The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1915-07-16
p l.
The Message From the Deep.

The Message From the Deep.
The two old men sat in the library
cycling the unrespcnsive blue envelope
that lay ON the end of the long table
nearest the fireplace, where a merry
but unnoticed bed OF Goals cracked
f3ercely in the vain effort to cry down
the ehrieks of the bleak December
wind that whistled about the corners
Of the house.
There was something maddening In
the fact that the envelope would have
to remain unopened until young Fred
efick Brood came home for the night.
They found themselves wondering If
by any chance he would fail to come
In at all. Their hour for retiring was
ten o'clock. day in, day out.
Up to half-past nine they discussed
the blue envelope with every inmate
Of the house. from Mrs. John Des-
mond. the housekeepsT, down to the
voiceless but eloquent decanter Of port
that stood between them, first on the
arm OF one chair, then the other. They
were very old men; they could solilo-
Quize without In the least disturbing
each other. An observer would say,
during these periods Of abstraction,
that their remarks were addressed to
the decanter and that the poor ocean
ter had something to say in return.
But, for all that. their yes seldom left
the broad, blue envelope that had lain
there since holf-past eight.
They knew that it came directly or
Indirectly from the man to whom they
owed their present condition OF COM
fort and security after half a century
Of vicissitudes; from the man whose
life they had saved more than nee
In those old, evil days when comforts
were so few that they passed without
recognition In the maelstrom Of
events. From midocean James Brood
was speaking to his son
Twenty years ago these two old Gro
MES had met James Brood in one Of
the blacklist holes Of Calcutta, a dere-
lict being swept to perdition with the
swiftness and surenes of a tide that
AAO"0 AO R0uSCs lucy lOuAu AlLi
when the dregs we're at his lips, and
the stupor OF defeat In his brain.
Without meaning to be considered
Samaritans, good or bad, they dragged
him from the depths and found that
they bad revived a Those were
the days when James Brood's life
meant nothing to him, days when he
was tortured by the thought that it
would be all too long for him to en-
dure, yet he vas not the kind to muir
der himself az men do who lack the
courage to go on living.
Weeks after the rescue in Calcutta
these two soldiers of fortune and an.
other. John Desmond, learned from
the lips of the man himself that he
was not such as they, but rich in this
worlds goods. richer than the Solo
mon of their discreet imagination.
What Brood told them of his life
brought the grim smile of appreciation
to the lips Of each. He had married
beautiful foreigner-an Austrian, they
gathered-of excellent family, and had
taken her to his home In New Yorl
city, to the house in lower Fifth ave
u where his father and grandfather
had lived before him-the house il
which two OF the wayfarers afte'
twenty years, now sat in rueful con
temptation OF a blue envelope.
A baby boy came to the Broods ii
the second year of their welded life
but before that there had come
man music master, dreamy-eyed
handsome, Latin; a man who playe,
upon the harp as only the angels ma,
play. In his .delirfous rawlings Broot
cursed this man and the wife he hat
stolen away from him; he ,reviled tn,
baby boy, even denying him: h,
laughed with blood-curdling glee owe
the name in which he had cast GU
the woman who had broken his hear
and crushed his pride; he walled ii
anguish over the mistake he had mad,
In allowing the man to live that h,
might gloat and sneer in triumph. Thi
much the three men who lifted hin
from hell were able to CLEAN from lip
that knew not what they said, an,
they were filed with pity. Later on
IA . rational weakness, he told then
more, and without curses. A deer
silent. steadfast bitterness succeede,
the violent rawlings. He became a way
farer with them. quiet, logged, fatal
wher8 they went he also went: wha
they did. also did he. Soon he led, an,
they followed. Into the dark place
Of the world they plunged. for peri
meant little to him, death even less
They no longer knew days Of privs
0on-he shared his wealth with them
q mt they knew no rest, no peace, n
nef6ty. Life had been q whirlwind b
1ca1 tlIey ca1ne upon James Brood;
Nne !. hnrfSCane 1fterward.
TWtce John Desmond. younger tina
pnnhur1 Dawes and Joseph Riggs
my91 - HE of James Brood b
ia of unparalleled heroism; once |
= aouth A1rican Jungle when 3 liol
esuhepnsnt6cF her young, and agai
~ ppn9rs India. when single-hande'
I'D tp6 : horde of Hindus Il
a1p Will hcomrade lay w.oun'