Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-10-22
/ "a la6e0THER S|DEgdfDQQR'
Mk ASTORY OF MYSTERY
NW8 RLUCLAC CHAMBERLAIN
kN}A4lN Auha9f THE COAST OF CHANCE
&Ik1xV Copyright.
CHAPTER IX.-continued. !,
4ulhor Of TIE COAST OF CHAf
Copyright, 1909. The Hosbs- Nsnn Company

Ns8Y
(CHAPTER IX.-Continued.)
But, had he known it? When re-
called his white, set face doubted.
Yet, at any rate, even in spite of him,
she had saved him. He was gone. gone
to her perhaps, and I was left with the
mere comfort of having done what I
thought was right. 1t was cold comfort
when every feeling In me had been out
ragged by the doing, and now the for
lorn doubt continually stirred as to the
certainty that what I had done was
right, if, as the Spanish woman said,
love was woman's only virtue.
Twas Mortified to find myself, with
leading up to it, with that word OH my
lips. Love? Why. what had that 10 do
with me? looked in fright at
mother, as i'll expected her to answer
the question; but that timid look Of
hers seemed to have only reflection
Of my own fear in it. With a sudden
feeling OF weakness and helplessness
l hid my face in my hands.
From that moment / began to UNDER
stand what father had meant the day
he had said that would need mothers
picture now. 1t comforted me that she
was there watching me and seeming to
understand, never looking angrily at
me, no matter what foolish or frighten-
Ing things had to tell her, and there
we're 50 many in those days that fol-
lowed-dreadful days for me! The very
girls, my friends, even while with
round, awed eyes they admired me for
my heroic performance on the witness
stand, yet, for that very reason seemed
to set me little apart from them
selves. And then the talk about the
search for Johnny Montgomery, full of
the cruel eagerness of men hunting a
man.
The word had been that, Of course,
he would be retaken Immediately. But
the hours slipped away, and the days
and still there was no trace of him.
The whole city was searched. and l
discovered then that the Spanish WON
an was far from escaping public sus-
picion. Detectives went In and out Of
her house, ransacking its remotest,
most cunningly concealed places. She
herself was closely questioned, but
nothing could be ELECTED.
II had needed any reinsurance that
she alone was responsible for Johnnys
disappearance, this effacement of the
means by which she had accomplished
her object would have convinced me-
Whatever creatures they were who had
effected her purpose for her they were
apt pupils in her art of disappearance
and even those who had failed here,
were still completely hers. The Mexi-
can who had been wounded by the
guard had closed his teeth and died
without word. not even confession
to the priest. The horsemen, it was
said, had swept straight through the
city in the direction Of the Mission,
and 1t was supposed they had disband-
ed there and scattered through the
ranches, where 1t was impossible to
trace them But the belief was general
that the prisoner had not gone with
them, that the sortie had been only a
blind for his escape in some less OBJ
vious direction, abetted by the half
darkness. 4,
That week the city was under strict
surveillance and went seldom upon
the street. For after my first relief at
his escape was over. was in constant
dread lest he be retaken or shot; and
when did have to be out went
shrinkingly, dreading lest see his
face, haggard and ghostly. gazing
down at me from some window, or
glimpse him retreating up some evil
alley.
ooh. you are too good for this" my
heart accused him. ITO think of you
sinking and hiding! could forgive
you anything, even killing him-yes or
even wanting to kill him-but not this
running away! What power is, it that
this woman has over you, when a little
before you seemed SO brave?
The fear that it was because he
loved her went through me. the bitter
est thought of all. Against it treas
ured the one sentence he had spoken
to me. the only words had ever heard
him speak. and the looks he had given
the gentleness which had consorte /
oddly with his dark face and great
strength, and that first shocked, re-
proa cIful gaze which so haunted me;
and then the way he had helped me.
smiling over the hard places in my tes-
timony against him. How that had
moved me!
Yet what were a few frail sglances
beside the thing he had done for the
Spanish woman? saw her once driv-
ing upon the street. The CLINT OF her
splendid hair made crown around her
head. She leaned back in the carriaee,
smiling, looking happy and triumphant.
and 1t was strange thought that these
days so dreadful to me were good
DAYS for someone else.
BY the end of. the week the theory
that Johnny was hidden in the city
was abandoned, and search was di.
rected toward the mining camps
whence from time to time came re-
ports that he had been seen. But all
of these turned out to be false leads,
and the idle talk about it swung into
lust the channel that had feared
how that of course he had been guilty.
since he had tried to escape, and had
succeeded.
Whatever chance there had been for
him before. chance of appeal or chance
of pardon. was gone now. It was az If
he had sunk into deep pit, ont OF
which he would never rise I told my
self that must not think about it, that