Show 11 ll 11 i 0 ow awra Ww jig TO 11 0 C ra 1 D Dl diodes copi IT q CHAPTER XVI I 1 I 1 continued he lie wae was lo 10 no better mood than roy my self elf to to encounter insult and what bad been ft A timple ditre difference rence between ui us flamed into a quarrel which reached ita its culmination when be he mentioned Ol lvere came with r 1 taunt which the boy for all bis his obstinate clinging to hie his journalistic idea did not deserve dei erve knowing my own temper I 1 drew back into the Il hollow ollow lib fib followed ma me I 1 tried to speak lie ile took the word out ot of my mouth this may hae hate been with the latent intent of quelling IP vl anger but the tone wae was rapping rax ping and notier this bl and not hie his word words ny vy band tightened insen sibly about the stick which the devil or john scoville had put in my land hand did be he die j this or waa was he prompts ti by some bid memory of boyish tell 1 that be he should give utterance to that quick harp sharp laugh of scorns I 1 chall shall never know but ere the sound had ceased the stick wax was whirling over my head there camo came a crash and he fell my air friend my bly driendl next moment the earth seemed too narrow the heavens too contracted tor for my misery that he waa was dead that roy my blow had killed him I 1 nv r doubted for an instant I 1 knew know it us k we know khow the face of doom when one it has risen upon an 01 never never again would thie this lump of clay which A few minutes nil nutce before had filled the hollow with shrillest whittling breathe or think or lie was dead dead dead andi Audi what wae IT the name which no man hears heirs un moved no amount of repetition make makes easy to the foniri to niri in or welcome to the tar carl rhe he pan nine e which I 1 had heard gunthed aun thed la in full forAn ste flo elo quck e so 0 o many times in accusation t he the wretches wr etche I 1 had hardly regarded a as being in the same budric huv class ae to rang in my eare ears aa an though intoned from the very menth of bell I 1 cohilj not escape it I 1 should neves be abe able to escape it a aa tain though I 1 wae was standing anding at in a familiar tr scene a scene I 1 had known ani fre re quentel from childhood I 1 felt myself as isolated from ray my pait past and ae as completely bet set apart frota my fellow fellows as the shipwrecked mariner tossed to precarious foothold on his wave dashed rock I 1 forgot that other criminals existed in that one awful moment I 1 was in my own eyes the tha only blot upon thy tho the ole sole inhabitant of the new world into which I 1 had plunged the wrid of crime methe cri abe world upon which I 1 had sat at la in judgment before I 1 I 1 new what broke the pelt spell god knows all I 1 can eay ear ie Is that drawn by somi other will than MY ayra I 1 found r ir glance traveling up the opposing bluff till pt t ito top framed between the ragged wall and towering chimney of spencers folly I 1 aw saw the presence pree ence I 1 had dreaded th witness who dav wa ta a undo roe me it was wa a homana woman with a IL little child in hand I 1 did not riot see her face for khe was juit just on the point of turning tway fro 4 the dizzy ver vew 3 but nothing could have been plainer thin the silhouette which these two made against th the flush of that early evening sky ky ae an long ae as I 1 coul I 1 catch a is glimpse of this woman fluttering skirt as ahe she retreated through the ruins I 1 tood stood there above the he roan man I 1 had bad slain staring up at tha iotch of shining sky ky which was wa as tta tl gate of hell bell to rne me not till 1111 their two figure had and it wae as quite clear again did the of self preserve pre serva lion ilon return and with it the thoi atit of night flight but where could I 1 clyl no pot spot in tho whole vroile wot id was secret enough to conceal me now I 1 was a marked man better to bland stand my ground and take the consequences flan to act the cow ard ardi a part and elink slink away like those other othar men of blood I 1 bad had so often sat at in judgment upon had i 1 but followed wn thin impulse had I 1 but gone auttig u i I 1 follows shown tb the mark of cain upon any forehead and prayed Jt for in dul fulgence gence but punishment anat cat day days 1 awIng misery I 1 should have been sparil pared I 1 the horror of what lay at my feel feet dra drove v a we from the hollow aa an my steps ell fell mechanically into the trail down which I 1 had bad come 1 in innocence and kindly purpose only a few minutes before a startling bought hot shot through my te benumbed numbed mind the woman koman had bbown no hasto baste la in her turning turn ingi there hid bid been a natural riess in her movement a dignity and a grace which poke spoke of tue not hock shock what it she be bad not reent what if it my deed wa was aa as yet ret unknown nf might I 1 not have time forfar for for bhatt I 1 did i bot ot sap to think I 1 just prost sed cu maeng to myself bet let providence decide if it I 1 meet any one before I 1 reach teach mt awu door door my doom Is 1 settled it I X do not and aud I 1 did not dot As I 1 turned into the taue vow the ravine I 1 beard heard a sound awn ari lown the elope slope but it was wa too dis dl IV to areste and I 1 V t alinio on forcing arse I 1 in into 0 by kij