The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-10-23


1t was in the afternoon Of this third
day, when she had been reading to
him, at his own request, the sayings of
the Man on the Mount, that he re-
ferred for the first time to the details
of the accident which had so nearly
blotted him out. Upon his asking, she
related the few and simple facts of
the rescue, mOdestly minimizing her
own part in it, and giving her COM
panion in the catboat full credit.
''The WATERMAN" he said thought
fully, when she had finished telling
him how Griswold had worked over
him in the boat, and how he would not
give up. 81 remember; you fetched
him out to the hotel with you one
day; no, you medina fear I'll be for
getting him" Then, with a shrewd
look out of the steelgray eyes: How
long have you been knowing him,
Maggie, child?'
''Oh, for quite a long time" she has
tened to say. He came here, sick and
helpless, one day last spring, and
well, there isn't any hospital here in
Wahaska, you know, so we took him
in and helped him get over the fever,
or whatever it was. This was his room
while he stayed with u.s."
Andrew Galbraith wagged his head
on the pillow.
81 know" he said. "And ye're doing
it again for a poor auId man whose
siller has never bought him anything
like the love you're spending on him
You're everybody's good angel, I'm
thinking, Maggie, lassie." Though he
did not realize it, his sickness was
bringing him day by day nearer to his
far-away boyhood in the Inverness
shire hills, and it was easy to slip into
the speech of the mother-tongue. Then,
after long pause, he went on: He
wasna wearing a beard, red beard
trimmed down to spike-this writer
man, when ye found him, was he?"
She shook her head mo; l have
never seen him with a beard"
The sick man turned his face to the
wall, and after a time she heard him
repeating softly the words which she
had just read to him. But If We for
give not men neither will
your father forgive. -. :" And
again, Judge not that We be not
judged" When he turned back to her
there were new lines of suffering in
the gray old face.
"I'm sore beset, child; sore beset, -
he sighed. You were telling me that
MacFarland and Johnson will be here
tonight"
Yes; they should both reach Wa
haska this evening"
Another pause, and at the end Of it:
THAT man Bromn; you'll remember
you asked me one day who he was, and
1 tell't We he was a special officer for
the bank. Is he still here?"
''He is; 1 saw him on the street this
morning"
Again Andrew Galbraith turned his
face away. and he was quiet for so
long time that she thought he had
fallen asleep. But he had not.
You're thinking something of the
WATERMAN, lassie? Don't mind the
clavers of an auld man who never had
a chick or child of his aim
Her answer was such as a child
might have made She lifted the big
jointed hand on the coverlet and
pressed it softly to her flushed cheek,
and he understood.
Il thought SO; was afraid So" he
said, slowly. you say you have known
him long time; it Gamma have been
long enough, bairnie"
But it is" she insisted, Loyalty. 81
know him better than he knows him.
self; oh, very much better"
Eye know the good in him, maybe;
there's good in all men, I'm thinking
now, though there was a time when
I didna believe it."
Il know the good and the bad-and
the bad is only the good turned up
side down"
Again the sick man wagged his head
on the pillow and closed his eyes.
'Ye're loving lassie, Maggie, and
that's a there is to it," he commented;
and after another interval: What
must be, must be. We spoke of this
man Brofhn: 1 must see him before
Johnson comes. Can We get him for
me. Maggie. child?"
She nodded and went downstairs to
the telephone, returning almost imme-
diately.
81 was fortunate enough to catch
him at the hotel. He will be here in q
few minutes was the word she
brought; and Galbraith thanked her
with his eyes.
when he comes, yell let me see
him alone-just for few minutes" he
begged; and beyond that he said no
more.
1t was after the click of the gate
latch had announced Brofin's arrival
that Margery drew the shades to shut
out the glare of the afternoon sun.
lowering the one at the beds head SO
that the light no longer fell upon the
instruments of the small house teIe-
phone set mounted upon the wall be-
side the door,
Mr.. Brofin is here, and I'll send
him up" she said but you mustn't
let him stay long. and you mustn't try
to talk too much