Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-12

i More tll;lu the ADEPT cunning tnut
had at first tingled in his fingers at
] sight of the instrument was in Harry
Sanderson's playing The violin had
/ been the single passion which the old
/ Satan SandersOn had carried with him
: into the new career. The impulse to
''soothe the savage breast had been Il
+, fare of the old character he had been
! relieving but the music, begun in
bravado, swept him almost instantly
beyond its bounds. He had never been
an Indifferent performer. Now he was
! playing as he had never played in his
life, with inspiration and abandon
There was diabolism in it. He had
) forgotten the fight. the crowd. his own
moclling mood. He had forgotten
where he was. He was afloat on
fluctuant tide of melody that was car
rying him back. back, into the far
away past toward all that he had loved
and lost
Its Home, Sweet Home" said
,, Barney McGinn. NO it's annie
, Laurie No. it's-hanged If / know
: what it ISL
The player himself could not have
told him He was in kind OF tranced
dream. The self made music was call
, ing with Il sweet insistence to buried
things that were stirring from long
> sleep. 1t sent a gulp into the throat
of more than one standing moveless
in the street. 1t brought suspicious
: moisture to Tom Folders eyes 1t drew
Mrs. Halloran from the kitchen, wip-
ing her hands on her apron. 1t called
/. to Il girl who crouched in the upper
: hall with her miserable face buried in
5 her hands, drew her down the stair
TO the office door, her eyes wide with Il
GREATNESS wonder, her face glistening
with feeling
From the balcony Jessica had wit
messed the fight without understand
ing its meaning. A fascination she
could not gainsay had glued her eyes
to the struggle. 1t was he-it was the
face she knew, seen but once for
single moment in the hour of her mar
q rage, but stamped indelibly upon her
d memory. 1t was no longer smooth
l. shaven. and it was changed, evilly
! changed. But it was the same There
was recklesness and mockery in it and
e yet strength. not weakness. Stunned
u and despised as he might be-the chief
e actor. as it seemed to her, in n cheap
9 and desperate barroom ARRAY, a coarse
II affair of fisticuffs in the public street
yet there was something intrepid in
e his bearing. something splendid in his
r. victory.
q To Jessica, standing with hands close
clasped, the music seemed the agony
It Of remorse for past fall, the cry of 4
g forlorn soul, knowing itself cast out,
appealing to its good angel for pity
p and pardon. Hugh had often played
l. to her, lightly. carelessly. as he did all
l. things. She had deemed 1t only one of
n his many clever, amateurish accom-
'e plishments. Now 1t struck her with q
If pang that there had been in him q
II deeper side that she had not guessed.
is Since her wedding day she had
+. thought of her marriage as a loathed
in bond, from which his false pretense
I'd had absolved her. Now a doubt of her
n own position assailed her Had lone
he iness and outlawry driven him into
the career that had made him shunne
e. even in this rough town, cours
which she, had she been faithful
y. her VOW for better, for worse" migE
/, have turned to his redemption? Go
forgave. but she had not forgivei
Mt Smarting tears scorched her eyelids.
re For Harry Sanderson the music wa
lg the imprisoned memory, crying OF
In strongly in the first tongue 1t ha
N | foppd Tho cl,,p,har;pn ni,aIit;oc ths
lie had stirred uneasily at sight of th
g; face on the balcony awoke Who b
e, was and had been he knew no MOI
b. than before, but the new writing Sc
u consciousness, starting from It's slice
r. with almost a sense of shock, becam
Is conscious of the gaping crowd, til
h dusty street, the red sunset and {
ID himself at the end of vulgar Draw
saving q violin In silly braggadocio
he hotel doorway.
lg The music faltered and broke of
at The bow dropped at his feet. Fl
picked it up fumblingly and turne
4, back into the Office as a man entere
n from a rear door. The newcomer wa
ID Michael Halloran, the hotels propri'
he tor, short, thickset and surly. Aslee
rs in his room, he had neither seen th
e. fracas nor heard the playing. He sa'
lie instantly, however, that something III
&c usual was forward and, blinking o
lie the threshold, caught sight Of the ma
he who was handing the violin back to IL
= owner. He clinched his FISH, with
scowl, and started toward him.
His wife caught his arm.
"Oh, Michael, Michaelv' she criet
Say nothing, lad! Ye should hay
heard him play?'
'PlayH he exclaimed. "Let him G
fiddle to his side partner, Prendergas
and the other riffraff he's run with th
year past! He turned blackly to Ha
ry. Take yourself from this hous
Hugh Stfresf' he said. whether all
true that's said of you don't say, b,
you'll not come herey'
Harry had turned very white. WI
the.spoken name-a name how familia
his eyes had fallen to the ring on b
finger-the ring with the initials H.
} A sudden comprehension had darted