Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1915-01-08

| had shot him and was on his way TO
blow up the mills Piotr must be fore
stalled. With an effort he forced his
eyes open and held them so until the
first giddiness passed. He raised his
head; it fell back with a thud
Il can't do it" he groaned
But the mills-and Kazia
I've got to do it. l must stop him.
must get to her."
Then began a fight to sit up, to
stand, to beat off the invisible hands
trying to drag him back into the black
| ness. How long the struggle lasted.
by what degrees he progressed, he did
not know; but when it was over he
was leaning weakly against the door
jamb His brain was Keeling, he
breathed sobbingly, but by bracing him
self desperately with the cane, recov-
cred in the struggle to stand, he man
aged to hold what he had won.
His brain cleared again, a little
| steadiness came to the trembling
limbs. Summoning all his will, he
passed with uncertain dragging steps
out of the shed. A cold damp wind
breathed refreshingly upon him. He
| gripped his cane more tightly and
started slowly down the weedy road.
He reached the foot of the hill and
sank down in little rain pool, rested
pantingly and laved his hot face few
minutes. then staggered to his feet
and limped on until weakness over
came him once more and he fell. (.
| More than an hour later he was still
lurching along the road. Kazia and
the mills! They were in danger, they
were being taken from him; he must
save them.
So ne beat his way slowly along
moonlit stretches of rough road,
through darkened ravines where only
instinct found path, until at last,
rounding curve, he saw tie furnace
looming huge before him.
AS hours passed and Mark did
not return, sense of an approaching
crisis, of a danger, came to Kazia. The
squall died away, full darkness fell,
the train she was to have taken with
Piotr rolled to stop at the station
and out again, and still he had not re-
turned. The sense grew heavier, pas
sive waiting unbearable. To escape
| her foreboding she went out into the
night and walked about again in the
place she had once thought of as a
haven. But she quickly left the ram
bling old village, seen for the first
time, yet holding so many memories
of which she must not think, and went
| over to the new Bethel with its wide
paved streets and rows of pretty little
cottages. Many of the cottages were
dark and untenanted as yet, but she
saw them as they would be when they
were the homes of a happy folk who
toiled without exhaustion or fear, with
kindness in their hearts one for an
other.
She left the cluster of homes-to-be
and retraced her steps over the street
that led past the mills to the bridge
started to cross. But at the entrance
she stopped. Everywhere it was the
same, redolence of him. After all
to her Bethel, the haven, was just
Mark Truitt.
All her fine resolutions and philoso
ply had become insufficient. The sight
of the river. the woods in their au
tumnal glory, the song of the rapids
had reviyified the scenes of her one
happiness.
She did not think that there might
be some to see. She was weeping
head bowed on the bridge rail
"Oh, shouldn't have come. want
him-him. And l have no right tc
have him. 1t would be the cruelest
thing l could do to him-even if he
cared. was wrong to come"
Thus she told hope-the immortal
lit must not live.
Old Simon had no skill for 1t anC
hence no part in the building of the
mills. But he spent his days watching
them grow. Often at night, wheI
Bethel was sleeping, he would sliI
across the river to realize again thai
after so many years his dreams were
coming magniicently true.
That night he left his seat on the
; stoop, where he had been wonderingly
/ but patiently awaiting the absen
7 Mark, and trudged down to the rive
aud across the bridge. He saw tn,
hgure leaning on the rail at the farther
/ end, but not until he was close did h,
, see 1t was that of weeping woman
. He would have turned aside, but h,
. perceived that she had heard him an,
q lifted her head.
He stopped short. staring In aston
+ ishment at the woman. sort that ha,
r never before come within his ken.
$ After a moments hesitation he wen
Q to her.
i us anything wrong, ma'am?"
She shook her head.
i Us there anything kin do fur ye?
e Again the silent gesture
It IF there Is" he persisted: 'Td lik
A to do 1t fur ye."
Che fo,,Dd ha~ L. --kr