agul gait galt if it only to gaia gain some control over my own emotion emotions before coming under oscar oscars 10 that sound I 1 have never understood it could not have been scoville loco since la in the hort short timo time which bad had passed bo he could net not have fled ded from the point where I 1 heard him last into the ravine below ostrander sr lane but if not be who v as an III or it it wa was be he and some hand threw bt his tick stick across my path whose wae was thia this band hand and why have we never heard anything about it it ie Is a question which sometimes floats tb C agh my alad but I 1 did not give it a thought then I 1 was As within light sight of home and oil vere vets possible blo presence and all other dread wae was as nothing la in comparison 1 to what I 1 felt at the prospect of 0 meeting my boye boylis eye my g loys eyel my greatest dread then and my greatest crea test drca I 1 stint sual in my terror of tt it I 1 walked as an to my doom the bouie house which I 1 had left empty I 1 found empty oliver had not yet returned the absolute of the rooms seemed appalling instinctively I 1 looked at the alk it bad had stopped ot at the minute I 1 do not say it was as at the minute but near very near the time when from un u innocent man I 1 became a guilty one appalled at the discovery I 1 fled to the front opening the door I 1 looked out not a creature la in sight and not a sound to le to heard tho the road wait wa as lonely end seemingly ae as forsaken ae as tho the houie had time stopped here too were the world ard is interests at a pirse la in horror of my deed for a moment I 1 believed it then more natural sensations inte intervened and rejoicing it tt this lack of disturbance dial where meant discovery I 1 stepped inside again rewound the clock ard sat down in ray my own room my own was it mine any louger its walls looked strange the petty objects of my ray dally daily handling unfamiliar the change in myself in fector everything I 1 raw I 1 might have buen tn in another milt Is house for all connection these things seemed to have with me or my life like liko one set apart on an unapproachable shore I 1 stretched bands hands in vain toward all 11 bat that I 1 bad had known and all that bad had been of value to tee ine but as the minutes passed I 1 began to lose this feeling hope which 1 thought quite dead slowly revived nothing bad happened and perhaps nothing would men blen had haa bem killed before and the slayer paused passed unrecognized why might it not tint be so to in my rase case if it tho the woman continued to retti remain aln silent if it for any reason teason aha had iol not witnessed the blow or the striker who else elso was there to connect me with an assault committed a quarter of a mile away no one knew krew of the quarrel and if it they did who could be so daring as to associate asso clite otic obe of my name with an so brutal A judge slay hia friend it would woud evident evidene 1 of a very marked character to mao mahr even my political kemtes believe mit As the twilight deepened deep rose from my seat and lit ill the gas I 1 must not be found skulking in the dark then I 1 begar to count the ticks measuring off the hour if thirty more passed without a rush from without I 1 might bore it twenty it tent then it wai was MO then it was ahl ah the gate had bad clanged to p they were coming I 1 could bear steps vo icea A loul loud ring at the belt bell I 1 moved slowly toward the front I 1 feared the betrayal which my ashy face and trembling hands bands might inight make snake agitation after the news was to be expect expected eO but not oot deforet so I 1 loft laft the hall dark when I 1 op ned the door and thus decided my future for in the faces of the email small crowd which blocked the doorway I 1 detected nothing but ind und when hen a voice spoke and heard Ull verl accents vure surcharged barged with lathing willing mure inure grievous than pity I 1 rolled that mf ml or aret cret wa as yet Uns unshared hated an abw s xe sae ae ing that lao man cusp suspected acted me Is fore ore bore to diclaro my jell guilt it fa joyous anyone this sudden restoration from sound less depths into the pure air of respect aad sim sympathy pathy confused me rod and be yond the words killett Kill edt struck down by the bridge bridgel I 1 beard heard little till I 1 slowly dully ilk the cull of a bell from a it mist I 1 caught the sound of a nanie tc ir struck my ear car and gradually it i dawned upon my consciousness that another man had been arrested for my mr crime and tle the izety the reverence and tho the commiseration that were so de del to me had been bought at a price no man of honor might pay but I 1 was en nn longer a man of honor I 1 was a wretched thed crimi criminal nhi swaying above a gulf of infamy a 2 which I 1 had teen seen others sw alloA but bad never dreamed arced of balb engulfed myself I 1 never thought of letting myself gonot at this cotitta bot while my baut wa ws war warn d with atit lt resurgence into the old life and so I 1 lei let pass this opportunity for confession conf erion afterwards it as too i late or loo late to my lemor allied judgment i my first real awakening to tbt th ex I 1 tra ordinary horrors horror of ot my was when I 1 ifred iF zed that stances were likely to force torie