Show ca W v va arta imrem I 1 I 1 m G elax TY illustrations C CD ap 1 rhodes dy aj 21 i CHAPTER continued it had an overwhelming effect upon me I 1 had bad boon been very near death sul aldo cid must have ended the struggle in which I 1 was waa engaged had not this knowledge of actual and unpunished crime come to ease my conscience john scoville was worthy of death and being so BO should receive the full reward of tits his deed I 1 need hesitate no longer that night I 1 slept but there hero crime came a night when edid idid I 1 did not after the penalty had been paid and to most mens mells eyes that episode was waa over I 1 turned the first page of that volume of slow alow retribution which Is the doom of the man mail who bins from impulse and has the recoil of ills his own nature to face relentlessly to the end of hla his days scoville was in tits his grave I 1 was alive scoville had shot a man for hla his money I 1 had struck a roan mail down lu in my wrath villes widow unit anil little child must face n cold and tin unsympathetic sympathetic world orld with small email means mcana and disgrace rising like it a wall between them and social sympathy it if not between them and the actual means of living olivers future faced him untouched no shadow lay across his path to hinder tits ills happiness or to mar his chances the results were unequal I 1 began to see thom thoin so and feel the gnawing of that deathless worm whose ravages lay waste the breast while hand and brain fulfill their routine of work as though all were well and tile the foundations of life unshaken I 1 suffered ia only cowards suffer I 1 held beld on oil to honor bonor I 1 held on oil to homo home I 1 held on to oliver but with misery for my companion and a self contempt which nothing could abate each time mounted tho the bench I 1 felt a tug at my arin as of a visible restraining presence each time I 1 returned to my home and met the clear eye of oliver beaming upon mo me with its overgrow ing promise of future comerf I 1 experienced a reb rebellion illon agal my iny own happiness which opened my eyes to my own nature and its inevitable demand I 1 bupt buet give up tip oliver or yield my rit lumora nors make a full confession and accept whatever consequences it might bring I 1 am a man and the tha latter alternative was beyond me I 1 could forego pleasure travel social intercourse anti and even the companionship of tho the one being in whom all my hopes centered but I 1 could not of my own volition pass from lie he judges bench to the felons cell there I 1 struck the immovable bablo the impassable I 1 decided in one awful night of renunciation nun nuncia clation tion that hat I 1 would send oliver out of my lire life the next day I 1 told him abruptly hurting him tr spare myself that I 1 had decided after long and ma turo ture thought to yield to tile his desire for journalism and that I 1 would start him lit in hla his career and maintain him in it for three years if lie he would subscribe to the tha following conditions they were the hardest a loving father ever imposed upon a dutiful and loving son first ha was to leave home immell ettely within a few hours in fact second he was to regard all rela gions between us its as finished wo we were to bo be strangers henceforth in every particular save that of tho the money ob gatlon ll already mentioned third he was never to acknowledge this compact or to cast any slur upon the father whose reasons for this apparently patently ly unnatural condi conduct iet were quite disconnected with any fault of his or any desire to punish or reprove fourth he was waa to pray for tits his father every night of his life before hn he slept wan waa this last a confes confession alon had flad I 1 meant it to be such guch if so it missed its point it awed but did not frighten him I 1 hail had to contend with his compunctions as aa well as with grief anti and dla dis may it was an hour of struggle on his part and of implacable resolution on mine nothing but such hardness hard nesa on an my part would have served mo me had I 1 faltered ta ered once ho would have won me over and the tt ti of my nights been repent I 1 did not falter and when the midnight stroke tang ang through the house that night it separated by its peal a bin aln beclouded but human past from a future arid vv with ith solitude eoll tude and bereft of c the one possession to retain which my sin had been hidden I 1 became a father without a son eon as ai lonely and as desolate no na though th the benat ution between us its were that of the grave I 1 had merited and so weakly shunned but I 1 was not yet satisfied how could I 1 insure tor for u the extreme ettre rne punishment which my peace demanded without bringing down upon mo me tho the full consequences I 1 refused to accept you have seen how I 1 ultima ultimate le ty ily answered this question A convicts coni lets bwl a convicts isolation hut but after some of this fresh fears arose au ali aCcI accident dOnt was possible for nil all belas someone might gain access to this room this would mean the discovery