The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1917-05-17

! fore Jim with her hands clasped. "How
AN / thank your" she cried. "He IL
| everything l have, he is everything in
the world to me-"
"Be my friend" said Jim holding
tut his hand.
That was Jim's chance. Friendship
ipened. One day he asked her to be-
come his wife. Then the strange look
If fear that he knew SO well came
INTO her eyes.
mo, you must not ask me that"
she said. II shall never marry again."
And, seeing Jim's distress, she added !:
II will tell you the truth. l am a
runaway wife. l cannot speak Ill Of
my husband now. could have borne
with his infidelIties, with his abuse,
butt did not want my boy to grow
up to be like him."
1t was weeks afterward that she
told him all. Her husband was q
wealthy man In Omaha. When she
found that she could endure life with
him no longer she had run away,
penniless, save for her railroad ticket.
He had one redeeming quality: he
loved his son. On this account she
knew that he would leave no stone
unturned to find them.
Jim went away, Borrowing. He
knew now that she could never be
his. For she shrank instinctively, he
felt without asking, from the pub
LEFTY Of divorce. Besides, to seek
divorce would be to put her husband
on her trail. She wanted to let the
years roll between them, creating an
ever widening barrier, until she felt
that the past could never stretch out
its grisly hand upon her.
So the months changed into years.
1t was nearly three years since Leila's
coming when something happened
which Jim had always known to be
inevitable.
1t was morning, and he was on the
high pastures with his cattle when
he saw her running toward him, with
the boy, scrambling up the steep hill
side. She reached him; her face was
white with fear.
"He has found mel" she gasped.
10, save me Help mel"
Up the road came the foot of an
auto horn. Jim saw the car climb
the grade like heavy locomotive.
The car stopped. A man leaped |
out, a man In the prime Of life, alb
surdly strong, absurdly healthy, with |
the buster, and yet the sense of pow
er, that sometimes accompanies the |
successful man.
He leaped to the ground and adj
vanced upon the woman, smiling. Jim
barred his path.
"My wife," he said.
~ know" answered Jim.
"See here, young man. You don't
perhaps understand. l am here to
wife and child. She has nothing to
fear from me. l have never laid my
hands upon her. Stand out of my
path
you may have legal right" said
Jim, "but you amt going to take her."
The man laughed, whipped off his
coat, and displayed a pair Of muscular
arms. "Her lover?" he sneered.
"God witness, there has never been
love between u.s." answered Jim.
The woman sprang between them.
"Jlm, he is right" she said Nov
be has found me, must go with him."
Jim, amazed at the change of atti-
tude, stood absolutely mute. The man
nodded.
Good for you" he said. Leila, ,
The past is past. You'll never hear ,
# 1t from me. It's only for the boys
'ake l want you back. And l guess !
you'll be happier than you WERE" I
Mechanically the girl entered the /
luto. They lifted the boy inside. The t
lorn footed. They were gone. And q
I'm stared foolishly after them.
How strong the bonds between hus- '
and and wifel She was gone out Of q
is life. He had never dreamed of a
UGH thing. But why had she gone n
nth him, when he was ready to fight a
or her? y
Jim did not understand women, A
heir changes, their sense of duty O
oming in so oddly at critical mo- d
tents. Like man In a dream he h
'atched the car shoot down the hill. a
1t was going very fast. The brake c,
as damaged by the rough road, in q
let, but Jim did not know that All o.
g thought was that 1t was going very Ct
lst toward the cutting. And sud- st
anly there came the roar of the train I
aving the tunnel. al
The auto shot forward. 1t was now fc
'idently beyond control. Jim began al
run. n,
But he was much too far away to
J of any help. AS he ran he saw
e dreadful picture: the train rae
& along the narrow cutting, the auto ~
ught and overturned; the desperate :,
'orts of the occupants to free them IT,
Then he saw the man stagger to nj,
J feet, lift the boy In his arms and o.
IS him TO the farther bank. The o.
lin was almost upon him. kissing 10,
ortlng Eonster with flaming breath. 81,
t he caught up the woman In his ~.