The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1916-03-16
CHAPTER xvIIl-cont,nued.


winch ! was engaged, had not this
knowledge OF actual and unpublished
Hine come to ease my conscience.
'ohn Scoville was worthy of death.
ahd' pelng 80, should receive the full
reward Of his deed need hesitate
20 longer
Ihat night slept. But there came
night when | did not. After the pen.
ATTY had been paid and to most mems
eyes that episode was over, I turned
the first page of that volume OF slow
5etrlDution which is the doom OF the
man who sins from impulse. and has
the recoil Of his own nature to face
relentlessly to the end OF his days.
ScoVilie was In his grave. was alive.
ScoVille had shot man for his money.
had struck a man down In my wrath
ocoVllle's widow and little child must
tace cold and unsympathetic world.
with small means and disgrace rising,
nke wall. between them and social
sympathy. n not between them and
ehe actual means Of living.
divers future faced him untouched
No shadow lay across his path to hin.
der his happiness or to mar his
chances
The results were unequal. | began
20 see them so, and feel the gnawing
VI mat deathless worm whose raw.
ages lay waste the breast, while hand
ehd brain fulfill their routine Of work.
as though all were well and the foun.
cations of life unshaken.
! suffered as only towards suffer. I
held on to honor; held on to home:
! held on to Oliver. but with misery
tor my companion and self.contempt
which nothing could abate. Each time
! mounted the bench felt tug at
my arm az OF visible. restraining
presence. Each time returned to my
nome and met the clear eye of Oliver
beaming upon me with it's evergrow-
ing promise of future comratleship. |
experienced rebellion against my
own happiness which opened my eyes
20 my own nature and it's inevitable
demand. must give up Oliver, or
yield my honors, make a full confes.
sion and accept whatever conse.
quences 1t might bring. am proud
man, and the latter alternative was be.
yond me. could forego pleasure.
travel. social intercourse. and even
the companionship Of the one being in
"hom all my hopes centered. but |
could not. OF my own volition, pass
from the judges bench to the felon's
cell. There struck the immovable-
the impossible.
decided in one awful night of re.
hunciation that | would send Oliver
out of my life.
The next day told him abruptly
hurting him to spare myself
that had decided after long and ma.
ture thought to yield to his desire for
Journalism and that would start him
In his career and maintain him in it
for three years II he would subscribe
to the following conditions:
/. They were the hardest loving IA.
ther ever imposed upon dutiful and
towing son.
First. he was to leave home immedi-
ately within a few hours in
fact.
Second, he was to regard all rela
tions between us as finished: we were
TO be strangers henceforth in every
particular save that OF the money OBJ
Hgation already mentioned
Third, he was never to acknowledge
this compact. or to cast any slur upon
the father whose reasons for this ap.
parently unnatural conduct were quite
disconnected with any fault OF his or
any desire to punish or reprove.
Fourth he was to pray for his fa.
ther every night Of his life before he
slept.
Was this last confession? Had
meant 1t to be such? II SO, 1t missed
It's point. 1t awed but did not frighten
him.
had to contend with his compunc-
tions as we'll as with grief and dis.
may. 1t was an hour Of struggle on
his part and of implacable resolution
on mine. Nothing but such hardness
on my part would have served me.
Had ! faltered once he would have
won me over. and the tale Of my sleep
less nights been repeated. did not
falter. and when the midnight stroke
rang through the house that night
1t separated by It's peal sin. .beclouded
but human past from future arid
with solitude and bereft of the one
possession to retain which my sin had
been hidden
became father without son-as
lonely and as desolate as though the
separation between us were that OF
the grave had merlted and so weakly
summed
But was not yet satisfied. How
could l insure for myself the extreme
which my peace demand.
cd, without bringing down upon me
the full consequences I refused to
accept
You have seen how ultimate.