Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1908-01-23
CHAPTER XVIII.
"Cowardl"

SoWdFu'
| heard a clock in the village strike
the hour. II was six. The chateau
walls cast a long shadow on the oppo-
site bank of the river. The mountains
in the far distance were purple and
red in the evening light. The long
day was coming swiftly to an end;
and the night was mysterious with its
promise of despair.
This tower of the three rooms! Two
of these rooms held their tragedies.
What IL the third room had its ira.
gedy likewise!
l struck sharply the door Of that
in which Madame de WARMER
had said that Captain Forbes was i'm.
prisoncd. | listened; there was no
answer. / called the mans of the
kings messenger aloud; still there
was ITO answer. Soon the moon would
rise, and its cold rays might fall on
the lifeless body Of Forbes; for II all
were well, why should there be this
ominous quiet?
The suspense was uncomfortable. |
listened at the door of the room that
concealed the two women. | heard
the murmer of voices. That treasured
me 50 far as Helena's safety was ION.
cerned; but 1t made me absolutely
certain that Captain Forbes must have
heard my voice II he were living, and
in that room.
And when the two women came out?
I shrank from that coming with
dread. | had told Helena to be brave,
sight. But / had been shaken in my
own belief as to Sir Mortimer's limo,
cence. Surely her faith would be
greater than mine; but the evidence
seemed so overwhelmingly against Sir
Mortimer. II Sir Mortimer's letters
and notes were genuine. At any rate
the oma | loved must held n bitter
cup to her blanched lips: It must be
emptied to the very dregs. Her suffer
ing was inevitable, whether she be-
lieved her brother innocent or guilty.
/ could not doubt that she would
refuse to purchase the silence OF
Madame de WARMER at the cost of fur.
nv uibiAci'it '''h hNNNh = I
chiefly to bear that myself. But II
she demanded that? Was | strong
enough to resist he. tears? | must be.
My reason told me of the folly of
Madame de WARMERS plan. But If
yielded weakly presently, and the ruse
actually succeeded, ! knew that the
hypocrisy OF the act would become
,,... n.l ,,n,a I,anIfu1 80 II,1,-n
with the coming years. No; II in that
supreme ecstacy of her agony she
should entreat me, | must still refuse,
I must decide for her, yer though
she thought my own cowardice re-
sponsible for that refusal.
Coward! How that word beat a
devils tattoo on my excited brain. II
had been the keynote to all my suffer,
ing, and to all my joy. Willoughby
had died uttering 1t; Helena had
echoed it in thought; and Madame nc
WARMER had spoken 1t again and again
in her fierce contempt during the past
hour. Yes, it was the keynote of my
motif that obtruded again and again in
the stormy music of these past hours
1t was a baneful talisman, a watch
word. Its letters seemed to have al
most \ magic potency. 1t was a coun.
tersign that opened for mt the gates
oil paradise and hell.
A talisman! A watchword! A coun'
tersign. Suddenly | saw the word
COWARD written In flaming let
tiers. They revolved f~uriously. They
danced before my vision.
This a sheer madness-this i'm
possible conjecture. | reasoned the un
reasoning impulse to hope against
hupe. But the f%orlorn. desperate pos
sibility fought Obstinately for recog
milton. 1t held me with all the damn
ing power of a hallucination.
And then suddenly 1t became a con
viction. 1t was no longer an impossl
BILE hope, not even an intuition. 1t be
came an absolute belief, a certainty
And this was the reason for my be
lief:
Whenever Madame de WARMER hat
mentioned the safe she had called me
coward.
COWARD
That was the combination of the
safe.
At last a door opened. Helena made
her way toward ME with uncertain
steps, her hands held out before her
as one cropping in the dark, Her splen
did fearlessness was gone. She look
ed at me with the wild eyes of {
wounded animal valnly seeking a wa,
of escape. As she reached my sid'
her hands were still held out as II foI
protection. | grasped them firmly
but | did not speak.
! CTo BE Continued