Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-31
THE BREAKING POINT
BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART

brought in, and she knew it was the expected
word She felt her mothers eye on her' ana
she sat very STILL with her hands cIencned IN
her lap. But her father did not read 1t at
the table; he got up and went out and some
time later he came to the door, The telegram
was not in sight.
"That was from Harrison Miller" he said.
"He traced him to hotel in Norada, but ne
had left the hotel, and he hasn't got In touch
with him yet.
He went away then, and they heard the
house door close.
Then, some days later, she learned that
Harrison Miller was coming home, and that
David was being brought back. She saw that
>3legram from Mr.. Miller, and reau INTO II
failure and Encouragement, and something
more ominous than either.
"Reach home Tuesday night. Nothing def
mite. Think safe.
"Think safer" she asked, breathlessly.
'"Then he had been in danger? What/are you =
keeping from me?" And when no one spoke:
ooh, don't you see how cruel it is? You are
still trying to protect me, and you are killing
me, instead"
"Not danger" her father said, slowly. $50
far as we know, he is well. Is all right.
And seeing her face: "It is nothing that af-
fects his feeling for you, dear He is thlnk-
ing of you and loving you, wherever ne is:
Only, we don't know where he is"
But when he came back on Tuesday, after
seeing Harrison Miller, he was discouraged
and sick at heart He went directly upstairs
to his wife, and shut the bedroom door.
''Not a trace" he said, in reply to the ques-
ton in her eyes. "The situation is as he out
lined it in the letter. He elaborated, or
course. The fact is, and David will have to
see it, that that statement of his doesn't help
at all, unless he can prove there is Clifton
Hines And even then it's all supposition.
There's strong sentiment out there that
Dick either killed himself or met with an ac-
cident and died in the mountains. The horse
wan dornd into town last week"
Over this possibility they faced each other,
a tragic middle-aged pair, helpless as is the
way of middle aged before the attacks of life
on their young.
cit will kill her, Walter"
"She's young he said sturdily. She'll
get over it,
But he did not think so, and She knew it.
"There is another queer element in it" he
observed, after a time. Another man, named
Bassett, disappeared the same night. His
stuff is at the hotel, but no papers to identify
him. He had looked after Dick that day
when he was sick, and he simply vanished.
He didn't take the train. He was under sus-
picion for being with Dick, and the station
was being watched"
Some time later he went downstairs to
where Elizabeth sat waiting in the library.
He went like a'man to his execution, and his
resolution nearly gave way when ne saw her,
small in her big chair and pathetically pa
tient. He told her the story as guardedly as
he could. He began with Dicks story to him,
about his forgotten youth, and went on care
fully to Dicks own feeling that he must clear
up that past before he married. She follow
ed him carefully, bewildered little, and very
tense
"But why didn't he tell me?"
"He saw it as a sort of weakness. he
meant to when he came back"
"You must remember" he said, that
Dicks life before this happened, and since,
are two different things. Whatever he did
then should not count against him now"
NJ hn
done something's"
eyes Something that brought him into
conflict with the authorities.
She did not shrink from that, and ne was
encouraged to go on.
"He was young then, remember. Only
twenty-one or so. And there was a quarrel
with another man. The other man was shot.
| "You mean Dick shot him?"
| eyes. iYou understand, don't you" he add
! ed anXously, that he doesn't remember do
ing it,"
| In spite of his anxiety he was forced to
marvel at the sublime faith with which she
made her comment through lips that had
gone white.
''Then it was either an accident, he de-
served shooting" she said.
Father" she said, and went very white.
els he in prison?"
He tried to steady his voice.
''No dear. He escaped into the mountains
But you can understand his silence. You can
understand too, that he may feel he cannot
come back to u.s. with this thing hanging over
him. What we have to do now is to find him,
and to tell him that it makes no difference.
That he has his place in the world waiting
for him, and that we are waiting, too"
Continued Tuesday. Renew your subscrip-
ton now so as not to miss an installment of
this absorbing story.