The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-06-08

eff YOU had told what he was-if you
had told that, the jury would not have
condemned you, they would not have
sent you to prison."
81 believe | did the right thing" he
said. "If | killed your father, prison
was my proper punishment. But can
remember. There was no other clue,
no other guide to judgment. So the
law said l killed him. and-he had
evidently not drawn his sword. 1t
was clear he was killed defenseless."
"You killed a d~efenseless nan"
Her voice was sharp with agony.
THAT was mentioned at the trial
but | did not believe it then-in that
long ago" She trembled to her feet
from the bench where she was sitting.
"And | do not believe it nOw-nO, on
my soul, l do not"
But it makes no difference, you
see. | was condemned for killing
your father, and the world knows that
Erris BOyne was your father, and
here Lord Mallow, the governor, knows
1t; and there Is no chance of friend
ship between you and me. You dare
not be friends with me"
Her face suddenly suffused and she
held herself upright with an effort.
She was about to say, 81 dare, Dyck-
l do darew but he stopped her with a
%reproving gesture.
"NO, no, you dare not, and l would
not let you If you would. l am an *
convict. They say l killed your ia
ther, and the way to understanding
between us is closed"
She made a protesting gesture.
"Closed! Closed But is it closed?
No, no, some one else killed him, not
you. You couldn't have done it. You
would have fought him-fought him
as you did Lord Mallow, and in fight
ing you might have killed him, but
your sword never let out his life
when he was defenseless-never."
A look of intense relief, almost Of
happiness, came to Dyck's face. THAT
is like you, Sheila, but it does not
cure the trouble. You and l are as
far apart as noon and midnight. The
law has said the only thing that can
be said upon it,"
She sank down again upon the
wooden bench. "Oh, how mad you
were, not to tell the whole truth long
ago! You would not have been con-
demned, and then
She paused, overcome, and his self
control almost deserted him. With
strong feeling he burst out: "And
then we might have come together?
No, your mother-your friends, myself
could not have let that be. See, Sheila,
l will tell you the whole truth now
aye, the whole absolute truth. l have
loved you since the first day l saw
you on the hills. Not a day has
passed since then, when you were not
more to me than any other woman in
all the world"
A new light came into her face, the
shadows left her eyes and the pallor
fled from her lips. You loved me?"
she said in a voice grown soft-husky
still, but soft as the light in a sum-
mer heaven. you loved me-and
have always loved me since we first
metz"
II have always loved you, Sheila,
and shall do so white l have breath
and life. l have always given you the
best that is in me, tried to do what
was good for us both, since my mis-
fortune-crime, Lord MallOw calls it,
as does the world. Never a sunrise
that does not find you in the forefront
of all the lighted world never a flower
have l seen that does not seem sweeter
it brings thoughts of you; never a
crime that does not deepen It's shame
because you are in the world. In pris-
on, when l used to mop my floor and
clean down the walls; when l swept
the dust from the corners; when l
folded up my cOnvict-clOthes; when
I ate the prison food and sang the
prison-hymns; when I placed myself
beside the bench in the workshop to
make things that would bring cash to
my fellOw-prisoners in their need;
when l saw a minister Of religion or
| uedIu Tic LltuIy , "hS L ouA'S" Up
the days, first that l had spent In Jail
and then the days l had still to spend
in jail; when l read the books from
the prison library Of the land where
you had gone, and Of the struggle
there; when I saw you, in my minds
eye, in the cotton fields or on the We
randa of your house in Virginia; I
had but one thought, and that was the
look In your face at Playmore and
Limerick, the sound Of your voice as
you came singing up the hill just be-
fore I first met you, the joyous beauty
Of your body"
"And at sea 2" she whispered with a
gesture at once beautiful and pathetic,
for 1t had the motion Of helplessness
and hopelessness.
"At sea-" he answered, with his eyes
full Of intense feeling-"at sea, I was
free at last, doomed as l thought, an
guished in spirit, and yet with a wild
hope that out of 1t would come deliv-
erance. l expected to lose my life,
and l lived each day as though 1t
-~.-l ~ f 49,.