The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-03-06


other hand, the agony was CROWN.
uncomfortable. Every step was now
torture. Three or four times, when |,
seemed impossible to proceed, Lee was
forced to set the girl down and, lean
ing against a tree, to gasp for breath
Eternities seemed TO be passing. AL
his left side was now flaming hell OF
pain, which radiated from the. wound
throughout his body. and this was be
coming an automaton, driven by the
viii. He was no longer conscious OF
muscular control over 1t. hundred
times he felt that the next step must
be his last. And yet some monitor in
the back of his consciousness kept in
sisting that he must complete the mile
he had set himself, and would not let
him drop in his tracks
And as he staggered on, he was sur
prised to hear himself talking to- him.
self, and he listened with mild inter-
est. as If he were overhearing the re-
marks of third person.
| He heard himself solemnIy address
ing Estelle, thanking her for having
relieved him of the last vestige of the
love that he had once felt toward her.
He had thought he loved her once.
and that love, although unworthily
bestowed, had not been wholly folly.
Estelle had had many good qualities
of heart; she was reckless and pas
sionate, but there was nothing petty or
mean about her. She was the daugh-
ter of a well-to-do lumberman, and she
had been well educated; but there was
some faint in her blood, some atavistic
tendency that drove her. upon wild and
erratic courses.
For a while she had been on the
stage, and had earned some reputa-
ton as a clever mimic.
For long time Lee had known
nothing of the stories that were being
circulated by all the gossips of the
town, nor that her name was asso-
ciated with that of man named Kean.
whom he had never met. Kean was
one of gang selling liquor TO the
Indians, and he had wife in Chicago.
Lee learned, about a month before
the date set for their marriage, that.
he was the commiseration and the
laughing stock of the little community.
When, Burning with anger, he went
to confront Estelle. it was to find that
she had been warned of his discovery,
and had fled from the place-to Kean,
the gossips said.
Lee never made any inquiries. AS
soon as possible he secured trans
fer to another post; then he was sent
to France, and his life had no room
for feminine interests.
About ten months previously, how
ever, while In the trenches, he had
had letter from Mrs. Kean, enclos-
ing copy of marriage certificate.
She was thinking of a divorce. and
wanted to know whether he could give
her any information about the couple
Lee knew nothing of either.
But the letter had shaken him
good deal, as had the meeting with
Estelle that day as well. What an
end for her!
1t was a queer personality that |
talked, the fragments of the man whom |
he had once been, and Lee discovered |
that this lost portion of his personality
was recalling to mind all sorts of |
queer things, quite trivial and unim- |
portant episodes of that unhappy en- |
And so one part of him held colloquy |
with the shade of the woman who was
now nothing to him, while the other
held the unconscious girl, and drove
the tagging body onward
And to his horror, in that dim light |
the girl he clasped seemed to take on
the aspect of Estelle, and he found it |
was to her that he was talking.
But then he heard her moan slightly,
and pulled himself together. This was
not Estelle, it was his comrade of the
range whom he was carrying. The
phantom disappeared into the past, and
once more Lee was aware of that odd
sense of tender companionship. He
rested her head more gently against
his shoulder.
At last, when he was satisfied that
ne had gone the mile he had set him
self, he laid the girl down gently on
he ground, and, breaking off some
spruce branches, he made bed for
Ter and wrapped her in his mackinaw
again.
And with that 1t was all he could
10 to hold himself together while he
examined his own wound as best he
could.
He saw that 1t was a mere flesh
wound The bone had taken the force
If the bullet, which had glanced off,
md one broken end was working into
he flesh.