The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1918-10-01
PAGE SEVEN

- ioI ever. W. veg dSSUu.-,,
innocent air quite dramatically. Son,,.
OF the war office people believed in hi,,
until the damning documents were laid
before them.
ana he was still somehow in touch
with things, Wallace, and the leakages
went On afterward. That's why we
mad orders to hang him as soon as
Santiago was taken. He did the kind
est thing he could have done to him
sel1 when he got in the way of tina.
sniper's bullet.
Ill tell you who the child's mother
was, Wallace, because I was urfortu-
nate enough to know her. She was
MISS Rennie, Miss Marjorie Rennie,
oI Baltimore family-fine people.
aho' OF course. with a tradition like
that, she believed in the scOuudrel All.
solute!y. She came to me twice Tho
HrSt time was before the informal trial
helu Dy the department. She begged
me TO believe he was innocent and the
Vlctlm OF ,i"H. | wouldn't even lis
ten. You know, when man has to
run down his friend he has to harden
his heart
she came to me again after Hamn-
ton Vas broken. She told me I had
played false to my best friend and
that Id SUITE, for Il to the LAST d,v of
ny lie. I've never forgotten that in
'0itie"' ana YOU can guess now it
made me !lad to hang HAMPTON when
We learned that he was still keanine
up the game from his exile in Cuba.
lie must have got quite a nuIaber OF
conndent!al papers out Of the war Of
ice. That's about all"
Its enough" said Wallace. .The
girl married him. than?"
SO much we learned. And ,,,o tha+
SIZE uleu later. You see, wer We been
pretty close On the fellows track the
last couple Of years-ever since the
war became a probability, in tact.
Most Of the officers in the regiment
are since that time, but l guess they
All Knew something, and kept it quiet.
like you"
Wallace nodded. 81 fancy there's a
good deal Of feeling" he said.
quite good deal" said the ma Tor.
f.ryly. And | guess you'll agree with
ne that this makes it-let's say, a lit
tie difficult to adopt his child Off
cially?''
You mean the remembrance would
be too b;tterl"
l mean that that position is the
one anu only position that She is dis
qualified from holding. by reason of
birth"
the blood. The mother was decent.
Why should that baby be furnished
with her fathers treachery?"
Its written in the Good Book"
began the major.
And there's something else about
Goals of fire, too, Major, which came
as sort Of revision of the old law.
It's just what we ought to do, because
It's the only way to adjust the mat
ter"
Adjust it? Adjust what?" cried
the Major, with sudden passion.
''The whole of that hellish business.
Major. The man was once an officer
OF the Seventeen. He's dead and his
crimes have died with him. We want
TO forget that such a thing could have
happened, and the only way is to leave
him to Gods Judgment and to cast
out all bitterness from our hearts.
You quoted Scripture to Newell, 1
gave you the answer from the same
Book. Let death bring oblivion to the
mans memory. He's left us the child.
Start here. Start fresh. 1 have the
right to the kid but what you have
told me makes me feel strongly that
there's Providence in this affair.
and I'll lend her to you-mark that
word, Major lon that condition or
none"
Major Howard pulled at his mus
tache in agitation. "You don't really |
mean it, Wallace?" he asked.
II do. If you want me to let you
take her till the wars over"
st means forgiving that black
guard"
''It means forgetting him and letting
the Judge Judge"
1T goes against every instinct. I'd
bring her up away from the reghnental
life. Besides, there are the Others"
"Who else knows?"
swell, Of course, nobody else knows
who the dead man was. The colonel
will have to know. But he needn't
know we've adopted the child He's
going South after the war However,
I'm afraid Kellerman knows. He rec.
Ogn1zed what was left of the face, OF
somehow. I could tell from
his manner"
don't see any overwhelming diff.
hcufty in that. You can trust Keller.
mar
The major nodded, and it occurred
to Wallace that he would rather trust
any of the officers than Kellerman. He
had conceived prejudice against him
which he coulG not have explained.
And Hampton's name was erased
from the old mess list" Wallace con-