Pittston Gazette

              Oldest Newspaper in the Wvomine Vallev PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA., FRIDAY, SEPTEflBER 9, 1898. Established 1880. I Vol. xlix n«. «. i A Weekly Local and Family Journal. 1 •l.OO a Vur in Advauc«. "A Circle in the Sand," better than anything yon ever tastea— warm clothes, too," he said, slipping bis hand through the broken jacket and laying it on Joe's flesh. "You shall see the sea and everything that boys love. Oh, I've never lov«.i anything, but I'll love you 1 You'll be a happy boy yet if it's not too late"—be groaned defiantly —"if it's not too late. Oh, yon poor, little baby with your terribly wise eyes, will you come with ine? Joe, will you?" praying was a miia word ror tne spurting whispers from his gaping mouth as his eyes shot from right to left in fear of the returning hunters. ed to Anne Deyona Deiiei. uonata in hesitating tones began speaking of himself. To see the lips of the sphinx melt into a smile oould soaroely have been more astounding to her. She listened, understanding bow the sights and sounds of that terrible day and tbe intimate band clasp in tbe blackness had aroused the Inner self he so oonsistently silenced. chaos, preparing for the arrival of his wife and daughter after an absence of eight years. oaiyat ana tne wnoiesome cymoism 01 Thackeray. lamng, preserving, eying, it 8 very trying. ShaH I tell you how I manage to endure this continual censorship mixed with servile worship—for mamma does adore me? A pioneer never regarded a finished oabin, every stick of whioh had been laid by his own hands, with more satisfaction than she does me. She does not seem to give papa any share in my being at all." Anne left ber in ner mother's nan Of over a basin of steaming milk. Thp meeting had left auniqne and emphatic impression on Anne. They shared all together as comrades and confidants. Tbe boy in Donald and tbe piquant schoolgirl only masked in the woman olasped hands aud laughed. Anne had pleuty of leisure, and she gave much of it to Donald Sefain. Between them they made some of those winter nights idyls of joy for little Joe Evans. He was very ill. Giving way "Didn't set out for to kill Binkley, as God hears me, miss. No, 'twas fair fight, an he druv me mad. I flung tbe stone. I didn't believe him dead till be fell baok wl' the blood bubblin from bim. I been bidin here for two days, starvin on that ladder, 'tween earth an hell, crawled down when the engines begun to work, been lyin on my face up here ever senoe. They'll hang me. Don't let 'em. Help me. I've had a bard life eno' 'thout bangin at tbe end o't. Ob," and tbe word was a long shudder, "my God, for one cbanoe! I never bad noan. One ohance—one." "A woman with a thistle down conscience, a woman to pick the plumai from life with soft, businesslike finger* and an indifferent air, 6 feet 6 of radian! selfishness—that's my oousin Olga," she thought as she went down the street, "but I like her." BY Jfate Jordan,...** One morning late in January Anne opened tbe sheets of The Citizen and saw tbis item among the shipping news: CHAPTEB IX. to rest after inured hardship seemed like giving way to grief, and his weak body collapsed. Her heart smarted for him as she heard the halting story of his childhood. She oould see bim left orphaned, under an unfriendly roof, no natural love excusing his faults, loneliness eating into him. Loneliness I It was the word on which bis life bad reared its twisted "I think I know what yonr tactics are," said Anne, scrutinizing her good humoredly. "You're very soft and white. You seem to move in an atmosphere of amiability, but I have not forgotten your early propensity for sticking pins nor the eduoated way your little nails could scratch. You oould scratch still, Olga, if that were necessary, but you have found a surer way of gaining your way." Author of "The Ktaa of dold," "The Other House," etc., etc. Anne made her way down the shaking ladders without being beard. Her swollen heart seemed crowding ber throat. She stood in the ohilliug rain quivering with excitement. She had bad ber first glimpse into Donald's soul, and it bad terrified ber. He was in Donald's home, a trio of small rooms in a street a short distance from The Citizen. They were oheap apartments, bat hopefully clean, presided over by a "lone" woman, Mrs. Mallived on the floor beneath, in went home with Donald ok winter dusks, and, stepthe hall into the firelight, 'eel as if summer had oome snow and kissed her. The always sweet smelling from a flowers, the kettle always i lamp shaded. . dear, if yez bad seen me young I" she had surprised 'gan saying onoe as she knitthe pillowed obair where Joe pale from the languor of uulep. "There was a Bight for girls of today with their m bodies and white cheeks ♦he bone—what are they? Ah, were different in moy toime I •id 14 stone, weighed in me Me hair shtud out loike joth soides of me head, alanso thick. As fer me cheeks," "Among the passengers on the Teutonic), which arrived in port last night, were Mrs. Lansing Eriosson and Miss Olga Eriosson. The latter is the latest of our young countrywomen to return to Amerioa with a London reputation for beauty." CHAPTER X. Olga appeared as Kate HardoMtle at Tuxedo, and the town, or that part a$ it circling in carefully barred orbit talked of ber. The papers seized on hef as something new and printed pioturep of her as a beauty, libelous things in which she looked dropsical or murderous or only harmlessly mad. Mrs. Er- [Copyright 1898, by the Author.] ry from the trembling of tfle tunneiea land bad been shot out like a bag's jaw. structure. ligan, who RAnne oft in the qui ping from she would across tbC room waf bunoh ot singing, tL "Ah, Jde whin I war Mrs. Mai) ted beside reclined, healthy a* ye! Thf erotohed ■took to „ avick, girli Why, I sh stockings, eaves on na, 'twas. she added x It was still early when they returned for lunch to the hotel. Joe, stunned into silence and with round eyes, aooompanied them. It seemed to Anne as if a (treat length of time had passed, aa if herself and her life were myths, and nothing in all the world was as positive as this man's misery and his olaiin. She sat motionless with strained, bright eyes. Five days later Anne stepped from the raw afternoon into Dr. Ericsson's house. Her aunt had been in charge but a little while, yet the old honse nnder her reign possessed what Anne felt it never oould have had without her. A maid who was inoffensive of voioe and light of step took np her card, an open fire in vited her, the aromatio odor of green things growing in a winter room filled the air, the light was toned to a pale