Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-09-23
CHAPTER III-Continued

-
II brought questions-a myriad of
them. And some answers. More than
once, in the years which had followed
their first meeting, Bart Rogers had
wondered why Anita FrannistOn al
lowed herself tc suffer the crueities
which must be her lot at the hands
OF her father. This was an independ-
ent age, Rogers told himself, an age
when a girl was forced neither
through precedent nor public opinion
TO countenance indignities or mstreat-
ment. This was an age when a girl,
rather than submit to cruelties, could
make her own way in the world. and
Rogers had wondered why she had
not done SO. Tonight there had come
an answer in an unanswerable mys-
terry. Was 1t Old Jim, who through
the fear Of what he knew inevitably
would descend upon her, who had kept
her in the unkind hands of her father,
rather than allow her to go forth to
apparent security, and by the excur-
sion bring even a worse fate upon
herself? What was that fate? What
was the evil thing which "BulP Fran
niston held in his keeping? What sort
Of power could this man hold, which,
through few words could control the
destinies of two persons?
Breakfast, then the perversity of
nature, demanding sleep after deny
ing It, sent the fatigued man to few
and a caustlc, snapping-tongued man,
who accompanied him back to the
hotel, only to leave him the moment
they reached the door.
Going to send for you tonight"
was his parting. Don't go running
arodnd. I want to know where to put
my hands on you when the time comes.
We've got to talk over some things"
I'll be in my room"
very well. I'll count on that"
Then he turned into the crowded
street, leaving Bart Rogers alone, once
more with his grief and his conjec-
lures The motley collection of hui
man riffraff that focks to every oil
boom town was present in full force
below in the street.
But up in his room, Bart Rogers
watched dusk and then night come
with hardly a thought of the milling
throngs so near. He had left word
OF the desk that he was not to be dis
turbed by any one save a messenger
from the Office of Leon Barrows-even
that afternoon as the one dilapidated
carriage followed the hearse to the
cemetery, man had scrambled out
from the sidewalk with an offer for
his land.
Not that Bart Rogers did not care
to sell, either. Right now, however,
he did not want to discuss the sale
Of land, or to bicker over prices. His
thoughts were on a different thing, on
the loneliness of a mound he had left
behind that afternoon
An hour he watched the money-mad
mob in a vacant, detached manner, at
last TO rise at the sound of a knock
on the door. Old Jim was there, look
Ing ENORMOUSLY up at him, but this
time he did not enter
Lawyer Barrows sent me for you"
Certainly" Bart reached for his
bat and joined him. Slowly they de-
8cended to the street, then forced
their way to the broad, wooden stair
way which led to the office of the at
torney. There Old Jim tugged at his
arm, and when Bart turned toward
him, asked guardedly:
What Is IL? What does he want
you forT
II don't know. He told me this
afternoon that he would want to see
me tonight. He said he had some
things to talk over with me-"
as it about money! There was q
sharp insistence in the older mans
voice.
II don't know. 1 suppose so-about
what my father left and that sort of
ching. It all has to be settled up
and"
Then be careful! Understandable
careful Don't do or say thing with
out being sure of your ground. Don't
make them any promises"
"They?"
"YeS, they've been up there talking
For an hour. He called me from the
window and sent me over to the hotel
Lawyer Barrows didn't send me. He"
Whom do you mean? l don't"
But the question and answer were
hnded ny aood of light from the Of