The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-01-16

healed, but the mind could bend and
flicker like lamp in gale. Internal
displacements sometimes tore at Ema-
die and made her frantic with pain.
| And yet the mystery of it! The
| eternal mystery of the will to live
Both Renolds and Emadie fought for
that life, chung to it, struggled to keep
| it going.
There is an old Hindoo saying that,
mo one but God and / knows what
is in my heart" Well, no one but
God and Renolds could quite have
known the quality of love, endurance
and forbearance that Renolds poured
into those long years that were after
| math TO the night his crushed and
| broken bride had lain writing at his
| feet after the hurl from the trapeze
Renolds gave himself to the rem
nant of this life that had been left
to him with a zeal, with an intensity
that were nothing short of fanatical,
and with the sometime tendency of a
mind that is tortured. to vent itself
against the one most loved, Emadie
literally pirated off the quality of-mer-
cy that was RenOlds'. She was exact
ing, she was jealous, she was dicta-
torial and was often abusive.
Even her doctors sometimes forgot
forbearance, reminding her that there
are limits even to the tyrannies of the
afflicted. But no SO Renolds. 1t was
as if he barred his neck, bowed his
head and said: Strike, strike, strike"
And strike Emadie did. For fifteen
years RenOlds had carted the poor
little ruin that was his wife from
town to town with him. He had in
vented beds, carrying chairs, spine
rest devices, mattresses, especially
designed for berths, cOld-water bottles,
hot-water bottles, travelling medicine
kits, that might, if patented, have
made him rich man. Not step had
Renolds taken in all those years with
out the litter that bore his wife, at
his heels.
1t was matter of transporting the
frail body, establishing it in hotel
quarters. assembling his menagerie,
rushing off to the theater and home
again without removing his makeup.
The leisure of Renolds, if it might
so be called, and about which the hun
dreds of wistful-eyed girls wondered,
was spent ministering to the broken
doll he called wife, and attending the
needs of menagerie that was rapidly
growing old. For nine years there had
not been a break in those animal
ranks. The birds, marmOsets, dogs,
cats. had managed to survive intact.
Some said it was the marvellous care
that Renolds lavished On them. Some,
the few who knew, said it was that
same Incredible quality Of devotion
that he lavished on Emadie, which
had kept her alive.
Be that as it may. when the faun
unthonged his sandals that were soft
as panther skin. ungirded his loins Of
the skin of leopard, and fastened
into civilian clothes. no matter what
the town or what the season, his des-
tination was the same
Back to the hotel. into the room
where lay the Querulous invalid, sus-
picious of his slightest delay. Never
a meal would Emadie eat without him
there to feed her spoon by spoon. No
one could touch her pillow, ease her
position, massage her aching head,
read her the daily newspapers. or min
lister to her capricious moods, but
Renolds.
Her demands, her commands. were
without limit. She loved him with a
frenzy that made her insane where
he was concerned. She tortured the
thing she loved to limits that were
incredible.
Between the demands of his menag-
erie and the demands of Emadie, Rem
Olds' time was crammed to its limit.
In way his animals had come to
depend upon him just as surely and
just as eXactingly as Emadie. The
french poodle would only eat from
RenOlds' hand. The macaw would let
no hand but his place him on his
and would not eat until Renolds per-
sonally administered to them. Count
less times he had sat up the night
through with one of the orange an
CORA cats who was subject to asth-
matte smothering spells.
If ever a man had two worlds en-
tirely dependent upon him, that man
was Renolds. The world of his wife,
the world of his animals. He was their
sustenance, their all. His time was
theirs, his life devoted to their crea-
ture comforts, and to the exacting
task Of keeping the rough places of
life out Of their sight.
His nights and his days were full
of them. Eau de cologne for Emadie.
A toy to amuse her on the days when
her back was particularly bad. Sugar
for the poodle. A new asthma medi-
cine for the cat. A bit Of a sweet
for the leopard. A tiny oil burner for
the cage of the marmosets. A new
device of an air-pillow for Emadie
Sweets. Sedatives. Service.
And every night, as he bounded on
stage into his jungle and the water
fall began to flow silver, and the shy,
sweet sounds of the forest began to
emerge, the rows of girls with the
tired feet sat feasting their eyes and
hearts on the beautiful pagan mys-
forioc of tho vOr1nU cod with tho olorop