yellow, as if a sunset had happened prematurely. It was evident Mrs. Ericsson had a genius for selecting the salieut requisites of an inviting home. CHAPTEB VII. "She's in there," said Donald. "They say she's like a crazy woman. I'll go in with you." It wm a dark morning, and Dr. jCriosson's mood matched it. He bad fbeomatism. It bad rained for three Mays, was still raining, and they had •gain given him fried bread for breakfast" You've hit it What's the use of continual dispute? Why worry this one little life out of yourself? You want Jour own way—take it Be attentive to all the rules laid down for your conduct, then ignore them and smile. When you're found out and reproaches are showered on yon, think of something else or go to sleep." icsson kept the reporters well informed, He tied tbe horse to a post and shielded Anne through the curious crowd. After some imperative knooking and promises of help to the woman shriek - ing abuse from within tbe door was guardedly opened, and they stood before Bed Evans' sister. "I'm going to adopt him," was all the explanation of his presence Donald had given. He was again as unreadable as a inollusk, aud Anne could almost believe the scene in tbe breaker had been of her imagining. fumed over the newspaper abortions of her darling, went with her everywhere. He had taken another's life, it was clear. She was a newspaper wuiuau, face to face with an important opportunity. If she gave the murderer to his pursuers. The Citizen would have gained a story unshared by its rivals. As a newspaper woman she should make the most of this moment. She hesitated. The man's eyes looked up at her like a famished dog's. As a newspaper woman, yes, bat as a woman, no. to noon breakfasts, to dances ending at "Thank God, sunshine and laughter •re in tbe world somewhere I It is well lo remember that here," he said, poking tbe fire furiously. dawn, and in asides took pills to sbtf Every one knew that Smedley Joyce, who had met Olga in London, had been her sponsor in the beat society. In bia sister's box at the opera she had made her first appearanoe in New York. Ha her heart Hours afterward, as she sat in tbe rainv dusk writing an impassioned account of the day, a faint knook sounded on her door. Donald stood outside, very palS. an unusual eagerness in his manner.Anne shuddered at tbe face. The foroes in a soul that-damn seemed to have set fire to all the softness in the Womafi and left their flames biasing in her hollow eyes. With lank gray hair falling to her shoulders and veined hands clinched at ber sides she stood at bay in the desolate room, bitten through with grief, an epitome of hatred, famine and fear. Unnotioed Donald swiftly made a sketch of her and at a sign from Anne slipped out, leaving ber to ber difficult task. Anne stood near him, drawing on a hair of loose dogskin gloves. A fur cap Jllli like a bandage above bar troubled. She lit another cigarette with a ruminative expression and clasped ber hands behind her head. The look in her eyes was like that of a mild baby trying to diagnose a sunbeam. had got invitations for her, given • ♦yes. "Took me in, Anne, dear. Then look tut, like a good girl, and |ee if there's a break in tbe dirty sky." "Anne Garrick," said a languid voioe behind her, "bow d'you do?" luncheon in ber honor, and at hia rooms "If you want tosee what a mine looks like, Miss Uarriok, this will be your only chance. The sheriff and bis men have oome over with militia, and for the past hour tbe engines have been going, pnmping down air, you know. They think that perhaps Red Evans is hiding there." on Fifth avenue, at a tea where a rajah She sprang up, fired by the desire to save biui. His eyes were terrible as he crouched in the slime at her feet. He had suffered enough. She turned to face the aunt she but faintly remembered, a small, nervous woman, pale haired, anxious eyed, so restless she seemed like one half pausing in a hurry before oontinuing the pursuit of something. ".Really, you know, if mamma would only rest her tired little body and head and leave me to myself Bhe'd be very wise. She has nothing to fear from me. I know what's expected of me. We're poor; worse, we're in debt She lives in perpetual dread of my marrying a poor man. Could anything be more absurd? Nothing in the world will ever be aa dear to me as my personal comfort For a girl to go into business life aa you have done, making ber own way, working, struggling, is beyond my understanding. Some one must always support me, Anne, and support me well." in a marvelous turban winked his bril- liant eyes, David Temple saw ber again. She swept the rag of curtain aside and gaaed on the marvels of desolation before her. The hotel was on one of the highest hills, and she could see moan tains of ooal waste looming black in the mist, rivers like Ink flowing beneath gaunt bridges, vast hollows of moist, shrunken land above the mines spreading like emptied arteries beneath the surface, houses, as if shaken by palsy, leaning sideways upon erratio foundations, and over all a light rain driven by a wind from the east There are some men one oannot disassociate from the names upon their visit- ing cards. Smedley Joyoe waa one of these. Smedley, even to his intimates. "Come along," she said, ber voice harsh with fear as a mail's laugh distantly awakened echoes in the caverns. "They've already searched the mnle carts. Climb into this one. They won't look again. Lie down low, so. I'll put my cloak over you. Try to breathe more softly. Hush, they're ooming." in olimactio triumph, "they shtuok out loike apples and were that red jreoud bleed them with a shtraw." She pointed to the mule cart. She gave Anne her pale cheek to kiss and exclaimed: seemed an impertinence and Mr. Joyce commonplace. He was his full name, in the warmth of her sympathy and gratitude for the visible help she brought the beast in the sufferer was conquered, and with wild weeping she told the story of her life. She had been born on a sheep farm in Sootland near a river winding through a valley and had left it to oome to her brother when his wife died. Anne saw the lost home plainly as the homely sentences sketched it—a place of perfume, light and healthy sleep. She realized the gloomy ohange to this black valley with Bed Evans, the morbid slave; his.daughter pretty and wild, ready to sell her soul for a trinket and at length flying away in shame, and the younger son, Joe, a picker boy, ohoked with miner's asthma."But conld he? How could he get down if the cage wasn't working?" In words that burned he sketohed the difference between David'• plaoe and his in John Temple's house—David, secretly loved by him