Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1914-10-22

even casually notice his neighborly
little visitor
Finally, the man looked up from the
finished sheet. pushed back his SOM
brero, wiped the sweat from the band
OF fair, white skin that ribbed his
tanned brow. and, with sigh so deep
drawn that 1t started a CULVER of green
movement on the rug, read over the
letter he had written and now held in
his thin brown hand
1t began with brusk tenderness:
"Dear:-At last the verdict's in,
and instead of the expected hanged
by the neck until he shall die, SEN
tence of Imprisonment for life.
For your sake, carried the case to
the highest court of appeal. Went to
Los Angeles and had the great VIII
lard look me over. Both lungs have
healed. Provided stay put-go on in
the same sunbaked rut Of the past two
years, there is no reason why should
not rival Methuselah in hoariness OF
age. Ny life the forfeit ii | break
parole and attempt an escape.
And So sweetheart, we come to the
parting of the ways, my way and yours.
ought to have given you up long ago.
But at first thought it would be for
such little while that it would not
matter, and afterward l hoped against
hope that l should be able to go back
to civilization and you.
Now release you. little girl-insist
that our engagement end.
"Good-by, dear, and God bless you.
You need not answer this. l shall un.
derstand when your letters stop com
Ing, No, do not offer to go on writing
as friend to friend. | could not quite
bear that now. NORMAN"
Silently, without a culver OF the
grim-set lips. he folded the letter
slipped II into a stamped. addressed
envelope, slowly sealed it, then, his
head bowed in his hands, he began to
sob-with mans anguish and the
abandon of little child
The days dragged by, heavy-weighted
with a sense OF prison chains.
Norman had boosted that he still had
his work But ne could not write He
could not think. lie could only fever.
ishly wait for the letter that he had
asked her not to write.
Yet not until two weeks had passed
and he knew at last that she had taken
him at his word. did he realize to the
full measure OF bitter disappointment
how much he had counted upon one
moro letter from her.
The east-bound overland was due in
an hour. and he was going on it.
He stood on the station platform
Notwithstanding from excitement
and haste OF packing, every now and
again casting stealthy glance over
his shoulder as though afraid OF being
watched.
With the caution OF the real pris-
oner breaking Jail. he had only bought
a ticket to a nearby point
The kind-hearted meddlesOmeness
doctor under whose thumb he had been
so many months. were capable OF 60
ing any lengths OF interference when
1t came to matter OF what they con-
sidered his own good.
\ whistle sounded. A flare of light
swept the gathering night from the
track. He snatched up his suit-cases-
impatiently dropped them again. The
locomotives headlight flashed from
the wrong direction. He had forgotten
that the west-bOund train passed ten
minutes before his own.
The putting engine paused for breath
the usual short, hurried instant of an
express. A black parallelogram of q.
trunk was tossed from the baggage
car. The black figure of woman pas
senger got off the Pullman.
The express gave creak forward
ratified, rumbled. and roared into the
awaiting blackness.
The new arrival stood hesitating. a
nervous, lost-child air about the slight,
shadowy figure. Norman took a quick
step to her assistance. The blurred
light OF the station lamp softly en-
wrapped her.
He started back. cold fear clutch
ing his heart. The brooding Of the last
hideous days had been too great a
strain-his mind had suddenly given
way!
p But the woman did not start back
she ran toward him with glad cry Of:
Norman"
1t was not the hallucinatiOn OF a
nervous breakdown. It was Nan. Nan
her dear flesh and blood self. Nan
in Eden Nan on the platform beside
him. Nan in his arms.
And you are really glad that I'm
here?" she TREMENDOUSLY laughed, when
at last he opened his arms wide enough
for her to look up into his radiant
face.
After started | was so frightened!
But l had to come" She hid heI
scarlet-swept face in the old resting
place 1T was the only way | could
make you understand, you dear, fool
ish stupid, you"
And then he knew that woman
never really loves until she makes {