Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-03-10
~ Chapter 2s

SuLupieu lof auSnS Iulure, forgetting
that his past remained, 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 I'M
der the painted crucifixion.
The words he had once said to Hugh
required to him with a kind of awe:
"Put myself in your place? l wish to
God couldw
Fate-or was it God?-had taken him
at his word. He had been hurled like
a stone from 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.
II cannot help it, she said as she
came toward him, Though you told
me not to come. l have trusted all the
while and waited and-and prayed.
But today 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 it 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 1t
meant to him or to her.
"Jessica," he said steadily, when
you came to me here that first day
and told you not to fear. for me did
not mean to deceive you. thought
hen that 1t would all come right. But
something has happened since then
something that makes difference. !
cannot tell who was the murderer of
Moreau. l cannot tell you or any one
else, either now or at any time"
She gazed at him startled She had
4 sudden conception of some element
hitherto unguessed in his makeup
something nveterate and adamant
Could it be that he did not intend to
tell at all? The very idea was mon
mo She ,oo,.od at hi,, viii, east,;na
eyes
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cor,d ooin NV nIo,d dron nv d,,on ~
NV for t,a n,st nonld not cot +hat
r;,r,,+ If r;,..r.r NV. ne, o,or .n5 o,,nr
og,in yvonld sSvo vou mai, I would
,,iwo - c,,al>. p,,+ .vb,+ -o,, .s,, nov.
is one thing / cannot do. 1t would
make me n pitiful coward. did NOT
kill MORGAN. That is all / can saw to
YOU or to those who try me-"
"Your life. she said with dry lips.
at will mean that. That counts so
fearfully much to me. more than nv
own life hundred times. Yet there is
something that counts more than all
that to you."
His face was that of a man who
holds his hand in the fire. .Jessica."
he said. at is like this with me. When
YOU found me here-the day saw YOU
on the balcony-I was a man whose
soul had lost its compass and its bear
ings. My conscience was asleep. You
woke it. and it is tiercely ,alive now
And now with my memory has come
back a debt ofsmy past that never
paid. Whatever the outcome, for my
souls sake must settle it now and
wipe it from the score forever"
She rose slowly to her feet. with q
despairing gesture.
"He saved Others" she quoted in
n hard voice: ".himseIf bo corla net
saver / once heard a minister nraoch
from that text nj home. If was vour
friend. the Rev. Henry Sanderson
thought it very snirituol sermon
then. That was before / lirew what
his companionship had been TO Won"
.If there were any justice in the uni
verse. she added. lit should be he
immolating himself now, not you. But
for him you would never be here. He