The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-08-23
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Now that the plunge had been taken
and he had been made to understand
that he must henceforth reckon with a
base and cowardly underseH which
would not stop short of the most helm
Gus crime, he told himself that he must
have time to think-to plan.
Caring nothing for its roughness, he
followed the country road into q valley
forest of oaks. After an hour of aim.
less tramping he began to have occa-
sional near-hand glimpses of the lake:
and little farther along he came out
upon the main-traveled road leading to
the summer resort hotel at the head of
De Soto bay.
Still without any definite purpose in
mind he pushed on. and upon reaching
the hotel he went in and registered for
room. Here he drew the window
shades and lay down, and since the
week of strife had been cutting deep
ly into the nights, when he awoke II
was evening and cheerful clamor in
the dining room beneath told him that
1t was dinner time.
1t is a trite saying that many a gulf.
seemingly impossible, has been safely
bridged in sleep. Bathed, refreshed
and with the tramping stains removed,
Griswold went down to dinner with the
lost appetite regained
Early on the following day he sent a
note to Mrs. Holcomb by one of the
inn employees; but the copy of the
Daily Wahaskan laid beside mis- break.
fast plate made it unnecessary to tele.
phone Raymer. The paper had a full
account Of the sudden ending Of the
lockout and the resumption of
work In the Raymer plant, and
ne read it with a curious stir
ring of self-compassion. As he had
reasoned it out, there was only one
way in which the result could have
been attained so quickly. Had Raymer
taken that way, in spite of his wrath
full rejection of the suggestion? Doubt
less he had; and on the heels of that
conclusion came a sense of deprivation
that was fairly appalling, and the
healthy breakfast appetite vanished.
Griswold knew what it meant. or he
thought he did. Margery Grierson was
gone out of his life-gone beyond re-
call.
After that, there was all the better
reason why he should grapple with
himself in the fallow interval; and for
two complete days he was lost, even to
the small world Of the summer resort,
tramping for hours in the lake shore
forests or drifting about in one of the
hotel skiffs, and returning to the inn
only to eat and sleep when hunger or
WEAKNESS constrained him. On the
whole, the discipline was good. He
battered himself that the sense of pro.
portion was returning slowly, and with
1t some saner impulses Truly, it had
been his misfortune to be obliged to
compromise with evil to some extent,
and to involve others, but was not
that rather due to the ineradicable
faults of an imperfect social system
than to any basic defect in his own
theories? And was not the same i'm
perfect social system partly responsi.
Bile for the quasi.criminal attitude
which had been forced upon him? He
was willing to believe 1t; willing, also,
to believe that he could rise above the
constraining forces and be the man he
wished to be. That he could so rise
was proved. he decided, on the morn
Ing of the third day, when he CHANGED
to overhear the hotel clerk telling the
man whose room was across the CORR.
dor from his own that Andrew Gal
braith still had fighting chance for
lie. In the pleasant glow Of the high
resolve the news awakened none of
the murderous promptings, but rather
the generous hope that it might be
true.
1t was late in the afternoon of this
third day. upon his return from a long
pull in the borrowed skiff around the
group of islands in the upper and IN
frequented part of the lake, that he
found note awaiting him. 1t was
from Miss Farnham, and it's brevity.
no less than its urgency, stirred him
bringing a suggestive
return of the furtive fierceness which
he promptly fought down. II must
see you before eight o'clock this eve-
ming. 1t is of the last importance"
was the wording of the note; and the
heavy understanding of the last" and
a certain tremulous characteristic in
the handwriting. stressed the ur-
gency.
1t was still quite early in the eve
ming when the inn conveyance set him
down at the door of his lodgings in
upper Shawnee street. To the care
taking widow, who would have pre-
pared a late dinner for him, he ex.
planned that he was going out again al
most at once; and taking time only
for a bath and a change, he set forth
On the cross-town walk. 1t lacked
less than half hour of the
time limit set In Miss Farnham's note,
but he attached no special importance
10 that. He knew that the doctors
Inner hour was early. and that In any
event he could choose his own time
or an evening call.
1t nettled him angrily to find that
he premonition of coming disaster
vas still with him when he crossed
he courthouse square and came into
he main street few doors from the |
entrance. Attacking from
! fresh vantage ground It was warn |