The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-09
HEART OF
i THE BLIND GIRL
Detective Ceonkite Sueceeds In His
Search for the Missina
Orrin Beswick.

Orfin beswfck.
I.
Abe Cronkits stood at tho bend OF tn
road and looked down on tho scent,
lovely In the lessening light; the woodee
bank. flower strewn with villas. tho r.vsi
still ruddy. the further shore already
shadowy. Only one spot blemished thii
tranquility with trouble: tho barrer
break wherein the Beswick house upliftec
It's boarded windows-stark. deserted
desolate. but his destination.
II wal q desperate chance. yet tho only
way. That morning Judge Marcellus hac
telephoned him from the seaside resort
whittier Elise Beswick had called him
In q few words he had communicated the
startling news that had constrained this
young wife. this supposed widow. to send
for him.
orrin Beswiok had not persisted In the
theatre fire of a year ago. A sure friend,
none other indeed than Franta Galbraith,
had soen him for an instant In the Far
West. had caught his face. changed but
unmistakable. even as It disappeared
within the throng hurrying for an east-
bound train. had learned after the train
start BY careful inquiry that q man of
such appearance had bought a through
ticket TO the city.
It was agreed, 80 tho Judge had gone
on to explain. BY . family council. that
Orrin. always high strung. nervous. emo
tional. must have lost his memory, his
very identity. In tho panic. and there
were many analogies In the family his
tory to confirm such q view.
Restore Orrin Beswick," the Judge
had ordered In conclusion. with the terse-
ness Of a Gar drawing q railway line
across the map Of Russia.
What then had induced Cronkite to
start his quest at the old country homo
Of the B~sswicks. closed Y o since its
ownsr's disappearance and supposed
death? The Judges reference to the
family, history.
The Beswioks had ever been q domestic
race, proud Of their ancestral estate,
attached to the soil. In tho great house
by the river Orrin had spent his dreamy
boyhood. Thithcr he had brought his
gay and beautiful bride; and there he had
persisted In living. despite her aversion
to the loneliness. her inoessant longing for
the oity's lights.
Suppose then that sufficient memory
had returned to Orrin Beswiok to rem
der him. though unable to recognize
his old friend Galbraith. restless. I'm
happy. to draw him irresolute toward
the East. cropping in the dark: might not
the homing instinct, rousing the stronger
as he all unconscious came nearer. bring
him 10 the place above all others that he
had loved?
Was this ALP Cronkite was more scep-
teal than the Judge. Unlike him, pre-
dispositions were not the major part OF
his beliefs
He took people as they were. not as
he would they should be. His judgment
was im~personal and passionless. He had
could not fifty be called by that equal
term, since Cronkite's regard for him was
reverential.
This very reverence made the man
Jealous Of the masters reputation and
vigilsnt to the traits that might endanger
it: and among these he numbered first a
too great reliance on the integrity Of his
professional patrons.
Cronkite then scrutinized Elise Beswick
without this glamour. He saw her during
her married life. her supposed widow
hood, pleasure loving. giddy. heartless;
and from the whispers OF men and the
gable OF society chronicles he knew that
the world agreed with this view.
search for the husband who had restrained
her? Had she been, II seemed to him she
must have naturally. yes inevitably,
suggested and insisted that first OF all
the Beswick house be watched.
Was there not something more.. There
Galbraith, the sure friend-had he
not too great an aptitudel Cronkite
testimony, II admitted to be truthful,
not q flaw.
This man. whose name was more
linked with Mrs. Beswick's than II
ever had been with her husbands, alo ne
had told Of Orrin BeewiokAs presence in the
burning theatre. Was 1t a coincidence,
real or manufactured, that he alone
While Cronkite waited and unused
in the deepening gloom he was satisfied
the guide Of his logic. AT all
he muttered, "a mistaken theory,
Il disproved. leads to the and stopped
From the dim outline Of the huge gable
Of Beswick house a puff Of white
smoke wa floating hazily away.
II.
Il was black dark when Cronkite
cautiously and gently tried the basement
ioor on the side Of the house furthest
rom the gable end. 1t opened as II to
his touch. Two little warm palms caught
and pressed his outstretched hand and a
voice thrilling in its melancholy sweet
nesa crjed.