The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-05

his own free will he had spent the last few weeks of his lie In a prison. Knowing that he had but short time to live. he~had voluntarily cut himself off from all that might have softened the hashness of death. He might have spent his last days on earth in the peace and comfort of his own rooms: he might have spent them in the whirling vortex of pieasure; he might have fled south to the clear air and sunshine of a warmer climate. and faced death amid the silent grandeur of mountain and sea; all this had been in his power.
 Sir Richard Gaunt, who was at heart selfish voluptuary, could not under stand the motives which had prompted Crawshay to sacrifice the last few days of his life. and his reputation for ell time to purchase goods which might never be delivered. It was prob able that Gaunt would never find the man who had dishonoured Crawshay's sister. More than once he had thought how easy it would be to take the thirty thousand pounds and dismiss the whole matter from his mind. He had sworn a terrible oath; but then after all words are only words, and they break no bones. Honour. religion. morality were no more to him than empty phrases. Crawshay would die. and there would be an end of the mat ter.
 But the actual death of crawshay had presented everything In a new light. The dead man, cool and cyni- cal to the last. had relied largely on stage effect, and he had not failed to produce the impression he had worked for He knew well enough that Gaunt was an interruptions black guard. but he had not forgotten a trivial incident which had occurred In the early stages of their acquadnt- ance.
 They had both gone to see the first performance of Ibsen's Wild Duck" in England. Gaunt had laughed heartily all through the pice, treating 1t more or less as a satire on ciaSs of men cordially detested. But in the last act, when the little girl Hedvig kills herself because she has lost her fathers love. he grew very silent. and. as the lights were turned up after the fall of the curtain. Crawshay mo- ticed that there were tears an his eyes.
 That sort of thing makes fool of me-" Gaunt had said in answer to few words of ridicule.
 Why, my dear chap" Crawshay had exclaimed "T'll wager you're respon- sible for greater tragedies, and that you've never shed a tear tor the sui. ferers.'
 '.It's different on the stage" Gaunt had replied. When it Is put to one like that 1t is different"
 Crawshay had not forgotten this phase of his friends character. It was not an uncommon one, even tn men of a lower and less educated type than Richard Gaunt.i The, navwys who beats his wife, and starves his children to purchase beer. Is moved to tears at the picture of the heroine dying in the snow, and shrieks out his execration of the villain as heartily as any good and loving husband, All this is the result of dramatic effect. If Gaunti could have seen some of. the episodes Is own life placed upon Che stage he would have wept tears of. blood.
 Crawshay resolved to make good use of his opportunities. The scene was and he occupied thescentre of the stage. He allowed nothing to soften the horror of that lsst picture. He re- fused to send for Gaunt or any of his friends, and died alone. Even in the face of death he was strong enough to do all that would further the &C., complishment of his task. He relied on the picture. An innocent man, who was willing to spend his last days on earth in the gloom and shame of a prison in order to avenge his sisters dishonour. Surely that was pathetic enough to touch the heart of one who had wept at the morbid. sorrows of the little Hedvig And this was real life, staged magnifcently., The prison, the dying man shut out from freedom and sunshine, the dishonoured name. fall in their effect. aG3
 Continued Tomorrow.