Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-06-10

any nearer right than we had been
many times before; but for some rea-
son I found it harder to pardon him.
For the first time in our long &C
quaintance, l let Algern0n Etheridge
leave NE, without any attempt at con-
Citation.
If only I had halted therel II, at
sight of my empty study, l had not
conceived the mad notion Of waylaytng
him at the bridge for the hand-shake
1 missed, I might have been happy
man now, and OHver-But why dwell
upon these might-have-beens! What
happened was this:
Disturbed in mind. and finding my
self alone in the house, Oliver having
| evidently gone out while we two were
disputing, I decided to follow out the
| impulse I have mentioned. Leaving
/ by the rear, I went down the lane to
/ the path which serves as a short cut
/ to the bridge.
/ That I did this unseen by anybody
/ is not so strange when you consider
the hour, and how the only person
/ then living in the lane was, in all
/ probability, in her kitchen. 1t would
have been better for me, little as l
might have recognized it at the time,
had she been where she could have
witnessed both my going and coming
and faced me with the fact.
John Scoville, in his statement, says
that after giving up his search for his
little girl he wandered up the ravine
| before taking the path back which led
him through Dark Hollow. This was
false, as well as the story he told of
leaving his stick by the chestnut tree
in the gully at foot Of Ostrander lane.
For | was on the spot, and | know
the route by which he reached Dark
Hollow and also through whose agency
the stick came to be there.
Read and learn with what tricks the
devil beguiles US men.
I was descending this path, heavily
| Swallowed, as you know, by skirting
of closely growing trees and bushes.
when just where it dips into the Hol-
low, I heard the sound Of hasty foot
come crashing up through the under
brush from the ravine and cross the
path ahead of me. A turn in the path
prevented me from seeing the man
himself, but as you will perceive and
as I perceived later when circum-
stances recalled it to my mind, had
i, no need to see him to know who 1t
was or with what intent he took this
method of escape from the ravine into
the fields leading to the highway. Sco-
ville's stick spoke for him. the stick
which l presently tripped over and
mechanically picked up, without a
thought of the desperate use to which
was destined to put it.
Etheridge was coming. [ could hear
his whistle on Factory road. There
was no mistaking it. 1t was unusually
shrilI one and had always been a
cause Of irritation to me, but at this
moment it was more; it reused every
antagonistic impulse within me. He
whistling like a galliard, after part
ing which had dissatisfied me to such
an extent that I had come all this dis.
lance to ask his pardon and see his
old smile again! Afterward, long aft
erward, was able to give another
Interpretation to his show of apparent
self-satisfactiOn, but then | saw moth
ing but the contrast it offered to my
own tender regrets, and my blood be
gan to boil and my temper rise to such
point that recrimination took the
place of apology when in another mo
; ment we came together in the open
space between the end of the bridge
and Dark Hollow.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)