Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-01

|" 1HREE times Henry King had read
through the story Of the Gates mur-
Ss=ETS der, and each time with increasing
VAkzkaAy interest The first time he had skim
med over it, scarcely able to believe
his eyes and saying to himself that it was too
good TO he true. The second time he had perused
it slowly and carefully and without emotion. The
third time he had allowed his imagination to run
riot, and had gloated over every guesome de-
tail with an inbuman appreciation.
A pile Of letters lay unopened on his desk.
Two of the young men who were reading law in
his office had made tentative efforts to approach
him. but had been warned off by his air of alb
sorption. The morning slipping rapidly
away, but King, lost in unholy joy, did not know
it. All he could think of was that he man whom
he hated with all the intensity of his power
tu nature, the man who had robbed him of hap
piness and embittered twenty years Of his life,
was at that moment suffering the agonies of
the damned was lying in Jail with death the
gallows as his almost certain future And his
wife-l
Twenty years before King, then young man
of INVENTIVE, had just been admitted to the bar.
He had never exhibited any flashes of brilliancy
but he podder and was expected to earn
a comfortable income chiefly through hard work
and close application He was picked as good
tic friend would not have supposed that he would
ever be the greatest criminal lawyer Of his day.
At the time he began to practice the young
man had an outside income of eight hundred dol
lars year, and with the additional money he
made he had planned to be able to marry and
live comfortably, il modestly at first. Under
meath reserved exterior he concealed the most
passionate nature and he was deeply, almost
madly, in love with girl whose consent he had
won to be his wife.
Though Anne DeCoursey had more suitors
than she had any real use for, and many of them
men of wealth. she had been carried away by the
impetuosity of the young barrister. With the
keenness of her she had perceived the slumber-
ing volcano under the crust of conventonality
and, woman-like, she had not been satisfied till
she had witnessed the eruption. Then, before
she knew it, she swept by the hot words
of his eloquence into engagement of marriage
The girl was no more f1rt than thousands of
other girls. At the time when she afhanced her
self to King she sincerely thought she loved him
Later, when she found out her mistake she was
miserable, but feeling that it would be an in
Justice to both the and herself 10 keep her
promise, she steeled herself to break the engage
ment and did so
King took her announcement so hard that for
a moment she was tempted to take back her
words. However, sure she that she was
doing the right thing under the circumstances
that she adhered to her original purpose, and the
conversation that evening the last she had
had with her quondam fiance.
He had dashed from the house speechess with
emotion.
But for what followed King would probably
have gotten over the blow to his feelings AS it
was, Miss DeCoursey chanced to fall in love with
John Henderson very soon after her break with
the other man, and six months later she married
the 'ormer. Henderson was Extensively rich. and
was slow, stupid sort of chap, goodhearted but
one of the, last men in the world Anne De-
Coursey's friends would have expected her to
become attached to. King was not alone in