Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-08-25

from the sensations running through
him. His father was Stafford dying
at Corvet's feet while Corvet watched
the death of the crew of the Miwaka;
Alan himself, child, was floating with
a lifebelt among those struggling In
the water whom Spearman and CorVet
were watching die. Memory; was 1t
that which now had come to him? No;
rather it was a realization OF all the
truths which the priests words were
bringing together and arranging Eight
ly for him.
Alan's father died in the morning
All day they stayed out in the storm
avoiding vessels. They dared not
throw Stafford's body overheard or
that of the engineer, because, if found,
the bullet holes would have aroused
inquiry. When night came again, they
had taken the two ashore at some wild
spot and buried them; to make ident-
fication harder, they had taken the
things that they had with them and
buried them somewhere else. The
hild-Alan-Corvet had smuggled
ashore and sent away; he had told
Spearman later that the child had
died.
"Peace-rest !" Father Perron said
in a deep voice. "Peace to the dead "
But for the living there had been
no peace Spearman had forced Cor
! vet to make him his partner; Corvet
+,,ta fob hiC
but had not been able. His wife,
aware that something was wrong with
him. had learned enough so that she
had left him. Luke had come and
come and come again for blackmail,
and Corvet had paid him. Coryet grew
rich; those connected with MIN pros
pered; but with Corvet lived always
the ghosts Of those he had watched
die with the Miwaka--of those who
would have prospered with Stafford ex'
cept for what had been done. Cor.
vet had secretly sought and followed
the fate of the kin of those people
who had been murdered TO oenenr
him; he found some of their families
destroyed; he found almost all poor
and struggling. And th91gh Corvet
paid Luke to keep the cri1 from dis
closure, yet Corvet swore 70 himself
to confess it all and make such resi-
tuition as he could But each time that
the day he had appointed with him
self arrived he put it off and off and
paid Luke again and again. Spear
man knew of his intention and some
times kept him from it. But Corvet
had made one close friend; and when
that friends daughter, for whom Cor
vet cared now most of all in the world,
/ had been about to marry Spearman,
COrvet defied the cost to himself, and
he gained strength to oppose Spear
man. So he had written to Stafford's
son to come he had prepared for con-
fession and restitution; but, after he
had done this and while he waited,
something had seemed to break in
his brain; too long preyed upon by
| terrible memories, and the ghosts OF
| those who had gone, and by the. echo
Of their voices crying to him from the
| water Corvet had wandered away;
he had come back, under the name
of one of those whom he had "ronged,
to the lake life from which he had
sprung Only now and then, for a
| few hours, he had intervals when he
| remembered all; in one of these he
had dug up the watch and the ring
| and other things which he had taken
from Captain Stafford's pockets and
| written to himself directions of what
to do with them, when his mind again
| failed.
And for Spearman strong against
| all that assailed COrvet, there had been
always the terror of the Indian Drum
the Drum which had beat short for
| the Miwaka, the Drum which had
known that one was saved That story
| came from some hint which Luke had
spread, Corvet thought; but Spear
man, born near by the Drum, believed
that the Drum had known and that the
Drum had tried to tell; all through
the years Spearman had dreaded the
Drum which had tried to betray him.
So it was by the Drum that, in the
end, Spearman was broken.