The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1920-04-23

| safety; and the trail was cold. And
here was a fourth man, Hilliard-to
take his word for it-and the world is
larger than the curiosity of sincere
people to encompass.
No-if Neuilly surgeon ever told
as one of the mysterious chapters of
the war what had happened to GER
tain gloomy individual that summer,
the name would suggest nothing. And
| as far as checking up tie visits of
a mythical billiard to very real Du-
| tout was concerned, who would pro-
fesS to remember? The testimony of
any single witness would be inmate
rial.
The voice of Carol Durant was echo
Ing in billiards. ears, and billiard,
yielding to a tidal wave of reckless
ness, and of swelling anger at imagi-
nary wrongs, looked sQuarely into
Carols eyes, and spoke with winning
urgency.
EYES," he said. 81 have news Of
Morgan. In fact, I'm here in Syracuse
solely because 1 have it. I've just
been telling Mr.. Cullen-and Miss Gull
len-that I was with him when he
died"
She didn't speak, at first; she mere
ly looked at Hilliard and grew very
white, and her lips quivered. Pres
emily she swayed little, and reached
out with her hand toward the back
of a convenient chair. Armstrong
stepped toward her, and Angela Gull
len slipped an arm around her waist.
Hes e. dead?" she repeated,
and her tone was not yet free from a
certain incredulity, as though the fact
were of itself impossible, and the
statement of it subject to discussion.
Eyes, Miss Durant."
She moistened her lips; her eyes
were very bright, unnaturally bright,
so that billiard was fascinated, and
appalled,. "
You You know that?" she
asked, again with that queer infiexion
of amazed doubt. .-
Eyes, know it."
The others were standing as stat
ues; Mr.. Cullen, snatching at the first
idea Of consolation to present itself,
fumbled for his daughters other hand.
which still retained the trophy a bet
ter man had won.
Here's what they gave him, Carol
Look! The Croix de Guerre! Don't
let's think of anything but what he
let's be proud of him! L"
"Oh, yes" she said irertly, and took
the cross in her palm. She dropped
her eyes for a moment, then raised
them to the level of billiards.. Didn't
he send some word to me?"
mo" billiards. nod was very min
isterial. mo, I'm sorry, but"
Her eyebrows lifted, and her nos
trils dilated the merest trifie. Her
breath was coming more rapidly now;
she was nearing the breaking point
of her resistance, and all of them
knew it. The moment was agonizedly
prolonged. Hilliard, gazing without a
quaver at the girl he had thought he
loved beyond all else in this world or
the next, was singularly relaxed as
he observed her symptoms. She had
really cared, then so much
the greater pity that she hadn't kept
him caring as she might.
"Can that be possible?" she said,
hardly above a whisper.
''Pm sorry-but-"
81 wouldn't have believed it could
be true" She gave a long, tremulous
breath, and looked about her, half
dazed and half-perceptive. Her eyes
strayed back to billiard "Tell me
about it," she said, almost inaudibly.
"Carol, dear" Angela was stimulat-
ed to active sympathy. "Sit down
please! Oh, Mr.. Hilliardw
'NO-yeS, / I'll sit down."
Her eyes seemed magnetized to Hill
liard's. "Only 1 want to hear-I want
to hearw
''Tell her from the beginning" said
Cullen, hopping his forehead. Get
a glass of water -. anything
else, Carol?"
She shook her head. "Tell me-" she
said. II want to know!"
So that billiard, inspirited by the
realization that he was under the pro-
tectOrate of the shadows, and gather
ing fresh assurance with every SEN
tence, went through that tragic mar
rative second time. And as he told
the tale of Dicky Morgan, he was
greatly engulfed by the surge of Dicky
Morgan's grievances; his voice trem-
bled with Righteousness he gradually
lost his loathing for the part he play
ed, and played it with every atom Of
his energy; he was a defendant. and |
a witness and judge for Dicky Nor
gan all in one-and his verdict was for |
acquittal. Miss Durant's eyes never
left his face.
"And that" she said presently, sis
all there is to tell?"
That's the end" said Hilliard SIM
ply. And in the long hiatus which |
followed, he was wondering
vague aimless |
thoughts, with no beginning and no |
outcome, but the central fig
ure, fitting, elusive, was always Carol
Durant. He told himself fierceIy that
he hated her, that for two vengeful
years he had hated her, that he had
come back to Syracuse primarily to
see her again, with his whole soul for
the wounds in his heart, the wounds
Of his body, still -. O Godr
why couldn't the surgeons have cut