The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1934-03-16
Letter of
Betrayal
By EVELYN M. DAVIS
@. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
WNU Service.

nORIS COUGHLIN sat fdgeting
- with book In her hand. The
faces Of Donald and Kenneth kept
dancing before her eyes, blurring the
pages. Try as she might, she could
not shake off feeling of impending
disaster. She glanced at the clock,
and decided that In all probability,
Donald had received her letter. Could
ii be that he
She was startled by the shrill ring
ing of the telephone. With a feeling
of dread. she took down the receiver.
SIS this you. Don? Did you get my
letter." she asked, in voice. none too
steady. whats that? You got Beat
rice James letter? Oh, my God. what
have / done!" she cried TREMENDOUSLY,
hanging up the receiver.
She thought swiftly, thousand pos
sibilities tearing al her brain like fren-
zied fingers. She had mixed those two
letters this morning, in her hurry to
post them: one to Beatrice, accepting
her dinner invitation for Saturday, and
the other to Donald Morris, Diminishing
him forever from her life. Oh. what a
laundering fool she was!
"Oh. God. help me this once" she
prayed.
She picked up the telephone and
called Bea's house. There was a
chance that she would be out, and
Doris might be able to bribe the maid
out of the letter. Her heart was beat
ing like a trip hammer as she waited,
but no one answered. That was
strange. But-yes-this was Thurs
day, the maids afternoon out! She
slammed The receiver on 1t. hook, ran
out of the house and down the white,
dusty road, in GREATNESS haste.
But as she rounded a curve, and
came In sight of Bea's bungalow, her
last hope took flight. for there, parked
in front of the gate, was Bea's long,
swanky car.
But, no she would not give up! She
had to have that letter. Perhaps Bea
could get it away from her on some
pretext. She ran to the gate, and was
about to open it when the sound Of
mingled voices fioated out through the
open window. Bea was entertaining
guests.
"Too late-too late" her thoughts
hammered, keeping time with her foot
steps. Bea's friends would all know
before night, that she, Doris Cough
lin, had contemplated running away
with her husbands best friend. It
wouldn't matter to them that she had
written in the letter, her belated real
ization of her love for Kenneth, her
husband; had seen In time, the ghast-
ly mistake that would have wrecked
all three lives.
She had married Kenneth, and come
here to this outlying district of Brit
ish Honduras, almost year ago. Ev-
erything had seemed so strange, and
she had felt, at times, terribly alone
and outside it all. Then Kenneth's
friend, Donald Morris, had been sent
down by his company, to prospect for
oil.
There had been strange attraction
between them from the first, which
they had both fought against. Then,
suddenly, Donald had made up his
mind to go back to the states-and
after bitter struggle with his con-
science, had flung honor and loyalty
to the winds, and asked her to go with
him. He was having his plane con-
ditioned, and would be ready to take
off tonight.
Doris had been in turmoil Of indie
cision-a slender reed, swaying be-
tween two winds.
She had tossed all night, her brain
a battle-ground of conflicting desires.
1t was in the chill, gray hours of the
morning, when she turned on the light,
and saw Kenneth lying there with one
arm thrown across his head. in atti-
tude OF boyish abandonment, that she
realized, with a sudden rush of tender
ness, that she loved him-inescapably.
She had snuggled close In his arm,
humble and full Of remorse. She knew
then that Donald was only wild
dream, that would leave her presently.
Had she learned then, too late, what
Kenneth really meant to her? She
had a fleeting vision of his face, white
and stricken, when he would have
learned of the duplicity-and she put
her hand across her eyes, as though
to shut out the image.
When she reached home, she found
Kenneth and Donald in the kitchen.
mixing high-balls.
ga fine hostess, you are!" Kenneth
said, catching her around the waist.
and swinging her off the floor. "Why
don't you stay home and greet your
guests?"
"Oh, just thought I'd take walk"
she looked miserably at Donald. trying
hard to keep her head above the slow
tide of defeat that was engulfing her.
"Don got a telegram, and has to
leave tonight, so we thought we'd have
little celebration" Kenneth said,
handing her high-ball. "Just min
ute, and I'll chip some more ice,'' he
went out onto the back porch, whis-
thing.
Donald, studiously avoiding her eyes,
took something from his pocket, and
walking over to the stove, struck a
match to it, turning it in his hand as
the flames leapt up. She watched
him with mute incredulity. When the
last flame had died over a little mound
of gray ashes, he turned to her and
spoke softly: you should have known
! would get that letter. / found it in
ner mail box about three minutes aft
er talked to you"
He raised his glass to hers, and said