Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-11-12

Its Home. Sweet Home,'" sai6
Barney McGinn. mo, it's Annie
Laurie No. i%t's-hanged if | know
what 1t isl"
The player himself could not have
told him. He was in a kind of tranced
dream. The self made music was call
ing with a sweet insistence to buried
things that were stirring from a long
sleep. 1t sent a gulp into the throat
Of more than one standing moveless
in the street. 1t brought a suspicious
moisture to Tom Felder's eyes. 1t drew
Mrs. Halloran from the kitchen, wip-
ing her hands on her apron. 1t called
to a girl who crouched in the upper
hall with her miserable face buried in
her hands, drew her down the stair
to the Office door, her eyes wide with Il
breathless wonder, her face g%listening
with feeling.
From the balcony Jessica had wit
messed the fight without understand
ing it's meaning. A fascination she
could not gainsay had glued her eyes
to the struggle. 1t was he-it was the
face she knew, seen but one for a
single moment in the hour of her mar
riage, but stamped indelibly upon her
memory. 1t was no longer smooth
shaver, and it was changed, evilly
changed. But it was the same. There
was recklesness and mockery in it and
yet strength, not weakness. Stunned
and despised as he might be-the chief
actor, as it seemed to her, in a cheap
and desperate barroom affray, a coarse
affair of fistlcuffs in the public street
yet there was something intrepid In
his bearing, something splendid in his
victory.
To Jessica, standing with hands close
clasped, the music seemed the agony
of rcmorse for a past fall, the cry of a
%forlorn soul, knowing itself cast out,
appealing to it's good angel for pity
and pardon. Hugh had often played
to her, lightly, carelessly, as he did all
things. She had deemed it only n of
his many clever, amateurish accom-
plishments. Now it struck her with a
pang that there had been in him a
deeper side that she had not guessed.
Since her wedding day she had
thought of her marriage as q loathed
bond, from which his false pretense
had absolved her. Now a doubt of her
own position assailed her. Had lone,
Illness and outlawry driven him into
the career that had made him Stunned
even in this rough town, a course
which she, had she been faithful t.
her VOW "for better, for worse" nigh
have turned to his redemption? Goo
forgave, but she had not forgiven
Smarting tears scorched her eyelids.
For Harry Sanderson the music wa:
the imprisoned memory, crying on
strongly in the first tongue it ha(
found. The %slumbering qualities tina
had stirred uneasily at sight of The
face on the balcony awoke. Who llt
was and had been he knew no more
than before. but the new writhing sci
consciousness, starting from its sleel
with almost q ems of shock. becaln,
conscious of the gaping crowd. tl'
dusty street, the red sunset and o
himself at the end of a vulgar Draw
saving Il violin in silly b~raggadocio il
a hotel doorway.
The music faltered and broke off
The bow dropped at his feet. liz
picked it up fumblingly and turned
back into the office as Il man entered
from a rear door. The newcomer was
Michael Halioran. the hotels proprie
tor, short, thickset and Surly. ASLEEP
in his room. he had neither seen the
fracas nor heard the playing. He saw
instantly, however. that something un
usual was forward and. blinking OF
the threshold. caught sight of the mar
who was handing the violin back to it.
owner. He clinched his fist, with +;
scowl, and started toward him.
His wife caught his arm.
ooh, Michael, Michael" she cried
"Say nothing, lad! Ye should have
heard him play"
play" he exclaimed. Let him sc
fiddle to his side partner, Prendergast
and the other riffraff he's run with the
year past He turned blackly to Har
~. Take yourself from this house
Hugh Stires." he said. whether all's
true that's said of you l don't say, but
you'll not come here!"
Harry had turned very white. Will
the spoken name-a name how familiar
his eyes had fallen to the ring ON his
finger-the ring with the initials II. S
A sudden comprehension had darted tC
his mind. y score Of circumstances
that had seemed odd stood out now il
q baleful light. The looks Of dislike ii
the barroom. the attitude of the street
this angry diatribe, all smacked of &C
q%uaintance. and not alone acquaint
ance, but obloquy. His name was
Hugh Stires.. He belonged to this very
town! And he was a man hated. de-
spised, forbidden entrance to an Tn.
couth hostelry, an unwelcome visitant
even in a barroom. He turned to Eel
der and said in a low voice to him
not to tho hotel keeper or to the room.
full:
"When l entered this town today ]
did not know my name or that l had
ever set foot in it before. l was struck
by q train n month ago and remember