Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-10-25

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me, and the more I forgot everything
In the world but him. It seemed as IT
forever we would continue to drive on
together. with this wonderful quietness
between us.
But the carriage was drawing up. I
looked at him anxiously. What is the
matter? Where are we stopping?"
His face was strange. Don't you
know? It Is the prison"
He half rose, his hand was on the
door, he had turned his back on me.
"A sudden anguish went through me,
keen as physical pain. Something that
was not my mind at all seemed to be
acting for me. caught hold Of his arm
with don't know what impulse to pull
him back.
He turned, looking at me with smil-
ing eyes, gently unclasped my fingers,
bent his head and touched them with
his lips. Don't spoil It," he said, "and
remember your word"
watched him walking down the half
block to the prison door, a figure tall
and solitary, and in spite Of his gay
Mexican trappings, with an air OF SOM
Der resolution So I saw him pass the
lone, gray house fronts, and be sWal-
lowed up In, the great entrance Of the
prison.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Lugger.
AS he disappeared the desire to run
after him, to cry out to him, to cry
out to all the ears Of the court the
story he had told me, rushed over me,
an insane impulse. What would that
do but make everything worse, even
harder for him to bear? Haven't made
things hard enough for him already?"
i who had said loved him, that be-
lieved in his innocence, had yet virtu-
ously urged him to go back and give
himself up-to what? Why, my poor
little coward mind was even afraid to
name what that thing was!
The Spanish woman had not been
afraid, no, not Of anything. She had
risked everything that she had TO save
him in the best way that she knew.
Was /, as she had so bitterly told me,
only a creature Of words with no deeds
to make them good? It was all very
well to say things would turn out all
right; but now I saw that they would
not unless I made them; and how was
that to be managed If he wouldn't
speak and was in his confidence and
couldn't?
/, i puzzled over it as my carriage rat
tied slowly back up Montgomery ave-
nue.. Suddenly from what had been abb
solutely sterile cogitation, there
sprang up the full flower Of an idea.
All that he had said that evening had
carried the same perplexing undercur-
rent OF a thing that he could not speak
of, and always it seemed to point to
the Spanish woman. "She knows!"
thought triumphantly. land II she
knows, why, she must not go away I'M
til she has told me" The whole thing
opened before me complete, unexpect-
ed, deliverance.
Hooked out Of the window. Faintest,
earliest dawn was already beginning.
There was but one thing to do. Johnny
had told me that the Spanish woman
was going aboard the lugger at dawn.
I directed the driver to drive to the
Black Point wharf.
He peered at me as If he thought me
crazy. "That Teller gave me a gold
piece he said, cor I wouldn't have
taken ye as far as this"
go on" said. and queerly enough
I didn't feel at all afraid OF the man.
"Go on, and my father, Mr.. Fenwick,
will give you more when you take me
home; and besides, you are doing a
service for the city,
Muttering that 1t was the weirdest
go that he had ever struck. he clucked
to the weary horses, and after little
more of cobblestones, began the strug-
gle through the sand.
Those terrible sand-hills! We la
bored In them like a snail They
seemed to hang on the wheels, and to
heap themselves in front of us; but the
increasing light came on wings and
what exact moment in all this long
gray and golden approach OF the sun
was to be considered dawn? At last we
were over the hilltop, and foundering
down the other side, the trees and
gardens of houses overlooking the
water front upon my left hand, upon
the other. sand and sea- Straight be-
low, running out from the shore, was
the little disused wharf. One or two
italian fishing boats rocked in It's
shadow. but no vessel was in sight.
Could 1t be that was too late?
thought in an agony of uncertainty. as
the carriage drew up at the pier.
Thrusting my head and as much of my
body as possible out Of the carriage
window / looked out the gray. winding
channel toward the Heads. Not sail
in sight! This was encouraging. for
knew, that even starting with the
grayesi light. there would not have
been time for the vessel to have van
ished out at sea- Through the other
window Chestnut Street Hill. a great
rounding mass, rose hlufflv out of the
water, shouldering the city out Of
sight. Near It's base tall eucalyptus
trees swayed against the blue bay:
and through their shifting leaves and
branches / was able to make out the
masts and sails of the lugger lying
close under the hill. 1t was so well hid
den that had not been expecting TO
see it. must certainly have passed it
over altogether, taking tire snasts for
tree boles and the furled canvas for
the light acacia bark.
r drew NV cloak closer around INV