Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1916-06-16

| uCIl d TSChl6SS LOOK CTOSScu
face. lie called UP once more the old,
smile. mot a thing" he insisted.
Nothing whatever. It's little cold
! outside tonight Perhaps" he added
with restless laugh, his eyes wander
Ing over the gay faces all about, some
ones walking over my grave"
"Oh," exclaimed his friend. "Are
you superstitious?"
NO. returned Seagrue, almost
fiercely, "only tired of the world and
everything in it. Where is Helen?"
"She's in the library said his COM
panion. You're awful late. Let's go
and find her."
She would have led him into the
library. He stopped on the threshold
and refused to enter. He saw, as in
vision, what others-now that the
room was filled with laughing men and
wOmen-did not see. He saw mid
night within it and his own accom-
plices in death grapple with an old
man. He saw that old man laid out
few moments later on a couch, doc
tor bending anxiously over him to de-
tect heart beat. And he saw the sur
geon's face as he looked up and grave
ly said: General Holmes is dead!"
Despite his reckless bravado,
shudder gripped him for an instant
again. He shook it off and braced
himself with angry resentment. NO."
he said brusquely, II won't go in there
too much of a crowd for me. I'll
try the reception room" Turning, he
encountered Rhinelander The two
men greeted each other briefly.
RhiAelander spoke with kindness to
his nephew. He tried to tell him that
he wanted him to do differently. He
assured him that neither he nor Helen
cherished any lasting resentment for
what had gone before and now that
they two were the winners, they meant
to be generous to the losers and to
him in especial.
Il am willing" declared Rhineland'
err, "and l think that Helen will stand
with me in it, to give you an interest
in the mine-it is big enough to make
a dozen millionaires. Make a man
of yourself, Earl, that's all we ask
Well do the rest"
Seagrue regarded him with an eX
| preston so terrible that it shocked
Rhinelander, but what was passing
through Seagrues mind, he could moi
tell.
Tomorrow" Seagrue muttered, like
one hardly in possession Of his senses
not tonight-Pll talk to you tomor
| row. Where's Helen?"
She left here this moment for the
conservatory with George Storm
Seagrue took a step forward, as II
to go to her. Then he stopped and
turned away Someone took Rhine
lander's attention and he lost sight
of his nephew, but the woman who
had first spoken to Seagrue afterward
related what she saw. Seagrue looked
once more toward the library. He di
rected his steps toward it. On the
threshold he halted abruptly again,
as if rudely checked by an unseen
hand He looked about as if he saw
and heard what others did not see and
hear. Then, shaking himself loose
from the seeming clutch of invisible
fingers, he took a determined step,
strobe into the library as one who
accepts challenge, walked defiantly
through the room and out of the French
doors he himself had opened on a mid
night to a murderer.
He disappeared from sight in the
shrubbery of the garden and walked
some distance before he encountered
those whom he had gone out to meet.
Even the two hiding men saw the emo
ton under which he was laboring. He
| told them what he had seen, told them
/ Of Storms escape, the thwartng of
his plans, and with oaths gave them
orders as to what to do and how to
do it. He trembled with furious en-
phasis as he spoke ON. "And when
the coast is clear" he exclaimed, at
last, I'll drop my handkerchief"
Turning on his heel, he left them. The
two murderers looked uncertainty at
each other. Something of his uneasi-
ness communicated itself to them.
In the conservatory, Helen and
| Storm were conversing with guests.
The guests left the room as Seagrue
came in and he returned, somewhat
stif11y, the greeting Of Helen and Storm.
| Storm, resolved now to be generous
| with his enemy, stepped to the punch
| bowl and filling glasses, crossed the
| conservatory with them to serve
| Helen and Seagrue. In the garden,
Ward and Adams, watching intently,
saw his silhouetted figure on the low
| cred curtain.
And Storms trifling act of hospital,
| ity was to prove his salvation and
Seagrue's undoing. Having seen that
the punch bowl was nearly empty he
excused himself and stepped into the
next room to summon maid to refill
it. The door of this room-a break
fast room-opening on the garden,
stood, for the evening, ajar The
maid, reaching up on the sideboard for
napkin, when Storm spoke to her,
let it fall from her hand as she turned
The white square of linen, partly I'M