, 1915-10-07
CHAPTER Oxn


It's work had been singularly well
done. It brought back to Damory
court, however, a white bulldog whose
broken leg made his would-be joyful
bark trail into a sad whimper as his
owner took him into welcoming arms
Next day the major was carried to
his final rest in the myrtled shadow of
St Andrews. At the service the old
church was crowded to its doors.
Valiant occupied a humble place at
one side-the others, he knew, were
older friends than he. The light Of h
late afternoon came dtmly In through
the stained-glass windows and seemed
TO clothe with subtle colors h voice
of the rector as he read the solemn
service. The responses came broken
H, and their were tears on many faces.
Valiant could see the side-face of
the doctor, its saturnine grimness
strangely moved, and beyond him.
Shirley and her mother. Many glanced
at them. for the majors will had been
opened hat morning and few there
had peer surprised to learn that, save
for a life-annuity for old Jereboam,
he had left everything he possessed
to Shirley. Miss Matte Sue was be-
side them. and between, wan with
weeping, sat Hickey Snyder. Shirley's
arm lay sheltertngly about the small
shoulders as II 1t would stay the pas
sion of grief hat from time to time
shook them.
The evening before had been further
darkened by the child's disapDearance
and Miss Matte Sue had sat through
half the night in fearful anxiety. II
was Valiant who a solved the riddle.
In her first wild conjunction, Hickey
had gasped out the story of her meet
ing with Greet King, his threat and
her own terrorized silence, and when
he heard of this he had Guessed her
whereabouts. He had found her at
the Dome, in the deserted cabin from
which on a snowy night six years ago,
Shirley had rescued her. She had fed
there in her shabbiest dress, her toys
and trinkets left behind, taking with
her only a string of blue glass beads
that had been Shirley's last Christmas
present.
Let me stay!" she had walled. I'm
not fit to live down therei It's all my
fault that it happened. / was a coward.
/ ought to stay here in Hell's-Half-Acre
ried her back in his arms down the
mountain-she had been too spent to
walk.
He thought of this now as he saw
that arm about the child in that pro-
t~ective, almost motherly gesture. 1t
made his own heartache more unbear-
able. Such a little time ago he had
felt that arm about him!
He leaned his hot head against the
cool plastered wall, trying to keep his
mind on the solemn reading. But Shir-
ley's voice and laugh seemed to be
running eerily through the chanting
lines, and her face shut out pulpit and
lectern. 1t swept over him suddenly
that each abominable hour could but
make the situation more impossible
for them both. He had seen her as
she entered the church, had thought
her ever paler han in the wood, the
blush shadows deeper under her eyes.
Those delicate charms were In eclipse.
And 1t was he who was to blamei
1t came to him with a stab of an
hghtenment. He had been thinking
only of himself all the while. But for
her, It was his presence that had now
become the unbearable thing. A cold
sweat broke on his forehead. e. .
for i am a stranger with thee, and q
~sojourner; as all my fathers were. o
spare me a little. hat / may recover
my strength before / go hence. . :"
The intoning voice fell DULY on his
ears.
To go awayi To pass out Of her
life, to a future empty of herT How
could he do thatf When he had part
ed from her in the rain he had felt q
frenzy of obsttnacy. II had seemed 60
clear that the barrier must In the end
yield before their love. He had newer
thought OF surrender. Now he told
himself that flight vas all that was
left him. She-her happiness-noth-
ing else mattered. Damory court and
its future-the plans he had made-the
slant he knew hat all these, from that
May day on the Red road. mad chung
about her. She had been the inspira-
ton of all.
Lead. kindly Light, amid the enc4reains
gloom"
The voices of the invested choir
o clearly and some one at his side
a whispering that this had been the
majors favorite hymn. But he
scarcely heard.
! When the service was ended the
people filled the big yard while the
last reverent words were spoken at the
grave. Valiant, standing with the rest
saw Shirley. with her mother n the
doctor, pass out Of the gate. She was
not looking toward him. A mist was
before his eyes as they drove away,
and the vision of her remained waver.
ing and indistinct-a pale blurred face
undar aiming bair