always and bitterly envied, David the figure in the white light which he might adore, but never follow. He told her bow manhood came and the bitter knowledge of all. He was despised, superfluous, and the determination took root to fulfill the promise of his dark origin to aink to the level considered fitting. On nights like these Donald's nature seemed to expand and exult He surprised Anne by his humor, bis mocking graoe as host, his boyish play with Joe, "How like your father. You're a Garriok. You are not a Gerard." "Yon see, besides the oage there's an iron bar—a sort of ladder with flat prongs laid upon it, the whole only half a yard wide. This goes down through a separate opening. It's put there as a precaution in case of explosions or injury to the cage, bnt it's a matter of life and death to use it. A desperate mau, however, wouldn't hesitate to take the one chance. The sheriff fancies Bed Evans may be dinging to the bar a good way down beyond sight, yet not too far from the air. I don't believe it. It's almost absurd. But they're going down and will take us along. from the glittering apex of bis bald crown to the toe of his equally glitter- The inflection was disapproving. Anne felt guilty for not looking like her mother. She oommenoed an apology for not having called before, but with amazing irrelevancy Mrs. Ericsson darted for the door. ing boot If be ooold, be woold have been lighter, younger and with the lungs of a football half back, but just as be was people deferred to him. Hope- Donald hurried toward her first and found her sitting where be bad left her. "The sky is as dull as ever," said Anne, still standing with the curtain in her hand, and she added in a vehement whisper: "It's all wrong, uncle. There's something horribly wrong with the world." "Wagner said he'd come back and stay near you," be said hurriedly as he wiped his brow. "I've just found out that he sneaked on, the little beast" lessly devoted to a single life, hia cult. however, was feminine beauty, and the woman he admired became the "Olga is up stairs. Gome up. We've been waiting lunch for you for 15 minutes. It's all right, only with us every moment is of such importance. All the morning Olga has been trying on bats." "I wonder you came back to America without a title or at least a fortune." The personality of Smedley Joyce'pervaded New York. He was a permanent fad; his vogue was unquestioned, like the Thanksgiving turkey and the hone - show. "Did you find any trace of Evans?" she managed to ask. "I could have married money several times, and a lot of it," said Olga, "but unfortunately I distinctly disliked the men. It wouldn't do to marry a man you couldn't for the life of you be oivil to. Would it?" A stronger nature would have doggedly risen no doubt. But the other was easy, natural and had not been without joy. The poor, the unhappy like himself had understood and loved him. For the rest he bad grown content to tear principles to rags, revel in the mud, live for the moment and go with flags flying to ruin and death. "Have you just found that out?" "Mo, he's not here. They might have known that You're shivering. Why, where's your oloak?" She turned at the top of the stairs, looking like a distracted sparrow. "Last night as we came home from the funeral of the man Bed Evans killed"—her voice trembled—"it came to ue what these people are. They are the moving, uu torn bed dead. The starving man guarding the blaok pits, the woman, nothing bnt ohild bearing blocks, the picker boys with their undersized, ghastly bodies, have dead souls, unole— quite, quite dead." In the fragrance and dusk of his beautiful rooms he seized David's band in greeting and gave it the fashionable upward jerk. "She won't have a hat without a brim. Did you ever hear anything like it? Felice oame all the way from Madison avenue with ten hats, all olose fitting, and we begged her to try one. She wouldn't, not if I went on my knees. Olga can be bo set. Try and talk hex over to a toque. It's simply madness to insist an a brim when nobody is wearing one." "All right," said Anne. "But I won't tell Dr. Eriosson. He might be nervous." "Say nothing about that" she said in sudden fear, springing up. "Manage to have the others go up first. I'll explain after. They must go up first Leave me here." "Oh, I don't know I Aren't you oversensitive?"The laughter in Anne's tone did not disturb Olga. She pursed out her lips and nodded. "Ah, you did get up to see us, you dreadfully busy man I You'd make na forget you if that were possible." And David found himself passed on to make room for the next oomer. "An ye'll write what I tell ye, miss. Ye'll spek the truth. Ye'll belike mek people a bit sorry. Aye, aye," she said, nodding at the dead ashes on the hearth, "ye'll say our hearts are breakin, that shame an hunger's eno' to mek men distraught, but, ah, miss, ye won't mek 'em feel it; ye oan't mek 'em feel it! I'd ha' to tek my heart out an put it inside ve before ye could know what I do an what I cannu tell ye, miss.' Twenty minutes later they were again at the mine. The soene was animated now. Lanterns like the eyes of uncanny animals shot from one point to another in the falling night. A line of soldiers oolitrolled the swell of the mountain, and above the strikers, with their families, sullenly watched. From wooden sheds oarue the braying of males. Four men stood near the cage, which resembled a hugo brass boiler with a round opening for air at a man's height The hissing and throbbing of engines and the sound of many voices filled the valley with life. "Why didn't you try to do well?" Anne asked urgently. The cage bad been very orowded coming down, and when every worked out recess had been searched the men were ?;lad to let the newspaper people wait or a second trip. "I almost oaught a title too. This is the way I missed it For one thing, mamma's eagerness frightened him. I'm sure he could see her shake as soon as he appeared. I'm sure he saw her nudge me. But that wouldn't have seriously mattered if he hadn't found me out" "I was afraid," be said in a lifeless tone. "I thought it wouldn't do for me with the inherited tendencies of which I was so constantly reminded. Besides, no one oared. That was it It's all well enough to talk of doing right, but when your instinct leads you to the wrong and there's not a soul on earth to care a pin if you're fished out of the river, a boy—at least most boys—would get into an easy stride on the wroag road." "Don't look so tragic, my dear. One comfort—they don't know bow really badly off they are; brought up to it, ... — - »» yon sse. He declined tea from the matrons receiving and