Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-04

,rrse nor Of hand. But you - = I.
see you once in a whileVXfo, q ut sna ~.
Keep my books, the poreeatWs, 49, .sa+har
chairs: YOU are fond Of them. 1ouI 'a.nsiJ
81 49,. letter. tells how he usedNto come
- aaun a. nipht for a drink of water ma
wv ." a,,r,ed IN q chair, under the lamp, read.
10 Poor S,las, who couldn't put ms al1ns
around his son! =,
but you. sir, might"
"Good God, let be with kindness! can't
stand Il! Rather curse me; Tor mere wete
hours when I thought Of torturtng You ne
cause I could not torture your fatner.
But all that is now gone out OF your
heart, SIR"
"wbo knows:. But there is n favor I
,ba, ask Of you. Keep me by You this
night. I'm a little afraid OF myself. Fer.
haps'i If I might spend the nighe>1n the olo
house"
you shall stay with me. SIR. so long q
Won please. That's just what I want. To
marrow will be a new day. You will not see
thines tomorrow as you see them now"
7" Perhaps" Kennedy rose. Out OF Q
nocket he took a key. "She IS upstairs,
over this room. Go to her. III
20 for a taxicab. Take your time. ASK ner
to forgive my roughness. She didn't s"nim'
per, though"
She's that kind"
"And your kind, too"
Bancroft grasped the key, but immedi-
ately wrung the hand that had offered 1t.
Then he raced to the door and was gone.
Kennedy could hear him laundering up tho
stairs.
Youth! thought the wreck. Youth and love
and money. Well, why shouldn't his boy
have them as against what his father and
his fathers friend had suffered? To bal
- ---,- = H. I1~~;Ao 81 mn .fh3o
boy.
That letter! The will Of the man. to
have thus resolutely set a broken BODY
against the strength of fate, and to have
won. by denying himself Of all that made
life worth living. To have built up a for
tune with ono hand while he held death at
bay with the other. Never putting his arms
around the son he loved, never visiting the
grave Of the wife he had adored, for fear
his heart would not survive it! The indie
scribable monotony! Held to life by a
noble idea. And what of Charles Jeremiah,
Kennedy, who had set murder to flourish In
his heart? The one in his misfortune-to re-
construct; the other to destroy!
An hour-sixty minutes; and in this short
space Of time worlds crumble and vanish:
the universe rearranges itself. An hour. gone
he had been alive with venomous hate,
burning with it, sustained by 1t. for nearly
twenty years. And now. az II the winter
wind had blown through his body and
purged it of its fever, he stood as empty. and
barren as~this room. Nothing to live for.
nothing to go on with; done. The world had
shifted from under his feet and the sky had
passed from over his head; he hung in empd-
ness. A queer sensation, this, OF being moth
ing. ~
o, he could not meet the. boy half way:
not now; much as he wanted to. Things
were too close up. Twenty years, with a
single thought, a single purpose; a man can
not come clear Of old pitch in so short a
time as an hour. Humanities would have
to flow into this emptiness first. Kennedy
could not quite get AVA from the notion
that his vitals were gone out OF him and his
ribs a shell. He made his way to a window,
: where he could see the stars.
MARY, what shall I do? I ami, or was, q
potential murderer. I nave in these years
killed Silas a thousand times. The tortures
I invented for that sublime man. whose only
fault was that he wanted to make me rich!
What shall this wreck, who was once YOU
lover, do? How shall he make his amends
to God? You always warned me that some
day I should suffer for not learning to curb
my temper. But there never seemed to me
anything to curb. I could not anticipate the
outbursts. They were on me and gone be-
fore I was really aware of it. And God
knows, I was always sorry. 1t was never
directed at you, Mary. You know that. I
am very tired. All this damnation because
I never wanted to be separated from you
again; enough money SO that I should be
my own master. Do you remember that
first year-the honeymoon-when we crossed
the world together. Then little Mary came
and I had to travel alone. innocent by.
ISLANDERS! The boy is right. Annihflation
for me and mine, by a man I never Knew,
never heard off,"
Kennedy left the window and went down
into the street to search for a taxicab. He
would have plenty Of time, HI reasoned.
Youth and love! He shrugged, with a recur-
renee Of his old ironic amusement. A coun.
try boy and a comic opera soubrette! Well,
she was clever and sweet and wholesome:
the boy might go farther and fare worse.
The shade of Charles jeremiah Kennedy
hunting the streets for a taxicab!
Meantime, Bancroft, thrilling to the last
corpuscle in his body, courageous to the
point Where he would have defled all S1e
world to keep him from that door; opened
IT with such excitement and violence that 1t
slammed against the inner WALL setting
loose a hollow clamor Of echoes.
Nancy" he called, joyously.
NO answer. Naturally: for the unexpected
: racket, which did not in the least suggest
70 ner tnat she was being rescued, had sent
CIV Ahto d corner, speeches. and terrified.
she was brave enough, but the dark, the
previous silence, the queer mailman who
nad locked her in, and this sudden hubbub,
scattered the remnant Of her courage.
" IS i, Jerry-Jeremiah!}
stlli there was no answer. But there was
now good reason for the lack: !. Nancy,ha a
tainted TOR the first time in her life.
oanerolts JOY evaporated, and an agoniz-
ing rear rushed in-fear'that she might be
dead! With trembling fingers he struck a
match. The head snapped on, Describing a
glowing parabola and dying before it reached
the moor. He punched several matches and
struck them. and under this deni.torch he
Quickly glanced about. A bit Of white-a
oFa wing on Nancys hat-cau9ht his eye;
ana ne rushed to the corner. She was dead!
ne hung aside the matches. careless whether
tney SET the house on fire Or not. knelt and
eook Nancy into his arms rocked with her
ana sobbed for his emotional side was still
nlghly SUSCEPTIBLE. and called her all the
enaeaFments he could think 81, ana asked
zoo 70 bring her back: tender and beauti-
~ nonsense: and 'twas a. pity, Nancy missed
e. 1or jeremiah would always be shyly in