The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-07-09


Light One" he repeated, petting her
hair. 1T was bad luck: that's all.
But why in the world did you phone
for that lawyer?"
''O'Mara?" said Agnes.
Il wish you hadn't done it"
"Why?"
TT aligns you with her-and him."
"DoeS it,"
"She won't go away" her mother
returned to her own remedy in the
emergency. she insists that she can't
leave at all"
That's true" said her father.
AT least" said her mother. you'll
not go back to New York tomorrow,
Bob?"
Were you going tomorrow. Fa-
ther?"
He looked at his daughter, who had
walked in on a murder that afternoon
Yes" he said.
"Why?" she asked him, as never she
would have before.
Business. OF course. Light One"
What was Father doing in New
York? How could he do it? He. who
had been so happy with Mother-so
completely happy - during all those
eleven years in the house on Easter
Lane. But they were passed-as two
years had passed in that apartment
which she had visited, where Myrtle
had shot her husband. How could she
have done it?
She didn't do it; not the bride who
had married him two years ago and
once had been happy with him. Fa-
ther-Father, who had brought Moth
er as a bride to the house on Easter
Lane-that father was not doing what
Father was doing against Mother to-
day.
when such a thing is done, you
don't do it." Martin O'Mara had told
her. Its your dragons you have in
you that drive you"
Were the dragons Of desire that fed
on Myrtle's soft sensuousness, also af-
fiicting Father?
Agnes lay long awake. If she could,
by willing If, obliterate her hours in
the apartment so that never they could
touch her again. would she do It?
No, she knew. No. Who. having
passed from innocence, would return
to it again? Who, having encoun-
tered him. would obliterate from all
her life ahead. Martin O'Mara?
Who was he? Who-what wife or
what other woman might now be
awaiting him?
Twenty miles away in the city a
woman was awaiting him at that hour,
though it was long after midnight.
She was at a window beside the door
of a little frame house. and she
watched out with the shade up from
the window.
She watched for him and listened
hour after hour, eagerly but not i'm
patiently or critically. She lived for
his coming. whenever it might be.
She was slight but straight and
strong. Five foot two, she stood, a
little mother of big men; for both her
sons had been full foot taller "And
here is the likes of me-" she'd say.
'outlivin' the both iv thin. And their
fayther. But please, God, let me niver
bury him."
Him-none like him. to her; not
even her own sons, or her own man.
whose memory never failed her Hin
was her grandson, Cathal Martin
O'Mara. And little as she was. and
old as she was.-nearing two and sew
enty,-you could see resemblances be-
tween them. He had his good hands
from her, and much of the strong, SEN
sitive modelling of his head His hair
was like hers, fine and straight and
abundant.
He had his blue eyes from her, even
TO the sparkle in them; and much.
much more than can ever be told. And
ii was through her that he had the
event which. Of all elements that en-
tered into his making, most affected
him. She had seen 1t with her own
eyes; and as soon as he had become
old enough to understand. she had
herself related 1t TO him:
The tenth of July. IL was, In eight
cen ninety-three; and the lake shore
along Jackson park was white with
the great fine Worlds Fair buildings.
And this day was fine, and the Fair
was full crowded to the turnstiles.
She was seeing the Fair on that
lnr-
O'Mara, wife-and proud of him-of
Cathal Martin O'Mara, of Engine Com
pany Number Two.
Few had been the fires at the Fair.
and none that did either hurt or dam
age. But this day was to pay up for it.
There were the white, tall towers
reaching up TO the blue skies, and
none of them nearer TO heaven than
the tower of the Cold Storage build
ing. And it was the bulk below that
caught fire on this fine afternoon: if
wasn't the tower at all, at the begin
ming. The alarms went out; and the
fire companies came by, their fine
strong horses running, and their big
gongs beating.
PLAY away, Twoi Play away, Onel
Play away, Company Eight Up with
ye, Chemical Fourteenl" And up the
men went TO the roof. from roof and
from ground playing their streams