The Mena weekly star., 1916-05-18

You had a reason and wish to know it."
 For Gods sake. don't jest with me! Do what you mean to do and have mercy enough not to turn this business into a burlesque If it is a confession you want"
 Destinn rose. and his heavy fist rest ed clenched on the table.
 T have asked for your justifcation," he said. For ten minutes am pre- pared to judge you by my own laws. It is an offer worth accepting, Arnaud."
 He Is my enemy"
 For what reasonY
 "There are only two reasons pos sible. When we hate. it is either be- cause the object has injured or bene- flied us unbearably. have both these reasons to justify me"
 You have still five minutes to ex- plain, Captain Arnaud."
 "Explainr' He laughed. and in his laughter there already sounded a note of suffering becoming intolerabe. "Ex- plain in five minutes what it has taken months for me to realize-my God and yet it is simple enough. A woman the eternal cause, the eternal expla- nationv'
 Your wife?"
 "Who else?"
 q have heard rumors, Arnaud."
 'T have lost my wife; I lost her months ago-I never possessed her. It was dream. She fell in love with me on moonlight night when the regi- mental band played in the Cercle and there was glamour and color every where-over Sidi-bel-Abbes, over me- over my life, over my love for her. We know that glamour, my colonel. It makes madmen out of us. It blinded her. l followed her to England while the glory of it all was still strong in her imagination. I made her throw over the man to whom she was virtual ly bound"
 ''The man whom you tried to mur- der last nighti"
 You're right--you guessed right. 1 That was the man. l made her break with him. It would have been | damnable thing to have done if had known-but I never knew for certain. l refused to see for myself, and she never told me. Perhaps. anyhow, it wouldn't have mattered. All's fair in love, and I didn't care who suffered. But that wasn't all 1 was in debt. An international spy had got hold of and bribed and threatened me al ternately. To get out of his clutches, gambled like fool and lost--lost all the time. At last 1 yielded. 1 made use of my friendship with an English officer to get hold of what 1 believed to be valuable information Oh. did i 1t badly enough. They found me out and there wasn't an inch between me and ruin. God knows what would have been the end. I just sat there and waited for them to make up their minds. The man I had busted was op- posite me, and I waited for him to laugh He came forward and accepted the responsibility. You understand he was one of them, and he tied their hands. His friend held the door open 1 for him and he went out. It was all l done in a minute I was saved.
 q paid. It was true-my wife's ideal had been saved-but only for the time. Little by little she got to know me and to compare. Oh, she said nothing; but I saw 1t, heard 1t, felt it in every movement, every look, every tone. The man she had cast off became the hero, the realization of her dreams, and was what had been from the begin ning-a neurotic weakling in a uni- form, roue who had kept clean for her sake. She shrank from me and I knew she hated me. And he was in my power I don't know whether meant to kill him or not. I had ceased to think. Last night chance had the reins. Perhaps at the last mo- ment I might have held back, for the thing sickened me-but 1 saw her. She stood opposite him in the moonlight and she was smiling heard him call her name-and then-it was all done in fiash--I shot him down."
 The dry cracked voice broke off. Arnaud staggered to his feet, his hands outstretched in a movement of tragic resignation. That Is my explanation. Make an end" he said.
 Colonel Destinn did not move. In the yellow sun-scorched atmosphere his own face looked liyid, and there were fresh lines about the mouth which gave it deeper, more ruthless power and concentration. The pencil with which he had been playing lay snapped in half in the middle of the table.
 "Your ten minutes are over, and you have justified yourself" he said. You are free"
 You are liberating madman. What have done I shall do again."
 What Is that to mel" said Colonel DesHnn, smiling.
 They watched each other in silence. In Arnaud's eyes there were fear and incredulous question. He made vague uncertain movement as though groping through darkness. Then came the sud den inevitable collapse of an exhausted personality and the man was once more the automaton, the instrument of pre- dominating will Without a word he saluted and turned and staggered from the room.
 (Continued Next Week,
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