The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-12-11
Through a
WOnnan'S Heart.
By Sidney Warwick.
By Sidney Warwick.
CHAPTER lv.-(continued.)

she looked up at MIN duly and un-
eomprehendingly, her face like sculp-
tured marble. modelled by suffering. as
though hardly aware of his presence.
Stephen was trembling all over
shaAen and unnerved; clamoring
thoughts were shouting in his brain;
but above them all-louder, more in
sisteEt-this one thought: that if by
any means or at any cost it were pos
sible. he must save his love-must
save her from the consequences that
would inevitably follow once it was
known in what manner he had found
her. here alone with the dead man,
whose evil life had found so evil an
end.
The wild words that had broken
from her lips yesterday seemed again
to be ringing in his ears: " a
man who ought to be sent to his &C.
count with all his sins red as blood
uron his soul!"
And here they were, the living and
the dead; and Stephen Ruthen knew
that. had her sin been even tenfold
deeper. he would yet have had but
this one thought, how to save his be-
loved. In all the fear and horror that
.essailed him, that stood out plain, the
one supreme thing that mattered.
With the urgent necessity for self
control Stephen regained his grip Oh
his nerves. There was not a II :,lent
to be lost. SO far no one could have
seen Olive; he had been the one spec
tator in this theater of unpronlpted
drama. No one else must see her, and
Ills only hope lay in getting her away
"Olive, comet"
There was note of agoIized insist
ence in his voice. He laid his hand
on her wrist, drew her to her feet
drew her away. Olive obeyed me-
chemically, like one in dream. He
realized that the liner consciousness
of her was oblivious even OF his pres
ence. She allowed him to take the
small revolver from her hand. He put
Ut into his pocket.
AS he drew her away slowly her
face was turned, looking back, still
riveted, as if by magnetic attraction,
on the man lying there behind her
with darkness in his eyes.
A dozen PAGES traversed, the SLOW
uess of her faltering steps torturing
Stephens frenzy of desperate impa-
tience-and then a sound that stabbed
him with new, quivering terror.
Down the road, coming in their d.
rection, he heard the muffled tap, tap,
tap of an iron ferrule on the frozen
ground under the snow-a sound that
Stephen recognized at once.
!: The blind organist.
straining his eyes desperately
through the mist of falling flakes,
Stephen saw the dim figure approach
Ing with the measured slowness of a
blind mans steps-and, thank heaven!
the blind man was alone.
"Stand here; make no sound or
movement" the man who loved her
whispered to Olive, drawing her to the
side of the road.
She obeyed in the same dazed, apa-
thetic manner, much as sleep walker
will obey unconsciously whispered
command. Olives mind was sleeping
and oblivious now.
Tap-tap-tap! There was some
thing that had to be done before the
blind man had covered another TWEEN
ty yards.
The body of Philip Hume was lying
in the middle of the Cross Ways. Al
most inevitably, if it were LEFT there,
the blind man would stumble upon it,
and discovery of the tragedy be pre-
cipitated, before he could win safety
and silence for his beloved. No time
to lose!
Nerying himself to fight of the feel
irg of shuddering repulsion, Stephen
Ruthen bent over the dead; then, as
he grasped the lapels of the coat, he
saw for the first time that something
WAS held in the dead mans stiffened
clutch, that struck him with sense
of bizarre, incongruoss intrusion upon
this hour OF tragedy.
twas playing card. A blot of red
against the white pasteboard and the
whittier snow. The ace of hearts.
Tap-tap--tap! The measured sound
YVES drawing nearer. Not second to
lose!
Stephen dragged the lifeless figure
ecross the road to the foot of the
eaunt. weather-beaten stone. About
its base the ground fell away in sau-
cer-like hollow already filled by snow.
Where the drifted snow lay deepest
he left his terrible burden. half COW
cred in the white grave; the storm of
whirling fakes seemed to beat down
faster. as if to hide the dead man CON-
pletely away.
Stephen Ruthen stole back quickly
to where Olive waited like a woman
bereft of speech or movement by the
side of the roadway. The tapping of
the iron ferrule was close upon them
now. Almost tAstinctively he whis-
pered. "IIush!" though Olives strange
: stupor made. the warning unneces-
sary.
The intruder was abreast of them
now. AS before in the vestry, so now
the blind man suddenly paused with
start. turning his sightless eyes to the
.lr-s.l ,rnOfiOn1ocS the