The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1913-02-20
CHAPTER xxxvIlI.

Night.
Three days had pissed, and Orlando
BrothersOn sat In his room at the no
tel before q table laden with tele-
grams, letters and marked newspa-
pers. The news Of his achievement
had gone abroad, and Derby was. for
the moment, the center of interest for
two continents.
His success was an established fact.
The second trial which he had made
with his car, this time with the whole
town gathered together in the streets
as witnesses, had proved not only the
reliability of it's mechanism, but the
great advantages which 1t possessed
for a direct flight to any given point.
Already he saw fortune reckoning to
him in the shape of an unconditional
offer of money from a first-class
source; and better still-for he was
man of untiring energy and bound
less resource-that opportunity for
new and enlarged effort which comes
with the recognition of ones excep-
tional powers.
All this was his and more. A sweet.
er hope, a more enduring Joy had fol-
lowed hard upon gratified ambition.
Doris had smiled on him-Doris! She
had caught the contagion of the uni
versal enthusiasm and had given him
her first ungrudging token of approval.
It had altered his whole outlook on
life in an instant, for there was an
eagerness in this demonstration which
proclaimed the relieved heart. She no
longer trusted either appearances or
her dream. He had succeeded in con-
quering her doubts by the very force
of his personality, and the shadow
which had hitherto darkened their in
tercourse had melted quite away. She
was ready to take his word now and
Oswald's, after which the rest must
follow. Love does not lag far behind
an ardent admiration.
Fame! Fortune! Love! What
more could a man desire? What
more could this man, with his strenu-
Gus past and an unlimited capacity for
an enlarged future, ask from fate than
this. Yet, as he bends over his letters.
lingering some, but reading none be-
yond line or two, he betrays but a
passing elation, and hardly lifts his
head when a burst of loud acclaim
comes ringing up to his window from
some ardent passer-by: "Hurrah for
Brotherson! He has put our town on
the map!"
Why this dependency? Have those
two demons seized him again? 1t
would seem so and with new and over
mastering fury. After the hour Of
triumph comes the hour of reckoning.
Orlando Brotherson in his hour Of
proud attainment stands naked before
his own souls tribunal and the plead
er is dumb and the Judge memorable.
There is but one witness to such
struggles; but one eye to note the
waste and desolaticn of the devas-
tated soul, when the storm is over.
past.
Orlando Brotherson has succumbed;
the attack was too keen, his forces too
shaken. But as the heavy minutes
pass, he slowly regathers his strength
and rises, in the end, a conqueror.
Nevertheless, he knows, even in that
moment of regained command, that
| the peace he had thus bought with
strain and stress is but momentary:
that the battle Is on for life; that the
, days which to other eyes would carry
| q sense Of brilliancy-days teening
with work and outward satisfaction
would hold within their hidden depths
brooding uncertainty which would
rob applause of it's music and even
overshadow the angel face of Love.
He quailed at the prospect, material
list though he was. The days-the in.
terminable days! In his unbroken
strength and the glare of the MONDAY
sun, he forgot to take account of the
nights looming in black and endless
procession before him. 1t was from
the day phantom he shrank, and moi
from the ghoul which works in the
darkness and makes grave of the
heart while happier mortals sleep.
And the former terror seemed for
midable enough to him in this his
hour of startling realization, even il
he had freed himself for the nonce
from it's controlling power. To escape
all further contemplation Of it he
would work. These letters deserved
attention. He would carry them t.
| Oswald, and in their consideration find
distraction for the rest OF the day, al
least. Oswald was good fellow. L
pleasure were to be gotten from these
tokens Of goodwill, he should hav,
his share of it. A CLEAN Of Oswald.
old spirit In Oswald's once bright eve
would go far towards throttling one O
those demons whose talons he ha,
just released rom his throat; ant
II Doris responded 600. he would de
Ierve his fate, If he did not succeed
IN gaining that mastery of himself
which would make such . hours az
!hese episodes In life big with inter
tst and potent with great emotions.
Rising with a resolute air, he made
bundle of his papers and, with them
b hand. passed out of his room ant
Town the hotel stairs.