The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-09-06

tuey glanced once more at the clock.
Mrs. Bryant's venomous insinuations
came back to him, all the village talk
OF the girls strange rearing. Fearful
thoughts flashed into his mind, to be
dismissed, shaken off doggedly.
|. Il shall W believe anything that
you do not tell me yourself. But 1t
Is only fair to me that now at last
there be %frankness between u.s."
There r Others" Elinor said, with
dry lips.
"Your father?"
"He is dead. I cannot talk Of him.
This much I can tell you. The parish
house was burned deliberately it was
planned and carefully carried out"
"And you knew"
II had forbidden It."
"You had forbidden it,"
He went to her and caught her by
the shoulders, forcing her to look up
into his face.
"You? Then all this time that you
have seen what you must have seen in
my eyes, you have been"
AT the head Of a band Of thieves
Elinor said slowly.
Ward released her, and turning took
a slow survey Of the room
"Then I suppose this is a trap?" he
said.
1T Is not a trap" Her voice was
dead. II opposed this-this plan from
the start. That is the reason one of
the men-of my friends-suspected
that l."
"Go on. What did he suspect"
"That but that doesn't matter.
He burned the parish house and
planned all this. Tonight he meant
to get the money from you, and Twas
desperate. I could think Of no other
way"
Wards faith in her was slow to die.
He took a step toward her, his hands
out, then dropped them at his sides.
"Then-the night the parish house
burned, when I came down in the dawn
and found you sitting there"-he
clenched his hands-"all the time you
knew. You knewl And I had
thought"
He went to the table. and, opening
the box, slipped the notes and money
it contained into his pocket. Then he
buttoned his coat about him. Elinor
watched him stonily.
"You are going back down the hill1"
II am going home" He did not even
look at her.
IF you would only 60 some place
else," she said pitifully. ITO the club,
or to Mrs. Bryant's. Please believe
me. Whatever I am, and I have told
you the worst, I am trying to think of
you tonight, not Of myself"
II am going back to my house," said
the assistant rector Of Saint Jude's.
He got as far as the door on to the ter
race, and there he turned. It was as
If he dared not look at her, as If he
meant to carry away with him some
| tenderer memory than Of this white.
Tipped, guilty woman before him.
IF I seem hard" he said INSTEAD
lily, ut is because I I'm suffering. You
are quite safe, Of course. I shall not
go to the police" Had he cared less
he would have been more merciful.
Old Henriette watched his figure as
he went down the garden steps and
into the road.
"Strange things in this house !" she
mumbled, shaking her head. "Preach-
ers coming and going at all hours, and
Elinor in a church this morning.
Strange things, Hilary Kingston, since
you went away"
She shuffled along the terrace and
into the house, her thin black shawl
drawn about her shoulders. In the
library Elinor lay face down on the
floor. Old Henriette bent over her.
my lamb, my pet" she soothed her.
"He's a fine man, but there are many
others. And when one is young and
lovely"
Since Elinor made no response but
only moaned, old Henriette rose from
her knees and shufled out Of the room,
but cautiously, as she passed, she took
from a table drawer old Hilary's re-
volver and carried it out under her
shawl.
She was very wise, was wrinkled
Henriette, and she knew the Kingston
blood.
Ward came down the road rapidly.
There was a faint moon. One part of
his mind had ceased to work his high
er faculties were dormant with mis-
cry, with the anesthesia that comes
for a time after great grief or shock.
Physically he was entirely alert; his
keen eyes searched each clump Of
shrubbery before he reached it. Not
that he feared attack for himself; his
cup of life was bitter to his taste that
night, but he carried a trust in his
pockets, that he would deliver.
Huff q waiting at the foot Of the
Kingston place, crouched behind a
wall. If the boy had been jealous be-
fore, he was maddened now. Ward
had been with Elinor. Huff, coming
up the hill had heard his short good
night to Henriette in the garden, had