of my secret and this fence was built this should have been enough out but guilt has haa terrors unknown to innocence one day I 1 caught a small boy peering through an all infinitesimal crack in the fence and remembering tile tha window grilled with iron with etli which nola bela had replaced tho the cheerful casement in my den of 0 punishment I 1 realized how easily an opening might bo be made between tile the boards for the convenience veni ven lento ence of a curious eye anxious to penetrate pene the mystery of tuy my seclusion and so it came about that the inner fence was put up this settled my position in tho the town no more visits all social life was over it was meet I 1 was satisfied ned at last I 1 could now give my whole mind to my one remain ing duty I 1 lived only while on tho the bench march S 1 1893 there la Is a tream dream which comes to me often a alion vision which I 1 often sen see it Is that of two brolien broken and irregular walls walla standing apart against a background of roseate sky between these walls tile lie figures of a woman anti and child turning about tu KO io the bridge I 1 never see riot no the face of tile the roan inan who lied died for roy iny sin but this I 1 see always the gaunt ruins of spencers polly folly and the figure of a woman leading sway a little child that woman lives I 1 know now who site aha Is tier her testimony was uttered before me in court and was riot not one to rouse my apprehensions my crime was as lin witnessed by tier her and for years site sho has been a stranger to this but I 1 havo have a superstitious horror of seeing tier her again while believing that the day will come when I 1 shall to do so when this occurs when look up and find tier her in my path I 1 shall know that my sin tins has found me out and that the flip end la Is near 1909 0 shade of algernon etheridge on and unforgiving tho the woman lias has appear appeared edl I 1 site she stood in this room today verll verily years aro are nothing with god added later I 1 thought I 1 knew what awaited TOB me it my hour ever came dut but who can understand the ways of providence or where the inger finger of retributive justice will point it Is olivers name and not mine which tins has become tho the sport of calumny Oll verel could the irony or of life go furthers fur therl Oli olivers there Is nothing against him and such folly must soon die put lout but to see BOO doubt in it mrs eyes la Is horrible in itself and to eliminate it I 1 may have to show allow her olivers account of that long forgotten night of crim n spencers polly folly it la Is naively witten and reveals a clean it reticent tt nt e but bai that its effect may bp be ui nut questionable I 1 will insert n R few lines to cover any possible misinterpretation to pre tation of ills his manner aal conduct c there Is an all open space and oil our r hand writings were always strangely alike only our es s differed and I 1 will be careful with the OB oa her must be restored at 01 hazards my last foolish attempt lias has undone me nothing remains now hut blit that of 0 celt which short should I 1 d have bavo been made twelve years ago CHAPTER sunset 1 I ia do not wish to seem selfish oil ver vcr but bin ill n little nearer the tha window where I 1 enn can see yon on whenever I 1 open my eyes twelve years la Is a long time to make up till and ait I 1 have such a little while in which to do it oliver moved tile the moisture sprang to ills his eyes as he did so lie he had caught a glimpse of the faro fare on the pillow and the changes mailo made in a geelt were wera very apparent always erect hit hi i i ther hail had towered above them tha ii oven oren in ills his self abasement but no ne looked now as though twenty years instead of 0 a few lays days hail had passed over his stately head and bowed tits his in comparable fiburn and not that alone ills expression was waa different had oliver not seen him in his file old Il likeness heness for that one terrible half hour lie he would not know these features so sunken funken yet so eloquent with the peace of one for whom all str struggle la Is over and the haven of tits his long rest near 11 hid d he been able at this moment to too look beyond belond the fences which tits his fear had reared ho he have seen at either gate gale a silent figure guarding tho the walk and recalled perhaps the tha ir r of other days when at the bontem of 0 such a prospect ale spirit recoiled upon itself in unimaginable horror and revolt and yet who Il snows lOws leoa passions raile fade when tile the hoart la Is at pence peace A al 1 l archibald 03 0 tr andera anders heart was waa at peace why his bis next words will show oliver olivee lits hla voice was low but very distinct never have a secret never hide within your bosom a thought you fear the world to know it if youve dono done wrong it if you have disobeyed the law either ut of god or man set se not to tilde hide what can call never be hidden so long as ool god reigns or men malto make laws I 1 lave have suffered as few men have suffered and kept their rea son intact now that my