Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-08-25
Knight Grant
BY EDNA LYALL

was what made you fight again for
your freedom? Take my advice, sig
nor, and do not ask too many ques-
tons. Carpo di Bacco. Must you,
then, hear all? Well, in two days
time you will have your limbs freed
from those irons, or, if not, why, your
soul will be freed from your body,
which comes TO the same thing in the
end"
"Can you not speak plainly? Do
you mean that my life depends on
Comerio's whim?'
mot on Generic at all, but on your
sister. Look here, it is all as orderly
as a ceremony on a fiesta! Comerio
goes to her tonight, wins her consent
to leave the country with him, and
exchanges a white handkerchief with
our Neapolitan agent, who on We'd
nesday night will pass it on to us, and
from that moment you are free man
once more. Or, on the other hand,
Madame Merlino refuses her lovers
suggestion definitely, Generic disap-
pears from the SCENE, having dropped
a red Handkerchief with our agent,
and on Thursday you look your last
on this world. That is the matter in
a nutshell, signor."
Carlos heart gave a bound, then a
cold chill ran through hin, he had
indeed grown pretty well accustomed
to the idea of possible violence at the
hands of Comerio; he knew the Cor
sicans nature too well to expect him
to behave, for instance, like an Eng
lishmar or an American but, al
thougf he had never been lacking in
courage. 1t appalled, him to think that
for two days and nights he must wait
in this disma cell, and at the end of
the time be murdered in cold blood.
Yet what was the other alternative?
Either Anita must live in sin, or he
must die--there was no escape from
the dilemmal To desire his own life
meant that he desired her moral
death; to pray for his own safe-keep-
ing meant that he prayed for her
ruin. And yet he chung to life with
the strong natural instinct of a
healthy man. Only few weeks ago
all had been hard and dreary for
him; but now, with Francesca his
own once more, with the prospect of
fame sweetened by her loving SYM
pathy, with health and vigor and all
the ardent desires of youth, how was
it possible for him to be willing to be
done to death In this dismal cata-
comb?
After all, under the circumstances,
would it be such a sin on Anita's
part? Was not Merlno illtempered
enough to excuse such a step? Were
not his own notions about marriage
old-fashioned, as Sardoni had always
declared? Thoughts such as these
| Just glanced through his mind, vel
| gave him but a momentary struggle
| because the life he had lived for the
last three years made him ON this
point practically inyulnerable. The
real anguish lay in the temptation to
put francesca above everything
above his conscience, above his sense
of honor and duty. How could he
desire that which must condemn her
to grief and loneliness. which must
cause her the mast cruel of shocks
and blight her whole life? 1t was
the old, old story of the innocent suf
fering for the guilty, of the strong
bearing the burden Of the weak, and
his mind levolted from the thought OF
sorrow visiting the woman he loved
best; he turned in horror from the
| apparent injustice of the law of life
But while he lay there face down.
ward on the heap of shavings in
dumb hopeless anguish, there came
to him all at once the strangest con
seriousness that, although he was
| chained, fettered, and guarded
most helpless prisoner, not even know,
| ing where his underground cell could
be. yet that in his keeping lay Anita s
| fate. He knew, as he knew he fact
of his own existence. that IF he
could not bring his will to accept this
thought OF being murdered, neither
would she allow herself to be saved
from wrong-doing at the expense VI
| his life. At this very moment, she
too. was probably wrestling with
deadly temptation. Her love for him
so lately awakened, would impel her
| to save him at all costs, while Com
erios power over her would be in
creased tenfold by this deyilish
scheme which had been SO cunningly
laid Clearly the Corsicau was de
termined to win her, while, for the
time, Carlo had staggered under the
| blow dealt him by his enemy, and
was pausing as men must, to look the
evil in the face. to count the cost as
they are distinctly told to do, that Sc
they may be ready for the worst,
Anita was even now making her n
nal choice. Whatever the scientific
or spiritual explanation of the matter
might be, he knew that there was be
tween them some direct power of in
| fuence, some will-force. which made
| her decision depsEd on his aetna
I readiness for sacrifice. 1t Wa.
clearly impossible that she should be
saved by Pigment of the imagina
tioa-a mere belief in his readiness
He must definitely desire that she
might be saved from Generic, cos
1 him what il would, before she coult