The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-02-07
And | did moi go over to the bandit

/ simply resurned my own neglected
personal affairs and made Wild Week
at least a personal triumph.
There is nothing of the spectacular in
my makeup. / have no belief in the
value of martyrs and martyrdom.
Causes are not won-and in my humble
opinion never have been won-in the
gr~aveyards. Alive M afoot and
armed, and true to my cause. 1 am the
dreaded menace to systematic and re-
spectacle robbery. What possible good
could have come of mobs killing me
and the bandits dividing my estate?
But why should l seek to justify my
self? l care not a rap for the opinion
of my fellowmen. They sought my life
when they should a been hailing me
as a deliverer; now they look up to me
because they falsely believe me guilty
of an infamy.
My guards expected to be recalled on
Tuesday. But Melville heard what
Crawford had done about me, and
straightway used his influence to have
me detained until the new grip of the
old gang was secure. Saturday after
noon we put In at Newport for the
daily communication with the shore.
When the inc returned Mulholland
brought the papers to me, lounging aft
in a mass of cushions under h avn
ing. w are going ashore" said he.
The order a come"
/ had a sudden sense Of loneliness.
TN take you down to New York"
said I. II prefer to and my guests
where 1 shipped them"
AS tho Albatross steamed into the
little harbor l saw Mowbray Langon's
Incidence at anchor. l glanced toward
Steuben Point-where his cousins. the
Vtvians, lived-and thought / recog-
nized his launch at their pier. We
saluted the Incidence; the Incidence
suluted us. My launch was piped away
T. took me ashore. / strolled along
the path that wound round the base
of the hill toward the kennels. At
the crossing of the path down from the
glimpse of one of the corner towers Of
the great snowy palace. l was NUT
tering something-I listened to myself.
It was: "Mulholland, Mrs. Mulholland
n the four little Mulhollands." And
l felt like laughing aloud, such a joke
liceman his potato patch and his fat
wife and -four little brats, and that he
should be in a position to pity me.
You may be imagining that, through
all, Anita had been dominating my
mind. That Is the way it is in the
romances; out not In life. No doubt
there are men who brood upon the i'm
possible. II moon and maunder away
their lives over the grave of a dead
love; no doubt there are people who
Will say that because l did not shoe
Langdon or her, or myself, or fly to
q desert or pose in the crowded places
OF the world as the last scene of a
tragedy, l therefore cared little about
her. l offered them this suggestions: A
man strong enough to give a love worth
a woman's while is strong enough to
live on without her when he finds he
may not live with her.
AS / stood there that summer day,
locking toward the crest Of the hill,
at the hooking mausoleum of my dead
dream, I realized what the incessant
battle of the street had meant to me.
There is peace for me only in the
storm" said I. but thank God, there
is peace for me somewhere"
Through the foliage I had glimpses
of some one coming slowly down the
zigzag path. Presently, at one of the
turninss half way up the hill, appeared
Mowbray Langdon. VIVA is he do
ing here?' thought l. scarcely able to
believe my eyes. Here of all Places"
And then / forgot the strangeness of
his being at Dawn Hill in the strange
ness of his expression. For it was ap-
parent. even at the distance which sep
arated us. that he was suffering from
some great and recent blow He looked
old and haggard; he walked like a man
VINO neither knows nor cares where he
is going.
He fought hard to. keep his eyes
steadily on mine; but they would waver
n shift. Not, however, before I had
found deep down in them the begin
nings of fear. You see. you We're mis-
taken" said /. You have nothing to
say to me-or / to YOU"
He knew that.I had looked straight
to the bottom of his real self, and had
seen the coward that is in every man
who has been bred to appearances only.
Up rose his vanity. the towards sub
stitute for courage.
You think / am afraid of your" he
sneered, bluffing and clustering like the
school bully.
Il don't in the least care whether
you are or not" replied i. What are
you doing here, anyhow?'
1t was as If l had thrown off the
cover of a furnace. II came to get the
woman j love" he cried. You stole
her from me-! You tricked me, R1t
by God, Blackjack, I'll never pause un,
It'll l get her back and punish youi"
He was brave enough now, drunk with
the fumes from his brave words. All
my life" he ragged arrogantly on. i've
had whatever wanted. I've let moth
ing interfere-nothing and nobody. I'VE
been too forebearing with you-hrst. be-
cause | knew she would never care for
you. and, then, because / rather ad-
mired your pluck and impudence. I
like to see fellows kick their way up
among us from the common people
I put my hand on his shoulder. No
doubt the fiend that rose within me
as from the dead looked at him from
my eyes. He has great physical
strength, but he WINGED under that
weight n grip. and across his face
q fitted the terror that must come to
any man al first sense of being in the
angry clutch of n stronger than he.
| slowly released him had tested and
realized my physical superiority: ia
use it would be cheap and cowardly.
can't provoke me to descend to
your level said I. with the easy phil
Icsophy of him, who clearly has the
better OF the argument.
He was staring at me with a dazed
81 Repression. i rather expected him tc
show some of that amused contemn1
with which men of his sort always re.
ceive a new idea that is beyond the
iirange OF their narrow, conventional
Itminds. For / did not expect him tr
understand why I was not only willing
but even eager to relinquish a woman
whom ! could only hold by asserting .
. property right In her. And / do no,
think he did understand me, though
I his changed to q sort of grudg.
Ing respect. He was, + b,slieve. aboi.,
20 make some iImpulsiye, generop,
/ speech, wheE we heard the ouicl
! strokes OF iron4shod hoofs on the mil
= 4 firm 9faN 1r.,v,,x1lc4 -, "a II