The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1914-09-16
CHAPTER TX.
EoreWarned.

Forewarned.
The thing was managed with an in
genuity that Alan termed devilish-it
was indisputably Machiavellian.
The lovers had come down from the
North in hot haste and the shadow of
death. Two days Of steady travelling
by canoe, by woods trail, by lake
steamer-forty-eigh hours Of fatigue
and strain eased by not one instant's
relaxation from the high tension of
vigilance upon which their very lives
depended wore to elimination
through this tedious afternoon On the
train from Mooschead--a trap Of phys
ical torment only made possible by
Alan's luck in securing, through sheer
accident, two parlor.car reservations
turned back at the last moment be-
fore leaving Kineo station.
No matter-the longest afternoon
must have It's evening: the pokiest Of
trains comes the more surely to its
destination; in another hour or two
they would be in Portland-free at
last to draw breath OF ease In land
of law, order and sane living.
AS if in answer to this thought the
train slowed down with whistlng
brakes to the last hill-station, and as
the trucks groaned and moved anew,
lout of boy came galloping down
the aisle, brandishing two yellow en-
velopes and blatting like q stray calf.
"Mista Lawr! NIista Lawr! Tell
grams for Mista Lawr!"
Alan had been expecting at every,
station prepaid reply to his wire for
reservations on the night express from
Portland to New York.
But why two envelopes superscribed
"Mr. A. Law, Kineo train southbound,
Oakland Sta.?"
He tore one open, unfolded the in
closure, and grunted disgust with it's
curt advice, opened the other and
caught his breath sharply as he with:
drew-part way only-a playing card,
a trey of hearts. .,
Thrusting it back quickly. no clapped
both envelopes, together, tore them
into a hundred fragments. and scat
tered them from the window. But
the fiendish wind whisked one small
scrap back-and only one!-into tho
lap Of the woman he loved.
Vainly he prayed that she might
be asleep. The silken lashes tremblcd
on her cheeks and lifted slightly, dis
closing the dark glmmer Of question:
ing eyes. And as she clipped the scrap
of cardboard between thumb and fore
finger he bent forward and silently
took it from heroine corner Of the
trey Of hearts, but inevitably q corner
bearing the figure "3" above a heart.
"The Pullman agent at Portland
wires no reservations available on any
New York train in the next thirty-six
hours" he said with lowered voice.
Couldn't we possibly catch the New
York boat tonight?' .u- -Aa
He shook glum head. "No-I
looked that up first. 1t leaves before
we get in"
She said, "Too bad" abstractedly,
reclosed her eyes, and apparently
lapsed anew into semisomnolence-
but without deceiving him who could
we'll guess what poignant anxiety
gnawed at her heart.
He could have ground his teeth in
exasperation-the impsh insolence Of
that warning, timed so precisely to set
their nerves on edge at the very mo-
ment when they were congratulatlns
themselves upon the approach OF q
respite!
The sheer insanity Of the whole
damnable business!
The grim, wild a5surdity of it!
TO think that this was America, this
the twentieth century, the apex OF the
highest form of civilization tho world
had ever known-and still a man
could be hunted from pillar to post,
haunted with threats, harried with at
tennis at assassination III a hundred
forms-and that by slip OF 4 girl
with the cunning Of u madwcman, the
heart of a thug, the face of charm
ing Chlld-lne lace Vi Iuc "oiiI''ii '''''s
sat beside him, duplicating its every
nerfect feature SO nearly that even he
who loved the one could scarcely dis
tinguish her from the other but by in
stinct. intuition, blind guesswork. i.
He nodded heavy hearted conflrma-
ton of a surmise slowly settling into
conviction in his mind that such cum
ming. such purpose and pertlnaclty
could not possibly spring from mind
well balanced, that the woman. judith
Urine. sister to the Rose he loved SO
we'll, was as mad as that monomaniac'
her father, who sat helpless in his