Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-11-03
CHAPTER xLvIh.

OK days had passed since what every one
called, but nobody considered, the accident.
)McBirney had promised to test the Ears
sight in day or two. The lnnammatlon
had been s1odued, the bandaging was less
severe and the room darkened through the day.
Only at night were the curtains thrown WIDE
The nurse no longer served on night duty, and
the door between Pats room and Dots stood
mar now so that she could watch him and
wait upon him. 1t was a still night, and Pat
awoke without cause and without motlon.
Far awav in the silent house the clock struck
three; there were hours yet to pass before
morning, and it was unlikely that he would
sleep again. Lack of exercise and of air, con.
fincment, pain and fears of blindness had
made his nights wakeful and hard to bear.
Blindness! These last few days had taught
him what that meant. The helplessness OF it,
the blank queer loneliness, worst when he was
not alone. The fear of being loved by Dot
only through pity and a sense of duty. The
useless years Of empty days Never to see MS
wife again. Never to see all the gradual
changes which would make man of Pity
Pat. Never to hunt or ride or drive or shoot.
TO live like an old woman in a bath chair To
know only what he was told, to have only
what he was given, to be useless, burden
and-he vyuld always come back to it-an
object of pity. And they would tell him TO-
morrow. Mckinney would come with his
damned professional soothing purr to tell
him that his life was over his eyes were
closed Pat could imagine it all, and the
touch of Dots steady little hand on his. She
had been with him at every dressing and ex-
animation; she would surely not leave him to
face the last alone. And the nurse cooling in
sincere reinsurance. Perhaps Mrs. OLeary
would be there; she had been much in the SICK
ROOM a welcome and valued comforter ana
entertainer. Well! he would disappoint them
all of their scene; he would know now.
He slipped the bandage from his head and
Law little while with his eyes closed, but un
covered. He knew that he must be cautious
Also he was afraid. Then slowly, very slowly,
he opened his eyes. Straight in front of him
there was pale oblong, cut into smaller
oblongs by black intersecting lines Every
thing else was black. He stared at it stupidity
for a moment and then recognized it as the
open window. At least, he told himself, he
could distinguish light from darkness. He
closed his eyes again to ponder on this mercy.
He, who had always had the eyes of hawk,
almost wept for joy to think that he could dis
tinguish window against moonlit sky.
Presently he looked again. High up in one
corner of the oblong a great star burned.
Again he thanked high heaven and then no.
ticed with CONSERVATION that the star was
fading. CPL shut my eyes for three minutes"
said he; "then I'll look at it again. "If it's
gone, Pm a goner, too" He counted sixty
three fevered times and then looked for his
star. 1t was fainter than before, but, with a
gasp Of relief, he saw the reason The edge of
the moon showed in the other corner of the
window.
His exclamation, soft as it had been, reached
Dorothy. She had spent the night lying wide
eyed on her golden bed in her golden room. She
no longer thought. She had lost the power.
Her mind was now desert place across which
horrible images and imaginations passed or
stopped or came again without order, without
reason, without control. At first she had tried
to comfort herself with the thought that the
woman of her husbands first love had lived
and loved and suffered and died while she was
a child at Edgecombe. But gradually this idea
lost It's power to console. TO understand all
might be to forgive all, but she knew so little
nothing but what old Mrs. Moran had told her
what John had limited at, what Pat had tactily
admitted. "a small, dark, little girl" Mrs
Moran had said, "wth little hands and little
feet" Then. quick upon this thought came an
other. The saying Of another old woman
1.-THE Greshams are bad lot my dear. Go
to the picture gallery, look at the women WIS
loved and trusted" then, "You know this aid
dress il you ever want me-" and Johns Better
20 home to America and arrange matters from
there" How could she arrange life with nc
Pat in it!
She watched the moon as it passed across
her windows, and until she heard or thought
she heard, a sound in Pats room.
When Pat had quite identified the moon he
closed his eyes once more. "a blind man
could see that" he told himself; All try the
furniture, the wall paper"
He easily distinguished familiar chairs, and
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