The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-05-28

ward explained by saving he referred
to the burglar that he believed had en-
tered. Parmalee's violent objection to
the exhibition of Brena's portrait with
her name attached might well have
been the objection of a mar who feared
that some one by chance seeing the
picture and recognizing 1t would trace
the original by inquiries addressed TO
the artist.
What had it meant that this extraor-
binary man had surrounded his life
with defenses as If forewarned of his
fate? He employed only servants he
knew, he built defensive walls, put up
bars at his windows, retained the
chauffeur, Paul, because the man
would be handy with his fists In an
emergency, he bought a fanged mon
grel beast to q about the grounds
at night. He lived In a terror which
burned his nerves and chilled his heart,
that. drove him jibbering to the bottle
and he indicated more than once that
this was all due to his wife-that 1t
was she who dragged this trail of I'M
known horror.
But when he had gone-vanished
without trace, he, like Jim Hennepin,
went willingly.
What was the bait? In Hennepin's
case 1t had been money. This could
not have drawn Parma1ee.
Peter got up and looked out over the
city sweltering in the purple hazy sum-
mer night, blinking it's yellow eyes as
If these eyes were full Of salty perspi-
ration.
Well, the two men had gone willing
ly and had thereafter disappeared as
completely as wisps of smoke in q tenn
pest or raindrops on the sea. Some
force drew them, Peter told himself,
some force that perhaps was capable
Of calling c~raftily to that which in
each man would respond. Parmalee
had pretended to some knowledge of
what this force was. How did he
known
Peter walked back to the dark oak
mantel and, opening his wallet that
lay there, he took out the sheet Of pa
per which had told him of his own
danger. There was the explanation!
Parmalee too had been warned. But in
spite of that warning he, too, had gone
had been dissolved, had been wiped
out like a tiny chalk mark by a giant
thumb.
And what conclusion could be drawn
Pror, oil nf thic-o11 thof p0far lxnavrg
He saw it suddenly. He had been
tumbling over and owe again into the
error that pitfalls so many of his coun-
trymen; he wanted to assume the
facts upon which a conclusion Is to be
based. Often he had seen the same
delusive yearning when a political
leader with noble sentiments and
Understanding purposes based his pro-
gram Upon a world not as it is but as
good men would like to have it and
tOlled, after him, those persons who
liked to call themselves idealists He
had seen so much conclusion that
would have been right If only it could
have beer based upon the facts! Peter
knew now, as if by a sudden humili-
ating revelation, that he had been fool
ish to ever attempt the method of the
great analysts, as they are called, who
are always conveniently provided with
every vital fact beforehand; he knew
that what he must get was more evil
dence.
On his key ring he looked for the
key to Parmalee's house up the Hud-
son.
He had forgotten perhaps another
of some of his countrymen as
Peter once said himself, they founded
beliefs upon the wish to believe; it
never was suggested to DeWolfe that,
in spite of its extravaganza, any part
Of the story told by Brena Selcoss
might not be true.
He loved her.