Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-04-29

Anna Kdt6aimG Green
Illustrations Rhodes
copS(p1CHT 1ol4- ~ poDD MEAD q COMPANY

the voice of Algernon Etheridge, de-
handing vengeance for his untimely
end. 1t will not be gainsaid. Not sat
isfed with the toll we have both paid
in these years of suffering and repres-
sion-unmindful of the hermits life
have led and of the heart disapp9lnt-
ments you have borne, its cry for pun
ishment remains insistent. Gentlemen
hush! Oliver, it is for me to cry
Don't now-@John Scoville was a
guilty nan murderer anG a thief
but he did not WELD the stick which
killed Algernon Etheridge. Another
hand raised that. No, do not look at
the boy. He is innocent! Look here!
look herei" And with one awful ges-
ture. he stood still-while horror rose
like a wave and engulfed the room
choking back breath and speech from
every living soul there, and making a
silence more awful than any sound
or so they all felt, till his voice rose
again and they heard:
You have trusted to appearances;
you must trust now to my word. l
am the guilty man, not Scoville, and
not Oliver, though Oliver may have
been il the ravine that night and even
handled the bludgeon l found at my
feet in the recesses of Dark Hollow"
Then CONSERVATION spoke, and NUT
Ao,15 o,ioo yrorn hnard IF HModnnCCi
l. is not we who are needed here but
a physician!" and dominating all, the
ringing shout:
You cannot save me so, father.
hated Etheridge and l slew him. Gen
tlemen," he prayed in his agony, com
ing close into their midst, do not be
misled for a moment by a fathers de
votion."
His lifted head, his flashing eye
drew every look. Honor confronted
them in a countenance from which al
reserve had melted away. No gull
showed there; he stood among them, ;
heroic figure.
Slowly, and with a dread which nj
man might measure, the chances which
: had just devoured his young but viril'
countenance passed to that of the ia
! Their. They did not leave it again
t SOM" With what tenderness h
spoke, but with what a ring of desola
n ton. Il understand your effort an
appreciate it; but it is a useless one
You cannot deceive these friends o
ours-men who have known my life
If you were il the ravine that nigh
so was I. If you handled John Sec
ville's stick, so did l, and after you
Y Let us not struggle for the execratio
9 of mankind; let it fall where it RICH
d fully belongs. 1t can bring no stin
e keener than that to which my brea'
D has long been subject. Or" an
a here his tones sank, in a last recogn
Il ton of all hes was losing forever, "
d there is suffering in a once proud ma
x tinging from him the last rag OF +
1t spect with which he sought to cove
the hideous n~akedness of an unsuspec
ed crime, it is lost in the joy of d
Of ing justice to the son who would tai
;e advantage of circumstances to assun
lie his fathers guilt"
But Oliver, with a fire which not
ing could damp, spoke up again:
ly Gentlemen, will you see my I
tn Their so degrade himself? He has DIVE
ed so continually upon the knowledI
ut which separated us a dozen years al
it. that he no longer can discriminate
he tween the guilty and the innocel
ID. Would he have sat in court; would
as have uttered sentences; would
re- have kept his seat upon the bench
ng all these years, if he had borne wi
mt in his breast this secret of person
guilt? No. 1t is not in human natl
m. to play such a part. | was guilty-a
en- | fled. Let the act speak for its,
Try The respect cue my father must
mt, be taken from him."
rs. Confusion n counJer-confuslC
a What were they to think Alans
no. Black, aghast at this dread dileml
ran over in his mind all that had
him to accept divers guilt as prov
and then, in immediate opposition
un- it, the details of that old trial and
rm. Judges consequent life; and, voic
ing the helpless confusion of the 9th,
;elf observed with forced firmness:
her we have heard much of DIV
he wanderings ia the ravine on that fl
YOU night, but nothing of yours, Judge
not trander. 1t is not enough for you
not say that you were there; you n
.act prove 1t"
,nf- THE proof is in my succumbinl
,ks. the shock of hearing divers name
the ISOLATED with this crime. Had he /
.sed guilty-had our separation c.
,ese through his crime and not thro
Why my own, | should have been prepi
wer for such a contingency, and not Q
gle. whelmed by it."
0 50 "And we're you not prepared?"
se- mo, before God!"