The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-02-24
CHAPTER XXI.
The Price of Peace.

strangely mlAeu up Wllu MS NE, WHO
held together for his sake, though
wide apart as the poles. 1t said sim
ply. Come at Once. Mr.. Wilton San
dry failing rapidly" and was signed by
the famous specialist.
When the young man read it his
face went white as a swooning WON
ans and the hands that held the yell
low paper shook uncontrollably.
His lips set with a deadly illness
and he stared unseeingly out across
the slough.
The incentive!" triumphed Poppy
Ordway, but oh, why must it take him
from me just now! | hate it," and
sullel anger and disappointment flared
for an unguarded moment in her eyes.
But the face of Siletz between its
braids had suddenly fallen into the
mold of grief, faithful reflection of
Sandry's own, and she slid off the
porch to step softly, unconsciously
near, with her hands clasped in dis
tress.
An hour later the owner Of the Dill
lingworth gave a hand to Poppy and
Siletz simultaneously, looked from n
face to the other, saw Love in the
black eyes and the blue, and felt a
pain at his heart that he could not
explain.
Ma put a motherly touch on his
shoulder and said a word that was
simple and earnest and tender as her
1900, lAa-3 IAh- t~a1r h;n IarH H,,r
ried orders, and Sandry was off in the
rig he had telephoned for to Toledo.
Weak and sad and torn by emo
lions, he watched for two whole days
the great West slide by his Pullman
window-that wondrous West whose
subtle charm had laid abiding hold
upon his soul. Then the middle West
raced past-Montana, Idaho, with their
bleak stretches of -lonesomeness, and
he roared into Chicago on the Trans
continental, only to shoot out again on
his rae with death. He saw that East
begin to come back to him, n for
some strange reason it had lost it's
charm. Was this what he had yearned
for, there among the mighty hills?
These packed and crowded cities, with
their noise and clangor, their trailing
smoke, their hurrying m%ultitudes and
stone and mortar?
YEARLY he closed his eyes and gave
it all, up, turning his sick thoughts
upon the benign old face Of his father.
So at last he reached New York,
looked with odd unfamiliarity upon its
gayety and life, and hurried to the
great old house in Riverside drive.
Breathless, weak, scarce able to
stand for the strain on his right limb,
Sandry paused with Higgins lowering
adoringly around him in the dusky,
draped hall before the magnificent
room of the worries and browns.
There was the ache Of tears in his
throat, a terrible horror Of what lay
behind the closed doors, an unendur-
able anguish Of abnormal love, but he
squared his shoulders, lifted his head
with his old, jaunty air and entered.
He even called a smile to his lips.
In the high-canopied, copper-posted
bed lay the OLD %financier. The fine
old face with it's pleasant tracery was
marked by the hand of the Last Ac.
countant, but it was still the face OF
a great and good man, still neId its
benignity, it's kindness and courtli'
ness.
Now, with Sandry's step, a mighty
gIadness fell upon it, a light OF Joy
that was all-illuminating.
"Walter!" he cried out in a voice
OF momentary strength. ooh, my son!
My son!"
And with a shudder to the boys
ears came an echo, "Absalom!"
He dropped beside the bed. gath
cred the white head in his arms, ant
rocked to and fro as women rock In
anguish.
Presently Mr.. Wilton Sandry pushed
his son from him with failing hands
and gazed upon his face with the
starved eyes Of l~ong-denied affection
my boy!" he whispered brokenly
my life's crown, the point of m!
whole SUGGEST"
The long, white hands quivered OF
Sandry's shoulders. The bright, blu'
ewes began to light marvelously.
81 an at the end of my journey
Walter, and 1t has been a splendit
iourney--a grand tourney-and thanl
INV Maker for it! have been blesse'
beyond most men, beyond my deserts
Your motner-she was above price
cannot estimate her by any method
she was my one love and l have neve
thought of another in all my long life
Nav O find her equal, my son, q pur
voman with a heart of the gold o
undying love. She was an Estaorook-
the best blood in the country. She lef
me you-a son such as only she coul'
,eaye-and you nave proved worthy o
her life. In character. intellect. W