The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-06-14

lilly 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 day. But now
he could no longer force aside his
anxiety-his mind would drag back
from the tack before it, and the words
on the written page 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 to his work. That
same night Verdugo should come, and
as the day waned, with the wind
bowling past the house and whining
down the great throat of the CHM
ney, his mood would vary from black
detection to almost light-headed Ella
ton that the end was near. Never
really doubling the outcome, never
theless, the hideous phantom of i'm
minent ruin whispered distrust in his
ear. AS darkness crept through the
wind-lashed rain, his nervous tension
became horribly acute-his sense Of
hearing, strained for every sound, re.
sponded to the overwrought nerves,
and the night was filled with pene-
trating sound No longer blended
chord, the separate, defined noises OF
the storm ripped and whined and sigh
ed through his tortured ears-the
chilling shiver of the barred door, the
hurried drip of water from the roof,
the rush and wall 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 maddening dis.
tinctness and infinite segregation. Not
daring to make light pacing like a
trapped coyote the length of the room,
he wore out the dragging hours until
Iu6 udWu. Al0 NClou5O OAo NV NO1AASs
Chilled, haggard, 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- inconsistencies
On his bed, inert and Indifferent, he
lay while 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. 1t
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.
ton, that he felt already the sting of
the incredulity. 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 profes.
sion, even acceptance of his story as
true would but subject him to the
deeper disgrace of being branded as
an unmitigated fool-in either case his
career was at an end before it was
fairly begun.
Moodily he sat, hour after hour.
Bitterly he marveled at his own in
comprehensive recklessness, and tried
to see somewhere in the future a
chance to cleanse this blot from hiG
name. But between him and his fut-
ure came always that time he dreaded
the time when first ridicule, then
both fool and rascal. He buried his
face in his arms on the desk before
him, and his face grew hot with the
shame of it all. 1t was too much to
live down. No suffering, no repara-
ton, could ever make men forget
nothing, nothing
"Senor!"
Valentin Rivas gripped his hands
hard as they lay under his bowed
head on the desk, and his heart stop
ped for one terrible instant, as he
thought that whispered word phan'.
tom of his brain. A moment of ago
nizing silence passed, then, through
the dull swish of the rain on the roof
came again that cutting whisper. Shiv-
ering, he softly slid back the bar from
the door, and Juan Verdugo stood be-
fore him.
ut is here. the paper. Little trou.
BILE was it to take the package to the
agente, and he counted it all, and
sealed it-so says the paper. Bat
they found me out. the coyotes! The
sneaking pack that would have killed
thee, smelled me out as thy messeu.
GER Two mems lives it cost, senior.
before the road was cleared for this
little paper. Take it now, for l go!"
Silently the lawyer took the paper,
and by the light of screened candle
p1ancad II thrOuo oh He turned IN