The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29

1HSn the man VINO Sna1n DleQ DeSfQe
me turned and looked long and earn
estly into my eyes. And after mo-
ment a dull recollection stirred within
me-a vague something that seemed
like the awakening memory of a past.
long, long forgotten, dim, dark, too sub
tie. too frail, too indefinite-ah! the old
feeling that all men have known-the
old strange uneasiness, that useless
struggle to remember when and where
it all occurred before.
And the mans head sank on His Grim
son Jersey, and he muttered, muttered
to himself of God and love and com
passion, until l saw that the fierce
heat Of the city had touched his brain,
and I went away and left him prating
of mysteries that none but such as he
dare name.
So 1 passed on through dust and
heat; and the hot breath of men
touched my cheek and eager eyes
looked into mine. Eyes, eyes-that met
my own and looked through them be-
yond-far beyond to where gold gilt
tered amid the mirage of eternal hope.
Gold! It was in the air where the SOFT
sunlight gilded the floating moats, II
was under foot in the dust that the sun
made gilt, it glimmered from every
window pane where the long red beams
struck golden sparks above the gasping
gold-hunting hordes of Wall street.
High, high, In the deepening sky the
tall buildings lowered. and the breeze
from the bay lifted the sun-dyed hags
of commerce until they waved above the
turmoil of the hives below-waVed
courage and hope and strength to those
who lusted after gold.
The sun dipped low behind Castle
7 IicfIaScIU into the
Battery and the long straight shadows
of trees Stretched away over green
sward and asphalt walk.
Already the electric lights were glin-
mering among the foliage although the
bay shimmered like polished brass and
the topsails of the ships glowed with
deeper hue. where the red sun rays fall
athwart the rigging.
Old men tottered along the sea wall,
tapping the asphalt with worn canes,
old women crept to and fro in the COM
ing twilight-Old women who carried
baskets that gaped for charity or
bulged with mouldy stuffs-foOd. cloth
ing p could not tell; did not care to
know.
The heavier thunder from the para
pets of Castle William died away over
the placid bay, the last red arm of the
sun shot up out of the sea, and wavered
and faded into the sombre tones of the
afterglow. Then came the night, tim
idly at first. touching sky and water
with gray fingers, folding the foliage
into soft massed shapes, creeping on
ward, onward, more swiftly now, I'M
til color and form had gone from all
the earth and the world was a world
of shadows.
And, as I sat there on the dusky sea
=, - er1,rc
faded and / looked out into the calm
night with something of that peace
that comes to all when day is ended.
The death at my very elbow of the
poor blind wretch in the park had left
a shock, but now my nerves relaxed
their tension and l began to think
about II all-about the letters and the
strange woman who had given them to
me. 1 wondered where she had found
them-whether they really We're car
ried by some vagrant current in TO the
shore from the wreck Of the fated LO
rient.
Nothing but these letters had human
eyes encountered from the Lorient. al
though we believed that fire or berg
had been her portion; for there had
been no storms when the Lorient
steamed away from Cherbourg.
And what of the pale-faced girl in
black who had given these letters to
me, saying that my own heart would
teach me where to place them?
1 felt in my pockets for the letters
where ] had thrust them all crumpled
AND vet. They were there, and l de-
cided 10 turn them over to the police.
Then l thought of Cusick and the City
Han park and these set my mind run
ming On Jamison and my own work
all 1 had forgotten that had for
gotten that 1 had sworn to stir Jami-
sons cold, sluggish blood, Trading on
his fiancee's reported suicide-or muir
der! True, he had told me that he was
satisfied that the body at the morgue
was not Miss Tufts, because the ring
cid not correspond with his fiancee's |
ring. But what sort of a man was
that!Ato go crawling and nosing about
mOrgues and graves for a full-page il
lustration which might sell a few extra
thousand papers / had never known
that was not the sort of illus
tration that the Weekly used; it was
against all precedent-against the
whole policy of the paper. He would
lose a hundred subscribers where he
would gain one by such work
1.-The callous brute!" 1 muttered to
myself, 'Tll wake him up-In-'
I sat straight up on the bench and
locked steadily at a figure which was
toward me under the splutter- |
ing electric light.
1t was the woman I had met in the |
park.
She came straight up to me, her pale |
face cleaning like marble in the dark,
her slim hands outstretched. |
81 have been looking for you all day |
all day." she said, in the same low |
tones-"I want the letters /
back; have you them here?"'
Yes" I said, Il have them here
AXE then in heavens name: they have /
lone enough evil for one day!'
She took the letters from my hand;
saw the ring, made of the double ser
Dents, flashing on her slim finger, and |
stepped closer, and looked her in the
yes.
who are you?" I asked.
at? My name is of no Importance to
you," she answered
You are right" / said, Il do not
are to know your name. That ring of
What of my ring?" she murmured.
Nothing dead woman lying in the
norgue wears such a ring. Do you
lrow what your letters have done? No?
Well, I read them to miserable wretch
md he blew his brains outr'
you read them to a man."
"I did. He killed himself"
"Who was that MANI"
Captain d'Yniol-'
With something between sob and
4 10. = /