The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-08-17

| see Tue agent COUuL luc ulOues dHu
seal the packet. Bring me the re
ceipt, and thy debt is paid
"Esta bien, senior. 1t is we'll. Move
not outside the door until l come
shut thyself in, let thy servant say
that thou hast gone But on no ac-
count be seen. l return in two days.
Senior. go!' Silently as a panther,
Juan Verdugo slipped out into the
gloom.
Valentin Riyas stood long at the
little window. Unconsciously he stared
hard into the blackness. The moon
had set, and the wind was beginning
to whisper in the wide chimney. A
faintness that angered him, a hint OF
nausea. would not be denied. He did
not regret what he had done, he did
not consciously fear for the result,
yet, if anything did go wrong
With sudden fear he brushed away
from his mind the hideous train OF
consequences that seemed to assault
his courage in a thousand ugly forms.
Shaken for an instant, he turned has
tily to a decanter of brandy and with
trembling hand poured out and drank
half tumblerful of the burning stuff.
YEARLY he threw himself on the bed,
and, hours afterward, slept
The next day and even the night,
| passed not so badly. Knowing his
need, all day and half the night. with
the heavy lash of his own grim de-
termination he drove himself through
an accumulated mass of the exhaust
| ing details of his professional work.
Spent and weary, he slept late on the
morning of the second Gay. But now
he could no longer force aside his
ankle y-hs mind would drag back
from the tack before it, and The words
on the written pase before him seem
ed solemn drivel. Desperately he
would pace the length of the room,
and desperately he would Try again to
force his attention 10 his work. Tha.
same night VerdUeo shonid come, and
! as the day waned. with the wind
bowling past The house and whining
down the great throat Of the Chin
ney, his mood would vary from black
detection to almost Nsht-headed Ella
ton that the end was near Never
really doubling the outcome, never
the!ess, the hideous phantom of i'm
mnent ruin whispered distrust in his
ear. AS darkness crept through the
wind-lashod rain, his nervous tension
became horribly acute-his sense of
hearing, strained for every sound, re-
spondej 20 the overvr0ush, nerves,
and the night WAS filled with pene
trating sound No longer a blended
chord the separate, defined noises OF
the storm ripped and whined and sigh
ed through his tortured ears-.ile
chilling shivar CT the barred door, the
hurried drip OF waer from he roof
the rush and vail OF the wind over the
plain, The little, distant noises Of riv-
ulets, and the deeper note Of the food !
ed arroyo, all came in maddeninS dis
tinctness and Infinite sesree alton. Not i
daring to ,cahe light pacing like a
trapped coyote the length OF the room. |
he wore out the dragging hours until |
the dawn. And Verdugo did not come |
Chilled, ha2sard, and desperate, |
Valentin Rivas would not yet allow |
himself to analyze his disgrace and |
ruin. Apathy crept over him, and but |
one thing in the world seemed worth |
while -sleep-rest-unco |
On his bed, inert ard Indifferent, he
lay while a numbness like death stole
through mind and body, and he slept.
1t was dusk when he awoke. Stiff |
and sore, his brain was clear, and for
the first time he calmly faced his
plight. The full extent of his folly
was now plain to him-as plain as. it
would be to all others when it was
known. He could not even make good
the money loss, and the only explana-
ton he could offer seemed now SO
grotesque. so incapable of extenua
tion, that he felt already the sting of
the incredibly. the sneers, the ugly
hints, and finally the open accusation
of theft that would be leveled at him.
A man OF excellent family, able, hon
est, and rapidly rising in his profess
sion, even acceptance of his story as
true would hut subject him to thA
deeper disgrace of being branded as
an unmitiga.e ed fool-in either case his
career was a. en- end before it was
fairly begun.
Moodily he sat, hour after hour
Bitterly he marveled at his own IN
racklessness. and tried
to see somewhere in the future a
chance TO cleanse this blot from hiA
name. But between him and his fus-
ure came always that time he dreaded
the Time when first IiLicu!e. then