Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-12
CHAPTER xXv11t-(continueD.

CHAPTER XXVIIT-(ContinueO.
4. n NE he read with curl of the lip. 1t
| ] was from pretty woman that had
4 spttered into his life and out. He had for
R go,ten her and now she had come back to
4 snzz words in his buzzinE ears. She said.
d ~ costs a woman to learn that happi-
1 ness Is not really tangible. Between being
. fortunate and happy gulf is fixed. |
was fortunate-iust not miserable-and
4 stood on the brink of the gulf Happiness
brushed me with its wings. ] reached out
4 70 catch 1t and the gulf took me- How
long will 1t be before l climb back to the
height that seemed not so very high when
possessed It? I don't know |
do not hate you--only myself. You have
tnown many women, but you have not
known me. This is the bitter part. You
do not know what | gave you. One thing
| ask you and the words as l write are
blurred with tears like my eyes-if ever n
foolish woman, honest and true as l was,
offers you the same sacrifice, do not take
Il have suffered for all the women you
will meet
Fool" said Alan to himself, fool not
10 see turned her wish-washy weakness
into strength and loosed DUMB tongue"
And then he draw out the other letter
and the curl in his lip Strengthened out to
line of sweetness and the light in his
eyes turned to a fiery, blind alteration.
The letter had been sent to him, sealeu,
By J. Y, who had accompanied IT with
0 note
The letter began. ITO my boy at
Thirty" and ended. with undying love,
your friend and Mother" In life he
could not remember his mother but he
saw her now in three pages of laboring
words traced by n dying hand. In her
self dying at thirty, she had seen her
boy revealed. She had had no strength
mo time-left for slow approaches.
With the first words of her letter she
laid cooling hand on his burning soul.
she spoke the nll-seeng wisdom of
death, She held him close to her heart
and fed him with her life's blood. All
that she had been, all that she had
learned, all that she foresaw, was
crowded into those three pages. They
were brittle with age, the ink yellow and
faded In words that no eyes but his and
hers had ever seen. They gripped his
soul and held it steady. Without this
letter he would have torn up the other. |
But the other had come as complement |
and he kept 1t because it helped him to |
zee himself
As Alan weakened the bridge APP
preached completion. Batches of men, |
a. special work was finished, were dis |
patched to the coast. With each batch !
MeDougal strove to send his master. but |
Alan was too weak to go. though he did |
not say So He had realized it with |
Terror and then with calm. mo, Nc
Dougal, not this time" he would say, |
and finally, 81 think l might just as well
Eay on till they send up to take over
us unprofessional to chuck 1t before.
y won't be long now" And McDougal
had cursed low rolling oaths and taken
i out on the men,
Alan seemed to have become childish
n his Weakness He spent what strength
ne mad left in cutting words into n board
npped from kerosene box. When he
naa finished he called McDougal and
snowed him his handiwork. "McDougal,"
ns said, IF anything should happen to
Aeep me here permanently just cut these
words into some big rock and lay me
snuer H. Be careful you get them just
~ Inc French are mighty particular
soolt the way We use their lingo and while
y wasn't Frenchman that wrote this
Wy 4 guess he'd be just as particular"
AWeel' SIR" said McDougal, sitting
W. rage within him, "Ill do as you
.1h he took the board and looked
~ H. The words meant nothing to him.
w 'he scene meant much. He went out
~ concluded his agreement with twelve
,e s-et lowering men gathered from the
lint ~. y yside. They were pioneers with
- ~ Aho"ing It. They and their fathers
-. ts sleir fathers fathers had held these
uepohs or the world against wild
,s...s sss and drought and Hood since, CEN
'u,les ago the Jesuits swept through the
,-psonunent and left a trail of settlers
s.,ane them. They were proud, narrow,
lmsad-eht' They were uninyentive, un-
,yss native NO man among them had
iho, ousht 10 lie. They did not steal
ls,sstn', they were robbed whenever they
hueo civilization with their wares.
Az N ~ lhem McDougal had learned that
~. sasl. halfway to the sea, was a place
lness Lleper's and that this LIeber was
! ~ s as the Americana and had fame as
~ OF fevers. Four men could
noes SICK man to Lieber's in a ham
a q ~ iour days, Twelve men could
kunS,.sn ~ tWo' and quicker than that a
n ibrsa men men could not go. For the price
!, Ia Isi Undertake to deliver the sick man
nenoers In two days.
4 hs sal use pondered. 1t was a chance.
.or,s.sseht sent Alan TO the rail-head there
"a ~ De even a chance There was
4, ~. VINO could help at the Tail-head.
.ossi s the thin line, nor even at the
"a INV. Two days" said he despairingly,
6.s asler will be dead"
IN sSthered at the door of AIan's
on.sasl looked in at him as he lay half !
.As IN, No" said the Oldest of them,
"a mtne oe dead in seven days time"
.n pongal picked him up and laid
'hs y IN hammock, Alan came to-
"a biisininoek was padded with pillows
so 80 n,nAets and strung on a stout bam-
clsiBs with two men at each end sup
1se5 are you doing with me?" be
lioss 1nSrly and sank back into the
& nebonsr9m From there his eyes giared up i
ll ent firmly.
( bess smiled twisted smile. Sending !
~ N ne repated and added resign 4
j an right" Then he started :
tlnas matehes9 he said. Me h
tf oA matches from his pocket. i
W TWO letters from inside his h
a them He held them out /