The Wrangell sentinel., 1910-04-07


 his way to the street. He had now reached the extreme of hopeless ness and desperation. Everybody, the whole world, was against him, except Jimsy Smith, and he could do nothing for him. The only being who had loved him bad shrunk from him with dread, refused him the sacrament of g last kiss. besought in charity.
 He hardly knew how he got there, out he reached home without molesta tion and mounted by the stairway up- perceived to his room. Once inside he i locked the door and turned on the light. It was at least gratefully warm there, and he was at last safe from the clutches of the law. Escape lay at his hand In moment all would be l over.
 Nothing had been disturbed during 1 his absence. The revolver was still ill i the drawer where he had left 1t. He took it and, gazing at himself in the bureau glass, raised the firearm to his right temple. He was appalled, as he looked at the ghastly, haggard face 1 before him and the eyes, fear haunt ed, that stared out of their dark and deeply sunken rims like the optics of an owl. The revolver shook in his numbed hand, and he could scarce bend his finger on the trigger.
 What was his hurry? Why not wait until he had warmed his hand and make the deed sureP7 If the police came for him death was at his beck and would cheat them at an instant's notice. His craven spirit inspired him with the desire to live little longer.
 He laid the revolver on the table and rubbed his hands to set the blood | circulating. Then he held them over tie heat radiator. He remembered l that in the clothes closet was q full l bottle of whisky. The stuff would l soon yarm him. He took off his over coat to hang it up in the closet and felt in a pocket for bis handkerchief His hand encountered the roll of bills l Smith had slipped in there. For mo- ment gleam of hope flashed its cheer l ing ray as he contemplated the money Here was enough to enable him to get l
 away.
 But his despondency refused the l comfort What was the use? To at i tempt escape now would be to fall into the hands of the police sleuths who must be on the lookout for him. He i surmised that the weather had driven the watchers to take shelter and had enabled him to slip into the house un- noticed CT unrecogniZed. No, he had done with life and all it's worries and disappointments Better death than the consequences of living. He would have to die at some time or other any i how.
 He poured out large glass of whisky and swallowed it. The fiery stuff warmed him all over. He sat down to think, and his thoughts took the shape of review of his life. He had never been any good to himself or anybody else-neyer. Brought up by q maiden aunt, who had taken him ill when as young boy he had lost his widowed mother, he had repaid her with waywardness and indiffer- ence. In the declining years of her life when she needed aid and he was a young man he had kept his earnings selfshy fer himself doling out to her a few dollars at irregular intervals ard he was glad when she had ceased to be a burden by dying in hospital He had played his cards well. ingra- tiated himself into the favor of Mir Harris, his employer, and by good act ing had won the love of Emma. This had been the great coup of his career, but it had avaied him little. Fortune after smiling at him, had turned her back, and life had been failure ever since.
 AS he summed 1t all up and contem- plated himself as pariah, hunted man at bay amid the wreck of hope. love, life itself, driven to the alterna- tive of criminals cell or self destruc- tion, as he brooded over the way in which he had been spurned and. cast out by those who might have loved and honored him, tears rolled from his eyes again.
 "Yes." he groaned, repeating Emma's words, ives. have been paid in full. and have paid in full"
 Then he grasped the revolver and lfaced himself at the mirror again: This time his fingers were warm and supple. Once more he raised 1t to his temple. Once more pale fear obtained