Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-11-19
CHAPTER xvII-continued.

IL
"There was a lot of malevolence in
Mr.. Sidney's tone, tremendous
amount of hate. Richard Dobson ut
tered the quivering, quavering little
cry again and started to run. AS he
got under way, he shrieked. 1t sound
ed like an old woman's shrek.
"Mr. Sidney started after him. lie
had that cane you saw him take out
of this room. That was the one he
was beaten down with.
ST think for moment he wanted to
kill Richard. He fiourished the stick
and yelled. Richard, being in fren-
" of fright, was stronger on his legs
than his brother. He was off into the
bush. Mr.. Sidney stumbled and fell.
He got up rather slowly, as if he were
either hurt or as if his strength were
leaving him. / could hear Richard
ehrieking farther off in the bush.
"When Mr.. Sidney got up, he turned
toward the house, and | ran to beat
him here and found you.''
Jed rocked while, and I did not
say anything.
81 am decidedly shaken" he said
after a while. 81 was very fond OF
him, and I am a useless old man, an
alcoholic of no account except to him,
and he is dead"
'There is only one thing to do" l
said. Richard Dobson must be on
his way to freedom tomorrow. we
shall have to see to that
Jed aroused himself for an instant.
"You copy-book moralist!" he said
"You would interfere with genial,
lovable mans magnificent hate just
because he is dead and your scruples
have become important. You ought
to choke. Let the brute Dick DoDsOn
rot in prison. It's his desert.
ut can't be done, jed" said. TO
morrow we'll go to Alwick prison and
explain
For me 10 act without telling Mrs.
Sidney was impossible, and it was al
most impossible for me to take the
subject up with her. / saw her only
for, moment, told her that, being ac-
quainted with the facts, l thought
knew what the conscience of the house
would require.
Her world had been destroyed; her
light had gone out. She. had no pride
for herself; she shrank from the pos
sibility of a hurt to Isobel, but had
Judged the conscience of the house
correctly. She would have protected
Mr.. Sidney against all the equities and
Justice in the world-that was her
sin in her own esteem. But now he
was dead: justice could be done.
I did not want to act without Iso-
bel's knowing what I was doing. ]
hoped she would approve of what
intended to do, though / intended to
do it whether she did or not. had
to tell the story.
'sYou are right, John" she said
"But how magnificent father was
He was stark Nemesis, the cleanest,
purest justice there is!''
She was bit ecstatic. They teach
young ladies too many cancellations
| thought. There was no rhapsody in
this; it was ugly.
Jed had one more fash of spirit as
we started for the penitentiary.
"You poor old copy-book fool of q
noralistr" he said. "Why can't your
insignificant conscience be satisfied
without doing lot of damage tc no
good end2 Hang you moralists! You
wreck life. Richard Dobson can't re
outside the penitentiary. He has nc
money. no, way Of making any, NJ
place to go, no friends. You IRE go.
ing to throw him out of his, home
You are going to torture him with
the knowledge that his life was wasted
in prison when he was free man in
law. You are going to destroy he Sid.
ney family"
"Richard Dobson saw his brother,
said, shat night at the pool"
"He saw a ghost" asserted Jed. "Ol
it he LINT see a ghost, he must want
to stay in the penitentiary. If he
knew it was his brother, why didn't
he demand an inquiry and his free