The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1916-08-18

Ding.
las you know, l had a debt to pay
before | could say: Come, little girl.
let's go and get married So became
a stakeholder in Cortwright's power
company, knowing perfectly we'll when
l consented that the hundred thousand
dollars worth of stock he gave me was
a bribe-the price of my silence and
noninterference with his greedy
schemes"
But you didn't mean to keep 1t;
you know you couldn't keep It'll" she
broke in; and now he did not need to
look to know that her lips were trem.
bling piteously.
Il did keep it."
She dropped quickly on the step be.
side him and sympathetic hand crept
into his.
You kept 1t until the unhappy day
when you gave it to my father, and he
and he threw it away" She was
crying softly, but his attempt to com.
fort her was almost mechanical
Don't cry about the money. 1t had
the devils thumb-prints on 1t, and he
merely claimed his own and got It,"
Then he went on as one determined to
leave nothing untold. Cartwright had
bought me, and served him as only @
man in my position could serve him.
became a promoter. a booster with
the others. There have been times
when a word from me would have
pricked the bubble. haven't said the
word; ! am not saying it now. II
should say it I'd lose at a single
stroke all that have been fighting for
And am not good loser, Amy"
For once the keen, apprehending per
ception failed.
Il don't understand" she said speak
ing as if she were cropping in thich
darkness. 81 mean l don't understand
the motive that could"
He turned to her in dumb astonish
ment.
Il thought | had been making Il
plain as l went along. You wanted
something-you needed it-therefort
1t must be purchased for you. And
the curious part of the besetment IL
that have known all along that was
killing your love for me. If it wasn't
quite dead before, it will die now-noN
that have told you how am fiingins
the last -vestiges of uprightness anG
honor to the winds"
"But how?" she queried. "Yov
haven't told me-"
with the dam completed before con
gress could intervene, Mirapolis would
of course, be quite dead and ready fol
its funeral. But if the Cartwright PEG
pie industriously insist that the spend
ing of another million or two Of gov
eminent money is only another plum
for the city and its merchants and In
dustries, that, Notwithstanding the re-
newed activities, the work will still
stop short of completion and the city
will be saved by legislative enactment
the innocent sheep may be made to
bleed again and the wolves will es
cape"
She shuddered and drew a little
apart from him on the log step.
"But your part in this horrible plot
Victor?" she asked.
1T is as simple as 1t is despicable
In the first place, I am to set the stu.
alton before the department in such a
light as to make it clearly matter OF
public policy to take advantage of the
present Metropolitan crisis by pushing
the work vigorously to a conclusion.
After thus turning on the spigot OF
plenty. / am expected to crowd the
pay rolls and at the same time to hold
back on the actual progress Of the
work. That is all-except that | am to
keep my mouth shut"
But you can't, you can't" she cried.
Then, in passionate outburst: If
you should do such thing as that, 1t
wouldn't kill my love--I can't say that
any more; but it would kill mel
shouldn't want to live!"
He looked around at her curiously.
as If he were holding her at arms
length.
Shall do what you would have me
do, Amy? Or shall l do what is best
for your" The opposing queries were
as impersonal as the arm's-length gaze.
The tears had burned out of the
steadfast eyes which were resting,
with the shining soul looking out
through them, upon the crimsoning
snow peaks of the distant Timanyonis.
How little you know the real Lowell"
she said slowly.
He got up stiff1y and helped her to
her feet and together they stood look.
ing down upon the city of the plain,
lying now under the curved, sunset
shadow cast by the mighty, intending
sweep of the great dam.
.
Monsieur Poudrecaulx Bongras, ro-
tund, smiling and reached and waxed
to broad burlesque of second-empire
fierceness, looked in vain among his
d{u,op o,,octa @ha4 ovoo,uo ear A. -