Show 2 MOLD Au flior the place etc bobs 1 CHAPTER 16 that wae dead yes it Is I 1 the unlucky penny old galahad in flesh and blood and bone I 1 boulan t get white over it arthur it isn t worth while I 1 can see that you bacen baven t changed much unless it Is that 5 our hair Is little paler at the temples brayt wager ive a few m self there was a flippancy in his ur lone that astonished warrington s own ears tor certainly this light r did not come from within at heart be sober enough r to steady the thundering beat of his pulse he crossed the room righted the j chair stacked the books and laid t them on the desk arthur did not move save to turn his head and to fol low with fascinated gaze his brothers movements now arthur I 1 ve only a little ufa while I 1 can see by your eyes that W you are conjuring up all sorts of ter things but nothing Is going to happen I 1 am going to talk to you I 1 f then I 1 m going away and tomorrow it will be easy to convince yourself that p ou have seen only a ghost sit down take this chair at the left arthurs hands slid from the desk la a kind of collapse he sat down sud denly he laid bis head upon hier arms and a great sigh sent its tremor across his shoulders warrington felt his heart swell the past faded away his wrongs became vapors he saw only his brother the boy he had loved so devotedly arty his other self his scholarly other self why blame ar ebur he paul was the fool dont take it like that arty he said the others hand stretched out blindly toward the voice ah great god paull 1 I know perhaps ive blooded brooded too much warrington crushed the hand in his two strong ones the main fault was mine I 1 see the length of my nose I 1 threw a tempha uon in your way which none but a demigod could have resisted that night when I 1 got your note telling me what you had done I 1 did a damnably foolish thing I 1 went to the club bar and drank heavily I 1 was wild to help you but I 1 coulden couldn t see bow at two in the morning I 1 thought I 1 saw the way drunken men get strange ideas into their beads lou were the apple of the mothers ees I 1 was only her eon no use den ing it she worshiped you s tolerated me I 1 came back to the house packed up what I 1 absolutely f needed and took the first train west it all depended upon what do you let me go arty old boy I 1 suppose you were pretty well knocked up when you learned what I 1 had done and then you let things drift it was only natural I 1 bad opened the nay for you mother learning that I 1 was a thief restored the defalcation to the family honor was our future we were always more or less bard pressed for funds I 1 did not gamble bu I 1 wasted a lot the moth er gave us an allowance of five thou wad each to this I 1 managed to add another five and you another tour you were always borrowing from me I 1 1 never questioned what ou did with it 1 would to god I 1 had it would have saved ua a lot of trouble the band in his relaxed and slipped from the clasp some of these things will sound 1 bitter but the heart behind them isn t so I 1 did what I 1 thought to be a great and glorious thing I 1 was sober when I 1 reached chicago I 1 saw my deed from another angle think of it we could have given our joint note to mothers bank for the amount old II enderson would nave discounted it in a second it was too late I 1 went on the few hundreds I 1 had gave out I 1 re been up against it pretty bard there were times when I 1 envied the pariah dog but fortune came around one day knocked and I 1 let her in 1 to make a restitution only to learn that it bad been made by you long ago A trick of young Elmorea I 1 dc t have come back if I 1 could have sent the money arthur raised bis head and sat up ah why did you not write why did QU not let me know where you were god is my witness it there is a cor ner of this world tor you for two years I 1 had a man bunting gave up I 1 believed you dead acad well I 1 was in a sense you have suffered but not as I 1 have always you bad before you your great splendid foolish sacrifice I 1 had nothing to buoy me up there was only the drag of the recollection of an evil deed and a moment of pitiful weak ness the temptation was too great paul how did it happeny hap penT how does an thing like that happen curiosity drew me first tor at college I 1 never placed but a few games curiosity desire then the full blaze of the passion you will never know what that Is paul it Is bronger tr than love or faith or honor flod knows I 1 neer thought myself weak at school I 1 was the least im pettous of the two everything went nd they cheated me from the start heulette tc and faro then I 1 out mr hand in the safe to this day I 1 cannot tell why I 1 owed nothing to those desnica ble thieves cragg least ot all cragg I 1 met him over there pum meled him I 1 dian didn t act like a man some day a comfortable fortune would fall to the lot of each of us but I 1 took eight thousand lost it and came whining to you you don t belong to this petty age paul you ought to have been a fellow of the round table arthur smiled wanly to throw your life away like that tor a brother who fit to lace your shoes 1 it you had written you would have learned that everything was smoothed over the andes people dropped the matter entirely you loved the mother far better than I 1 and she must never know quietly do you mean that 1 I always mean everything I 1 say arty can t you see the uselessness of telling her now she has gone all these years with the belief that I 1 am a thief A thief arty I 1 who never stole anything save a farmer s apples they would have called you a defaulter because you had access to the safe whereas I 1 had none arthur winced I 1 don t propose to disillusion the mother I 1 am strong enough to go away without seeing her and god knows how my heart yearns and my ears and eyes and arms warrington reached mechanically tor the portrait in the silver frame but arthur stayed his hand no paul that Is mine warrington dropped his hand aled I 1 was not going to destroy it ironically no but in a sense you have destroyed me compensation what trifling thought most of us give that word the law of compensation for ten years elsa has been the flower the corn tor me she almost loved me and one day she sees you and in that ne day all that I 1 had gained was lost and all that you had lost was gained the law of