Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-02-17
through IIar.

NAL process of the recovered mind had
been stealthily undermining. Harry
Sandcrson at last knew his past and
all of puzzlemcnt and distress that it
had held
Shaking in every limb and feeling all
along the courthouse wall like a drunk
en- man, he made his way to the fur
ther deserted street. A passerby would
have shrunk at sight of his face and
his burning eyes.
For these l.onths 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 n
fortuitous concurrence of clrcum-
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, lie 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 BE himself could not marry her
If God would but turn back the pni.
verse and give him yesterday!
| Ills feet dragging as though from
cold. lie 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. a pocket piece acquired he knew
not when or how. Now he knew it fol
the badge of his calling. He remcm
bered now that, pressed certain way
it would open, and engraved inside
We're his name ana the date of his or
dination.
He might shut the cabin door, but
lie could not forbid the tort,lrcr tina,
came With him across the threshold
He might throw himself upon hi.
knees and bury his face i'll the rough
skin of the couch. but he could moi
shut out words that b!ent in golden
lettered flashes across his throbbine
eyeballs. "Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbours wife"
So he crouched, Il man under whose
| feet life had crashed, leaving him pin
ned beneath the wreck to watch the
fire that must creep nearer and nearer
Curiosity held Jessica until the evan
gelist closed his melcdeon preparatory
TO a descent upon the dance hall. Then
thinking Of the growing dark Will
some trepidation, she started toward
the mountain.
Ahead of her muftied puff-puff
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 III
a moment that it was the automobile
matted at the side OF the road. HeI
footsteps made no SQUAD, and she was
close upon 1t when she saw the three
men it had carried standing Rear by
She made 10 pass them aud had cross.
ell half the Intervening space. Wien
some instinct sent her to the shade of
the trees. They had stopped opposite
| the hydraulic concession, where Il side
path left the main read. 1t was the
same path by which she and August
Prendergast had taken their uncon.
scious burden on a night long ago,
leading along the hillside. overlooking
the snakelike flune and forming a
| sleeper short cut to the cabin above.
They were convcrsing in low tones, and
rs they talked they pointed, she
thought, toward it.
Jessica had never in her life been an
eavesdroppcr, but her excited senses