Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-05-20
CHAPTER XIV.
Something Belonging to Bonholt.

over that morning. The meal passed
almost in silence Stephen made
pretense of being absorbed in his
letters, but Hilda's observant eyes
Neither referred again to the curt, un-
gracious note of farewell or to it's
writer, who had left them with an alb
ruptness and in a furtive way that
were alike inexp1icable. AS soon as
breakfast was over the rector rose
and went to his study, glad to be
alone.
Hilda went up to olives room, as
though she half expected to find some
clue to the motive of their guests
strange departure. The bed, of course,
had not been slept in. Olive had gone
up to her room about o'clock on the
previous night, and waited there, with
her plans and preparations made, I'M
til eleven; then she had slipped down
stairs noiselessly and out by the back
door. Why had she gone so stealth
lily? Why had she not told them of
her intention and where she was go
ing?
But I am glad she has gone,"
Hilda said to herself, suddenly.
Somehow it seemed as though only
| trouble had followed Olives coming
to the rectory. The change Hilda had
noticed in her brother had dated from
that time; it had been only two days
after that BOnhOlt Hume almost ac-
cused Jack under this roof of knowing
more than he would admit about Phil
| ips as then unaccountable disappear
ance; and when at last the drifted
snow had yielded before the thaw, sur
rendering that grim secret it had held
for weeks, Jack had been arrested
her lover of whom the long, slow days
of suspense following his fight had
| brought her no word. This woman
had been the stormy petrol before
| disaster.
Hilda had never liked Olive Van
stone since her treatmnet of Stephen
years ago. And since her recovery
from illness Olive had betrayed
scarcely yelled antag0nism that had
needed all the girls sweetness of dis
position to endure in silence. Yes.
she was glad Olive had gone, glad to
hear her brothers nervously impatient
|
woman-she's not worth it, So he
realized that at last. To have acted
as she had done, Olive Vanstone must
have been utterly heartless-without
gratitude, without shame
In his study Stephen tore the note
into strips with steady, deliberate
fingers; tore the strips across and
again across. The rain of white scraps
fluttered down into the fire, where the
dancing flames caught them and
whirled them blazing up the chimney.
The act seemed to typify his suddenly
changed attitude.
1--WE shielded her too long."
She was not worth his mistaken
chivalry or pity, this woman for whom
he had sinned. And this man made
a sudden squaring movement of his
shoulders, as one who frees himself
from the burden of an oppressive
yoke, as he stood staring down SOM
brely into the fire.
The truth must be told-though
Stephen Ruthen realized how hard
task now the making of that belated
confession would be. When Hilda
knew, would she ever forgive him for
the wrong his silence had done to the
man she loved?
| Only before he informed the police
he must see Olive and tell her how
he had come upon her on the night
of Philip Hume's death, tell her of his
determination. That was only fair to
the woman. 1t was not as though she
were a conscious criminal he was
| shielding; had she been, he would
have acted differently from the mo-
| ment suspicion fastened on Lathom.
| Her own Inconsistencies of what had
happened that night had compelling
| pathos. He must prepare Olive for
the shock before he disclosed what he
| knew
| But where was he to find her? With
whom had she gone away? 1t was ut
| terly inexplicable to him. He must
try to find out whose motor car had
been waiting by design outside the
| rectOry gate at eleven last night
He paced restlessy up and down
his study, revolving these thoughts;
h Of
him out of doors. Work was an i'm
possibility this morning. In the vii
! lage he saw the blind organist; but
| the rector avoided Grale, as he had
avoided him since the day of Lathom's
arrest, when the blind man had whis-
pered something in his ear.
Stephen walked through the village
in the direction of the river. Owing
to the continued disappearance of Ned
Robinson, who had last been seen
near the river in his usual drunken
| condition, and whose cap had been
found on the bank, it had been de-
cided to drag the river for the missing
man. One of Stephens parishioners
| with whom he stopped to speak told
him that the police had been at work
since six that morning, but without
result.
At the bottom of the river not far
from where the police were dragging
| lay the revolver that he had taken
| from olives clutched fingers on the
night of the tragedy. 1t had not
! needed the glimpse of the blind or
| ganist to remind Stephen Ruthen-