Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-02

&c across the dim summer
haze of heat, negligent
" smoking He could see the long
white mari road bending in broad
curve between clover stippled mead
ows, to skirt the willow green bluff
above the river. There, miles away.
on the high bank he could distinguish
the railroad bridge. long black skel-
eton spanning 1.-The hole" u deep, fish
haunted pool, the deepest spot in the
river for fifty miles.
Since that moonlighted evening OF
the win making Harry had learned
that the long lane had had no true
turning for Hugh. He had sffted him
through and through. At college he
had put him down for Il weakling-
unballasted. misderleanant. Now he
knew him for what he really was-a
q moral mollusk. scamp in embryo,
decadent. realizing an ugly propensity
to a deplorable finale. A consistent
career of loose living had carried
Hugh far since those college days
when he had been dubbed ''Satan's
shadow" While to Harry Sanccrson
the eccentric and agnostical had then
been. as 1t were, the mask through
which his temperament looked at life.
to Hugh it had spelled shipvreck.
Harry Sanderson had done broadly as
he pleased. He had entertained whom
he listed. had gone stunning" had
once boxed to finish for a wager
local pugilist whose acquaintance he
4 Tected, known as Gentleman jim"
se had been both the hardest hitter
: I'D the hardest drinker in his class,
yet withal its most brilliant student.
!. Native character had enabled him to
persist. as the exasperating function
Of success which dissipation declined
tfo eliminate. But the same natural
l gravita ton which in spite of all aber-
q ration had given Harry SaaderSon
3classical honors had brought Hugh
iStires to the imminent brink of expul
2sion. And since that time, without
Dry as q possession. Hugh had contin
ned to drift aimlessly on down the
broad lax way of prohigacy.
~ The conditions he found upon his re-
turn, however, had opened. Hugh's
eyes to the perilous strait In which he
stood He was materialist, and the
taste he had had of deprivation had
sickened him. In the first revulsion,
when the contrast between recent
famine and present plenty was strong
upon him, he had been at anxious
pains to make himself secure with his
fAther-and with Jessica Holme. Har-
ry's mental sigh-keen as the hunters
sight on the rife barrel-was sharpen
Z ed by his knowledge of the old Hugh.
an intuitive knowledge gained In q
significant formative period. He saw
ncfe clearly than the townfolk who
mi general way had known Hugt
Stires all their lives. Week by weef
Harry had seen him regain los
round in his fathers esteem. Da!
ny day he had seen him making studi
tus appeal to all that was romantic IL
Jessica, climbing to the favor of eacf
Fcn the ladder of the others regard
Hugh was naturally poseur, with ;
4 keen sense Of effect. He could b.
brilliant at will, could play little OF
Piano, banjo and violin, could sing {
4 little and had himself well in hand
And, feeling the unconscious chord o.
romance vibrate to his touch, he had
Played upon 1t with no unskillful fin
gers
Jessiea was comparatively free from
that coquetry by means of which wo
mans instinct experiments in emotion
Although she had been artist enough
before the clustered years Of her blind
ness to know that she was comely. sh,
had never employed that beauty in thu
4 ordinary Establishments of girlish fas
cination. But steadily ind unconscious
y she had turned IN her darkness.