River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-06-20

was still clasped in his old hand, and
there was a look of grim tenderness
on the face on the pillow, turned
toward his dead sons picture.
Troubled times now, with the carni
val only day or two off, and the shop
windows gay with banners; with the
committee of ten in almost constant
session, and Olga Loschek summoned
before it, to be told Of the passage, and
the thing she was to do; with the old
king very close to the open door, and
Hedwig being fitted for her bridal robe
and for somber black at one fitting.
Troubled times, indeed. The city
was smOldering, and from some
strange source had come a new rumOr.
Nothing less than that the royalists,
headed by the chancellor, despairing Of
crown1ng the boy prince, would, on the
kings death, make away with him,
thus putting Hedwig on the throne
Hedwig, queen of Karnia perhaps al
ready by secret marriage.
The city, which adored the boy, was
seething. The rumor had originated
with Olga Loschek, who had given it
to the committee as a useful weapon.
Thus would she have her revenge on
those of the palace, and at the same
time secure her own safety. Revenge,
indeed, for she knew the way of such
rumors, how they fly from house to
house, street to street. How the in
nocent, proclaiming their innocence,
look even the more guilty.
When she had placed the scheme be-
fore the committee of ten, had seen
the eagerness with which they grasped
it-''in this way" she had said, in her
scornful, incisiEe tones, "the Onus of
the boy is not on you, but on them.
Even those who have no sympathy
with your movement will burn at such
a rumor. The better the citizen, the
more lover of home and order, the
more outraged he will be. Every man
in the city with child Of his own will
rise against the palace"
Madame" the leader had said,
''you should be of the committee"
But she had ignored the speech con-
temptuously, and gone on to other
things.
Now everything was arranged.
Black Humbert had put his niece to
work on a carnival dress for small
boy, and had stayed her curiosity by
hint that it was for the American
lad.
"They are comfortable tenants" he
had said. ''NOt lavish, perhaps, as
rich Americans should be, but orderly,
and pleasant. The boy has good man.
ners. 1t would be well to please him."
So the niece, sewing in the back
room, watched Bobby in and out, with
pleasant mysteries in her eyes.
Now and then, in the evenings,
when the Americans were away, and
Bobby was snug in bed, with Tucker
on the tiny feather comfort at his
feet, the Fraulein would come down
stairs and sit in Black Humbert's
room. At such times the niece would
be sent on an errand, and the two
would talk. The niece, who, although
she had no lover, was on the lookout
for love, suspected a romance of the
middie-aged, and smiled in the half
darkness of the street: smiled with a
touch of malice, as one who has
pierced the armOr of the fortress, and
knows it's weakness.
But it was not love that Humbert
and the Fraulein talked.
Herman Spier was busy in those
days and making plans. Thus, day by
day, he dined in the restaurant where
the little Marie, now weary of her
husband, sat in idle intervals behind
the cashiers desk, and watched the
grass in the place emerge from it's
winter hiding place. When she turned
her eyes to the room, frequently she
pale yet burning, fixed on her. And at
last, one day when her husband lay
lame with sciatica, she left the desk
and paused by Herman's table,.
''You come frequently now" she OBJ.
served. ''It is that you like US here,
or that you have risen in the shop?"
II have left the shop" said Herman,
staring at her. Flesh, In moderate
amount, suited her well. He liked
plump women. They were, if you
please, an armful. "And come to see
you"
''Left the shopw Marie exclaimed.
"And Peter Niburg-he has left also?
never see him."
"No," said Herman noncommittally.
''He is Ill, perhaps?"
''He is dead" said Herman, devour-
ing her with his eyes.
"Dead!" She put a hand to her
plump side.
aye. Shot as a spy" He took an
other piece of the excellent pigeon pie.
Marie, meantime, lost all her looks,
grew pasty white.
'Of the-the terrorists? she de-
manded, in a whisper.
'Terrorists! No. OF Karnia. He
was no patriot"
So the little Marie went back to her
desk, and to her staring out over the
place in intervals Of business. And
oh