The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-09-25

[E HAYS FREE PRESS
IF knew enough about guns to be
able to tell 'em apart. I might buy
one he said, half humorously. And
then: You must We been having
mighty particular customer-to get
so many of EN- OUT
1t was Mr.. Griswold, Mr.. Ed Ray
mer's new partner said the clerk.
And he was pretty particular; wouldn't
have anything but these new-fash-
Toned autOmatics Said he wanted
something that would be quick and
sure. and 1 guess he's got it sold
him two of EN-"
Brof6n played with the stock long
enough to convince the clerk that he
was only a counter lounger with no in
tention of buying. Took two of EN-,
oid he?-for fear one might make him
SICK, reckon he said, with the half
humorous grin still lurking under the
dropping mustaches Automatic thirty
twos, Ell? Well, amt goin' to try to
hold your Mr.-Griscom, did you call
MIN up none after this. He might
git me-"
WhereupOn, having found out what
he wanted to know, he lounged out
again and went back to the hotel to
smoke another of the reflective cigars
in the porch chair which had come to
be his by right of frequent and long
continued occupancy.
GriswoId had left the Mereside
1Thro Ill
convictions, to be sure, but in his con-
fidence in his own powers of imagi-
native analysis For this cause it re-
quired a longer after-dinner stay at
the Farnham's than he had been allow
ing himself, to re-establish the norm
OF self-assurance- Charlotte Farnham
was never enthusiastic; that, perhaps,
would be asking too much of an ideal;
but what she lacked in warmth was
made up in cool sanity, backed by q
moral sense that seemed never to wa
YER Unerringly she placed her finger
upon the human weaknesses in his
book people, and unfalteringIy she
babe him reform them.
For his Fidelia, as he described her,
she exhibited a gentle affection, tenn
RO-OA ~ q compassionate pity lOI uEI
weaknesses and waverings; an atti-
tude, he fatuously told himself, forced
upon her because her own standards
were so much higher than any he
could delineate or conceive. For Joan
there was also compassion. but it was
mildly cOntemptuous
If l did not know that you are in
capable Of doing such a thing, 1 might
wonder if you are not drawing your
Joan from life, Mr. Griswold,' - she said,
little cOldly, on this same evening of
rehabilitatiOns. Since such characters
are to be found in real life, 1 suppose
they may have a place in a book But
you must not commit the objectionable
sin Of making your readers condone
the evil in her for the sake of the good
Please forget what have said about
your Fidelia and-and your Joan. You
are trying to make them human, and
that is as it should be-
Griswold could scarcely believe the
evidence Of his senses. He told him
self ferceIy that he would never be-
lieve, without the convincement of
fact, that the ideal could step down
from its pedestal.
You are meaning to be kind to me
now, at the expense of your convic-
tions, Miss Charlotte" ne protested
warmly.
NO she denied grave1y. Listen,
and you shall judge. Once, only
short time ago. 1 was brought face to
face with one of these terrible COM
promises. In a single instant, and by
no fault of my OWL, the dreadful shears
Of fate were thrust into my hands, and
conscience-what 1 have been taught
to call the Christian conscience-to
me that with them 1 must snip the
thread of a mans life. And then chance
threw US together. A new world was
opened to me in those few moments. I
had thought that there could be no
possible question between simple right
and wrong, but almost in his first word
the man convinced me that, whatever
I might think or the world might say,
his conscience had fully and freely &C
quilted him. And he proved it; proved
it so that 1 can never doubt it as long
as 1 live. He made me do what my
conscience had been telling me ought
to do-just as your Fleming makes
Fidelia do"
And he was taken?" he said, and he
strove desperately to make the saying
completely colorless.
He was; but he made his escape
again. almost at once. He is still a
free man"
Instantly the primitive instinct of
self-preservation, the instinct of the
hunted fugitive. sprang alert in the
listener.
How can you be sure of that?" he
asked, and in his own ears his voice
sounded like the clang of an alarm
bell.
Again a silence fell, surcharged. this
one, with all the old frightfuI posi-
bilities. Once more the loathsome
fever quickened the pulses of the man
at bay, and the curious needlelike
prickIing of the skin came to signal
the return of the homicidaI fear-frenzy.
The reaction to the normal racked him
like the passing of a mortal sickness