kept near the door. He had oome in only for a few moments to see the rajah and talk with him. As he stood there, his big shoulders and keen face showing dearly above those surrounding him, he looked across the whispering, constantly changing crowd for the famous Hindoo. Again Anne felt like a onlprit The felt and feather oreation on her head had a brim. Useless to expect to find favor in her aunt's eyes, since, looking like her father, she oame wearing a big hat "Well, that's settled," Anne heard a man say. his throaty tones inflated with satisfaction. "He ain't in the mine, be ain't on the ladder, and d—n him wherever he is." "I know it"—the ourtain slipped from Anne's fingers—"but that's what makes me fairly siok when I think of it —their apathy, their stolid acceptance of all. They don't crave anything except enough food to keep them quiet and they oan't get that Then one of Bending over the decaying fire, he had played for them. Her lips curled in a one sided smile. "I can laugh now, but really it was Anne could not utter one of the ootxiforting, philosophioal things she bad fancied at ber oommand. She let her band rat for an instant on the forehead where care bad set a skein of tangled lines, gave a circular glance in the room and went out, her heart The oage leaped beyond her sight Donald, with the ineffectual light making big shadows leap around him, came down the alley and stood before her. He knew some disclosure was trembling on her lips. who adored him. Sometimes when he read aloud after dinner and Mrs. Mulligan sat motionless as a sphinx save for the darting needles, Anne knelt on the floor, her arms around the boy. His feverish mouth would creep olose to her ear and he would tell her bow he loved Mr. Sefain and how he was never to go baok to the mines, never. Anne would assure him of this while holding him to her and kissing him in a little storm of love, and then her eyes would rove over him, his hands with no more substanoe than claws, dry and hot his hungry eyes seeming to hold life like a picture before them in an endeavor to see all quiokly before the short day UUUIXL "Here's Anne Garriok at last" And Mrs. Ericsson entered a big bay windowed room as inviting as fluted swisi curtains and pale green appointment! oould make it Close by the big, yawning leaves of palms screening the zither players he saw him. The lean brown profile with the huge crimson turban above waa bending over some one. It was Olga. When the crowd parted, David saw her plainly. "No, you needn't have gems," she said passionately. Anne's fingers were unsteady as she pat on the miner's protecting outfit. This was a rubber blouse to her knees and a wide brimmod, glazed bat, a little oil lamp fliokering in front just above the brim. T"! hopeless affrighted \ mnlVflI Donald bat she v her. He found ben which the H Before b HH ened bu' lighthouse I She knev pi that there K^PJj' ' jm and sent c i waiting oa 6 pel led her jfr Irl i 40 stand " i ! a w ..Hutu:.-,. coal leap | write her Passing' "I'm not trying to excuse myself." A young woman was beside a window, a manicure set spread out on s small table before her, and she was examining a pink nail, mnoh as a jewelei does the springs of a watch. was not amoiig the crowd, ent on, expecting him to join did not appear, and soon she elf close to tbe mine arounr straggling village was built dr stood  iding whicl when oars were th# two s. A to go a a 1 iD thi ag dow not* the ax impty furnaoes, adders to the top caused, made sac it was tenanted lome one. Mo' she saw tbe moo bbe murderer's tiis working pos.. shoot, his head lowered, his hand ex tended, as if picking the refuse from the sliding coal. He bad evidently digested the fact that his picture was being made for a newspaper, for tbere was exaltation in bis faoe. Hidden in tbe shadow, Anne leaned against one of the posts and watched. "We're aloue now," he said. "You look awful. Take a little." "I don't know," he said slowly. "I ought to be. I bave been. But tonight somehow I wish I oould begin over again." "But you're not hopeless, are you?" He held out a flask of whisky, and Anne greedily swallowed a mouthful. It revived her and made her brave again. She listened to the creaking of the wire ropes, but instead of fear ber •yes flashea with determination. ''I'm gning to trust you, Donald Selift III. ililiitf MJFTT tnn/,L inghis arm. "Yea, you. I believe in your pity and your honor." She was on a low seat beside a pink lamp, her mother, now chatting at a little distance, having early seen the advantage of the rosy light She was in velvet and furs, her lips under a delicate veil lazily smiling. A bat with a brim, and a big one, shadowed her eyes and gave them deeper mystery. Her poae was regal, gentle The upward glances given to the rajah were laay, provoking. Her delicate lipa were humid with a childish sensuousness. "BeadyI" said the sheriff, sod the wire rope throbbed. "You dear thing! How ar« you?" she said, going to meet Anne, and they kissed each other. He beard a sob. All Anne bad felt during the trying day and the pathoa of tbts confidence had touched her beyond endurance. She wept unrestrainedly from a full heart She oould not see Donald's eyes nor bow they grew intent the high, ooal black- 7 Cbw wew^ On the iLt step she /t'JffillL  denly aware the break- if Mi 'cMjjfrMV^ Donald was sketching 111 'jf,' f fflllltfv*vt& «ng to one side, nnaeen, \ jl was little Joe Evans, ImfWf ion. He had assumed  tion beside an empty N. "Let me look at you, Olga," said Anne, turning ber to the light "I'v« heard you are beautiful. Mr. Tinkle, pur sooiety editor, saw van at tba opera last night and nas talked about you au the morning." *— . .U, D »i  that be should hear a woman's sobs for dim, tears for him. They were terrible and racked him, but they were sweet too. It was Donald who showed Anne some of the singular sides of the oity's life. His eyes answered ber; he held his breath. Olga lifted bar bead lazily in a challenging way and with a purring laogb. "Upon my word, fancy," aba aaid witb an English accent aa Anne looked at her. " Wbat do yon think? Am I?" "I know where Red Evana ia," she said. "Hu'a near us, bidden under uiy cloak. He begged his life—oh. how he begged it—and I couldn't give him up. He prayed for one ohanoe. I'll give it to him. Will yon?" Before be coald fully aooept the wonderful oocurrenoe as true and before Anne could oontrol herself to apeak the grating of the wire rope* in the shaft cautiously During this season of para frost when the electrio wires spanning the city were turned into glacial ribbons and the noise of trafflo on the frozen ground was like the olamor