Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-10-13
8 ~
! Chapter s J

haze Of heat, negligent
ly smoking. He could see the long
white mari road bending In a broad
curve between clover stippled mead
ows. to skirt the willow green bluff
above the river There, miles away,
on the high bank he could distinguish
the railroad bridge. long black skei-
eton spanning 1.-THE hole" a deep, fish
haunted pool the deepest spot in the
river for fifty miles.
Since that moonlfghted evening of
the. will making Harry had learned
that the long lane had had no true
turning for Hugh. He had sifted him
through and through At college he
had put him down for weakling-
UNPUBLISHED, misdemeanant. Now he
knew him for what he really was-a
moral mollusk, scamp in embryo,
decadent. realizing an ugly propensity
to a deplorable finale. A consistent
career of loose living had carried
Hugh far since those college days
when he had been dubbed "Satan's
shadow" While to Harry Sanderson
the eccentric and agnostical had then
been, as 1t were. the mask through
which his temperament looked at life,
TO Hugh it had spelled shipwreck.
Harry Sanderson had done broadly as
he pleased He had entertained whom
he listed, had gone stunning" had
once boxed to finish for wager
local pugilist whose acquaintance he
affected, known as Gentleman JIM"
He had been both the hardest hitter
and the hardest drinker in his class.
yet withal its most brilliant student
Native character had enabled him to
persist. as the exasperating function
to eliminate. But the same natural
gravitation which In spite of all aber-
/ ration had given Harry Sanderson
classical hOnors had brought Hugh
Stires to the imminent brink of expul-
sion. And since that time, without
the character which belonged to Har-
~ as possession, Hugh had contin-
ued to drift aImlessly on down the
broad lax way Of profligacy.
| The conditions he found upon his re
turn, however. had opened Hugh's
eyes to the perilous strait in which he
stood. He was materialist and the
taste he had had of deprivation had
sickened him. In the first revulsion,
+ when the contrast between recent
famine and present plenty was strong
upon him. he had been at anxious
pains to make himself secure with his
father-and with Jessica Holme. Har-
rvs mental sight-keen as the hunters
sight on the rife barrel-was sharpen
ed by his knowledge of the old Hugh,
an intuitive knowledge gained In a
significant formative period He saw
more clearly than the townfolk who
In general way had known Hugh
Stires all their lives. Week by week
Harry had seen him regain lost
ground IN his fathers esteem Day
by day he had seen him making studf
GUS appeal to all that was romantic In
Jessica. climbing to the favor of each
on the ladder of the others regard
Hugh was naturally poseur. with a
keen SENSE of effect He could be
brilliant ut WILL could play little on
piano. banjo and violin. could sing q
4 little and had himself well In hand.
And. feeling the unconscious chord of
romance Nitrate tn his touch he had
4 played upon il with no unskillful fin
4 gers
Jesstca was comparatively free from
that ca4uetry by means of which wo.
mans instiucl experiments III emotion
Although she had heen artist enough