compensation sometimes we escape retribution but never the law of compensation some months ago she wrote me a letter she was always direct it was a just letter A pause arthur gazed steadily at the portrait while warrington twisted his yellow beard the ways of mothers are ous said the latter finally he won dered it arthur would confess to the blacker deed or have it forced from him he would wait and see the father and the mother happy money there s the wedge its in every life somewhere A marriage of convenience Is an unwise thing ben v e were born the mother turned to us ye it la I 1 the unlucky penny up to the time we were alx or seven there was no distinction in her love for us but on the day the father set bis choice upon me she set hers upon you you 11 never know how I 1 suffered as a boy when I 1 saw the distance growing wider and wider with the years per haps the father understood for he was aldag hind and gentle to me I 1 ex hect to return to china shortly the andes has taken me back sounds like a fairy tale eh I 1 shall never re here but did ou know who elsa chetwood wast not until that letter came neither of them beard the taint gasp which came from behind the erea dividing the study and the living room the gasp bad followed the invisible knife thrusts of these con fl dences the woman behind those port leres swayed and caught blindly at the jamb ath cruel vividness she saw in thia terrible moment all that to which she had never given more than a passing thought no reproaches only a simple declaration of what had burned in this boy s heart and she had forgotten this son A species of paralysis laid hold of her leaving tier for the time incapable of movement she heard the deep voice of this other son say lota of kinks in life there Is only one law that I 1 shall lay down tor you arty you must elve up all idea of marrying fisa chet w it will be easy to obey that are ou playing with me paul placing echoed warrington yes do you mean to sit there and tell me that you dont know why I 1 shall never marry her arthur read the truth in his broth era ayea he smiled weakly the anger gone same old blind duffer you always were I 1 wrote an answer to her letter in that letter I 1 told her the truth you did that I 1 am your brother paul I 1 coulden couldn t be a cad a s well as a thief yes I 1 told her I 1 told her more what you never knew I 1 let cragg believe that I 1 was you paul I 1 wore our clothes your i your bats in that I 1 was a black villain god what a bell I 1 lived in ah matheri mot heri arthur dropped his head upon his arms again paul my son it was warrington s chair that toppled over framed in the port leres stood his mother white haired pale but as beautiful as of old 1 I am sorry I 1 had hoped to get away without you knowing why oh because there gasn wasn t any use of my coming at all I 1 d passed out of your life and I 1 should have stayed eighteen thousand miles I 1 have traveled to find you out don t worry I 1 got everything mapped out there s a train at mid night arthur stood up mother I 1 am the guilty man 1 was the thief all these years I 1 let you believe that paul had taken the money yes cesi she interrupted never her eyes off this other son I 1 heard everything behind these cur bains you were going away paul without seeing me what was the use bf stirring up old matters of bringing confusion into this house he did not look at her he could not tell her that he now knew cihat bad drawn him hither that all along he had him self paul my son I 1 hare been a wicked a oman chy mother you naiff like chati wicked 1 my son my silent kind ly chivalric boy will you forgive your mother your unnatural mother he caught her before her knees touched the floor and ah bow hun her arms wound about him weats the use of lying he cried brokenly my mother 1 I 1 wanted to bear your voice and feel your arms you dont know bow I 1 have always loved you it was a long time a very long time perhaps I 1 as to be blamed I 1 was proud and kept away from yoa don t cry there there I 1 I 1 can go away now happy over bis mothers shoulders now moving with silent stabbing sobs he held out bis hand to his brother presently above the two bowed heads own rose transfigured trans figured with happiness the hall door opened and closed but none of them regarded it by and by the mother stood away but within arm s length how big and strong you have grown paul in heart too mother added ar thur old galahad you must never leave us again paul promise may I 1 always come back always and she took bis hand and pressed it tightly against her cheek always ah your poor blind mother always to come back I 1 am going to china in a little while to take up the work I 1 have always loved the building of bridges and I 1 am going too it was cisa at her journey end jealous love is keen of eye there was death in arthurs heart but he smiled at her after all what was more logical than that she should appeal at this moment why sip the cup when it might be drained at once over with and done with cisal said the mother holding warrington s hand in closer grasp yes mother ah why did you not tell me all arthur walked to the long window that opened out upon the garden there for a moment he paused then passed from the room go to him mother said elsa wise ly and with pity the mother hesitated pulled by the old and the new love by the tear that the new found could be here but a lit tl alle baft iett paula hand e fall and glower atall ehe followed arthurs footsteps I 1 gasn wasn t quite brave enough he said when she found him they love and love me well mother tor I 1 am the broken man she pressed hio bead against her heart my boy but her glance wae leveled at the amber tinted window through which she had come to warrington elsa was a little thinner and of color there was none but her eyes shone with all the asplen dor of the oriental stars at which ha had so often gazed with mute inquiry galahad she said and smiled well what have you to say 17 in gods name what can I 1 eay but that I 1 love you well say it and stop the ache in my heart say it and make me tor get the weary eighteen thousand mile I 1 have journeyed to find youl say it and hold me close for I 1 am tired listen she whispered lifting her head from his shoulder from out the stillness of the sum mer night came a jarring note the eternal protest of rajah THE END |