Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-10-21

rome oddly dry. - 1.
I The door plate was Of copper. u. ne q can
ter was craven simply |.
Kennedy. tsE
Z Bancroft walked the. streets Tar into tne
night; and there was a gest!culative iren1y e
his despair'that drew the CURIOSITY o. pass x
by. He was Indifferent to alleys ana al tneyNs
might hold Of bodily injury. He did not caro-
whether he lived or died. That house! Tne
sruihostlyt miseries that still paraded those enati'
ways! He understood everything noY; the
puzzle had ceased to be and become an open
page In bold type. The blow he had oeen ex-
pectinrs from the beginning had fallen. Ills
i father had. somewhere In the past, commit
ted an nbominable act.
It was Of no matter that since the asso.
citation with Smell & Pride his fatner nao
been honest. Before that he had betrayed
and ruined this poor devil of a Kennedy.
"Paid Kennedy in full " had significance now.
Satisfied vengeance had caused the under'
: scoring Of these words. Years afterward his
father In an idle moment had written and
UNDERSIGNED them in contemplation or O deed
accomplished utterly. 1t went back to some,
thing Kennedy had done, trivial or,-seriouS;
and Silas Bancroft, still pretending to be his
friend, had smashed him by damnable trick
cry. Even If Kennedy had wronged MIN,
such q reprisal was horrible. ~
These, millions of his, then, were based
upon the blood and bone of a poor dupa
and the complete ruin Of his family. o. he,
Bancroft. would have none of that money;
he would never touch another dollar of 1t.
What he had given in legacies should stand;
good out Of evil; but, as for himself, not a
penny. He would go to work at anything
he could put his hand to-pick and shovel.
If need be. II
He was incapable Of realizing at this mo-
ment that he could not ignore ofhand these
millions simply/by willing it, that it would
take him years to give them away without
bringing himself under the interest of the
lunacy commission. His thoughts were TO
cused upon the discovery that his father had
robbed, morally II not legally, a trusting
man. The utter knowledge that his father
had been a thoroughly honest man all his
life was the one thing needed by which the
son could forgive the years Of GOODNESS and
neglect, and now he must hold his fathers
memory forever in contempt. A memorial
window! He laughed aloud, brokenly; and
a policeman eyed him doubtfully.
The blow had two edges, and presently he
felt the cut Of the second. He had lost all
hope of Nancy. for now he had absolutely
nothing to offer her. He would have to leave
that, house, too, where he had known his first
happy hours. O., no; he could not remain
there with the black deed Of his father filing
the halls and rooms with pitiful ghosts.
-. The highly developed imagination knows
but little of the happy levels of ordinary
mortals; today it is the height, tomorrow 1t
Is the abyss. Such imaginations must ac-
4 quitc the balancing philosophy Of worldli-
ness; and Bancroft bad SO little hat it was
: negligible.
An those forlorn years. and this to cap
y them! AS he walked on aiYnlessly Ftf1ere"wne
~ u,,d6oulx, 1t,~0iooto al ,,no, hJc ,.6oCi1acfion the
serene face of his father, touched by the set.
ting sun: a face upon which he had never
seen any emotion, any agitation. the craven
calm Of one who had struck out OF his life all
things but neutrality-suspicious..
Bancroft stopped, as il some invisible bar.
rier had reared itself in his path. Blind
fool! Why. of course that was it. The Great
: Adventure Company! And he was to pay
his fathers debts!
Tomorrow he would see Smell. He would
tell the old fellow of the infamy he had
stumbled upon and declare himself as re-
garded the money. *
And. Smell called him a fool, or words to
that effect. Il.
How are you going to get rid Of it,"
cried the old lawyer wrathfully. "If you
start any real damfoolery I'll apply for trus-
It, SSS0hiR VA SAV SAOuAu SAok: J AOS S4pa-
Bile Of handling your affairs: You'll refuse
to touch a dollar of Il, you say? What then?
Money doesn't rot like vegetables. It'll
keep on growing and mounting; and some
Tar Off relatives will COM into it and blaW
IT like sailors on leave. If there Is any faint
IN 1t take it out doing good with it ia, the
community at large. Take the St. Lawrence
River where 1t leaves Lake Ontario. It 10
drinkable; and yet it has drained great
cities. It becomes pure by contact with air.
Well, put your money out In the air. and 1t
J will become pure enough for all earthly pur-
poses. And Y tell you I don't give q tinker's
dam what you have discovered. I'll hold
until the crack Of doom that your father
never rocked anybody. and that he was az
honest a man as ever walked this earth.
You, his SON.. may doubt him. but I, hia
lawyer, never will"
But why did he hide?"
"How do you know he hid?"
No office Of his own. The secret knocks
on his door, as II he feared some one. and
all that"
And all that J" jecred Smell. "Boy. you've
Stumbled upon something queer. that's .
TACT; but damn me, II you've got the right
angle. There's a mystery. I'll admit; built
concerns not your fathers honesty but the
oQd way he lived. He seta groove for him.
sell, and never deviated out Of it, year in and
year out" -
VIVA about me? How did he treat me?.",
asked, Bancroft, bitterly.
He left you seven millions, t.. do with
az you pleased. He made it possible for YOU
TO become a scholar without risklng the at.
tendant evils Of college life. He taught you
to labor In the fields, to know the9toy Of an
honestly earned dollar. But I understand
NMnat you rnean-parental neglect, this lack Of
friendly communion between father and son,
What you complain Of is thar he always held
himself aloof. you never could get anywhere
Bancroft nodded:
Wen, that Will be n part Of the imystery,
too. You fathea never made any moves that
weren't perfecNy calculated. But yet this
n fool idea about the money out Of your head.
ltold YOU once before that Il Is q moral obi.
tgaticn, to humanity. Il you 40 not accept
TINS obligation. you'll be far more contempt.
&c than you believe your father Is IS. He
nad the courage 10 get this money; and you
- Nn RPA> "a - 10 MhE HEt rG4-G = SDS- 49,