Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1922-01-07
AL0YAL LOVE.
: BY EDNA LEE WATSON.

/ clSlon. There was a sheer in his tones.
a menace in his evil eyes. She met
his fierce glance with unwavering
mien, with a diffidence and contempt
that Stung him to the quick-and she
I the bride of month
Il congratulate you on your powers
of deceit" he almost Kissed.
Adrienns Mercer raised herself to
her full height
! IF you have discovered what you
might have known, what the world
could have told you long ago, that
| loved the man who gave me these tri-
/ fies before | met you, it is no revela-
1 ton of deceit / know not what bale
full power you held over my poor ia
ther, dead but week, that he drove
pne to we'd you, because you forced him
to do so. | never feigned to even re-
| spect you"
A model wife. truly!" grated Judge
Rolfe Mercer harshly.
81 am not that to you; / never will
be-" she returned clearly.
He could have struck that fair face
In his mad rage. He could have killed
Vance Orion, had he stood before him.
Have a carer he uttered through
his set teeth. ~ shall remember this
fond lover of yourS"
"He never was that. No word save
of friendship ever passed between us,
yet | glory in saying that he had my
/ whole heart, and never knew"
She replaced the pretty fan little
cluster of shriveled roses. a photo
graph, some invitation notes, the dead
record of the one bright passage in her
girlhood life, in her writing desk,
whence the probing hand of her hus-
1 band had unearthed them.
He came home a day later, flushed
with drink and triumph.
"When you read the evening paper"
he pronounced in even, but malice
freighted tones, land recognize the
sudden downfall of your idol and sole
pattern of perfect manhood, Vance Or
ton. you will perhaps comprehend that
/ have not boosted vainly Of my pow
err"
Adrienne read the account of the de-
scent on gambling house while its
inmates were engaged in a riotous fra
cas-. There was the name of the man
she loved, The judge before whom
he and others had been brought had
sentenced three of them, including Or
ton to six months in the city bride
well.
Adrienne then cOmprehended the
full, despicable meanness of the man
she had welded Before the week
was out she had summarily left him.
She had means Of her own and sought
a distant seclusion. Then began the
downward descent of Rolfe Mercer,
mercenary judge and crooked pOliti-
clan. He was ousted from his judi
cial position for accepting a bribe.
Lower and lower he sank, fortune and
influence gone, until he became a com
mon drunkard and vagabond.
Vance Orion after his unjust SEN
tence, left the city and began a new
life In border town in Utah. He was
natural leader among men, and be-
came such in the community. He was
mayor, Judge, and friend of everybody,
and idollzed by the rough miners Of
the district for his fairness"
One day a ragged, blOated, terrified
wretch was brought before him, pro-
tected from the vengeance Of half a
dozen halfbreeds who sought to get at
him as he was brought into the court
room. At once orion recognized him.
One of the Indians was shouting out
the cause Of the arrest. Rolfe Mercer
had become a common thief and tramp
had visited the hut where his mother
lived, had nearly choked her to death,
forcing from her the few coins she
possessed, The prisoner covered like
the craven he was, as he recognized
the man who had the power to retail
ate In full for past injustice.
Suddenly, however, the son Of the
Indian woman leaped. forward, naked
blade In his hand. Before the officers
could prevent him he had plunged the
knife into the side OF Mercer had
leaped through an open window and
was gone.
Care for the man In every way you
can" ordered orion. "Hls wife was a
friend of my friends in the long ago"
But Mercer was beyond the power Of
human aid.
1t was when he was dead that an Of
/ ficer brought to orion some papers
| found in his clothing One of these
was Of peculiar interest to Orton. For
the first time he knew that husband
and wife had been parted for years.
The document found was letter adj
/ dressed 10 lawyer in a distant city.
1t told him that the writer, Mercer,
was destitute and I'll. The unseen mis-
/ sive pleaded with the lawyer to inilu-
ence his client, his wife, to assist him
/ in his extremity.
81 am going East for few weeks, "
/ Orton told his secretary, the day after
/ Mercer had been decently buried. All
those years the remembrance of Adri-
enne had been vivid in his mind. He
longed to see her once agnin.
His pretense for visiting the lawyer
was that he wished to inform Mrs
{ Aaroar rs bn, Il