The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-06
Irmth was loosened from her heart

great warmth was loosened from her heart
and ran through her.
She ran and dropped to her knees beside
him. and caught his head gently in her arms,
while sound came from her throat that
was something between sob and Groom.
Over her stood Keene, his great right hand
slowly relaxing and smile of infinite sor
row and infinite cynicism grew on his lips
He dropped to one knee that he might look
into her face, and as his shadow fell over
her she shrank away and sheltered Burton
from him best she might. The eyes of
Burton opened and he groaned. The sound
had musical echo from the throat of Molly
She cried in answer to the silence of
Keene: "Ill never leave him-not by the
width of single wall. Hal, dear Hall"
Under the whips of the demons in hell the
faces of the tortured change as the face of
Keene changed, listening to her. He turned
away for an instant, and when he looked
down on her again his expression was mar
velously calm, but he seemed older.
He said: you're right. After this
nights work you'd never trust him away
from you by the width of single wall
Answer ME. Do you choose this animal
to be yours for the remainder of your life?"
Burton was slowly returning to conscious
ness and seemed no longer so pitifully help
less. She drew back from him and stood
up facing Keene, at the same time that
Burton staggered back to his feet, punch
drunk and only semiconscious.
answer me-" commended Keene.
But she dropped into chair and burst
into the anguish of sobbing.
He ordered sharply: "Look up!'
She obeyed like a child. After moment
Keene said: "Your brain won't admit what
your heart knows. So I've worked all my
life building fools dream into reality, and
now that the house is built, there's no soul
to live in it. Well, I give you back to him,
Molly. and now I'll try to give him back to
YOU"
Burton, his brain having cleared little,
staggered toward Keene once more to re-
sumo the battle, but the latter stopped him
with single word and gesture. Something
in the utterly passionless tone of his words
controlled the other two.
He said: ''Ill tell you the truth, Molly, Of
how l tempted Hal and tried to buy his soul
as surely as Mephstophees tried to buy
the soul of Dr. Faustus; but Hal, like Faus-
tus, and his Marguerite, and so his soul is
still his, you see"
And he made a singular gesture of sur
render. Molly was looking at Burton with
eyes which were widening by sudden, wild
hope; but Burton himself stared at Keene
from under black and threatening frown.
"Pve loved you always, Molly" went on
the emotionless voice of Keene, land l was
always sure that eventually you would be-
long to me. You married HAL but that was
only an incident. 1t didn't shake my faith.
First | worked to make fortune, because I
know you love beautiful things and when
the fortune began to grow | started to work
undermining Hal. There are a thousand
ways in which it can be done. He was drift
ing, you see, idle and careless, with a taste
for taking chances. All l had to do was
t. throw wild chances in his way.
81 won't explain all the ways I worked
it, how l learned the names of the brokers
through whom Hal did most of his invest
ing or how l corrupted them, not with
money, but with suggestions. So Hal lost
steadily, and good deal of what he lost
gained.
The stare of Molly turned on the speaker
with nameless horror. He merely smiled
upon her. She rose and stole to the side Of
Burton, who still kept the same singularly
incredulous frown fixed upon Keene. Side
by side they stood and heard the plot re-
vealed.
"Then when knew that Hal was pressed
to the wall, l went to him and offered help"