The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1919-07-03

Lights flashed below them In the
village and voices rose; a oarse laugh
rang out and a child's cry; some peo-
pie talked in an open doorway in an
other place and called good night.
Then a door slammed and other lights
twfnkled; just the commonplace noises
of life jarring in to break a moment OF
tremendous import in the lives OF
these two. The time had come to go
down to their valley and they knew It.
With one lingering hand clasp they
started on down to the village.
Holt selected the Swallowed ways
and quieter approach to the Harring-
ton home, and the two rode silently
until they came to the house.
You're wonderful. he exclaimed
intensely. You're not like any other
girl I ever saw. But, 1t wouldn't do.
Your father might stand for 1t, but
your b~rotherinlaw would. He
hates me like poison, not SO much be-
cause OF my reputation as because I've
stood in the way Of some of his plans,
He would kick me out like a dog IL I
darkened his doors. Youll understand
when you hear them talk. II void be
just as well IL you didn't say anything
about me. 1t won't be necessary for
them to know who brought you home;
Just say a man who was on the
train" ~
Jean Strengthened up in her saddle
and grasped his hali. %
Indeed I shall tell them who brought
me out of death. and just what I think
OF him. They shall know all that you
have done for me. Do you think I
would keep still about it? couldn't.
II would be ~disloyalty. It would be
c~owardly!"
He watched her kindling face and
flashing eyes in the moonlight and
hungrily stored the picture away in
his memory. .
Darling" he breathed reverently,
as If the words were drawn from his
lips in spite of all resolution. Then,
raising his voice a trifle, and lifting
his head to the night sky:
81 never knew a girl could be like
this! What a fool I have beea!" The
words ended almost in a groar, and
for answer the girl drew nearer to him
and laid her other hand gently Upon
his.
Holt checked the horses and. dis
mounting, stood beside Jean in the
shadow of a great tree by the roadside.
Within 10 feet Of them the light from
a wide window streamed out upon the
grass in front Of a pleasant house built
In bungalow style, with broad porches
and vine clad approaches. Ham
mocks and easy rockers were dimly
visible, with a brighter hint of glow
and warmth inside the swaying cur
tains of a window where a piano was
sounding pleasantly, and a man and
woman were sitting on either side of
q table under a prettily shaded reading
lamp. A. boys voice called down the
stairs and the little girl at the piano
stopped playing and answered him;
then tinkled on with her music.
All this the two under the tree saw
and heard without sensing it. They
were looking into one another's eyes
In the semi-darkness, realizing that
across that streak Of light was separa-
ton for them, perhaps forever; and
that probably this instant here and
now was all that was left to them to-
gether out of the eternity Of the future
years. ,-
Jean put her hands timidly on Hollis
shoulders. 1--WE been thinking what
it was you wanted to ask of me-" she
said so softly that il n had been
passing it would have seemed but the
breathing Of the evening air. She
waited and Holt looked at her visit.
fully.
81 have no right" he said. ut
wouldn't be square"
The girls eyes looked steadily, shyly
into his, though in the shadow they
could see more with the spirit than
with the material vision.
"Was IT." she stopped, her heart
beating fast. was it-this?" u
She leaned forward and kissed hfm
softly on the forehead Just where the
soft curls waved away; and her lips
were like a benediction, that seemed
to bring forgiveness and a purging
away Of the past. ...r-
With bowed head as at a sacrament
he stood, then softly said: ''
"You have understood, and I THANK
you. had no right to ask, but / can
never forget or be false to that"
He stopped and laid his lips rever'
emily on her hands; then lifted her
down quickly, as IL he couidrnot bear to
make the sorrow Of the parting longer;
and together they went forward scross
the patch Of light, up the path and the
wide low steps to the porch. g..
Holt knocked once on the door. not
loudly. but there was in the sound a
menace that made Jean shudder as she
heard 1t. She reached out her hand
to his as II she would take shelter
there from something that was com
ing, that she could not quite under
stand. Holt pressed her fingers
quickly. tightly in a clasp that almost
hurt her, and then dropping her hand
stepped back into the shadow OF the
vines as the tinkling piano stopped
There was q sound Of footsteps com
in gto the door. and OF voices il expec