The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-08-22
CHAPTER VII,
Poison.

All that was fine and boyish and | dashing and happy-go-lucky went out of John Bolt that night. It was l new John Bolt who reported at the general offices next morning. He looked the same at first glance. | But the difference, though not at
 once apparent. was speedily felt. Grim, silent, taciturn, he moved about speaking only when speech was absolutely ecessary-making no explanations. Griswold, who was fond of him, questioned him in vain. Nothing had happened, he said. He was not ill. Nothing was wrong with | him.
 So Griswold let the matter drop for the moment and contented him. self with watching his young assist ant, unobserved. The mans whole | nature seemed to have altered. For | merly gay, cheerful. optimistic, much l. given to testing - he had become | over night reserved, meditative. in irrespective. And all this just when Griswold ex- pected him to be in splendid spirits, for Sears had examined the report concerning the new dam and had | O. K.'d the requisftion. The hundred thousand dollars needed was forth coming and a dream long close to John Bolts heart was to be realized at last.
 The idea of the new dam had been originally his. He had worked it out
 and had perfected it. But now ne
 received the news without enthusi- aSm.
 What did it matter to him whether | Or not the dam was built. It would mean money to Sears and Jeffrey and Patterson and the rest of the stock | holders, of course! It would mean | a lot to- them! But to John Bolt - nothing.
 There had been a time when he | would have rejoiced over his victory when he would have plunged with | eagerness into the new work - just | because it feM to him. He would not 1 have questioned in the old days what | it was going to mean to him per | sonally and whether it was worth while. He would have gone about it l because it was his job and he was | drawing regular salary.
 But Lorah Waring had opened his | eyes. She had given him a new | point of view. He no longer saw | himself as an employee of the Red Peak Mining company. who was in | honor bound to give his strength and
 his mind to the corporation in return l for a living wage. He saw himself l as an individual with a set numper 1 of years to live and the right to make | as much as he could of them!
 l Socialism was born in him, or | something akin to socialism. Per haps 1t was anarchy. He felt that the Searses and the Jeffreys and the Pat | tersons had no right to hold the John Bolts in slavery. He felt that he was | entitled to his share of happiness. 1 He felt that he had been a stepchild | of Fate, ill-used and neglected And
 along with resentment against Lorah l Waring, there grew in him a resent | ment against the stockh elders of the
 Red Peak Mining Company. But it
 was a different sort of resentment.
 He began to feel that he wanted to free himself from the Red Peak Mining Company. But he had no de- sire to free himself from the spell of Lorah Waring. As the days and nights passed, her image grew clear
 CT in his mind, instead of fading. | He was haunted by mental pictures
 of her, so real that they half-madden-
 ed him. He hungered for her and thirsted for her. He walked the floor of his little shack and cursed her
 even though he desired her of all things on earth.
 And when the barren place became lunendurable-when the realization ot his heIplessness became too keen
 he began to frequent Ke1ley's saloon For years he had despised the men who frequented Kelley's gambling and drinking away the money they had sweated for. But he found them a
 lively lot now. eager to welcome him and to help him forget himself
 The liquor that he drank drugge6 his splendid body into insensibility and so gave him a respite But the fawakenings in the gray dawn of the
 mornings after, were hideous enough 1 In place like that no mans life
 is a hidden book. The town soor
 heard of Jim Bolts behavior and shook it's head over the news The women who had formerly smiled al
 him so eagerly and respectfully. now
 smiled at him anxiously or question.
 ingly or pitying1y as he passed by
 But the young girls-with youne girls foolishness-gazed after hin
 with awe and more fascination thar
 before-and the widest and least de-
 sira'b1e of the men gathered about