Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-02-11

remember what Jenkins said this
morning. You must go slowly with q
confirmed drug-user like myself.
stop! Don't listen to met" he
added suddenly. "You can trust me,
Miss Wentworth. I'm going to night
| this out, and win"
you are winning" answered Joan,
bending over him. Don't forget taAat.
Say / am winning whenever the pain
seems uncomfortable and your will
seems gone. 1t won't last long. Doc
tor Lancaster. you are your own self
at this moment. and nothing can harm
you. Fight the good fightr"
He caught her hand and carried 1t
to his lips. Miss Wentworth, you are
my good angel!" he cried. 81 secured
the services of an angel unawares."
he added, looking at her with that pa
thetic humor which went straight to
her heart. II want to win for your
sake. But why are you taking so
much trouble for worthless old fell
low like me?"
Don't flatter yourself that It Is all
for you, Doctor Lancaster. Perhaps
| may want to save the most distin-
| guiShed surgeon in the South"
AT her words he started; he stared
at her, and then fell back upon the
pillow, hiding his face. Joan turned
away. Again she had touched some
| hidden spring of memory; what it was
she could not know, but it was evil
dent that she had wounded him to the
| quick.
Perhaps it was the contrast between
! the office he held and the man he hac
| become. Perhaps ii was the knowl.
edge of his secret bondage which had
broken him down at last and driven
him back to the institute, and Myers.
Miss Wentworth, want you to
lock my door and take away the key"
he said. 81 may have a secret sup
ply somewhere"
81 don't think you have" answered
Joan. you have none in this room,
have you?"
mo"
81 believe that. And. anyway, 1 am
going to trust you. That is part of
| your fight. l am going to trust you
| till six
/ He said good night in a low tone
| and turned away. Joan went up to
her room. She lay down, but did not
undress. She was afraid, and she ad-
mitted that she was afraid, and moth
ing but Lancaster's desperate need Of
her would have kept her an hour
longer in the institute But she was
exhausted from the day, and soon she
was asleep.
She slept that sleep which brings
no recreation for the Jaded body or
the overweight mind. All the while
she was back with Lancaster in his
room below, in spirit. She knew that,
as he had said the drug bondage was
| only the climax of his difficulties.
What had there been that had
wrecked the man? Jenkins hint at
stolen funds? OF one thing she was
sure: Lancaster, sunken as he was,
was incapable of dishonesty. No, she
must have placed a wrong construc-
| ton on Jenkins words.
And in her sleep her. brain went on
puzzling over the problem. Only her
body was quiescent, and it lay YEARLY
in the bed like some chained captive.
| But suddenly the urgent summons
| of the brain shook from it the tram
mels of sleep. Joan listened intently,
awake upon the instant, as some wild
creature of the woods that senses
| danger. Somebody was coming along
| the corridor.
The footballs were so soft and
stealthy that she might have thought
she was dreaming but for the sense
OF imminent danger, the knowledge
of some malevolent design. The steps
stopped and began again, the merest
touches of sound against the silence
of night, the lightest patter of bare
feet outside the door.
Then the door began to open.
There was no moon, and the faint
starlight outside only seemed to rem
! der darker the obscurity within. Yet,
through the darkness Joan knew that
a hand lay on the door jamb, and that
a figure watched her across the room.
She leaped from her bed. who's
there?" she called, in tones that
seemed to shock the silence.
| She could see nothing now, and she
dared not turn aside to light her lamp.
She knew that the figure was crouch
ing somewhere. She heard the softest
breathing, but could not locate it in
the room. She felt the atmosphere of
evil that surrounded her. She started
to cross the room, cropping, with arms
outstretched. Then she found the in
truder and flung herself upon it.
Her left hand closed about a wrist,
supple and strong. Her right hand
held another hand. They wrestied in
the darkness, their bodies tense but
motionless, only the hands and wrist
muscles at strife. Not sound came
from their lips.
| Joan thought it was a woman's
| hands she held. Her fingers sought
the menace in the closed fists. The
! left hand of the intruder was empty !.