Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-05-06
Tho Passing o. .. Night.
CHAPTER H.

CSApIEH ~
Tho Passing Of . Night.
The sheriff was right. Sara Wran
dall was an extraordinary woman, il
I may be permitted to modify his rath
.ef crude estimate Of her. It 10 difficult
10 understand. mach less describe g
nature like herA Fine-minded. gently
bred women who can go through an
ordeal such as she experienced with
out breaking under the strain are rare
indeed. They must be wonderful. II
is hard to imagine more heart-break
ing crisis In HE than the one which
confronted her on this dreadful night
and yet she faced It with fortitude
that aeems almost unholy.
She had loved her handsome, way
ward husband. He had hurt her deep
~ more times than she chose to re
member during the six years of thei1
married. life, but she had loved him
In SPITE Of the wounds up to the in.
stant when she stood besih his dead
body In the cold little room at Bur.
toms Inn. She went there loving him
az he had lived. yet prepared. almos,
foresworn, to loathe him as he had
died, and she left him lying there
alone In that dreary room without a
spark of the old affection in her soul
Her love for him died IN giving birth
70 the hatred that now possessed her
While he lived it was not in her pow.
er TO CONTROL the unreasoning, resist.
less thing that stands for love in won.
AN; he was her lover, the master OF
her impulses. Dead, he was an un'
wholesome. mlovely clod. a pallid
thing to be scDned, a hulk Of worth
less clay. HIS blood was cold. He
could no longer warm her with it; it
could no longer kill the chill that his
imfsdeeds cast about her tender sensi.
itiveness; his hips and eyes never more
could smile and conquer. He was a
dead thing. Her love was dead
thing. They hay separate and apart.
THE tie was broken. With love died
the nnal spark.Q respect she had left
for him in her tired, loyal, betrayed
heart. He wassat last thing to be
idespised,. evens by her. She despised
him.
she,3ent41heecar down the slope and
ACROSS them1Donless valley with small
regard Tor her own or her compan.
IONS safety. It swerved from side to
side, skidded and leaped with terri.
tying suddenness, but held its way as
straight as the bird that flies, driven
by steady hand and mind that had
mo thought for peril. A sober man at
her side would have been afraid; this
man swzyed mildly to and fro and
chucAledt with drunken glee.
: Her bitter thoughts were not of the
dead man back there, but OF the live
years-tha she was to bury with him;
years that would never pass beyond
her ken, that would never die. He
had flowed her IN his wild. ruthless
way. He had left her times without
number in the years gone by, but he
had always come back. gaily unchas-
tened, to remold the love that waited
with dog-like fidelity for the touch OF
his cunning hand. But he had taken
his last fight. He would not come
back again. It was all over. Once too
Dften he ,haditried his reckless wings.
She would not have to forgive him
Again. Uppermost In her mind was
the curiously restful thought that his
troubles were over, and with them her
own. 4 hand less forgiving than4her
had struck him dead.
Somehow, she envied the woman to
whom that hand belonged. It had
been her, divine: right to kill, and yet
another book it from her.
Back there at the inn she had said
10 the astomshed sheriff:
poor thing, il she can escape pun
ishment for this, let 1t be so. shall
not help the law to kill her simply
because she took 1t in her own hands,
to pay that man what she owed him.
/ shall not be the one to say that he
did notsdeserve death at her hands.
whoever she may. be: No, l shall offer
no reward If You catch her, I shall
be sorry for her, Mr.. Sheriff. Believe
me, bear her no grudge."
But. she robbed. him." the sheriff
had cried.
From my point Of view, Mr.. sher-
I'D. that hasn't anything To- eth the
case" was her dgnif| reply.
"Of course. ! ss.n not defending
him"
Nor am 1 defending her." she had
retorted. 1T would appear that she Ia
able to defend herself"
Now, ON the cold, traokless road, she
was saying to herself that she did
have . grudge against the woman
who had destroyed the life that be-
longed to her. who had killed the
thing that was hers. to kill She could
mot mourn for him. She could only
wonder what the poor, hunted. ter
s1fied creature would do when taken
and made to pay for the thing she had
done.
Once. in the course OF her bitter re-
Elections, she spoke aloud in a shrill,
tense voice. forgetfM Of the presence
lpf the man beside her:
Thank God they will see him now
- I have seen him all these years.
Fhay win know him q they have
lsverr known him. Thank God for
hatls rs;
| Tho man looked ct her. stupidity and
uttered something under his breath.
1 y hard him, and RECALLING her wits.
d ts1 which ts1n sl5e 40 to take Toy,
ri sstatson. The fellow Topped back
ia - s6ak, too dSank to reply.