The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1908-12-16
1.-THE SNan Who Stole The Earth
By w. Holt White

and demolished furniture.
Here Strong stayed the course or
the Victor.
He had IL In his mind that he was
perpetrating "A horrible thing. II also
seemed 10 him that. should he fail TO
appreciate TO the full what he was
doing. he would be Sinking his re-
sponsibllities.
This was why he deliberately stay
ed the course of the Victor and search
ed narrowly through his glasses To
see the evil he had brought about, and
every detail OF IL lived ever afterward
in his memory.
Nor was he certain that he could
quite, even by urging his necessity
and the greatness OF his motive. quiet
his conscience TO the horror that he
had brought about
For from below him came. not mere
ly the cries of wounded men. but the
screams OF stricken women.
The incidents. indeed, that followed
on the dropping OF that one shell
were many. but SO vivid that In after
1 times he could call them TO mind.
For the moment. however. he Was
only conscious Of the mass of manSled
and bleeding humanity that was scat
tered III the roadway.
The hall porter. gorgeous In gold
, lace and brass buttons. picked himself
up from the midst OF the wreckage
and rushed over to lady who had
been literally blown from the entrance
hall into the street
And Strong felt an insufferaDlc cow
ara when he saw the blood drip from
the woman's head and heard her cry
Ing in the distance beneath him.
IL sickened him To see three chill.
dren crawl from the debris. He loath-
ed the sight OF chambermaid, stun.
ned and white and dazed gathering
herself up from the wreckase.
! The cries OF the people whom he
had injured rang In his ears.
boy wept beside his small dead
sister. the mother sat like an idiot
rocking herself To and fro.
! The powder 10 which the explosion
had reduced much OF the masonry
rained like fine hail upon the living
and the dead. making sharp patter-
ing noise as II descended on the dead.
the dying and inanmate.
But Strong had steeled his heart.
lie had hardened il just as Pharaoh
hardened his long ago. His need was
pressing and his time was short; and
yet, ne argued Jesuiticaliy with him
self that out OF the evil which ne
mad done would spring good.
he even sought 10 comfort himself
by recalling thousand tales of his
tory To illustrate his point And be-
cause he argued with himself he knew
he was wrong. Anc because he knew
that he was wrong he was stricken
with a double shame.
But still he hardened his heart.
He put the Victor down along the
street and dropped another shell and
another
As they fell into the roadway the
houses on either side were rent asund-
err lt seemed a pitiful thing that the
patient work of years. the conceptions
Of great minds, the labor OF enthus.
iastic workmen should be brought 10
an end SO remorsefully and SO
swiftly.
But Strong realized that this was
no time for sentiment If he meant 20
gain his own bitter end. So again he
tried TO comfort himself with the re-
Election that the bitter end was great.
Slowly the Victor drifted down the
\ long main street, and II was Strong
who. with his own hands, dropped
shell after shell until the magnificent
thoroughfare. which had been the
pride OF Bomberg. and by reason OF
its extraordinary situation one OF the
wonders OF the civilized world, was
laid In ruins
Continued Tomorrow.)