The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-29

ratio, She had never been anything to
him and he was no dcg.in.the .manger.
What he needed now was the thousand
dollars, and here it was, He swung the
massive door wide and took out the
canvas bag With this and the ruby
ring-it must easily be worth as much
again-he could put the round world be.
tween himself and capture.
lie closed the safe, and with the bag
of coin III his hand, CROPPED his way to
the door of the chapel. 1t was less
dark there. for the snow was making
white night outside, and the stained
glass cast a wan glimmer across the
aisles. He could almost SEQ himself
and Harry Sanderson sitting III the
candle light at the communion table in
side the altar rail, almost hear the
musical chlnk Of the gold! His hand
wandered to his pocket, where lay the
one wax wafer he had kept as pocket
piece. AT that altar he had sworn to
pay day of clean living for each of
the counters he had lost. He had not
near to ovcrtaking him. He shuddcred
lie had turned over 4 new leaf this
time In earnest, and he would make up
for the broken vow!
But meanwhile he greatly needed
sleep, and tonight in the open that was
out of the question. He could gain
several good hours rest where be was
y
drew together the altar cushions and
lay down, the canvas bag beside him,
but he was cold, and at length he rose
and went into the vcStrY for a surDlce.
He wrapped this about him and, lighting
cigarette, lay down again, He was
very tired. but his limbs twitched from
nervousness lie lighted one cigarette
after another, but sleep was coy. He
tried TO WOO it with nonsense rhymes,
but the lines ran together. He tried the
remedy of his restless, precocious child.
hood-the counting of lnnumcrablc
sheep rs they leaped the hurdle one by
one; but now all of the sheep were
black. There came before his eyes.
uncalled, the portrait of his dead mother
that had always hung at home in the
wanscoted library. In her memory his
father had built this very chapel, lie
wondered again whether she had looked
like the picture.
A softer feeling came to him. She
would be sorry if she could know his
plight. Perhaps if she had lived his
life might have been different. Slow
tears stole down his chceks-not now
OF affected scntimentalism, or of hys-
terlcal self-pIty, but warmer drops from
some deeper well that had not over
flowed since he was little boy. If he
had the chance he would live from
now on so that il she were alive she
need not be ashamed The promise
he made himself at that moment was
an hOnester one than all his selfish years
had known, for 1T sprang not from
dread, but from the better feeling that
his maturity had trampled and denied
He felt kind of peacc-the first real
peace he had known since his school
daYS-and with IT drowsincss came at
last. With the drops wet on his cheek,
forgetfulness found him. In few min.
utcS he was sleeping heavily.
The last half-consumcd cigarette
dropped from his relaxing fingers to the
cushion, where IL made n Smoldering
nest of fire. tiny tongue of flame
caught the edge, of a wall hanging, ran
up 20 the dry oaken rafters and speedily
ignted them. In fifteen minutes the
interior of the chapel was a mass of
flame, and Hugh woke gasping and be.
wIdercd
With a cry of alarm he sprang to his
feet, seized the bag of coin and ran to
the door of the study, In his naste lie
stumbled against 1t, and the dead lock
snapped to. He was n prisoner now,
for he had left the skeleton key in tie
inside of the outer door. Clutching his
treasure be ran TO the main entrance:
II was fast, He tried the smaller YIN.
doWs; iron bars were set across thcm.
Hc made shift to wrap the surplice
about his mouth, against the sitting
cLIph' anu htIS NdpOIS. nc Dag
dropped from his hand and the gold
rolled about the floor. He stopped and
clutched a handful of the coins and
crammed them into his pocket Was he
to die after all like this. caught Like
rat in trap! In his panic of terror
he forgot all necessity of concealment;
he longed for nothing so much as dis.
covery by those whose cries he now
heard filing the waking street. Many
voices were swelling the clamor there.
Bells were pealing terror -tongued
alarm. but those on the spot saw that
the structure was doomed Hugh
screamed desperately, but the roar Of
the flames overhead and the angry
cracking of the woodwork drowned all
else. The roof timbers were swapping.
the muffling 'surplice was scorching. a
thousand luminous points about him
were bursting into fire in the sicken-
ing heat. He pounded with all his
might upon the door panels. but in
vain. Who outside could have imagined
that human being was pcnt within
that fiery furnace9
Uttering honrse cry, with the
strength of despair, Hugh wrenrhcd 4
pew from the floor and made of it a
ladder TO reach the rose window Mount.
ing this. he beat franticallv with his
t.N