The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-12-01

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. uau 'ne man grown tired Of her, had
tney parted, and where was the won.
an lhese were queries which were
put 10 MIN with the direct simplicity of
Tue american public through its impe-
iious representatives, the reporters.
anu 10 these questions Mr.. Langford
oouiu return no adequate answer what
ever except the truth, which he could
hot oring himself to tell. He de.
oiareu that she had left the yacht in
.ne south seas, that he did not know
ner present whereabouts, and refused
10 say anything further privately or
III public Miss Brenton had no near
relations; what was everybody's bust
ness was nobody's, and presently pub
TIC interest in her declined. She and
her philosophy were practically for.
gotten by all but Langford himself.
Fortune, which had done him some
evil turns, here, however, interposed to
MS advantage, The lady who legally
pore MS name departed this life and
left MIN free man. Brute though he
mad been, Langford was not without
some strong idea of honor and de-
cency' Indeed, he had enjoyed long
and undistributed hours of meditation
upon his sins of omission and commits
sion during his period of GONZALES.
cence, and the calm consideration of
character and career had done him
good. AT heart, in spite of his brutal
conduct, for which drink had largely
been responsible, he was gentleman,
and capable of things fine and high
under the stimulus of some really
great emotion. He had come to real
1ze, to put 1t mildly, what an awful
1901 he had been to say nothing of his
villainy. What had led him to this
realization had been the remembrance
OF the hours he had passed with Kath-
arine Brenton before the clouds had
arisen which had eliminated in that
awful storm, the recollection. of which
fairly made him shudder. However,
he had deceived her by protested ad-
herence to her wild theories and i'm.
possible philosophers, he had honestly
loved her, and association with her
had been of benefit to him. If he
only had not given away to his tenn
per and his appetite, If it had not
been for his former obligation!
He had married his wife in a mo-
ment of boyish infatuation. The union
had been impossible almost from the
first. She was little more than an
adventures, much older than he, who
had entrapped him for his money.
There had been a separation on a lib
eral financial basis, to whic&the wom-
an had readily, even cheerfully,
agreed, and he had no lingering re-
mains of affection to hold him back
Her death was only relief to him.
He felt that he owed reparation to
Katherine Brenton, and he was more
willing to pay the debt because he was
honestly and genuinely in love with
her so far as man of his tempera-
ment could be in love with a woman
He wanted to make amends for his
treatment. He would have given any
thing he possessed to have been able
to say how ashamed he was of all that
he had done, and to beg her to forgive
him and marry him.
The death of his father and the ne.
cessity for the administration of the
vast interests of the bonanza kings
estate prevented him from at once
engaging upon the search which he
promised himself he would make, but
he expedited matters, sometimes to
his own loss, as rapidly as he could,
and after nearly years stay in San
he found himself in posi-
ton to undertake his quest. For
year thereafter he and the Southern
Cross traversed the UNEMPLOYED, unvis-
tied waters of the South seas. He
had landed upon island after island
which he had examined with minute
Some he had found in
habited by natives, whom, through in
terpreters he had procured, he ques-
toned unavailingly He ran across
stray vessels trading among the is
lands, and through them with con-
stantly increasing, ever widening me-
diums, he carried on his search, but
without result In thus sweeping the
Pacific, he visited everything that was
charted, and all that he could find
that was not, and was now homeward
bound, convinced that the launch must
have foundered and that he would
never solve the mystery of her disap-
pearance.
So assiduously had he prosecuted
his search that the crew of the South
ern Cross, who knew nothing as to the
cause of the eagerness, with the ex-
ception of the ship master, looked
upon him as a harmless visionary.
They had been away so long and had
visited so many islands with so much
oftentimes with so much
danger from uncharted reefs in the UNI
known seas that they were one and all
wildly anxious to return from the, to
them, aimless wandering. If he had
communicated to them at the first his
quest, they would have shared his
eagerness, but he kept it to himself,
as he had kept his own counsel in
San Francisco, and he straitly charged