Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-04-11
Munro studied him for a moment,
then turned to Dan. "Take my place

Munro studied him for moment,
then turned to Dan. "Take my place a
minute"
Dan compiled, and Raymond led Tie
way into the open air. and when they
and said:
You Intercepted Miss Rupert to-
day."
Il met her, yes. What about it?'
"Just this. You're not fit to shake
the hand of a decent girl, much less
cultured, high bred woman like Ann
Rupert, and you know it!'
Munro was staggered. what bust
ness is it of yours?" he asked. with
instant anger.
Raymond's wrath was self contained.
keep your temper, Jack. We've sum-
mered and wintered together, and YOU
can't make any mistakes about what
mean. know the kind of women you
live with and the kind of life you lead,
and tell you to keep away from the
Kelly cabin"
| Munro did not snarl as Raymond cN-
| pected. His voice became softly in
| sinuating as he said: Suppose the
lady invited me to call? Suppose she
| was interested in my conversation?
| The lady had chance to go. The path
was open, but she fingered, she smiled"
You're n liar!"
4 Munro was now very confident. cam
1? Ask the boy; he saw her talking
| with me. l say the lady was gracious"
The gambler took on the air of an in
jured comrade Now, see here, Rob;
| you're away out of limits. acknowl-
edge I've known whole lot of cheap
women, but that's all the more reason
why l should be able to tell when
meet the real thing. Her name is as
safe with me as with you. Probably
she's tied up back in the states any
way, SO that neither of us has any
chance of interesting her. But it's an
open course and no favors, and so long
as she doesn't hand me out the icy
init I'm going to make the most of
my chance, and from this moment"-he
took off his HAITI reform, throw up
my job ut Hanley's, l cut off booze
and l shake Eau Claire"
Raymond was impressed by his ri:
val's manner. You can quit gam
bling, and hope you can leave liquor
alone, but see trouble when you
shake Claire. But that doesn't matter.
For the sake of old times want to
avoid quarrel with you, Jack. But
warn you that If Miss Rupert finds
your presence disagreeable you go, and
you stay! AS you say, she is probably
engaged to better man than either of
us. But she is here because of the boy
and 1 feel n certain responsibility for
them both, and the man who presumes
on Ii chance acquaintance with her will
answer to me-
'All right. Leave it to her, Rob-
said Munro almost jocularly. "If she
turns me down I'll pull out of my OWL
accord, lightning sure. Good night!'
Raymond walked away with a sense
OF failure. Munro had ndroitly writhed
out of his grasp and was probably ex
ulting at his own cleverness. He was
troubled. too. by the confident tone
which Munro had taken in saying. tS',rht
way was open; she fingered"
Out of the tumult of his doubt b,
emerged with an accession of conf
, fence in himself IF it comes to
choice between us, my chances are a
good rs Jacks. Her tolerance of hin
is due to ignorance Of his real charac
ter. Mrs. Kelly must tell her"
.. lie saw the light i'll Kelly's home
and its allurement was stronger thai
ever before, but lie resolutely held hi
way to his own fircside, there to bit
!, terly muse the entire evening over hi
, poverty and the false position in whic
t Munro had cle.'erly Placed him.
t He repented CT h.; reso'i.tc passini
, of her door Will he heard EeXt da,
{ THAT Il couple Of the inGepGn,.ont opera
tors had spent the entire evening wit
Kelly and that one of them talked
/ great deal to Ann. The sting of it la
1 in the fact that Tracy was n fine youn
fellow, studious and capable. You ar
a fool" Raymond said to himself. .Yo
threw away chance to be happ!
Don't do it again."