Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1908-02-29
The Fighting
Chance. FERTILITY gGs5 ( 6. y.
Copyright by the Publishing Company.
Copyright 1900. by Robert W. Chambers


fensive in the bulky young man now
nothing particularly attractive, either.
except for a certain simplicity, GER
tain direct candor in the heavy blue
eyes which met his squarely.
Come in for a cigar when you have
few moments idle" said Siward
slowly.
st win give me great pleasure,
said Plank, bowling,
And that was all. He followed Fleet
wood down the stairs Wands held
their coats and bowed them out into
the falling shadows of the winter twi-
light.
Slward, sitting beside his window,
watched them enter their hanson and
drive away up the avenue. A dull
flush had settled over his cheeks, the
aroma Of spirits hung in the air, and
he looked across the room at the de-
canter Presently he drank some of
his tea, but it was lukewarm, and he
pushed the cup from him
"Gumble, are you there?' he asked
carelessly.
The butler entered from the hall
way Yes, sir"
'You may leave that decanter."
But the old servant may have mis-
understood, for he only bowed and
ambled off downstairs with the de-
canter either needless or deaf to his
masters sharp order to return.
Lamplight brought out sharply the
physical change in Siward-the angu-
lar shadows fat under the cheek bones,
the hard, slightly swollen flesh in the
blush shadows around the eyes. The
mark of the master vice was there
! its stamp In the swollen, worn out hol-
| lows; its imprint in the fine lines at
| the corners of his mouth; its sign
manual in the faintest relaxation of
| the under lip, which had not yet be-
come looseness.
For the last of the Siwards had at
last stepped into the highway which
his doomed forebears had travelled be-
fore him.
"Gumhle!" he called irritably
A quavering voice, an unsteady step,
and the old man entered again. "Mr.
| Stephen. sir7'
Bring that decanter back. Didn't
you hear me tell you just now2"
"SirY'
"Didn't you hear me?"
"Yes. Mr.. Stephen. SIR"
There was a silence.
"Gumbler'
"Sir."
Are you going to bring that de-
canter?"
The old butler bowed and ambled
from the room, and for long while
J Slward sat sullenly listening and scor-
| ing the edges of the paper with his
trembling pencil. Then the lead broke
short, and he flung 1t from him and
| pulled the bell. Wands came this
time. lank. sandy. silent man. grown
| gray as rat In the service of the 81
wards. He received his masters or
1 ders and withdrew, and again Siward
waited, biting his under lip and tear
ing bits from the edges of the news
paper with fingers never still, but no
body came with the decanter, and after
awhile his tense muscles relaxed.
Something in his very soul seemed to
snap, and he sank back in his chair,
the hot tears binding him.
He had got as far as that Mo
ments of self pity were becoming al
most as frequent as scorching inter.
walls of self contempt
| So they all knew what was the mat
ter with him. They all knew-the doc.
tor. the servants. his friends, Had he
not surprised the quick suspicion in
Fleetwood's glance when he told him
he had slipped and sprained his ankle
4 What If he had been drunk when be
fell-fell on his own doorsteps, carried
into the old Siward house by old, 81
| ward servants, drunk as his fofefa-
theirs? 1t was none Of Fleetwood's
business. 1t was none of the serv.
ants business. 1t was nobody's bust
ness except his own.
The tears dried in his hot eyes. lie
jerked the old fashioned bell savagely
and after long while he heard serV
ants whispering together in the pas
sageway outside his door.
DIR. Girls BY
90 came into the
AZ room from the