Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-12-22

ION tnat the nor
NAL process of the recovered mind had
been stealthily undermining. Harry
Sanderson at last knew his past and
all Of puzzlement and distress that it
had held.
Shaking in every limb and feeling all
en- man, he made his way to the fur
Their deserted street. A passerby would
have shrunk at sight of his face and
his burning eyes.
For these months he, the Rev. Henry
Sanderson, disgraced, had suffered
eclipse. had been sunk out of sight and
touch and hearing like stone in a
pool. For these months-through an
accidental facial resemblance and
fortuitous concurrence Of circum-
stances-he had owned the name and
ignominy of Hugh Stires. And Jes-
sica? Deceived no less than he, dat
Ing her piteous error from that mis-
taken moment when she had torn the
bandage from her eyes on her wedding
day, she had never seen the real Hugh
In Smoky Mountain. She must learn
the truth. Yet how to tell her? How
could he tell her all?
At any hour yesterday hard as the
telling must have been, he could have
told her. Last night the hour passed.
How could he tell her now? Yet she
was the real Hugh's wife by law and
right. He himself could not marry her.
II God would but turn back the uni
verse and give him yesterday!
! His feet dragging as though from
cold he climbed the mountain road.
AS he walked he took from his pocket
the little gold cross. and his fingers,
numb with misery. tied it to his thong
watch guard. 1t had been only bau-
BILE. pocket piece acquired he knew
not when or how. Now he knew it for
the badge of his calling. He remem-
bered now that, pressed certain way,
1t would open, and engraved inside
were his name and the date of his or
dination
He might shut the cabin door. but
he could not forbid the torturer that
came with him across the threshold.
He might throw himself upon his
knees and bury his face in the rough
skin of the couch, but he could not
shut out words that blent in golden
lettered flashes across his throbbing
eyeballs. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbours wife"
So he crouched, man under whose
feet life had crashed, leaving him pin.
han hn TO fob
fire that must creep nearer and nearer
Curiosity held Jessica until the evan
gelist closed his melodeon preparatory
to descent upon the dance hall. Then
thinking of the growing dark will
some trepidation, she started toward
the mountain.
Ahead of her mutfled puff-puf1
sounded, and the dark bulk of an auto
mobile was moving slowly in the same
direction, and she quickened her pace
glad of this quasi company.
A little way up the ascent cum
brous shadow startled her She saw II
u moment that it was the automobile
halted at the side of the road Hell
footsteps made no sound, and she wa.
close upon 1t when she saw the three
men 1t had carried standing near by
She made to pass them and had cross
, ed half the intervening space, whel
some instinct sent her to the shade O.
the trees. They had stopped oppost,
the hydraulic concession, where sid,
path left the main road 1t was tn,
same path by which she and Angus
Prendergast had taken their uncon
scious burden on night long ago
leading along the hillside, overlookin.
the snakelike hume and forming
sleeper short cut to the cabin above
They We're conversing In low tones. ant
as they talked they pointed, sh
thought, toward It,
Jessica had never In her life been al
eavesdropper but her excited sense
$50 So 'W wv,