me 60 prodding presiding over the trial of the mai man scoville I 1 reigned feigned sickness eick ness only t to realize that my place would be taker taken by judge grosvenor Oros venor a notoriously prejudiced mm man it bo he sat at it would go g bard with the prisoner and I 1 wante wanted the prisoner acquitted I 1 bad had n no grudge against john scoville ol 01 course I 1 anted to save him and 11 it the only help I 1 could now give bin him wai was to lit sit a as judge upon his cae case then would I 1 aft lt ae an judge whatever menta mental torture it involved sending for mr diack black I 1 asted him point blank whether la in face of th the circumstance that the victim of thit this murder was my beit best friend he would not prefer to plead hie his case befort before judge grosvenor lie answered no that be he bad had more confidence in say my equity even arder these circumstance circumstances than la in that of my able but bead strong colleague and prayed me to get weil well he lie did not ay say that he expected me en on this very account to show even more favor toward bis his client than I 1 might otherwise have done but I 1 am sure that he meant it and taking his attitude as an omen I 1 obeyed hi b s injunction and was as boon soon well enough to take my eat seat upon the bench what men aw saw facing them from the bench was an automaton wound up to do so much work each lay day the sl ostrander was not there but dool an unseen presence at the bar undergoing trial side by side with john scoville for a crime to make angels weep and humanity hide its bead dut but the daya days went by and the inexorable hour drew nigh for the accused mans marts release or condemnation circumstances cum stances were against him so was his bearing which I 1 alone understood if 11 a as all felt it wae was that of a guilty man it was so because he had ben guilty in intent if not in fact ite lie had meant to attack algernon etheridge he ile iad had run down the ravine for that purpose knowing my 04 od friends whistle and envying him hie his watch or why bla his footh etory story of having ett left his tick behind him dut but the bound sound of my approaching hang steps higher up an n the path bad had stopped him in and sent him rushing up the slope ahead of me when he came back after a short circuit of the fields beyond it was to find his prime erime forestalled and by the very weapon he bad thrown into the irollo 11 y as he went scurrying by ty he ile had meant to attack etheridge Etherl dge it was the shock of the discovery of the body heightened by the use be he made of it to secure the booty thus thrown in his war without crime which gave him he was dead dead dead ind 11 what was I 1 the hang hangdog dog look we all noted that there were other reasons that the place recalled another scene of brutality in which intention Intent fors had been followed by act I 1 did not then know it waa was sufficient to me then that my safety wa was secured by bis his own guilty C and the prevarications into which it led him instead ot of owning up to the encounter he be had so a barely escaped he confined himself to the simple declaration of having baying herd voice voices somewhere nev mer th the s bridge which to all who know the etyne appeared impossible in athis under the condl eions n named a cne 9 yet for all the incongruities and the failure of his counsel to produce any definite nite impression by the prison ere ees persistent denial of having whit tied the stick or even of 0 having carriel it into dark hollow ollow li I 1 expected it verdict la in da bla favor indcox 1 11 was or confident of it that I 1 suffered lea ie outfit arin the absence of the jury than at a any other time and when they returned turned with an art air of solemn I 1 which proc proclaims lAime unanimity of mind and a ready verdict I 1 was BO so prepared for his acquittal that for the first I 1 airie since the opening of the trial I 1 arat myself a being ol 01 flesh t blood with human sentiments and hope and it was GuIl tYl I 1 when I 1 awoke to is full realization of this entitled for I 1 must have bays lost consciousness for a minute though no one ono scented to notice the one fart fact staring me la in the face was that it would devolve upon ae me to pronounce his sentence upon me archibald ostrander an automaton no do canger but a man ln to the full bla part in thia this of justice chaos confronted oi mel and la to contemplation of it I 1 atell fell III Sam somehow how strange as it may APT appear car 1 I had thought little of this possibility previous to this moment I 1 found my self elt upon the brink of thi this new PH gulf before the dizziness of my escape from the other bad passed do 00 you wonder that I 1 recoiled sought to gain gala time put off delv Mil cring the sentence from day to day I 1 had Lined sinned tinned Irredeemably but there are depth depths of infamy beyond which a man cannot go I 1 had reached that point what bared saved me met A new discovery and the loving sympathy of my eon oliver one night nighta a momentous one to me he came to my room and doe clos las ing the door behind him stood with bla his back to it contemplating me 1 in a way that startled me what had happened what lay behind thia this new and penetrating look this anxious and yet persistent men mn |