Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-11-17

Eli KISS Tell upon the lore
~" head of the deirious
u man in the cabin Jes-
sica began to be prey
to new emotions, the
Significance OF which she did not com
prehend That kiss. she told herself
that night. had been given to her dead
ideal that had lain there in its purify
ing grave clothes of forgetfulness. Yet
it burned on her lips. us that other kiss
In a darkened room had burned after
ward. but with a sense of pleasure. not
of hurt. 1t took her back into crimson
meadows with her lost girlhood and its
opaled outlook-and Hugh.
But largest of all in her mind next
day was anxiety. She must know how
he Jared. In the open daylight she
could not approach the cabin. but she
reflected that the doctor had been
there and no doubt had carried some
report Of him to the town. So as the
morning grew she rode down the
mountain ostensibly to get the cherry
cordial she bad left behind her the day
before. really to satisfy her hunger for
news.
AS it happened Mrs. Halloran's first
greeting set her anxiety at rest. Prem
dergaSt had bought some tobacco at
the general store an hour before while
she had been making her daily order.
and the storekeeper had questioned
him. To an interested audience he
had told of the finding of Hugh on
the mountain roId in a sort of crazy
fever and enlarged upon the part the
girl on horseback had played Hugh
was all right now, he said. except that
he didn't remember him or the cabin
or Smoky Mountain.
/ What Prendergast had said Mrs
Halloran told .Jessica In breath Be
fore she finished she found that Jes
sica had not heard of the incident IL
the saloon winch had precipitated the
fight with Devlin, and with sympa
thetic rhetoric Mrs Halloran told this
too.
him so? What has he done?" asked
Jessica.
Mrs. Halloran shook her head 50
never knew anything myself" sh'
said judiciously. II reckon the tow
allus counted him just general Low
down. The rest is only suspicion an
give the dog bad name"
There had been comfort for Jessict
in this Interview. Mrs. Halloran's
story had materially increased tn,
poignant force Of her pity. What hat
been In reality a courageous and I'm
selfish championship Of defenseles
outcast. Thinking of this. the sell
blame and contrition which she hat
felt when she listened to the violi1
assailed her anew, till she seemed {
very part of the guilt. an equal slime
by omission.
Yet she rode homeward that da,
with almost light heart.
As Harry stood in the cabin door
way looking after Prendergast towart
the town. glistening far below in tn
morning sunlight. he thought bitterl
Of his reception there.
"They all knew me-" he thought
every one knew neon the street. Il
the hotel They know me for what
have been to them. Yet to me it is al
q blank. What shameful deeds have
doneT' He shrank from memory now
What was doing SO far away. wher
was going. on the night when | wa
picked up beside the railroad track?
may be drunkard." he said to him
self. mo. in the past month ! hav,
drunk hard. but not for the taste of tn
liquor. ! may be gambler. may b
cheat. thief. Yet how is it possible
for bad deeds to be blotted out an,
leave no tracer Actions breed habit /
they do not spring from 1t. and habi
automatically repeated becomes char
acter l feel no inherent propensity t
rob or defraud. Shall 1? Will thes
things come back to me If my memor
; does?"
In the battle that he fought now b
turned, even in his weakness. to man
ual labor. striving to dull his though
; with mechanical movement. He clean
, ed and put to rights both rooms an,
sorted their litter Of odds and ends
But at times the inclination to escap
became well nigh insupportable. Whe.
: the conflict was fercest. he woul
: think of girls face once seen. an
: the thought would restrain him. VIII
was she? Why had her look pierce
through him? In that hateful caree
that seemed SO curiously alien coul
she have had part?
He did not know that she of whor
he wondered in the bitterest of thos
hours had been very near him; that O
her way up the mountain she ha
stolen down to the Knob to loo
through the parted bushes to the cabi
with the blue spiral rising from IT
chimney
Though the homely task to which h
turned failed to allay his struggle
a. ~ -