The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1920-02-19

down and began to write. While
! he wrote, at intervals he raised
his head to listen. When motor
car rolled into the path and
stopped at some little distance
from the villa, half an hour later,
he heard it. Across the sheet he
signed his name, then sprang to-
ward the safe behind the tapes
tried hanging. Upon his knees,
he spun the knob this way and
that, opened the door and laid
his letter inside, then swung the
door shut, turning the knob
again. He rose to his feet and
dropped the tapestry as Jacinto
Meyer entered the library
through one of lifelong windows.
SO it is open?" said Meyer,
with his false softness of tone.
"GoaA.''
There was nothing to discour-
age his confidence, in Rruce's
tired, dusty figure, and pale face
as he stood before the tapestry
curtain. But the American moved
his head III denial.
Not yet, ne answered, with
the difficulty of d man out OF
breath.
Meyer stepped across the room
and drew shut the sliding doors.
He drew the curtain before each
window, before coming over TO
sit down opposite The other man.
F" You should have done that,
he rebukcd. No matter, now!
Open it. =
. You, YOU are mighty sure,
said Bruce.
Il am, agreed Meyer, lacon-
lcally. With reason!
II know how you have kept
Granados di.ugged. :
~ s. | met DR.. Santos at the
gate as | came. What of it? You
cannot tell the marsi,ai that
without telling him why we d:l
it, and SO bctraying yourself
also. Are you not wasting t:me?H
Il . have plenty of it, said
Bruce.
Meyer stared AT him unblink-
ingly, then drew forth an envel-
ope and fiuttered it to the other,
who caught it automatically.
We met your chauffeur ON
the road, Dir. Bruce 1t was the
letter to DR.. Valdez. seal broken
and envelope torn, that had been
dispatched an hour before. Bruce
turned it over, then let il flutter
from his fingers to the floor and
lie there, waste paper.
open the safe, commanded
Meyer, a snarl creeping TO the
surface of his voice. Now.
Bruce shook his head, his gaze
following the letter as it drifted
across the polished floor. Meyer
struck the arm Of his chair in ex-
ASPIRATION.
viii ron delay me, American
pig. Has your visit OF last night
given so little warnings Oh,
yes. / know whore you went.
You were followed, Of course.
Wen, ron went there to nerve
yourself for tonight, did you not Z
Well, you saw your nightmare in
faett | can promise ii did not
disappoint You; So, yon finch,
as usual. And wisely. Come,
to work
Bruce caught in his grip the
heavy tapestr;, curtain hanging
behind him, looking steadily
through the lenses OF his glasses
at the man seated under the tint
ed latapligils.
Yesterday, Meyer. you told
me that you had driven me for
weeks with that whip, he spoke
in his quiet, diffident voice.
You did not need to tell me
that. | knew it. And ! call it a
filthy weapon for one white man
to pick up against another. No
matter, You did pick it up. ] have
come nearer insanity outside Rio
Nabuco than I ever came inside
my cell. No matter, that either,
nowl You you might care to-
know that when yon left me yes
terday morning, I meant to put d
bullet through my head before
tonight. / can use a gun, you
know. You'd forgotten that way
out, hadn't youf Your efficiency
left one door open, after all. =
6 You have not taken that door
yet sneered Meyer.
No. You see, I found out /
WASH t that kind Of coward
either. That was what / went to
Rio Nabuco to nerve myself to
do. Did you believe I was work
ing myself mp to selling out Noeli
I was not. Never! But, the
visit TO mo iSabuco didn t work
IA fAsss