from brass, she often found herself treading the narrow, uphill streets in the lower quarter of the oitjr to see some marvelous "find" of his. No wonder David and a dozen other men who watched her came to the same She took a thin cigarette from a rtlver box on the table. decision—she waa beautiful, loving, gentle, true. She seemed the aort of woman men so frequently choose aa a wife and never aa a oomrade; a helpleas, fa&inating, fastidious creature whose eyes express the words: "Tell me, dear, just what to da You know so muoh better than I;" not a woman of original opiniona on anything under the sun; aa conventional in thought as in the way ahe wore her hair; not tailor made, independent or athletic; one whose gowns were always marvels to men's eyes, fragrant mysteries of lace and ribbons; a woman to love ease and ouahions and never remember an address, toooo to a baby, orave needlework and dabble in charity, altogether a seductive contrast to the restless spirit of a man's business life. "Yea, you are." provoking at the time. Val—dear thing he was—hated the least touch of unconventionality in a woman, and smoking be considered only a little better than swearing. By the way,I'm telling you the truth about myself, Anne. It's such a relief to tell it. I never do exoept to relatives. With men it's impossible not to pose; they expect so much. Well, my dear, I posed for Val for six long, weary months. I played the little lamb, always witb a bit of needlework, practicing the Madonna gaze, taking only one glass of ohampagne at dinners and declining oigarettes with a shy, reproachful glance. He used to tell me I was his ideal, that it seemed profane to love me, that nature knew what she was about when she fashioned me like an angel, eta One day he walked into Morley's, where I was having my portrait done, and found me with Mrs. Sutton Vane, a little monkey of a woman with a fast manner, and whom he particularly detested. We had a bet on as to which oould blow the roundest rings of smoke. I, his Madonna, his angel, bis snow flower, won, while he, unseen by me, watohed. Sudden business1 oalled him away next day, business so absorbing he never came back. Mamma has aat up nighta with her finger to her forehead wondering why. I am all blank A light spraDg Into Donald'• faoe, aud despite the opposing foroes tearing bini like teeth he preaaed her band and said in a whisper that was alow and difficult: Few women oould have welcomed criticism in that green toned setting and raw light The two emphatic qualitiei of Olga'a beauty, etherealness and daMoacy, did not suffer. She was extraordinarily white. The skin on supple tbroal and quiet cheek was of almost silvery pallor. Moonlight seemed bathing her pale blond hair. Her greenish gray ayes were dreamy, the pnpils large; her upper lip very short, full and ooral pink. "A moonlight maid," the artists in Paris bad oalled her. There was not a heavy note in her ooloring. The blond brilliancy of some Swedish anoeetar lived again in her, some "flower at northern snows," and with it the delicate American features of her mother. She was of average height, and though slight her body had a delicate robustness. She wore a white flannel robe loosely belted, and her hair hung in a plait to her waist "TlM tky it CU dull at ever," taid Anne. than grows frantio and the rest follow. Only now and than there's a Bed Evans who hM hate enough in him to kill the iaaoltiiig despot who rained his daughter and who has been crashing and oh sating him (or years. He went mad, and now the law is loose hunting for Bed Bvans as terriers hunt for a rat. If they find him, they'll hang him, and this is justioe of oourse. But why need Bed Evans ever have beoome what he waef Why? It's suoh a big, terrible question." A una pressed her bands upon bis shoulders, the divinity of a mediator iti her eyes. Once it was an old Russian musician, a political exile. The room they found him in was wretched, but in a corner stood a samovar of copper fit for a prinoe's tabla This and the Amati on the old man's knee were the only visible relics of a sumptuous past. Bending over the deoaying fire, he had played for them wild and terrible music, whioh awoke strange fancies. It seemed to whisper of a spirit haunting a familiar but empty bouae, where moonlight streamed through the bare windows; it shrieked of shipwreck, mumbled of witobea dancing in a haggard dawn, prayed for life while the block and the headsman waited. The unayllabled desolation of the exile's life, it had haunted her for days. A flood of feeling trickled over Donald's heart, something never felt before— a pain, an ecstaqy, a fire loosening some oallous growth and seeming by a miracle to turn it to sunshine within him. "If I do make anything of myaelf, if I ever do, it won't be because it's right nor for society, nor even for shame of what I am. but for you." "Don't be afraid, Joe. Don't cry. rm not mud," he mild "Yes, yes," be said, the perplexing joy still controlling him. "What can we do?" When they entered the cage, Anne's tear swollen face needed no explanation. To have been kept in a mine for an hour without a light because part of the machinery had slipped its groove and to have ohanoed upon Bed Evans dead was enough to unnerve any woman. • The cage shot down with tremendous ■peed. The lamps on the hats flared in the gust through thw- ciroular opening In the wall. It was a breathless, anxious descent. Anne olosed her eyes and stood like one in a trance until the journey was completed. "There's only one way Bed Evans can escape," she continued feverishly. "I've money with me. I'll give it to him. But that doesn't help matters while he's hidden here. The only way he can leave the mine unquestioned is by putting on your blouse and hat and taking your place when I go up. Once he's freed, I'll return for you. This is my plan—to pretend I lost some money and ootne back with tbese things I wear secreted under my own cloak for you, to slip them to you, have you put tbem on, step out unnoticed and join the searchers for the money. It will be easy enough. All men look alike in tbese things, and with the collar up and one's face turned away they make a good disguise. But should there be any comment you'd have to insist that you came down with me the seoond time. Are you willing? Will you risk it? I promise to return for you." Dr. Erloeson caught her hand and kfeaodit "The air must be filled with dust when the ooal comes tumbling down before you," Donald was saying, and he whistled softly as he waited for a reply. "Too should have put an iron casing round those too ready sympathies of yours, Anne, before you oame