The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1914-07-30

her hands werc hot and her eyelidi
burned Finally she reused herself.
Thank you. E%mmaline." she sale
IN n tired voice. "good night now: In
going to sleep. and you must go e
bed. too"
But alone In the warn wan dark
Shirley lay staring open.eyed al the
ceiling Slowly tho terror was selling
upon her. the dread. noiseless and In
tangible, folding her I'm the shadow o'
lis numblng wings. Was her mother
the one over whom that old duol had
been fought? She remembered tho
cape %jpssamines. Was the date OF
that ducl-of the death of S%assoon--
the anniversary her mother kept?
She sat up In bee. trembling. Then
she rose. and opening the door with
caution, crept down the stair. sliding
her hot hand before her along the
cool polished banlster. AS she passed
through the lower hail. a hound on the
porch, seeming her. stirred. thumped
his tail on the flooring. and whined.
Cropping her way 10 the dining.room.
she lighted a candle and passed
through a corridor into n low.ceiling.
ed chamber employed as a general re-
ceptacle-a glorihed garnet. al Mrs.
cambridge dubbed Il.
II showed a strange assemblage! A
row OF chests. stored with winter
clothing. CAV forth a clean pungent
smell OF cedar, and at one side stood
an antique spinet and a worn set OF
horsehair furniture.
Shirley had turned her miserable
eyes on a bookshelf along one wall.
Tho volumes II contained had been
her fathers. and among them stood
a row OF tones taller than their fell.
lows-the bound numbers OF a county
newspaper, beginning before the al
The back OF each was stamped with
the year. She was deciphering these
faded imprints. Thirty years ago."
she whispered; yes. here II Is"
She set down the candle and
dragged out one OF the huge leather.
backs. Staggering under the weight.
she rested It's edge on the table and
began feverlshly TO turn the pages, her
eye on the date line. She stopped
presently with a quick breath-she
had reached May 18th. The year was
that OF the duel; the date was the day
following the lessamine anniversary.
Fearfully her eye overran the columns.
Then suddenly she put her open
hand on the page as though to blot
out the words. every trace OF color
stricken from cheek and brow. But
the line seemed TO glow up through
the very flesh; Died, May l4th; Ed.
Sassoon. in his twenty.slxth
The book slipped to the floor with a
crash that echoed through the room.
Il was true. then! II was S~assoon's
that her mother mourned. The
man In whose arms she had stood
such n little while ago By the old dial
lf Damory Court was the son OF the
man who had killed him.
"Oh. God" she whispered. lust
when | was so happy Oh. mother,
mother! You loved him, and your
broke when he died. II was
who broke it-valiant-val.
ant. His father"
She slipped down upon the bare
loor and crouched there shuddering
and ~agonized. her dlsheveled hair wet
with tears. Was her love to be but
the thing OF an hour. a single clasp
and then. forever. nothing? His ia.
hers deed was not his fault. Yet
how could she love a mar whose every
brought a pang to that mother
loved more than herself? So.
and over. the wheel OF her
turned In the same desolate
groove. and over and over the parox.
ysms OF grief and longing submerged
her.
Noiselessly as she had descended,
she crept again up the stair. As she