The Mena weekly star., 1909-06-17
tContInucd from last issue. j
CHAPTER XVI.

Nr Keatcham sent for the colonel. There was nothing unusual in such a summons. From the beginning of his illness he had shown a curious mex rressiye desire for the soldiers com pany. He would have him sit in the room. although too weak to talk to him supposing he wished to talk. which was not at all sure. "I-like-to- sae.him- m-just-sitting-there," he faltered 10 his nurse; "can't-he-read-or-p jtaire-like-the-oldlad
 Sometimes Winter would be con- scious that the feeble creature in the bed. with the bmsh-white face, was staring at him. Whether the glassy eyes beheld his figure or went beyond him to unfinished colossal schemes that might change th1 fate of con- tinent, or drifted back ward to the pov- erty-stricken home, tLe ferocious toll and the intending self-denial of Keatchams youth on the Pacific slope, tbe dim gaze gave no clew. All that was apparent was that if was always on Winter. as ho curled his legs under his chair, wrote or knitted his brow over rows of playing-cards.
 At the very first, Keatcham's mind had wandered he used to shrink from imaginary people who were in the room; he would try to talk to them, distressing himself painfully, for he was so weak that his nurses turned his head on the pillow; he would feebly motion them away. In such abera- tons he would sometimes appeal in changed, thin, childish voice, to the obscure. toil-worn pioneer woman who had died while he was a lad. Mother, was a good boy; l always got up when you called me, didn't |? helped you iron when the other boys were playing-mother, please don't let that old woman stay and cry here," Or he would plead: Mother, tell her, say you tell her didn't know her son would kill himself-I couldn't tell-he was a damn coward, anyhow-excuse me, mamma. I didn't mean to swear. but they make me so awful mad!" There was girl who came some times, from whose presence he
 
 indeed. had he ever known in the flesh any of the shapes which haunted him. They had lived; but never had his eyes fallen on them. Nevertheless, their presence was as real to him as tklt of the people about him whom he could hear and touch and sec It did not take Winters imagination long to piece out the explanation of these ap- partitions: they were speeters of the characters in those dramas of ruthless conquest which Mercer had culled out of newspaper stories and affidavits aud court reports and forced upon Keateham's attention. Miss Smith helped him to the solution, although her own ignorance of Mercer's meth od was puzzling How did he ever know old Mrs. Ferris?" she said He called her Ferris and he talks about her funny dress--she always did wear queer little basque and full skirt aft CT all the world went Into blouses- but how did he ever come across herr They had place on the James that had been in the family 100 years and had to lose on account of the Tidewa- ter and Nelson Ferris blew his brains out"
 Don't you know how?" asked the colonel Well. I'll tell you my guess sometime. Who is the girl who seems to make him throw fit so?"
 I'm not sure: I imagine it is poor Mabel Ray; there were two of them, slslersi they made money out of their Iidewater stock and went to New York to visit some kin; and they got scared when the stock fell and the dividends stopped; and they sold out at great loss. They never did come pack; they had persuaded all their Kin to invest; and the stopping of the dividends made 1t difficult for some of the poor ones--Mabel said she couldn t lace her old aunts. She went on the stage in New York. She was very pretty she wasn't very strong Any Way you can imagine the end of the story l saw her in the park last win ter when Mrs. Winter was in New lork she turned her face away--poor Mabcl!"
 Through Janet Smiths knowledge ot her dead sisters neighbors, Win 'er got a dozen pitiful records of the Nreckage of the Tidewater. Mighty interesting reading" he thought sfimly, but hardly likely to make the man responsible for them stuck on n'nlself! Then he would look at the uiawn face on the pillow and listen tc me babblings of the boy who had nc 'nlldhood. and the frown would melt off his brow.
 He did not always talk to his moth CT when his mind wandered; seyera tunes he addressed an invisible pres ehce as Helen" and Dear" with ar aeceht of tenderness very strange or eaose iniiexible lips. When he talked ~ lhls phantasm he vas never angr, of distressed, his turgid scowl cleared me austere lines chiseling his cheeks ana brow faded; he looked year' souhser But for the most part, it wal " no unreal creature that he turned 'u' to Col. Rupert Winter He woul' sDuiess him with punctilious civility 9"' as che who was under some obli s'lua 10 assist him, saying, for Tn 1olds that hang on weaken the cor ,,snution anl develop into eonsuml tol' Foley's Honey and Tar cure