The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-22
The Coming of the Serpent. s,% s.,; ,

ragged in his soul never came to the
surface in public. Alone he might break
down ,as though some strange grief
gndwed at his heart: but the world
knew him only as a man of iron Will
His walk ended at a side gate tina.
ianked the carriage entrance of mapls
shaded grounds; for here there stood
a young woman in a wftEe dress,
scarlet blossom at her throat, and the
sunset clouds flying like victorious
banners above her. He stopped alb
ruptly, with a sudden catch at his
heart, as ii he picture were the res
toration of some old memory:
Eyes where tears shall down the
smiles;
Eyes that hold the pain of life"
He said softly to himself, as though
completing some unfinished quotation.
Then he went forward to meet her.
Il have come for my answer. Do
lores," he said, when they had reached
the mouse among the naples. And the
gray eyes, holding now only the light
of love, looked steadily into his as She
answered.:
ut is Yes"
Later, as they sat in the Starlight
knowledge of mis- own unWOrthiness.
coupled with a lurking dread lest his
happiness be not real, betrayed itself
in the words;
Strange that you should care for
me; 1 am so worldly, so much older
than you"
colder only in years. I lave al
ways been sober in tastes beyond my
age. Nurse says the shadow of my
mothers coffin fell On my cradle and
made me serious-minded. You know
it was once my thought to go into the
Sisterhood. but you broke that up"
In her tone was only a sweet gray
ity. Presently she added:
But. after all there are only four
teen years between US in spite Of your
gray hair. How came II SO white at
1852"
He started slightly, then answered
with a forced smile:
They say the head of youth turns
white but for two causes, piety and
remorse.'
Then you must nave been very good
all of your life" and he let her have
her way uncOntradicted.
A new glory dwelt upon the earth for
this man, who for long years had
looked at life as through G smoked
glass. Now the glass had suddenly
beyond were unobscured. Dolores said
1t was but the frost touch on the for
ests that made them 20 beautiful, but
he knew that Some subtler spell lay
over the face of nature. lie had made
a supreme effort against this passion
which had besieged his heart. Success
in ali other lines came to him unbidder.
but he get his face againgt love. He
never intended TO marry his profession
was 10 be sweetheart, wife end child
TO him, and so for six months he Rad
even absented himself from the city OF
his adoption, that absence might DO for
him what Will power could not accom-
plish. But the very day Of his return
the Joy Of again beholding her swept
away all his austere resolutions and be-
trayed him into q confession he hG6
never meant to make. After that, theirs
was no going backward, and he gave
himself up to the joys Of love. In her
deep piety. her ealm-eyed purity, he
found q new baptism for his own spirit,
and life, which fer so many years hac
been all disappointment and repression,
suddenly held in Il g note CO redemD-
ton.
But all dreams have an hour Of
awakening. One day Stephen Hi came
hastily into his private office. without
waiting for an answer to his suTnrnCns.
and said: II have news for You ihfs
morning. Whom 90 You thirk tie Gu-
thorities nabbed last night"
Rocker, the horse trief?"
"Eorse thief? Bigger game than thai.
You'll have murder case that VIII test
Your legal abilities. Why. they caught
Ben Rule last night while he was trying
to get TO his wife's house. 4 couple OF
officers stumbled on him in the swamp
by the merest accidert.-'Sdeth. man,
what makes you look like THAR
II was trying TO recall who Ben
Rule IS and what he did" The Judges
voice was slow and even, but the hand
on his desk was clamYy and ueFveless
He threw the long white hair from his
forehead with a backward shake of the
head and blew a cloud of smoke fro.n
his pipe. 1t was magnificent bit Of
acting, only the spectator did not know
=.
"Do?" Hill repeated why, it was
he who robbed and murdered Sim Hole
man, the paymaster DID you ever see
the pistol he used on that occasion? II
is in the sheriffs offIce-but, no, be-
lieve Duncan, the detective, begged II
out OF the clerk. I always did wonder
where Rule got it-beautiful weapon
quantity carved: just the thing for
gentlemanly killing. How things work
around. Ten years ago Rule lodged
the officers, but we've got him now.
He was the serpent who entered our
modern Eden, dOr't you recolIect?"
WAS he?" The fine shade of doubt
in the question was lost on the excited
listener. who launched out with a his
tory of the celebrated murder. Through
it all the man at his desk smoked
passively. What need had he to listen?
But when the visitor was gone he bolt
ed his door, dropped his pipe on the
hearth, AMI over his features crept Il
grayness of despair.
Caught at last, this man whom he
had sought pnsuccessfully for five
years and then given up for dead
caught and brought back to Clayton
for trial And then came the sickening
realization that he himself was the
Judge before whom the case would
come He could not-he could not, Men
who had voted for him because he
seemed ever so calm, so unswayed by
passion, would have been aghast to see
the stOrmswept face ere he buried it in
his arm
Ben Rules wife had dwelt in her
house during all these years. awaiting
her husbands return. But she had not
yaited in penury; no wolf had ever
howied at her humble door, for every
quarter there came to her a mysterious
envelope containing a fifty-dOllar bill
folded in a blank sheet of paper.
Always il came from q different