Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-07-09

does Miss Harding. HIS case has al
ready excited her sympathy. He has
therefore the very strongest claim up
on mine,
"Oh, but you must not do it!' cried
Claire impulsively. ut is too much
for sou to dream Of doing. am sorry
I ever said word dboat 1t. fou are
too noble, TOO generous. too goodr'
He hung his head moment and
then exclaimed, with the extraordinary
passion of the man, that there was
nothing he would not do to win such
words from her lips; that she had re-.
paid him already hundredfold.
And. remember, It Is all for you"
he added suddenly, us though he had
caught her candor. "Iet there be no
mistake about that between you and
me. Whatever l may do is not done
for yonder prisoner, but for you, and
you alone"
For mel" whispered Claire. And
she could say no more, thinking her
voice had already betrayed her.
Yes; every bit for you"
But how can that be? He Is moth
Ing to us either. We did not know the
family. You heard OF the quarrel?
And the young man was very seldom
there, never once In our house." So
she still sweryed instinctively ut the
lie direct and despised herself more
than If she had told a dozen. The sit
uation was intolerable to her. She
was on tho brink of rash confession
and such IN appeal to Daintree's mag
nanimity as should move stone, when
he took the last word and left her time
to think.
Miss Harding" said he earnestly, II
care not jot what you may think Of
this case on mature consideration. /
know how 1t appealed to you the other
night, before your great heart pulled
you two ways. MS 1t is doing now. But
that's not Che point. No; the point IS
that YOU asked something Of me, and
l mean You to know that what you
ask OF me that you shall receive IL 1t
Is In the power of mortal man to give.
II do not rescue this young fellow
from the rope, then 1t Is not In the
power Of mortal man to do so. But
shall. never fear, and then you Will
perhaps see that your lightest within Is
more to me than the commands of
God or man. And that's all the re-
ward ask
She knew his fowery speeches and
what to allow for his habitual rhetoric
On this occasion, however, he rang only
too true. Yet as she looked at him
pensively his eyes fell, as they had
sometimes fallen before. 1t was as
though, with oil his passion for her,
there was something sinister and dis
honest underneath, and he felt 1t when
he looked long enough In her eyes.
Claire did not connect honesty with
herself at present, nor did she view
tbs question at all from this point, but
she found herself specializing upon the
origin OF the quarrel between Daintree
and bis people. and she thought of the
flowers that had come back to him
from his mothers grave.
Later In the evening she worked out
her own position. shuddered at tho
passing impulse to confess, which had
long since passed. put Toms life be-
fore her self respect and determined
to act better from that hour. So the
play went on before an audience Of
one who had been taken behind the
scenes. but who now looked on with
eyes that saw not, SO absorbing were
his own affairs In very truth. how
ever, there was IN audience Of two,
and but little was lost upon tho unseen
onlooker.
Daintree meanwhile spent hours ev-
cry day with Mr. Bassett. the solicitor,
or in waiting for him at his Office In
the evening he would return to. Avenue
Lodge with the latest news Of the pris-
onef Erickson.
One day he iad been removed to the
prison inflrmary Not that there was
much the matter with him, but the sur
geon was credited with a desire to re-
ward Erichsen's humanity toward a
fellow prisoner. who was said to have
died III Ills arms.
But another fellow prisoner be had
fought tooth and mil the night before,
and Mr.. Rassett had a shrewd suspi-
cion that the real object of the removal
was to Isolate a desperate man.
However that might be. he was do
Ing pretty well In the infirmary. was
said to be depressed, but not unable to
eat or sleen. Daintree reminded Claire
that the prisoner was having NIL his
meals I'm from n nelghboring chop
house and who 1t was that had ordered
them. 1t was himself.
Erickson was inundated with letters.
Most We're from religious strangers.
who took his guilt for granted and In
dicated several. only ways to that mer-
cy In another world which WINS neither
to be expected nor desired In this. But
the one that had given him the great
est annoyance was thought to have
come from near relative. for it was
very long, and he had torn It In many
pieces and then retorted In three lines
and given 1t to the surgeon to post.
Claire knew who the relative was.
She had gone the length of calling at
Avenue Lodge on her flight through
town to the continent, and her chief
lament was not that murder had been
committed, presumably by Tom, but
that her name had been disgraced, her
trust abused. her money spent in riot
and her life rendered uncomfortable in
her native land. The lady was Toms
stepmother.