The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-05-29
Ole MINISTER
Of POLICE
By HENRY MONTJOY
49, cEyrA. rla Ts B@As MuIn csueany
By HENRY MONTJOY

toned to mems homage, to be treated
X this by a. great, noble, a minister
OF state, q man whom she had seen at
court and admired for his handsome
face and magnificent presence. That
she should be suspected was nothing,
the fact that q government spy had
tempered with her letters was moth
ing, but the thought that De Sartines
q done this thing in person filled her
with such a fury that for a moment
the power OF thought was destroyed.
Placide stood watching her, afraid
the color returning to her cheeks: her
eyes, expnessionless and fixed a mo-
ment ago, became bright, the hard
ook passed o her face, and the
handkerchief which she had plucked
from her breast, and which she had
been twisting in her hands, fell on
the parQuet OF the floor unheeded.
Placide coughed, but she did not
hear him; h seemed plunged in
thought Of an exciting nature; her
Ups moved. Then, suddenly. she looked
up;
Rostne and tell her she need not go
on with the packing of my things. 1
snail not ave Paris just at present.
Go to Vaudrtn and countermand the
horses I have ordered for my carriage.
Then come back to me at once"
But madame7" ,
"An arrangements have been made
madame leave?"
Madame Linden laughed.
i VIII leave when l have settled
my account with Monsieur de Sarti-
mes"
'Oh, mon Dieu," said Placide.
When / ave brought him on his
knees; when l ave made him cry
for pardon, and pay for his infamy;
before"
The old servant, who knew Paris
so well and the power of De Sar-
tines, was about to make some remark
when she cut him short and waved
MIN from the room.
Go. l wish for no more words on
the matter. When you have executed
my rders return I o me-"
He left the room, and as he closed
the door her eyes fell on the clock
on the mantel; 1t indicated Is minutes
past =. The remembrance Of De LUIS
sac, banished from her mind for a
moment, returned only to increase her
exasperdtlon Had he, too, played her
raise? Her mind, logical enough in
the affairs OF the head, was of that
imaginative order which becomes few
erlsh and illogical in affairs of the
heart. For a Moment she almost hated
the man she loved. His failure to keen
mis- appointment seemed to her a al
rect corollary Of the insult offered to
her by De Sartines. All. these Paris
ians. were they all, then, the same
-natterers, false gentlemen, mobiles on
the outside, lackeys. al heart?
Even as she asked herself the oues-
ton the doorbell sounded. Rosine's
voice came from below, another voice
ana then a step on the stairs.
A knock came at the door of the
b~oudoir; IT opened and disclosed De
Lussac. 10
he was pale, exhausted, dishevs,ed
ana covered with dust; he carried nc
nat in n hand, a riding whin in
the other, and as he stood before her
SelHed with a momentary vertigo. he
me whip and chung t. the
uOoF LOT support. In a she had
selzed him, and, supporting him led
nun 10 the fauteuil, where he sat down
II Is nothing" he said. II an late
put killed a horse on the road. 1t is
Mon Dieu!" she cried. "nothing-to
be In this state? DO not move or sneaL
till l come back"
She ran from the room and returned
In a moment with some wine and food
on a tray.
When did you eat last?'
This morning, no-last night"
morning, nO-last night!'
Why, that is the answer of a woman:
you are a mar and a mar without
food is useless as a child. Won are a.
big child. No, not a word till you have
finished what is OIL this tray"
She held 1t while he ate, watching
the color coming back into his face
n the life into his eyes.
And now" said she. you may speak.
AVG kIll n
table-so."
She placed 1t upon the table, and
drawing a chair beside him, sat while
he told his story. He told all hat we
know: How he had met the chief of
the Society Of the Midi; how he had
~Journeyed to Versailles to abstract the
De Sartines document from the house
OF his kinsman, the DUO de Richelieu;
how the dog had foiled him, and how,
on awakening that morning, he had felt
such despair at the business in hand
that the impulse came. on him to throw
himself upon his sword.
However," laid he, Il remembered
that what I was doing was not for my
self"
And why said she, interrupting
him, why should you not have done
just the same for yourself? Ma fol, in
dealing with these rogues the Vilest
weapons are ju%stifiable, and 1t Is only
by such weapons we can meet them.
Here are men who are starving the
poor to feed their own pockets, men
who embaStile their enemies, and leave
them to rot in prison; men who enter
a Woman's house and search her pa
pers. read her letters; men without
mercy, without heart, without con-
science. These men must be met with
| their own weapons, as l hope to prove
to Monsieur de Sartines before he 8
very much older. But go on, my poor
friend; you are a poet, a man of kind
ly heart, a gentleman OF the old knight
ly school; you do not understand these
tricksters in the least. Go on, and tell
me what happened then"
Il had decided" ven or De Lussac,
that nothing could be done while
Monsieur de Richelieu was in the house.
l did not see him the whole morning;
he was engaged, it seems, with his. sec
rotary in his w apartments. But at
dejeuner he appeared, and you nay
imagine my relief on hearing hin order
his carriage to be got In readiness i'm
mediately after the meal to taxi him
to the Duo de Choiseul's. He was very
gay, and so filled with his own affairs
that he did not notice my nervousness
or want Of appetite, and when he had
departed l went to the library, telling
the %serVants not to disturb me, as |
had some important work to do.
1T was after l o'clock; the house was
as silent as the tomb; neither dog nor
.oa, MAD fharA m nnnnaa mo md I