Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-10-07
CHAPTER XVI.
An Idol Adorned and Despoiled.'

a. !. LaArt
nUO9EDL BY the hope that renew
~ ca association with her gypsy
80 tribe might tend TO restore
Hasar to. reason, Esther de-
parted that night with Hagar from
Stanley hall.
She was accompanied by Quabba,
now her faithful attendant, and the
sullerly insistent Luke Lowell. 1t was
a sad returnsof their stricken queen to
the grieving Romany people.
Hagar recognizedrth gypsies as gyp-
sizes, but she called on the names Of
those long departed, including the name
of her dead husband, Matt Harding.
whom she evidently deemed was alive
and threatening her. Tor when she
spoke his name 1t was in grim revolt
and with bitter maledictions.s
THAT night Quabba slept with his
monkey beside him at the threshold Of
Hagar's van. Inside Esther had sunk
in exhausted slumber on her cot beside
the fever dream: afflicted Hagar. Quab-
ba's light slumber was broken by the
%crunching Of a pebble beneath a heavy
foot. Quabl5a roused and drew his
knife, and the menacing figure Of Luke
Lowell SUNK back from the ac%cusative
moonlight into the shadows and was
seen no more.
That night at this same hour Arthur
Stanley, a fugitive and a wanderer, a
stranger in~Aa strange land, by his
smoldering campfire in a far western
desert, dreamed q wild dream that
reused him with a Shrek. He saw the
fear struck face Of Esther and near
her the sinister sLuke Lowell, with
his great gnarled hands stretched as
though to>ciutch and crush her.
> s =
+, One who is in society in Richmond
may forget unpleasant things In a:
ceaseless round Of new frivolities.
Mrs. Burton Randolph returned from
her stay in Fairfax to find her friends
in an attitude Of delighted commisera-
ton toward her. She confided to her:
dearest friends that her life seemed
fated to be one of; turmoil and tragedy.
But instead Of finding herself. pitied
in society in Richmond Mrs. Randolph
found herself enyied as a social hero
inc in these delightfully."- dreadful af-
fairs"
So US the beautiful wistaria was EN-
purpling her house and grounds Mrs.
Burton Randolph announced a vista
ria fete, and all Richmond society was
nervously cXpectant of more delight
fully dreadful occurrences.
But, although the wistaria fete was
a wondrously brilliant affair. accord
ing'to the society columns of the Rich
mond papers, no nntoward event oc-
Cured to mar the pleasure Of the day,
somewhat to the disappointment Of So
ciety.. x, a n Taa
Blair Stanley, With plenty of money,
but keeping %seduloqsly away from MI.
Abe Blooms temple OF chance, turned
up in Richmond in pursuit of Vivian
Marston,s with whom he was still in
fatuated. He knew the risk he took,
for it was evident.some one in Rich
mond had secured from Abe Bloom the
check that, besides being worthless,
had the fatal print,pf. his thumb upon
it. For the photograph OF: this check
and thumb print, together with photo
graphs of his thumb prints taken from
Dr.. Lees study, had been in the pos
session Of Hagar Harding when lie had
struck her down.
But such was his fierce passion for
the luxurious and beautiful Vivian
Marston that Blair walked in the shad.
ow Of death for her sake.
He Unlimited as much to her when
he had led her aside. beneath the bow
. -.. d. .-itrz.rE - stSE' ~ -sra.SyUs ~. E. q r..#.-a