Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1916-01-08
CHAPTER VI.
Love and War.

1t is not necessary to relate all the
details of the months of patient
working and waiting and bitter dis
appointment which followed; but for
ono circumstance | should not wish
TO remember them. That one circum-
stance was the friendship of Beatrice
Cameron Friendship on her side, but
on mine devoted love, a love which
schooled myself to regard as quite
hopeless. | do not think / am less
self confident or self -conceited, which
ever you choose than other men, yet
was never one to presume much on
The favor of women, and my common
sense told me that among a host Of
admirers, all of whom possessed many
advantages which I lacked it was
most unlikely that Beatrice should
choose the least desirable of all. |
am commonplace, workaday fellow,
as i'll calculated as may be imagined
TO win woman against a field nf
brilliant admirers, not more devoted
than myself but more capable of eX-
pressing devotion in words. And SO
it came about that recognizing my
deficiencies ! made no tender
speeches, professed no ardent devo-
ton, but held fast to the friendship,
the bon camaraderie, which grew up
between me and the woman | loved,
and which was the dearer to me be-
cause l knew it was only a question
of time when the friend, who could
be a friend only, would have to yield
his place to a lover.
Very early in our friendship, under
the pledge of secrecy, / told her the
truth about Tom Baldwin and the
manner of his death, and that revela-
ton, which could hardly avoid, led
to my making her the confidante of
my plans to hunt down the Pirates
of the Sky and avenge his death. Her
grief for him. deep and sincere as it
was, was not the grief of one who
loved, any more than her endeavors
to dissuade me from my perilous Ell
terprse expressed more than concern
for dear friend who was running
into danger.
Meantime she little dreamed of the
danger which threatened herself; nor,
to tell the truth. did fully realize it
until the crisis came. But of that |
will tell in its proper place.
OF all her wooers Colmslie seemed
the most likely to win her, and the
most certain if he did win her to
break her heart. For setting aside
the black suspicion which 1 harbored
against him, ! saw clearly, behind the
mask he wore when in her presence,
the cold cruelty of the mans char
aeter. Yet, to do the fellow justice,
he lowered like a giant above the
other men around her His grand
manner his profound knowledge of
the world and of society, his travels
and adventures in many lands, gave
him a prestige to which none among
them could lay claim. His apparent
wealth, from whatever source de-
rived made him seem as desirable a
catch from a worldly point of view
as anyone could wish for and he used
al his advantages with consummate
skill. That he loved her flercely,
madly, 7 knew, and | knew, too, that
he hated and distrusted me. With
how little cause as a rival in love !
acknowledged to myself bitterly; with
what good reason as an enemy of the
band of which I suspected him of
being a member, [ thought he was
unaware.
Beatrice | could not fathom, Bril-
liant. beautiful, capricious, gay, she
connected with all her lovers and
drove them all to distraction
coouetted with all save one, myself,
and noted the exception with savage
pain ~ was q friend only. One of
them, Colmslie she was driving to
the danger point of love madness, and
began to tremble for the result,
little dreaming what the result
would he.