Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-29

A man was standing on the threshold, a
voluntarily stepped back
Hazen!' he cried: then. as the other
tottered, he sprang forward again ana
reaching out his hand to steady him. drew
him in with the remark. I'VE were ex-
| pecting a summons from you We are
happy that you find yourself able to come
| to u.s."
| I dismissed. 1 have something to say to
you-to both of you he added as he
| caught sight of Mr. Harper.
Entering slowly. he sat down in the chair
profered him by the lawyer. There was
| something strange in his air. a quiet au-
| tomaton-like quality which attracted the
| latter's notice and led him to watch him
very closely. Ransom was busy with the
door, which the strong west wind blowing
! through the hall made difficult to close
Z The one word uttered. Hazen seem
| ed to forget himself. Sitting quite STILL he
| gazed straight before him at the open win
| dow. There was little to be seen there
but the swaying boughs of the huge tree,
| but his gaze never left those tossing limbs,
and his sentence hung suspended till the
| movement made by Ransom recrossing the
| room reused him. and he went on.
Il have made the plunge, gentlemen, and
| fortune favored me- /" here his voice
failed him again. but realizing the fact
more quickly than before he shook off his
apathy and facing the two men, who
awaited his slow words with inconceivable
excitement. continued with sudden con.
centration upon his subject Il saw What
I went to see-poor Georgian's body. i
have satisfied the coroner of TINS 1act.
The little bag l tore from her side proves
her identity beyond a doubt. You saw IL,
Mr. Harper. They tell me that you recog-
nized it at once as the same you saw IN
her hand in the stage coach. But IL you
had not. the initials on it are unm1stak-
able, G. O. H., Georgian Quinian Hazen.
Auchncloss will get his money, ana soon
| will he not? Answer me plainly Harpe5'
Such an experience merits some reward.
You will not make difficulties?
"I?" The lawyers query had strange
ring to it, He glanced from taZen 10
, Ransom: and from Ransom back to Hazen'
whose features had now become more COM
posed, though they still retained their re-
markable pallor. -.
on. You assuredly can trust both my
client and myself to remember our promise
to you . ..iseaao.,
yes with the proof and my sworn stale-
mont He is obliged to be. NO one else
least of all himself. feels any desire TO go
down to that whirling eddy TOT conn III"
tion of my story. And they are WISE
do not think that any man with less ex-
nerience than myself could sound the
DEPTHS of that vortex and come up aiiNe
The notes.-the sWirl-the sense OF pe.ils
Sucked downtown in ever-lncreasihs
fury-but my purpose kept the life IN me.
I was determined not to yield. not to faint
till l had seen-and proved"
.:What's that? s,,d
The cry was from Mr.. Ransom A sue
den gust of wind had torn its way through
the room. finging the door wide and strew
ing the floor with flying papers iroii 'iie
large stand in the window ~
Nothing but wind. answered fial PEI
half rising to close the door. but lmme-
diately sitting down again with stranse
look at Ransom. Let be. ne "hisPe!eu
as the other rose in his turn to restore
order. keep Hazen talking. It's impor
tant. imperative. I'll see to the door
Rut II was the window he closed, not the
door. ., D..
Ransom. with that obedience natural 10
Client in presence of his most trusted
adviser. did as he was bid. and turned ms
full attention back to Hazen 'hs,a,, .
That gentleman. upon whom the Iushli,s
wind and the havoc it created mao hiaue
little If any impression. rushed again ih'o
words ,.. l., so
i've led an adventurous life. he ae
cIared land. in the last few years eSpe
cially passed through many perlls ah'
experienced much awful suffering. nave
felt the pang of hunger and the pahs OF
biting despair: but nothing l have ever en-
dured can equal the horror which be
clouded nv mind and rendered poweriess
nv body as I felt myself sliding from the
sight of earth and heaven into the Jaws OF
that rapacious eddy. whose bottom no man
had ever sounded. "a
Look at nv hands-they shake like those
of a man of ninety. Yet yesterday tney
could have pulled to the ground an OK
"You saw Mrs Ransom's body down IN
+h.t nooI some fathoms below the surface.
observed the lawyer, after waiting In VAIN
for some word from the shFinking nus
band Wont you particuiarize' Mr..
Hazen? Tell us lust how she was lying
and where Mr. Ransom cannot but wish
to know difficult as he evidently finds it to
ask YOU. -
.The coroner has the story HaZen be-
gan. with the slow. painful gasp of the I'M
willing narrator. But / will tell it again;
1t is your right, the painful duty which
we cannot escape. She was lying. not or
the bottom. but in a niche of rock INTO
which she had been thrown and wedged by
the force of the current. one arm was
free and washing about; tried 70
clutch this arm as l went down but II
eluded me. When l arose. the rush and
swirl of the water was against me and !
felt my senses going. but enough instinct
was left for me to snatch again AT tho
arm as I passed, and though it eluded me
again. my fingers closed on sonnet hing
which I was lust conscious enough to hold
on to with frenzied grip. We have spoken
of this thing-a little bag which must
have been fastened to her side, for the
end of its connecting strap is torn away
by the wrench I gave II"
Vivid enough: but sure you will
tell me thing more. Did YOU see the
face of this BODY well as the arm? 1t
would greatly add to the strength of your
testimony if you could describe it.
Ransom. who had been watching Hazen
cast a sudden look back al the lawyer as
he dropped these insinuating words. Some
thing more than a cold-blooded desire for
truth had PROMPTED this almost brutal in
QUESTION. He must know what it was. If
anything in Harper's well-controlled coun
tenance would tell him. The result trans
fixed him, for following the lawyers gaze
which fixed not on the man he was
addressing but on small mirror hanging
on the opposite wall. he saw reflected in
1t the face and form of Anitra standing
in the open doorway behind them.
She was looking at Hazen. and Ran
som noted that look he understood Har
pers previous caution and all that lay be-
hind his insistent and cold-blooded dues-
tons For her gaze was no longer one OF
simple inquiry but Of Mortified understand |
inp-the gaze of one who heard.
Meantime. Hazen was answering in pain |
full gasps the lawyers pointed question |
Ibid you the face of this body well |
as the ARM"
did I see-God help me. yes. Just a
glimpse. but I knew It. Ewes that my
mother had kissed. blind--staring-gla used /
in awe and unspeakable fright. The mouth |
whose every curve I had studied in the old |
DAYS of perfect affection. drawn into a re- |