Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1915-03-20
CHAPTER l.
The Message From the Deep.


The two old men sat in the library
cycling the unresponsive blue envelope
that lay on the end of the long table
nearest the fireplace. where merry
but unnoticed bed of Goals cracked
fierceIy In the vain effort to cry down
the shrieks of the bleak December
wind that whistled about the corners
of the house.
There was something maddening In
the fact that the envelope would have
to remain unopened until young Fred
erick Brood came home for the night
They found themselves wondering II
by any chance he would fail to come
In at all. Their hour for retiring was
ten o'clock, day in, day out.
Up to half-past nine they discussed
the blue envelope with every inmate
of the house, from Mrs John Des-
mond, the housekeeper, down to the
voiceless but eloquent decanter of port
that stood between them, first on the
arm of one chair, then the other. They
were very old men; they could solilo-
quize without in the least disturbing
each other. An observer would say,
during these periods of abstraction,
that their remarks were addressed to
the decanter and that the poor decan-
ter had something to say in return
But, for all that, their eyes seldom left
the broad, blue envelope that had lain
there since half-past eight.
They knew that it came directly or
Indirectly from the man to whom they
owed their present condition of COM
fort and security after half century
of vicissitudes; from the man whose
life they had saved more than once
in those old, evil days when comforts
were so few that they passed without
recognition in the maelstrom OF
events. From midocean James Brood
was speaking to his son.
Twenty years ago these two old GRO
MES had met James Brood in one OF
the blacklist holes of Calcutta, dere
lict being swept to perdition with the
swiftness and sureness of a tide that
knows no pause. They found him
when the dregs were at his lips, and
the stupor of defeat in his brain
Without meaning to be considered
Samaritans, good or bad, they dragged
him from the depths and found thai
they had revived a man. Those were
the days when James Brood's life
meant nothing to him, days when he
was tortured by the thought that II
would be all too long for him to en-
dure, yet he was not the kind to muir
der himself as men do who lack the
courage to go on living.
Weeks after the rescue in Calcutts
these two soldiers of fortune and an
other. John Desmond. learned from
the lips of the man himself that he
was not such as they, but rich in thi.
worlds goods. richer than the Solo
mon of their discreet Imagination.
What Brood told them of his lif,
brought the grim smile of appreciation
to the lips of each. He had married
beautiful foreigner-an Austrian, the,
gathered-of excellent family, and hat
taken her to his home in New Yorl
city, to the house in lower Fifth ave
nue. where his father and grandfathe
had lived before him-the house IL
which two of the wayfarers afte
twenty years, now sat in rueful cor
temptation of blue envelope
A baby boy came to the Broods Il
the second year of their welded life
but before that there had come
mana music master, dreamy-eyeG
handsome, Latin; a man who playe
upon the harp as only the angels ma
play In his delirious rawlings Broo
cursed this man and the wife he ha
stolen away from him: he reviled tn
baby boy, even denying him; b
laughed with blood-curdling glee owe
the manner In which he had cast GU
the woman who had broken his hear
and crushed his pride: he walled /
anguish over the mistake he had mad
in allowing the man to live that b
might gloat and sneer in triumph Thi
much the three men who lifted hill
from hell were able to CLEAN from liz
that knew not what they said, an
they were filed with pity. Later OF
in a rational weakness. he told the
more. and without curses. A dee
silent. steadfast bitterness succeede
the violent rawlings He became wa
farer with them. quiet, logged, fata
where they went he also went; VIII,
they did, also did he. Soon he led. ar
they followed Into the dark plac,
of the world they plunged, for pei
meant little to him. death even les
They no longer knew days of priv
tion-he shared his wealth with then
but they knew no rest. no peace, !
safety. Life had been q whirlwind b
fore they came upon James Brood;
was a hurricane afterward.
Twice John Desmond, younger tn.
Danbury Dawes and Joseph Rigs
saved the life of James Brood
acts of unparalleled heroism; once