Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-07-26


The Conviet's Fingers Closed About
the Neck of the Man Who Had
Trieked Him.
as false witnesses were introduced,
and things fixed for his railroading to
prison, and he left with sudden hor-
ror his nearness to a punishment he
didn't in the least deserve; he had
become panicky at the grossness of
the conspiracy against him, So clever
ly had Cole looted the bank, so care
fully had he planned 1t, that 1t had
| looked, at the trial as though he
(Porter), had looted it and made Cole,
| its president, his innocent accomplice.
Cole AS he thought that name,
the ugly subtle lines of his face
deepened, and his fingers twitched
nervously as though yearning for that
soft throat they had once squeezed
within their grasp. The day Coles
light sentence had ended, ,and he hal
walked jauntily amongst his fellow
prisoners on mis- way to freedom,
the guards had to be quick to save
that throat from those yearning fin-
gers. He had almost had him that
time! Well, he would get him. He
had told himself that time and time
| again.
This thought, this unquenchablc
hate for the man who had so tricked
him was the only thing that kept the
life in his poor emaciated frame
the one thing that had enabled him
to stand the frightfuI routine of pris-
| on life these long, weary years. 1t
was no wonder to Don Porter that he
remembered it all so clearly as he
| did. The whole thing had had Z.
| daily rehearsal in his mind and for
years now he had awakened each
morning to fresh realization OF the
unspeakable horror of his position,
and had gone to bed each night with
curse in his heart and on his lips
for the man who had so tricked him
had so spoiled his life, and the lives
| of those few who had put their faith
in him. He had been very good these
| past years. oh, so good!--all but that
once. He had almost had him that
time! That thought always gave him
| moments brief, phatom pleasure
| that always gave way again to des-
| pair; a despair that seemed duller.
| that the moment before had been
touched with light. This despair was
despair that he should not live to be
revenged. He had made a mad, in
sane attack on him then, but the
guard was too quick. But that was
| fully five years ago, and he had been
| good since then-good with the good
ness of a child who expects a re-
ward-patient with the patience of a
man who sees each day bring him
nearer to his hearts desire. His
| hearts desire!
1t seemed strange to him at odd mo- |
ments that he who had always been
| gentle and sensitive, he who had al
ways felt an instructive kinship for
! things gentle and sensitive should now
! have for his hearts desire the death
| OF another man. And vet IL was So
It was so, and he was jealously glad
of it. With the best years of his life
scooped out, literally thrown away
| freedom after his release held forth
| no promise to him-no promise but
one. Had not the fulfllment of that
promise seemed certain to him-had
not the one frightfully glad moment
! that he would see Cole die at the
hands of Don Porter. whom he had so
wronged-had not this seemed a fit
| ting and possible compensation for
his injuries, he would never have left
| that prison alive-would have pre-
ferred death to the suspicious world
he would have to face after those
| long years in prison. But with the
| possibility, nay the probability of sat.
/ isfying his hearts desire before him,
the cold suspicious, unsympathetic
world had not terrors for him. He
| would not try to rehabilitate himself.
| He wanted no favors of It. He wanted
but one thing, and he was we'll able
to get that himself. He had sworn
1t to himself. He would get that one
! thing.
That night, as usual he fell asleep
| with the name Cole framed on his
inarticulate lips and curse for 1t N
his Unsuitable spirit.
II.
Edith Hilton had arrived at her
goth year. 1t would be difficult to
say how she had arrived at her goth
| year unless one might say she zig
! gagged to it. For Edith was like
most OF us, that queer admixture of
| decision and hesitancy that set her
| ever ou. of the analyzable type
class, eelected and labeled, and ever
made her next act as uncertain as
was the motive of her last.
Whatever queer twist Nature had
endowed her mind with, 1t had GER
tainly been governed by the Beautiful
when 1t made her body, for she was
OF that perfection of physical beauty
that makes most of us feel must re-
nect an inner light. as the exquisite
odor OF cologne suggests q delicious
ness of taste.
Her black hair, glossy and crisp,
undulated in tiny waves down her
white neck as though loath to leave
q head OF such delicaee loveliness. Her
warm brown eyes, pouting lips and
slim, 1.-the figure, making an en-
semble that her worldly wise mother
treasured and counted on as their
ultimate salvation from the awful I'M
pecunious prestige of their social po-
sition. 1t was joke, that social posi-
ton. Her husband. four years before.