Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-06-08
the pit out Of my nostrTIs."

to be up here where we can look down
upon 1t and see 1t in its true perspec-
tfVe-as mere little impertinent blot
on the landscape. It's only that, after
ali, Victor. See how the great dam
your work-oyershadows It."
That is one Of the things | hoped I
might be able to see if I came here
with YOU, he returned slowly. But
can't get your point Of view. ANY I
shall never be able to get it again"
! You did have 1t once" she asserted.
Or rather, you had a better one Of
| your own. Has Gomorrah changed itp"
NO, not Gomorrah. could shut the
waste-gates and drown the place to-
| morrow for all that Mirapolis. or any,
tnlng IN 1t, means to me. But some
thlng has changed the point of view
for me past mending, since that first
oay when we sat here together and
looked down upon the beginning of the
reclamation construction camp-be-
| fore Gomorrah was ever thought nf"
/ know" she said again. But
that dreadful city is responsible. 1t has
robbed Us ALL Victor; but you more
than any, I'm afraid"
No" he objected. "Mirapolis has
been only a means 10 an end. The
thing that has changed my point of
VleW-my entire life-is love, as have
told you once before"
"Oh, no." she protested gently. rts-
ing to take her old place, with her
pack to the porch post and her hands
behind her. And then, still more
gently; That is almost like sacrilese.
Victor, for love is sacred"
Il can't help it. Love has mada q
great scoundrel of me, Amy; a GRIM
mai, If mans laws were as closely
meshed as Gods"
Il can't believe that" she dissented
loyalty
1T is true. 1 have betrayed NV
trust. Cartwright will make good in
all OF his desp1cable schemes. Congress
Will Intervene and the Niquoia project
will be abandoned"
Tell me-" she begged briefly: and,
since he was staring fixedly at the
scored slopes of Jacks mountain. he
did not see that she caught her lin
between her teeth to stop it's trem-
bling.
AS you know, | had a debt to nav
before l could say: Come, little girl.
let's go and get married. So I became
a stakeholder in Cortwright's power
company, knowing perfectly we'll when
consented that the hundred thousand
dollars worth Of stock he gave me was
bribe-the price of my silence and
noninterference with his greedy
schemes"
But you didn't mean to keep it:
you know you couldn't keep it," she
broke in; and now he did not need to
look to know that her lips were trem-
bling piteously.
I did keep it."
She dropped quickly on the stem be-
side him and sympathetic hand crept
into his.
You kept it until the unhappy day
when you gave it to my father, and he
and he threw 1t away" She was
crying softly, but his attempt to com.
fort her was almost mechanical.
Don't cry about the money. It 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 "Cortwright had
bought me, and l served him az only
man in my position could serve him. I
became promoter, booster with
the others. There have been times
when a word from me would have
pr1cked the bubble. | haven't said the
word; l am not saying it now. fl
should say It I'd lose at a single
stroke all that have been fighting for.
And I am not a 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 thick
darkness. Il mean l don't understand
the motive that could"
He turned to her in dumb astohish-
ment.
Il thought I had been making 1t
plain as | went along. You wanted
something-you needed it-therefore
1t must be purchased for you. And
the curious part of the besetment Ia
that | have known all along that was
killing your love for me. If 1t wasn't
quite dead before, it will die now-now
that l have told you how am finging
/ the last vestiges Of uprightness and
honor to the winds"
"But how" she queried. You
haven't told me-"
with the dam completed before con-
gress could intervene, Mirapolis would,
Of course, be quite dead and ready for
it's funeral. But If the Cartwright peo-
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-
neTed 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 it is despicable
In the first place, 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