Charlevoix county herald., 1914-11-21
Yet it served as the spark which

was his. Five years before Edward
Gafford graduate of West Point,
lieutenant of engineers, gentleman
and officer of his country, had been
sworn to honor and defend that flag.
Hard upon that had followed a
period of suspicion and accusation.
1t ended when a court of his
superiors declared him a traitor,
foresworn of his ath, Judas who
had sold his country's secrets for
gold.
Gafford came of a proud stock of
men. The elder Gafford, stern as a
stored patriot of old, refused to
credit the denials of his son. To his
mind Edward had placed the first
smudge on the family's escutcheon.
That smudge necessitated that the
cause of it be cut off.
Cast off by country and family,
Gafford developed a reckless indif-
ference as to what might become of
himself. He left the United States
and went to the Orient by way of
the Sandwich Islands and 5he Phil
ippeanS.
In both places he found that tales
Of his perfidy had outrun him ard
barred him among people of his own
kind. He drifted on, and, since
civilized man must have companion
ship, he TOOK what h. could find.
He drifted to Asiatic ports ard
finally to Japan.
Whether some subconscious
prompting brought him to the land
of the Rising Sun, or it was chance
wandering alone, Gafford did not
know. 1t is doubtful if he con-
sciously asked the suestion of him
self. Yet there had been one incl
dent in his trial for treason which
might have left him a chance to re-
habilitate. himcelf
1t was a theory, unproy able, dis
credited by his judges, yet lurking
for some time after the trial in CAT
ford's brain. Proof of that theory,
if anywhere, might lie in Japan. But
ere he reached there Gafford had
learned to drown both regret and
longing in the acrid smoke Of the
pipe. He had even come to feel
dull resentment against the land
which had cast him off, to deny his
nationality to all men. 1t was only
the flag which sometimes stirred the
numbed pangs of the past to life.
In fact Gafford was a man who
had slipped down because of a pri-
mary shove and no restraining in
ffuence to enable him to catch his
moral balance. His mother, who
might have Offset his fathers i'll
considered condemnation, was dead.
What other woman, white, brown
or yellow, had come into Ills life
since he had drifted, had been Of the
sort who help no man up, no matter
what they contribute to the fall Of
the many. Aside from their physi-
cal attractiveness, they had left no
lasting mark on Gafford's mind,
with one possible exception.
More than once he had grinned
cynically at her exhortations, which
urged him to climb rather than sink.
Half full of the narcotic which
shaved him, he had even pointed out
that woman who managed a tea
house Of tie second-class, and over
saw her hackers geishas, was
scarcely the one to criticize or adj
wise.
white Kate" as she was known
to the patrons of the House of Moon
Faces, while admitting the inconsis-
tency still reasserted the value of
her advice, and saw him depart
without resentment. Perhaps her
woman's understanding realized that
there was latent strength in the
man awaiting the proper incentive
to bring it out At least she gave
him different standing with herself
from the contempt with which she
regarded the other men who came to
her house. One may place some
credence in White Hates estimate,
for Heaven knows she had had OPP
portunity to know something Of men.
Her words were not without effect
at tfat. There had been times of
late when they woke in Gafford
vague loathing of himself-when he
cursed the weakness which had made
him sink passively down, where
stronger man would have defied Lis
fate. In such moments something
savagely primal woke and moved in
his breast.
At times as he guided some band
of curious siehtseers about the
streets of shops he asked himself in
what they we're better than he. At
times the rustic Of a woman's gown
nigh beyond control, which made
him answer gruffly when she spoke
in condescension to him. At times,
as he held his palm for his meager
fee, he longed Il find within himself
the courage to fling the price Of his
foresworn manhood into the SNUG
face of the one who paid.
Bitterer still were those moments
when he realized to the full that his
manhood was foresworn; that he
had made no use of the talents he
had possessed, but had come to what
he was because he had not tried.
In those moments he sympathized
on a personal basis with the sinking
dogs of t, streets
The pariah and he were pals.
Such moments brought him newt
sbly the sho of Oku Kobe, where
one found an innocent door leading
into narrow passage, which in turn
led int a dimly lighted apartment.
where flared the fairy lamps"
There at least was forgetfluness
of a sort from the sting of White
Kate's words, and the loathing of
what she was at last beginning to
feel he had made himself Vet