here. We'll have a very hard time of it if we try to change conditions whioh have always been," be said mildly. "Besides, I'» oome to the conclusion myself for my own satisfaction that the small things of life are inevitably balanced bare; to life in total with all its oppositions and wrongs must be as evenly baianoed somewhere else. What are yonr plans far today? I wish I could go with you and Sefain. Confound this uncertain leg of mine!" Only Anne and Donald ever knew the truth of that hour. They stepped into the night and saw the moon filling the place with phosphoric light, making a glory of the drenched earth. More marvelous than this white atmosphere of peace after the stormy day was the friendship which had put forth sudden flower in silence and night Her physical radianoe came upon David for the second time with the power of a summons. He bad frequently thought of her since the previous meeting. No one who onoe saw Olga ever quite forgot her. Side by side with the fancy of what Blaine might hava been her lovely taoe, rare in type, took its plaoe. When by Donald's side she stepped into the underworld, an overwhelming depression seized her. She had not dreamed how the knowledge of being 8,000 feet beneath the ground she trod so lightly could chill a heart. The rank, moist place smelled of death. She gazed at the jagged ceiling of ooal upheld by tremendous tree trunks placed at regular distances and forming a rude aisle, the fungus on props and beams, the sluggish pools in every depression, the empty mule carts and discarded picks. Just where the hat lamps flung their beams there was light, and beyond lay appalling mystery. "It's that what gives us the asthma," said Joe, backing up his words by a most awful oough. "Got anything on under that rag of a coat?" asked Donald cheerfully. "Let's see." Although working in the offioe of a world known newspaper, she had never Been the wonders of the mechanism used in its construction until one midnight Donald took her down to the pressroom. There was a weighty but soundless vibration as she went down the stone stairs, but when the iron door was pushed back the noise was so tremendous it leaped out like a bar and struck her. A gust at air aooompanied it which seemed to suok her down the ladderlike stairway against her will until, dazzled and bewildered, she stood on a little bridge overlooking a plateau of steel that leaped and shivered in gigantic sockets. Bare chested men like sweating pygmies stood between the big machines, and above them, a monster of many jaws, the roaring presses snapped up the paper. On the first page there was a portrait of a murderer, and this was repeated all over the gaslit space. On every side the sinister visage with eyes turned obliquely toward her came riding into view, and the glittering damps seized it, seemed to crush it furiously until, like the stone Sisyphus, rolled, it appeared again, and the task was incessantly continued. "You don't mind my going to the table this way? I am lazy, but we are en famille,"she said, strolling into the hall. "Mamma hates me to do it but I simply cannot dress for lunob. I'm as stiff as a German cavalryman all the afternoon and night I must have a little freedom." The child'B blue pallor went crimson, but in a half fearful way he opened the jacket and bared his puny obest. CHAPTEB VUL He made his way to her and she gave him her band, sinking back in a lazy attitude. The rajah was forgotten by him, and they talked of many things, of trifles mostly, but Olga had a way of making light talk entrancing. Her speech was pretty and her laziness wrapped a listener with a sense of magnetic quiet By the middle of Deoember even the most careless in the offloe of The Citizen bad commented upon the change in Donald Sefain. He was no longer the voluntary recluse, a man parading his vioes, eager to be judged by them alone. He bad learned to believe in his possibilities. His fettered nature, feeding on all that was rotten, had risen like a dazed, hungry thing following an in- Btinct for better food and freedom. Ambition, a rebellious prisoner always, bad revived in him after he had striven to orucify it. It oalled to him in the long uights, in bis lonely walks, and its voice was somehow Anne's: "All right," Donald nodded. "I wanted to know; that's all." And he commenoed whistling softly, while Anne's heart grew hot This was artistic savagery run amuck. In the dining room they found Dr. Ericsson. He drew Anne to him H gave her a bearlike hug. "is tms your aeDut as a ramuy man; she asked. "I'm first going with money to Red Evans' siste*" said Anne, seating hersalf on the arm of bis chair and opening hm notebook. "Then I want to see the interior of a mine if it's possible. I'd like to get an idea of tbe graves where thsse men spend their days. Tonight I tout get a long 'special' ready." "Sefain must go with you everywhere. Don't forget that. Goodby, my dear. Don't fret over what can't be helped. Remember all workers are not like those. Think of niggers singing in • lily field! Ah, I wish I were there now!" amazement when the subjeot is broached. And here endeth the romanoe of Lord Valentine Dunwearthy. It went up in smoke." "How old are you, Joe?" "You'd better sit on this knoll." And Donald, circling his lantern over his head, showed her tbe up hill recesses of a vast worked out chamber. "I'll go with tbe men down this gangway a bit. We'll not be far away. See, they're looking in the mule carts. I'd like to be on the spot if they get him. I want his faoe." "Nine." "No, my seoond appearanoe. I'm getting used to the limelight. I met David Temple ooming up town last night and prevailed on him to dine with us." "Ton weren't a bit in love witb him?" Growing more serious, ahe questioned David about The Citizen, at Anne's position in the offloe and spoke in an attractively feminine way of the mystery attending the making of a newspaper. "What do you think of all day as you sit picking the slate from the ooal?" In answer Donald took off the long blouse and hat and saw Anne's eyes darken with gratitude. She pointed to the mule cart. "In love? Na I never loved any thing but this. Listen!" "Nuthinl" His violet eyee were vapid wells between grimy lashes. "Do you know what the sea is, Joe?" He shook his head negatively without any interest. "He's there, and you'll need to give him some whisky; he's so weak." "What a charming man he is," exclaimed Mrs. Ericsson, and from the commencement of the meal, with short intervals of rest, Anne was put through a catechism by her aunt about David Temple. Her tongue played between her lips restlessly, while David's position, money, character