The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-05

VI mo bNNCh oAAo WIN IA mn BOShONs
The butler who admitted him to
the %financier's house looked at him
obviously.
I'll give your lame to Mr.. Henry"
he said, in a non-committal manner
He stopped. Tom barred the way.
Miss Helen Tom stammered.
I'll see, SIR said the butler.
Ten minutes passed. Then the finan-
cier entered the room. He did not
know Tom.
Il am Mr.. Holloran," said Tom. You
remember our agreement-that l was
to marry your daughter in four
years"
The bankers face grew purple. you
impudent rascal" he said. Get out
of my housed"
81 shall wait on the doorstep till I
see Helen" said Tom.
The banker glared at him and left
the room. A quarter of an hour later
he returned with a stylishly dressed
young woman, who looked at Tom as
If he were hardly a human being.
But it was Helen. Tom hardly heard
her s%cathing words, he only knew that
his pride was crushed. Her ringing
laughter dismissed him. He stumbled
from the room.
The next day he entered his IA
theirs house. The old man, hardly
changed, looked up and nodded.
Il recognize you, son." he said.
Still a fool, l reckon. Still banker
ing after that girl. 1 warned ye.
l told ye."
yes, l was a fool" said Tom. i've
come back to get a job with the
boats"
IF that's all you're worth" said the
old man, you'd best have stayed
where you was"
The panic year wiped out many
fortunes, and loudest was the crash
of the Henry chain of banks. In a
day the banker was a ruined outcast,
and the next week a suicide. The
house was sold. The papers contained
strange stories of Helen's discovery
upon the island, and reporters came
and pestered Tom. But nobody knew
anything of the girl.
Still a fool, Tom?" His father
asked one day, as the young man sat
brooding over his nets.
Il reckon So" said Tom.
You've given the best years of
your youth to a worthless woman"
said his father. Now is the time to
look for another"
Tom did not answer. His spirit
seemed broken. All the neighbors
thought that. He seemed to take no
interest in life. Gradually they &C
cepted him as one of themselves
again, and forgot.
There is a legend along the coast
that what the sea gives, it takes; what
1t takes it restores. The winter of that
year was n of raging storms. Many
a ship in distress far out at sea was
that the lifeboat rockets signaled
a wreck upon the rocks in the bay.
They launched the boat. Tom, bend
ing to the oars, saw dimly, through the
blizzard the bulk of a great liner ly-
ing between the n~eedle-points. The
cold cut him like a razor edge. Me-
chanically he bent his strength to the
oar.
AS the boat drew near and tried to
lay alongside, while the breakers
pounded her, a desperate cry of a
multitude fell on their ears. A mighty
wave had swept the decks of half their
huddled humanity. The waves were
black with bobbing heads, hands
clutched wildly for aid and found
none.
Tom leaped into the sea to where
a woman's head appeared for a mo-
ment in the suck of a giant wave. He
seized her by the hair and hauled
her to the boats edge. Somehow they
got her in.
Laden to her gunwales with all
that they had been able to rescue, the
lifeboat made her difficult way to-
ward the shore. But when she reached
it at last and the men and fisherwives
who had assembled there looked into
Toms face they knew who the we'll
dressed strange m was.
Tom kneeled beside her, chatting her
SOlu hohuS' n llCoS VI hSI udlT uuHB
like a wet wisp over him. Her eyes
were closed, but a faint pulse stirred
in her.
She will live" said the doctor that
night. But her brain is injured. How
far, l don't know. 1t is impossible to
say until she wakes
Still a fool, Tom?" inquired his ia
Their, watching his face.
No, sir" said Tom. 81 know her
for what she is; nothing can wipe
that out"
She's asking for you," said the
doctor.
Tom went into the room where
Helen lay. Her eyes were open; as
Tom drew near she stretched out
her hands and found his neck and
held him close.
Il am glad it is so near-our we'd
ding day." she whispered. 1--WE must
never leave each other, dearest. l
shall always be true t. you"
The last four years were wiped from
her mind forever by the shock. And,
as he looked into her eyes, Tom saw
hat this was the real Helen-come
back to him forever.
OLA AI.fA. a. n-..