Charlevoix county herald., 1918-08-02
The Web
of Destiny
BY J. v. 0IEsY q J. q. SMITH
Authors of Semi-Dual Stories
Copyright.
The Frank A. Munsey Co.
CHAPTER l.
A Flx In a Web

INV sOiue iucfueHt, SeemluBiy tTlVidl
in itself, may take position as the
basal note of train of subsequent
happenings? And from that initial
circumstance other things follow in a
gradually ascending scale like notes
OH musical stave until the grand,
crasN ing climax is reached and leaves
us thrilling with the vibration OF its
meaning.
In my work as a newspaperman and
later as a detective, have. Yet who
could have suspected that a fly caught
in the meshes of a spiders web was
the initial occurrence of drama OF
human life-would strike the key.
note OF the things which followed in
unbroken sequence for days to come?
The train had stopped at Salida,
where the road over Marshall Pass
and the line to Leadville separate to
meet again at Grand Junction. The
mighty grandeur of the Royal Gorge
of the Arkansas had been left behind
us, though it's influence still fingered
as a lesson of mans smallness when
opposed to the forces of nature.
AT Salida they hook on helper en-
CINE, and there is usually some delay
before the train again takes up its
western climb. Connie and Semi Dual
and l had descended from the Obser-
walton platform from which we had
viewed the wondrous canon the river
has cut through the mountain barrier,
and were spending the time of the
wait in walking up and down the
platform beside the string Of Pull
mans.
That was how Connie came to notice
the spiders web in the first place.
The depot building and platform are
of wooden construction, and the sun
was hot on the June day which found
us there.
Dual had gone on up the train to-
ward the front, and Connie drew into
the sMSd3 cast by the overhanging Of
the dssSfs caves. followed, and we
paused close beside a window. where,
in the upper corner of the frame, a
spider had spun its web.
Look" said my wife, pointing.
EVERY time l see nything like that
/ want a broom"
nodded. 1.-The housewifely in
stinct," l responded 1.-The spider,
however, is merely trying to make a
living in the only way he knows.
He"
"Oh," cried Connie, hes caught a
ny!"
He had. While we were talking
one of several of the insects which
had been buzzing about the platform
had circled and darted squarely into
the outer segment of the web, where
II now buzzed and whirred with a
great flutter of wings and Intellectual
efforts at escape. Under its struggles
emily a small dark body appeared
from the funnel-like opening close up
by the frame of the casing.
Spider knows he's got bite"
remarked.
The fly ceased to struggle and lay
still. 1t might have been dead al
ready save for faint culver Of the
wings. One could imagine that II lay
In it's bonds and painted with its eff
forts and a sort of fright.
Connie touched my arm. "The
poor little thing. Gordon, set 1t
loose" she urged.
Dual spoke While we had been
absorbed in the minor tragedy being
played out before us he had ap-
pro6ched from his stroll up the plat
form land now stood directly at our
backs.
1.-THE unwilling fly, Mrs. Glace,"
said he, having manifestly heard her
cutlery. He smiled: ION the face Of
the thing it is but a matter OF food
catching by the spider. Looking be-
low the surface Il Is an illustration OF
the working out of the laws of the
universe, which says that Ignorance
is no defense or excuse from the pay
ing of the penalty of our acts.
THE act must bring its effect with
inmutable surety, be II greater or less.
The fly which unwittingly filings it.
self into the meshes of the web is as
certainly lost as though 1t had DELHI
erately cast itself therein. In either
enstance the penalty is death for the
flefood for the spider. The advice.
Christian, walk carefully is exceed
ingly worthy of consideration by all Of
US. It's application would save much
pain"
Connie turned her eyes upon him
as he spoke.
"Just the same, IL seems like a
cruel law" she rejoined as he finish
ed. The poor little fly was so hap
py, and now-I was asking Gordon
to help 1t escape"
A smile lighted the warm olive of
Duaps face and shone in his gray
eyes.
Its the law Of immutable justice
to which there are no exceptions" he
re<6lied slowly. 1T operates for each
phne of existence In its own particu.
lar application. Hence II follows that
its application on . higher plane may
transcend It's working on a lower
thus"
He put up finger and thumb Az
deity extracted The ,ned bD-