and possible attachments were inquired after minutely and with an appraiser's air. When the cross examination was finished, Anne had a feeling that David bad been tioketed and put away with other ticketed matrimonial possibilities. She went to the mirror and looked into it steadily for a moment then turned to Anne, her whole expression ohanged. The laziness of glance vanished. She flung up her head and laughed joyously. To Anne's amaze the lines from "The Merchant of Venice" where Portia decides to masquerade as a man left her lips, at first tenderly, with half hidden laughter, aa a schoolgirl oonfides a secret then with assuranoe, a pretty swagger, delighted anticipation."How oan Anne do it?" she aaid, smoothing her muff, her truatful eyes lifted to his. "Oh, I suppose I'm stu- After putting out the light upon bis bat, which had begun to flicker, Donald stepped across an oozing stream and leaned over the cart. "The great, shining sea where ships sail—never saw that, Joe? Just turn your head a little the other way—so. Often hungry, I suppose?" "I'll be alone here!" was Aune's inward exclamation. "You won't be long," she said and sat down, apparently calm. "What have you done with your pid, helpless, but I shouldn't like such a life of tension and rush; always among the wheels—that's how it seems to me. I'm afraid I'd be like a silly butterfly oaught in a machine." life?" " Evans 1 Evans I Look up, man I Here's your chance. This bat and blouse" — He broke off abruptly. "Why doesn't he answer?" The assertion of bis best instincts bad left their marks upon the outer man. His antagonism and gloom had almost vanished; so had his untidiness and air of general dissoluteness. He carried himself better, bis clothes were better, and they were worn as if he respected them and himself. Anne hurried down the stairs and found Donald waiting for her with a venerable carriage. He did not see her ae she came up to him. Standing just outside the doorway, an Inverness cape flapping around him, he was sketching In the aalient points of a noisy group across tbe road. One man stood on a barrel, his arms held up, while in howls he called on the others to resist. Around him were a soore of men—Huns, Poles, with a smaller mixture of Irish and English—their working jeans discarded for antique and yellowed broadcloth. They were all stupidly listening witbeot sign of answering spirit, their faces showing that they were hungry and shivering. Joe smiled wanly as if at a jest. There was no need to affirm a self evident truth. "We're just going down this gangway." And Donald turned away, his fingers tingling to sketch her as she sat there, the light flaring above her eyes. "Anne's desires are different from yours," said David, and the perfume of He bent nearer and touched the bead and face of the hidden man. the violets under her chin lightened bis heart as if the shade of spring had pass- "Tbe ooal rushing down the shoot without a moment of rest must make your head ache, I should think?" Ten ruinates passed. Anne saw the men entering into the various hewn chambers, plunging their lanterns into clumsy carts, leaping into pits. Her heart seemed to have ceased beating. She found herself waiting for a ory of triumph and fancied the searchers dragging out a struggling, stormy browed figure, the murderer at bay. "Oh, If he's fainted how oan we save him? There isn't a moment," whispered Anne in a frenzy of fear. Anne listened in wonder. The room seemed to fade, the clatter from the street became unreal, and it was not Olga who stood before ber. It was Portia glittering in queenliness and coquetry, the perfume of an Italian garden ooming in with the sunset, a minstrel lounging near her, swords distantly clanking as waiting gallants moved. Her voioe had power and sweetness. Her awakened faoe sparkled changefully. She seemed possessed of a soul with wings struggling to be free. ed him. He looked at her almost ten- Joe forgot about tbe proper angle for showing off his knife blade chin and drawn eyelid. He dropped his head to his scrap of a band, ornamented by knuokles and nails beyond redemption. His eyes looked up with unquestioning patienoe. It was Donald who showed her the underground restaurants where the newspaper "hacks" plunged in the early morning hours for ooffee that was like a fluid blessing. She went with him to all sorts of queer and storied nooks. Onoe they had tea in a place known only to a few privileged soribblera. This was in a sort of oul de sac, a swinging lamp lighting the way up the long alley. Separated from the noise of the town and waited upon by a genial Preuoh host and his wife, they had seemed in Paris, for the secretive niche SMtowMttntatttt taPiktKg out of oountenanoe, in a commercial atmosphere.The pauses in this research *ere filled in by a recital of Olga's past and ooming triumphs, what she must and must not do, who was worth her knowing and who was not derly. " Yours are better." Donald olimbed into the mule oart and plunged down. As his habits mended and his work steadily improved David Temple treated him as a worker whom he prized. A closer degree of intimaoy between the two men seemed impossible. They saw each other seldom, save in the office. But Anne was the friend of both. "Think so?" "Better for a woman," he said soft- , . "I think so, but perhaps I'm intol- "He's dead!" erant, perhaps I'm old fashioned. I ad- The words rang out. The echoes carried them and played with them in a ghastly way. No need of plans, sacrifice, danger. Freedom and the hangman were alike impossible and indifferent to Red Evans now. Anne was g)ad to get back to the green and white room, the door closed, and only Olga there, looking at her with amused eyes. mire Anne, and I like her more than I can say. I like many women who hold her ambitious views, but they seem to me to gain brilliancy and self reliaaoe at the sacrifice of a quality that is beau- "It always aches. It's acbin now." Theu an unlooked for thing happened. Without warning the moving throng of figures turned a corner, and she was alone in silence save fur the dropping of water, in darkness save for the light upon her hat. She seemed to become stone surrounded by an atmosphere of David visited her less often than in the summer, his engagements were so many, but every hour he oould spare was spent in her pretty, out of the way rooms. He let the social mask fall when with her as with no one else. Any one seeing him pacing up and down her room, a privileged cigarette between his fingers, as he indulged in brilliant nonsense, laughing like a boy wheu he pulled b«r pet theories to bits as if he blew away loose rose petals, would