The Washington herald., 1911-12-31

foot OF the reservoir he turned west
along the Bride Path and then south
| over the route that he had followed
coming in, until he could see the build
ings of Fifty-ninth street through the half
bare autumn trees. Then he turned back
and made the long march again.
BY the time he had reached the lake
on his way back the second time the
yellow sunlight of late afternoon was
| striking through the trees in long dag
onals, and he was at last beginning to
feel tired. With the physical WEAKNESS
the whirl in his brain died away. At
last he could think clearly.
He glanced at his watch. 1t was half
| past four. Their train would just about
be crossing Spuyten Duyvil now, Inc
! thought. and Sroaned as he snapped the
| lid. He dropped onto a bench, facing
the west, and looked out across the
water.
A weak man may love with his lips or
! his eyes or his heart, but the love OF a
strong man goes TO his inner life, and
| when 1t is struck he is shaken to the
| foundation.
And, with his strength. Emerson had a
keen, far-reaching imagination. the inn
| agination that afterward enabled him to
dream out the gigantic combinations thai
! frightened the kings of finance into an
/ alliance TO crush him.
! With his imagination as eXeCutioner he
! entered the torture room Of Might-Have-
| Been that evening on the bench by the
! lake.
He looked back over the long years
of intimate companionship with Cath
crime and asked himself what he could
! do now that it was all over.
He could give himself no answer.
Never could he again pick up the tele-
phone and get a delightful luncheon COM
Il
| ne again feel the strength of her young
arm against his as she drove with him
| in the park. Never would they again
roam around the antique shops and the
| book shops buying each other little pres
ents and preparing surprises for their
| friends. Never again could he summon
her taste and judgment when it was
question of buying something for his sis
| ter or for another girl
And those wonderful nights when the
spirit of Haroun-al-Raschidd descended on
them and they put on inconspicuOus
clothes and wandered into strange and
queer corners of UNEMPLOYED Manhattan
from COrlears Hook to Abingdon Square,
and ate spaghetti at the next table to
the leader of the Camorra and chop suey
in queer little restaurant on the fourth
floor back in Pell street, where the Four
Brothers held their meetings. and planned
their murders-they were over.
How beautiful how fine, and strong,
and brave she was.
He remembered that day above Kings
bridge when Spindthrift SHE'D at an auto
mobile and began backing them over an
embankment into the path of a construc-
ton train. He reached for the reins
and she gave him look that made him
jerk in his hand as If she had struck
him with the butt of the whip.
Drive on she called sharply to the
panic stiCken chauffeur AS the car DASH
ed past. the rear wheels Of the trap were
trembling over the edge of the cut, but
a blow of the whip sent Spindthrift for
ward like a mad locomotive. In a quar-
ter of a mile she had reduced him to
cowed and conquered walk.
Then she handed Emerson the reins and
sank against his shoulder with a convul-
sive sob.
And he had kissed her and Gained her
as if she had been his sister, and she had
been silent the rest of the way home.
He remembered that she had seemed
little distant and strange to him after
that.
All, If he had only realized then how
much he loved-how much he needed her!
1t was characteristic of the man that it
never occurred to him that even if he
had realized that he loved she might not
have loved him in return. And yet he
had no great opinion of himself as a
charmer. 1t had simply never struck
him as possible that there was any pow
er in heaven or earth that could stop
him from getting anything that he want
ed badly enough to strive for
He was convinced that Catherine loved
Darwin. He did not know that women
sometimes married more from pique than
from love. He had seen her yield herself
as Darwin kissed her at the altar, and
as the picture came back once more he
shut his eyes and groaned aloud.
But it was not the fact that he had lost
her love that gave a keener edge to his
agony. He was a gambler at heart, and
if he had played and lost he would have
taken defeat like a true gambler.
But he hadn't even gambled. He had
let the thing that he wanted most in life
slip away from him without playing a
single card OF his hand.
He looked at his watch again. 1t was
nearly o'clock. The sun had sunk be-