wickedness 1 la Is known the whole pago page ot or my life iffe defaced de faced content has come again I 1 am no linger ft a deceiver my very worst Is known oliver thle this some minutes minute later are we alone Is quite alone father mrs scoville I 1 Is busy and heuther reuther heuther is in the room above I 1 can hoar hear her H light 9 lit step overhead the judge was silent ile ho was gazing wistfully at the wall where hung ith the portrait of his young oung wife it he was no longer in his room but in the cheery front parlor this deborah had upon there was therefore nothing to distract him from the con not in sight the moment was the one when lie he hn hail LI quit looking tor for reuther and wandered wande reil away up the be ravine I 1 have since that perhaps the he hail had got of his little littie one i beering from tho the scene 0 of his crime may have stirred even his hill g guilty u alty conscience and sent him off on hist purposeless ramble but however this was I 1 lid did not see him or anybody ielse else as I 1 took my way leisurely down towards the stick and Lh thinking inking of what I 1 should say to mr etheridge Etherl dge when I 1 met him and now for fates final and most fatal touch nothing which caroo came into my struck roe me quite bilte tavor avor ably the encounter which seemed such buch a very simple ninetter when I 1 first bontem plated it began to assume quite a lit dit ferent aspect as tho the moment for it approached pron pro ched ached dy the time I 1 had come abreast of the li ollow I 1 was tired of tile the whole business and herring henring tits hla whistle and knowing by it tha he was very cry near I 1 plunged up the slope to avold avoid him rind and hurried straight away into town that la Is my story father if I 1 hoard heard your steps stepa approaching as I 1 plunged across the path into which I 1 had thrown the he stick in my anger at having broken the point of my knife blade upon it I 1 thought nothing of them then afterwards I 1 believed them to be villes which may account to you ion for roy my silence about this w whole hole matter both before and during the trial I 1 was afraid of the 8 stand land arid and of what abight be elicited from me it I 1 once got into the hands handa of the lawyers my abominable reticence in regard to him hl former crime would bo be brought up against me and I 1 was too young oung too shy and uninformed to face such an ordeal of at my own voll tion unhappily I 1 was not forced into it and but we will not talk of that fattier father son a long silence had bad inter v veneil ened there la is one thing more inore when how did you first learn my real reason for sending bonding you from home I 1 saw that my position was understood by you wh out our eyes first met in this room but twelve years had passed since you left this house in ignorance 0 of f all but my unnatural natural tin attitude towards you when oliver when that I 1 cannot answer father it was wall just a which dawned gradually upon me ine now it seem seeing as if I 1 had known it always but that so eo A boy reason i and it took reasoning reason lne for me ma toto accept yen yea I 1 understand and that was your secret oil ob oliver I 1 shall never auk ask for your forgiveness I 1 am not wormy ot or it I 1 only ask that you will not let pride or any other evil passion stand bland lit in tile the way nay of the happl ness nesa I 1 see in the future for you I 1 cannot take from ou the shams shame of m ml crime and long deception but spare me this final borrow there li in nothing to part you from reuther now nove alike unhappy 1 aur parentage you can start on equal terms and love lore will do the rest say that you will marry tier her oliver and let me see her smile mile before I 1 die marry tier her oil oh fattier father will such an angel marry rne me no but such a woman might oliver came near lind and stooped oyer over hla his fat fathers tiers bed father it love and attention to my profession can make a success of tho the life you prize they shall ahall have hae their opportunity the father sint smiled led if it fell to others e rs to remember him as ai he appeared in tits his mysterious mister lous prime to oliver it was given to recall him as he looked then with the light on his face and the 0 I 1 5 L ILI this it Is my story father last tear he was ever to shed glittering in hla his fading eye god la Is good came from the abo bed then the solemnity of death s settled 0 oer the room the soft footfalls overhead ceased the long hush had brought the two women to the door where they stood sobbing oliver w was as on his ices be strip the bed his head burled buried in hla his arr arara on the face so near him there thera rested a ray from the sun but the glitter was gano from the eye and the unrest brorn rom the he heart baart no moro more weary vigils in a room dedicated to ano am self belt punishment no more weary veary circling of the housa in the dark ane no whose fences barred out the but eying within from every eye but that of heaven peace tor for him and for reuther and oliver hope TUB THE END |