Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-02-13

other was the why and wherefore of |
his lonely life. She knew beyond per-
adventure that he loved her, but she |
had no faint suspicion even as to the
reason why he had become a recluse!
He had never given her the slightest
clew to his past save that admission
that he had known Kirkby which was
in itself nothing definitive and which
she never connected with that pack
age of letters which she still kept
with her.
The mans mind was too active and
fertile to be satisfied with manual
labor alone, the books that he had
written were scientific treatises in the
main. One was a learned discussion
of the fauna and flora of the noun
tains. Another was an exhaustive &C
count of the mineral resources and
geological formations of the range.
He had only to allow whisper, a
suspicion of his discovery of gold and
silver in the mountains to escape him,
and the canons and crests alike would
be filled with eager prospectors. Still
a third work was scientific analysis
of the water powers in tire canons
He had willingly allowed her to
read them all. Much of them she
found technical and, aside from the
tact that he had written them, unin-
teresting. But there was one book
remaining in which he simply dis
cussed the mountains in the various
seasons Of the year; when the SHOWS
covered them, when the grass and the
moss came again, when the flowers
bloomed, when autumn touched the
trees. There was the soul Of the
man, poetry expressed in prose. man.
like but none the less poetry for that
This book pored over, she questioned
him about it; they discussed 1t as they
discussed Keats and the other poets.
Those were happy evenings. She
on one side Of the fire sewing, her
finger wound with cloth to hold his
giant thimble, fashioning for herself
some winter garments out of a gay
colored, red, white and black ancient
and exquisitely woven Navajo blank
ct, soft and pliable almost as an old
fashioned piece of satin-priceless If
she had but known (which he put
at her disposal While on the other
side of the same homely blaze he
made for her out Of the skins of some
Of the animals that he had killed, a
shapeless foot covering, half mecca
sin and wholly leggin, which she
could wear over her shoes in her
short excursions around the plateau
ri hax fAot
and comfortable.
By her permission he smoked as he
worked, enjoying the hour, putting
aside the past and the future and for
a few moments blissfully content.
Sometimes he laid aside his pipe and
whatever work he was engaged upon
and read to her from some immor.
tertainment fell to her and she sang
to him in her glorious contralto voice
music that made him sad. Once he
could stand it no longer. At the end
of burst of song which filled the lit
tie room-he had risen to his feet
while she sang, compelled to the erect
position by the ma grifcent melody
as the last notes died away and she
smiled at him triumphant and expec
tant of his praise and his approval, he
hurled himself out of the room ant
into the night, wrestling for hour:
with the storm which after all wal
but trife to that which ragged in his
bosom. While she, left alone and de
serted, quailed within the silent room
till she heard him come back.
Often and often when she slep
quietly on one side the thin partition
he lay awake on the other, and some
times his passion drove him forth t.
cool the fever, the Ere in his soul IL
the icy, wintry air. The struggle
within him preyed upon him, the keel
loving eye of the woman searched hi
= face, scrutinized him, looked into hi
heart, saw what WAS there.
She determined 10 end 1t, deciding
. that he must confess his affections
= She had no premoaition of the trutl
and no consideration of any evil con
= sequences held her back. She coult
give free range to her love and he
devotion. She had the ordering o
L their lives and she had the power t.
end the situation growing more ant
d more impossible. She fancied thu
. matter easily terminable. She though
u she had only to let him see her hear
% in such ways as maiden may, Il
Il bring Joy to his own to make hin
speak. She did not dream Of the re
IT ality.
1t One night, therefore. a month o
s. more after she had come, she re
% solved to end the uncertainty. Sh
le believed the easiest and the quickes
Il way would be to get him to tell he
10 why he was there. She naturally SUI
4 missed that the woman of the picture
d which she had never seen since tn
u first day OF her arrival, was in som
re measure the cause Of it; and the onl
III pain she had in the situation was tn
Il keen jealousy that would obtrud
"A itself at the thought of that woman
IL She remembered everything that
10 had said to her, and she recalled tina
III he had once made the remark ths
ie he would treat her as he would hav