Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-01-10
ALOYAL LOVE.
BY EDNA LEE WATSON.

They are mine."
The man spoke with steely cold pre-
cision. There was sheer in his tones,
menace in his evil eyes. She met
his fierce glance with unwavering
mien, with difidence and contempt
that stung him to the quick-and she
the bride of a month!
Il congratulate you on your powers
of deceit" he almost Kissed.
Adrienne Mercer raised herself to
her full height.
'If you have discovered what you
might have known, what the world
could have told you long ago, that /
loved the man who gave me these tri-
fies before I met you, it is no revela-
ton of deceit. know not what bale
full power you held over my poor ia
Their, dead but a week, that he drove
me to wed you, because you forced him
to do so. never feigned to even re-
spect you"
"A model wife, trulyl" grated Judge
Rolfe Mercer harshly.
ST am not that to you: I never will
be-" she returned clearly.
He could have struck that fair face
in his mad rage. He could have killed
Vance Orion, had he stood before him.
"Have a care!" he uttered through
his set teeth. IT shall remember this
fond lover of yours"
sHe never was that. No word save
of friendship ever passed between us,
yet glory in saying that he had my
whole heart, and never knew
She replaced the pretty fan, little
cluster of shriveled roses, photo
graph, some invitation notes, the dead
record of the one bright passage in her
girlhood life, in her writing desk,
whence the probing hand Of her hus-
band had unearthed them.
He came home day later, flushed
with drink and triumph.
''When you read the evening paper"
he pronounced in even, but malice
freighted tones, ''and recognize the
sudden downfall of your idol and sole
pattern of perfect manhood, Vance Or
ton, you will perhaps comprehend that
I have not boosted vainly of my pow
err"
Adrienne read the account of the de-
scent on gambling house while its
inmates were engaged in riOtous fra
cas-. There was the name Of the man
she loved. The judge before whom
he and others had been brought had
sentenced three Of them, including Or
ton, to six months in the city BRIDE
well.
Adrienne then comprehended the
full, despicable meanness Of the man
she had welded. Before the week
was out she had summarily left him.
She had means Of her own and sought
a distant seclusion. Then began the
downward descent of Rolfe Mercer,
mercenary judge and crooked politi-
clan. He was ousted from his judi
cial position for accepting bride.
Lower and lower he sank, fortune and
influence gone, until he became COM
mon drunkard and vagabond.
Vance Orion, after his unjust SEN
tence, left the city and began new
life in a border town in Utah. He was
a natural leader among men, and be-
came such in the community. He was
mayor, Judge, and friend Of everybody,
and idolized by the rough miners OF
the district for his fairness"
One day a ragged, bloated, terrified
wretch was brought before him, pro-
tected from the vengeance Of half a
dozen halfbreeds who sought to get at
him as he was brought into the court
room. At once Orion recognized him.
One of the Indians was shouting out
the cause Of the arrest. Rolfe Mercer
had become common thief and tramp,
had visited the hut where his mother
lived, had nearly choked her to death,
forcing from her the few coins she
possessed. The prisoner covered like
the craven he was, as he recognized
the man who had the power to retail
ate In full for past injustice.
Suddenly, however, the son of the
Indian woman leapedsforward, naked
blade in his hand. Before the officers
could prevent him he had plunged the
knife into the side of Mercer, had
leaped through an open window and
was gone.
Scare for the man in every way you
can," ordered Orion. "His wife was a
friend of my friends in the long ago."
But Mercer was beyond the power Of
human aid.
It was when he was dead that an of
30
found in his clothing. One Of these
was of peculiar interest to Orton. For
the first time he knew that husband
and wife had been parted for years.
The document found was letter adj
dressed to a lawyer in a distant city.
1t told him that the writer, Mercer,
was destitute and i'll. The unseen mis-
sive pleaded with the lawyer to infu-
ence his client, his wife, to assist him
in his extremity.
ST am going East for few weeks"
Orion told his secretary, the day after
Mercer had been decently buried. All
those years the remembrance of Adri-
enne had been vivid in his mind. he
longed to see her once again.
His pretense for visiting the lawyer
was that he wished to inform Mrs.
Mercer of her husbands death. It was
in the Office Of the lawyer that he
learned of the separation Of wife and
husband, and knew that Adrienne had
never swerved from her regard and es-
TEEN for himself. The next day she
sent for him.