Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-04-12

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They forgot to close the vault, But
It was well guarded.
New Chelsea had been long asleep.
the streets emptied. when HaIg aud
AIurchell, accompanied by the doctor
aud undertaker-stec In the
bank and frightened into secrecy
| drove a roundabout conrse by side
| streets and alleys TO the rear door
sf the bank. Like thieves. they entered
aud carried what lay there out To the
carriage. Then they drove away. pray
Ing that no untimely passerby had
] Glanced to observe them.
But the luck held.
Later still. with another pIcture-a
little, faded old woman become in an
instant foolishly smiling ehild-burnt
into their memories. Haig and Muir.
chell emerged from the home OF War
rem Blake. Haig stopped. looking up.
Il wonder what John Dunmeade Is
going through just now? l can see
the end. The good have no luck.
There's curse on the man responsible
for this night. Old man. do you say
amen? Yon and viii have to discuss
the matter OF payment"
He caught the other BY the shoul-
ders. peered closely into his face and,
laughing harshly, turned away.
Through night that seemed endless
man fought battle old as sin itself.
He had sought the solitude or the fieIds
In a blind, vain wish to escape the
issue and the thing that tilled his eyes.
he had come so near to greatness
And now. ut an hour when he seemed
most. to need stimulus and support. he
was brought face to face with the
temptation to desert. Il was one thing
in moment Of dIsheartenment to cry,
as he had cried to himself. 81 have
come to the end" It was far different
when opportunity had come to revive
a sinking canse to stay his hand. He
knew he had but TO reach out to dis
close. not an Excalibur rising out OF
the waters to lend Invincibility to
him who would wfeld It. but new
prod for caIloused people. one fact
the more to add TO the knowledge.
whose cumulative power In the end
would-must-carry the people for
ward. upward.
1t was Hampden. Katherine and
John Dunneade against the people.
And what did he owe the people, the
calloused fools whose knowledge. RI
not complete. was get fun enough to
show them whittier they were going
and whittier they must turn. but who
trudged contentediy on. Indifferent to
all but the present profit, thinking
only Of self, repudiatlng and sneering
at those who offered honest service
and counsel? The balance was all
against them and In his favor. Let
some one else now take up the task
to which John Dunmeade had been
unequal.
He saw Stephen Hafnr1en covering.
suddenly broken. fear paIsied man.
before the death agony, looking with
kind Of usefulness on the dying
mans face, as though in Warren
Blake's example he saw a way out Of
the tangle. A troop Of miserable, pitt
able figures marched before him Stay
ton. Brown. Parsons, Sheehan. Blake
men whom he had punished. whose
lives he had shattered or taken In bis
crusade-to what end? Their places
had been taken by other men OF like
kind. the world no better, no wiser.
so far as he could see Behind the
troop marched a regiment of men and
women. his neigbbors. whose little
savings would be lest. did the bank
fail through his disclosures, but might
be preserved If Murchelrs promise to
intervene was kept. Was there not
more virtue in mercy than In punish
ment?
For long. In the fear Of the man who
knows himself weakening. he refused
TO face the crucial fact. But he had
to come TO tito her-at last. He
saw her as he had last seen her. the
rose i'm bloom. a strong woman re-
fined and softened by some heart pro-
cess of which he knew nothing II he
went forward he must cloud the spien-
dor and beauty of her woInanhood
with disgrace and suffering. He re-
volted against the tIIoaght- why must
she. Innocent and ut his hand. be
made to suffer tile penalty that others
had earned? Could he strike the blow!
1t made no difference that she had
fiouted him for Unworthy things. As
once before nothing that she could
say had added To the temptation that
lay In her very existence. so now both.
ing that she had done could take from
the fact of his love For II lived He
could find through the years in nnceas-
ing work an anodyne to deaden the
ache. but on this Mount Oliyet it lived
again. throbbinG passion that sub
merged NIL things else He bad not
the strength Of God. be told himself
He could not he so merefiess TO her.
to himself.
He fed homCward In the waning iiSht
and prayed fpveriShIy for daylight
n. MI, ,f-iu1nU= 'fS once he hn0t