Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1909-01-28

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feet on the red path that had pointed
him to the shameful terminus. He had
gambled for Hugh's future, forgetting
that his past remained, a thing that
must be covered. He had won Hugh's
counters, but his own right to be him
self he had staked and lost long before
that game on the communion table un-
der the painted cruciixion.
The words he had once said to Hugh
required to him with a kind of awe:
"Put myself in your place? 1 wish to
God I could!"
Fate-or was it God?-had taken him
at his word. He had been hurled like
a stone from a catapult into Hugh's
place-to bear his knavery, to suffer his
dishonor and to redeem the baleful rep
utation he had made.
A step outside the cell, the turning
Of the key. The door opened, and
Jessica, pale and trembling, stood on
the threshold.
81 cannot help it, she said as she
came toward him, Though you, told
me not to come. I have trusted an the
while md waited and-and prayed.
But today 1 was afraid. Surely, sure
ly, the man you are protecting has had
time enough. Hasn't he? Won't you
tell them the truth now"
He knew not how to meet the piteous
reproach and terror of that look. She
had not heard the street preachers
declaration, he knew, but even if she
had 1t would have been to her only
an echo Of the old mOoted likeness. He
had given her comfort once, but this
was no more to be, no matter what it
meant to him or to her.
"Jessica," he said steadily. "when
you came to me here that first day
and I told you not to fear for me I did
not mean to deceive you. I thought
then hat it would all come right. But
something has happened since then
something that makes a difference. l
cannot tell who was the murderer Of
Moreau. 1 cannot tell you or any one
else, either now or at any time"
She gazed at him startled. She had
a sudden conception Of some element
hitherto unguessed in his makeup
something inveterate and adamant.
Could it be that he did not intend to
tell at all? The very idea was mon
strous. Yet that clearly was his mean
ing. She looked at him with flashing
eyes.
"You mean you will not!" she en-
claimed bitterly. "You are bent on
sacrificing yourself, then? You are go
ing to take this risk because you think
it brave and noble, because somehow
it fits your mans gospel. Can't you
see how wicked and selfish it is? You
are thinking only Of him and of your
self, not Of me-"
"Jessica, Jessica" he protested, with
a groan. But in the self torture of her
questionings she paid no heed.
"Don't you think l suffer? Haven't l
borne enough in the months since I
married you for you to want to save
me this? Do you owe me nothing, me
whom you so wronged, whose
She stopped suddenly at the look on
his face of mortal pain, for she had
struck harder than she knew. 1t pierc-
ed through the fierce resentment to her
deepest heart, and all her owe and pity
gushed back upon her in a torrent.
She threw herself on her knees by the
bare cot, crying ~passionately:
ooh, forgive me! Forget what I said!
1 did not mean it. l have forgiven you
a thousand times over l never ceased
to love you. 1 love you now more than
all the world"
"It is true" he said, hoarse misery in
h3o fora ct hovo wror oQ6 vnI1 IF
could coin my blood drop by drop tc
pay for the past I could not set that
right. If giving my life over and over
again would save you pain l would
give it gladly. But what you ask now
Is one thing I cannot do. 1t would
make me a pitiful coward. I did not
kill Moreau. That Is all I can say tc
you or to those who try me"
"Your life!" she said with dry lips
"It will mean that. That counts 81
fearfully much to me, more than my
own life a hundred times. Yet there II
something that counts more than al
that to you"
His face was. that Of a man VIII
holds his hand In the fire. "Jessica,'
he said, at is like this with me. Whel
you found me here-the day I saw yo'
on the b%alcony-I was a man who's
soul had lost it's compass and its bear
ings. My conscience was asleep. Yo'
woke 1t, and it is fercely alive now
And now with my memory has com
back a debt of my past that l neve
paid. Whatever the outcome, for N,
souls sake I must settle It now an
wipe 1t from the score forever"
She rose slowly to her feet, with
%despairlng gesture.
"'He saved others.'" she quoted !
hard voice; "'himself he could nc
save! I once heard a minister preac