVer1ng, and persplrat1On ran down
his forehead like rain.
He rose and mixed himself a strong
bracer, shuddered as he drank it, and
somehow the desire to make Mrs.
Fenton his wife was not so strong.
The scalpel did not slip. Five hours
after the operation was over Mrs. Fem
ton was sitting by her husbands bed
side holding his hand, while he slept
on to recovery.-Chicago Tribune.
Concise CHARGE.