scarcely have kuown him. A sigh came from hia dry mouth, and it had the effect of a clarion oall on Donald. The apathy went from him. He flung hia book to the floor. Hia faoe was twitching. His eyes burned. "Look here, Anne, isn't she harrowing? Do you wonder how I stand it? There ought to be a law for the suppression of uncongenial relations. Mamma is really impossible." tiful and indefinable, like a mist or a perfume." Anne saw Donald's faoe lifted, touched by the awe always following the wake of the great mystery, but only for a few seconds before her lamp went out with a long leap, as if protesting against some new, uncanny presence, and they were in darkness with the dead. Donald was never fully aroused exsept when ha worked. His brown, Mncu fingers held the book intently, hia eyas fiaahed keenly from the page to the ma, bat hia dark faoe looked pinohed in the raw morning. His air was frankly dissolute. When the last word was spoken, sbe sank down by Anne's side and seized her band. "And yoa don't despise a woman Continued on page 4. "By , child, how terrible you are!" Kneeling, he brought hia faoe to a level with Joe's, his hands grasping the boy's shoulders. horror, She flung herself .into a rocker and took one foot into the embraoe of her hand. Suddenly she burst out laughing. over ISrv I of the Globe for f RHEUMATISM.1 I Mil) kALQIA and Complaint*, J and prepared under the stringent LGERMAN MEDICAL preecribed by eminent phTgiamn»i^W Km D& richter's (Km mr " ANCHOR " D9 fPAIN EXPELLERl ■ World renowned ! Remarkably eoccenf ul I ■ ■Only grnntne with Trade Mark" Anchor,"! ■ id. Hlchtet 'Co., 81& Pearl St., New York. ■ 31 NI6HEST AWARDS. |ft 13 Fraaob Honsei. Own Glauwork*. ■ es ud ifl cU. bdonrd u4 muaMa** kj FAHRKK a PECK, to Uwn AtwM, 6. C. curl. 40 Berth MrMt, i. H. HOLTK. 4 K.rU «»1» St. rmsteii, I ** ANCHOR" STOMACHAL beat for I r TiimilirTnri'iri! This paralyzing spell broke, and her blood crept in cold currents around her spine, for up in the black hollow behind her she heard a quick breath, then another, and a piece of coal tinkled down the declivity to her feet. The breathing came oloser. It was Just behind her now. There was a step, and she knew a horror unnamable stood at her baok. She did not turn or move the stiff fingers clasping her knee or flicker an eyelid. "You liked it I see you did." "Oh, where have you had the obanoe"— "Don't be afraid, Joe. Don't cry. I'm not mad," he said, a sob creeping between his set teeth. "Oh, you poor little chap, you sad eyed little slave I Oh, hungry and sick and old and only 0, picking the coal the whole day through, thinking of nothing and breathing death! Joel Joe! Where is your God and mine, that a child like you exists under the sky?" "AnneGarrick, you've a very expressive faoe. You don't envy me, although I'm a beauty aud tb« only daughter of an adoring mother." Whan Anue spoke to him, the smile if which he always seemed ashamed made hia faoe attractive for a second before it settled again into the usual nngraoious qniet. Anne sank down, her folded arms resting against a wet wall. Everything seemed to slip into a mist; she felt numbed, vauquisbed, when, like a promise of good, Douald 'a groping band ■ought hers and held it firmly. They did not speak. It was a burden even to think of the horrors surrounding them, the masses of ooal not far above their beads creaking like a lazy monster settling himself, the whimpering of flying rats and the knowledge that beside them lay a dead man, a look of affright ou his face. Together tbey went to well known studios where all was harmony and beauty—idols sombrously contemplative, mediaeval windows, wood carving from India and ruga from Damascus. She had watched the last touches put tq a landscape, had seen a sculptor wake lips of olay smile M if he had called life {here. "Didn't yon know they went wild iu Loudon aooiety over my Constance in 'The Love Chase V I played it at a doaen houses (or various charities. ,Ob, the stage I That would make poverty endurable. The life calls me, Anne. I know its disadvantages, no one better, but it'a a rare lot when you feel your fitness for it I'll uever do more than dabble with it for amusement, but if I could — if I'd been free to do as I pleased, the world would have heard of me. Here's mamma," she broke off, the light leaving ber face. "She's oomiug with hot milk to give me a face bath. By the way, she loathes acting, even my amatenr work, but I've already made arrangements with Mrs. Oswald Morse to do Kate Hardcastle at Tuxedo for the Working Girls' library fund. She'd have palpitation of the heart if ah* knew it I'll tqll her the day be- Vm II Anne loved these hours with him, and her happiness weut with her, absorbing ber thoughts to the detriment of the art so dear to her. The pen lay dry upon the sheets of her novel. She no longer struggled against the passionate effacement of self in another's being. She did pot torment bar heart by looking for a growing love in David's eyes. She was content to drift It was evident to all be was very fond of her. He sought her familiarly, 8he knew nothing of his life beyond the small horizon of her and, feeling an anticipative joy winch seemed to melt ber future with bis, she was content She took a thin oigarette from a silver box on the table. "Have one? You don't smoke? You don't know what a comfort it is." The horse went at a crawling pace over the hills and across swampy land, and they talked of the work for the paper aa if they were two men. No personalities were touched upon. There was nothing to brighten the drive, and after a long distance oovered in the face of a mist that made Anne's obeeks like pale, wet roees they stopped before the noose where Bed Evans had lived. "But doesn't your mother object?" asked Anne, making herself oomfortable tunong a heap of cushions. She was roused from the thrall of terror by a sight to haunt her while she lived. A man groveled before her, his supplicating clutch upon her knee. The uncertain flame of her lamp flung blue splashes into the hollows of bis faoe. His red hair was glued to his throat. The red streaked flannel shirt was open to the waist, showing his hairy ohest. Mildew and coal black oovered him. There was a mortal hunger in his glance. She waa gaaing at Red Evans and hm waa gracing fu* hia life, hot Donald had taken her behind the scenes of a theater, and she had watched the progress of a play from the Wings, bad gazed with critical eyes and a sense pf illusions lost at the mechanism of what had «q often enchanted her—exits, entrances, cues and prompter's book. Fascinated, shrinking, Joe looked into his eyes and said nothing. