Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-08-12

cat least you wrong me there, =
cried the rector, in low voice. i
should have broken silence then; God
knows what suffering it has cost me
to keep silent as l did, only His
voice suddenly rose: Il don't try to
Justify my silence; only there are
things man cannot do! Try to put
yourself in my place-for three weeks
had guarded this secret before you
were arrested; had planned to save
her, I believed I had saved her-and
then your arrest brought down the
house of cards. My duty was clear,
no doubt; but to reveal what [ knew
was to strike at her, the woman l
| loved And I felt that there was no
case against you-could be no case;
that the magistrates would dismiss the
charge. So I did not speak. You say
the law would not have punished her,
but there was something l was even
more afraid of for her.
He paused-no one spoke; Hilda's
eyes as they rested on him were still
passionately alight and unrelenting,
but the hard, stern lines about La
thom's mouth had suddenly softened.
as though in spite of himself the ap-
pealing cry had touched his pity.
Something else; before any sus-
picion fastened on you," the low voice
went on, this woman was slowly find
ing her way back from her delirium
to life and reason, and with returning
consciousness she asked for me. La
Thorn, l learnt almost from her first
words then that she had forgotten
forgotten that night as though it had
never been-forgotten anger and hat
red against the man who had wronged
her-that she still loved the man who
had stolen her from me, never dream
ing that he was dead"
For a moment Stephen Ruthen
paused; then he cried, almost passion
ately:
WAS I to tell her then what I sus
pected-wrOngly suspected, as l am
sure now-that the man she spoke of
so wistfully lay under his shroud of
snow, dead by her act? Could any
man with a grain of pity have told
her? Think what the shock must have
meant for her, weak and i'll as she
was; it might have killed her or
wrecked her reason; at the least the
horror of it must have blighted all
her future.
fell. 1 couldn't speak; was caught
between two terrible alternatives
but I felt there was no real case
against you; and to speak would be
to doom the woman l loved. No doubt
the law would not have exacted her
life, but almost assuredly it would
have exacted her liberty, since the
purpose that had seemingly impelled
her to steal out as she did might ar
que by it's very accomplishment that
she was sane then. And I did not
know at that time what know now"
A puzzled look had crept into La
thom's face. He broke in suddenly:
But why did you say-and you had
limited before-that you had changed
your opinion about this woman's
guilt?"
Lathom's voice had lost its hard
ring; the poignancy Of the feelings
suddenly stripped naked to him had
not been without their strong appeal
to his pity.
81 didn't know then that I had been
fighting shadows, after all. Lathom, I
had resolved at last to break silence;
the burden of my secret had grown
too intolerable, and l had resolved TO
speak. On that day l learnt that in
all probability Olive Vanstone was as
guiltless as myself of Philip Hume's
death"
What do you mean?" cried Lathom.
"The revolver l found grasped in
her hand that night--the revolver that
almost beyond question was the wea-
pom from which the fatal shot was
fired-was not hers. And that one dis
covery changed, in my eyes, the whole
aspect of the case," said Stephen.
Finding her with that weapon in her
hands, l had assumed it to be hers;
that she had had it In her possession
unknown to us at the rectOry; had
stolen out armed with this. But the
revolver was not hers; it could not
have been in her possession when
that inexplicable impulse of the sick
brain made her steal out that night.
That revolver was identified only
few days ago as belonging to some
one in the village. have no doubt
now that Olive Vanstone found the
man lying dead with the weapon near
him, and had mechanically picked it
up"
But the revolver-to whom did it
belong?" broke in Lathom, in uncon-
cealed Impotence.
ITO Bonholt Hume"
ITO Bonholt Hume" echoed La
thom, in surprise. ut is strange 1t