San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-06


through him, and he trembled as
one who suddenly becomes con-
scious of the presence of unseen
spirits. Without the power to
move, he stood, staring into the
darkness, the perspiration stand
ing in icy drops upon his forehead.
With the desperation that fear
inspires, he drew his dark-lantern,
slipped back the slide and threw
the searching glare around the
room, lighting first the most dis
tant corner. Slowly he moved
the lantern, bringing the round
spot of brilliant light toward him
across the carpet. Suddenly he
uttered low cry and shrank back
as the light fell fiercely upon an
object almost at his feet.
So near that by STOPPING the
burglar could have touched him,
dead man lay, his waxen face
and sightless eyes turned upwards!
The carpet where his head and
shoulders rested cleaned scarlet
with his blood; the nerveless fin
gers of his right hand clasped a
pistol; in the centre of his fore
head was CHASTITY wound.
With strange weakness in his
knees the burgler bent over the
dead man, brushed back his mat
ted hair, took the pistol gently
from his fingers and folded his
hands across his breast. In the
corpse the craftsman recognized
Frazer, the bank cashier.
On the desk beside him the fol-
lowing letter, unsealed:
Being no longer able to con-
ceal my shortage, to hide the fact
that the safe does not contain the
amount of money that it should,
and being a coward, | have chosen
a towards method of paying my
debt. | do not ask for pity. /
only ask compassion for my wife"
For moment the burglar stood
undecided, the letter in his hand.
Suddenly, breaking the impressive
silence, came the loud ringing of
telephone bell. Instantly, involun-
tarily, the burglar closed the Ian
tern slide, gripped his pistol and
crouched behind the desk. Again
the bell rang, and mechanically he
arose and walked to the telephone.
Standing with one foot on each
side of the dead cashier, he took
down the receiver.
"Hello," he said, initiating the
voice of one whose eyes he could
feel but could not see. He was
answered by a woman.
ooh, Henryw she said, 81 have
just awakened from such a vivid, |
such an awful dream. | know it |
is silly, but it frightened me. Il
dreamed that you were in trouble,
in disgrace. And then / awoke |
and found you had not returned |
home. Oh, Henry, what is keep
ing you so late? Come home at |
once, will you not, dear?"
Eyes" the burglar replied, as
one in a dsze.
"Do," she continued, and there |
was anxiety in her voice. 81 am
so glad, so glad it was only a
dream. | would rather see you |
dead than dishonored, Henry
dear"
The cracksman crept back to the |
desk and seated himself in the
dead mans chair, the woman's
voice still ringing in his ears.
That voice! 1t haunted him
like memory of the long ago, |
like an echo of the days of child
hood. 1t stirred, it thrilled him.
1t aroused that old love of his boy
hood. Whose voice was it? I'm
dOubtedly the wife of that dead
coward lying at his feet. But who
had she been before-before she
married him?
That voice! Could it be Mar
tha's? Years and years ago,
when they were schoolmates, he
had loved Martha, worshipping her
from afar, for she was a dweller
on the Avenue, and he a child of
the tenements. A vast social gulf
divided them, but he loved her in
secret, knowing that he scarcely
entered her thoughts.
Once he had thrashed a bow for
teasing her, and she had smiled at
him. He had never forgotten that
smile. That was years and wears
ago, but, though she had long since
passed out Of his life, he had never
loved another. And now-was
that voice indeed the voice of
Martha?
Again the burglar deliberately
opened the slide of his lantern and
turned the CLEAN upon the desk.
Directly in front of him he saw a
picture in silver frame. 1t was
a photograph of a woman-not a
particularly handsome woman
but glorified by dazzling smile
and he recognized that smile!
From that face he turned re-
luctantly at last to gaze with
scorn at the cold features of the
man lying there with the scarlet
mark of sin upon his brow. He
Il l.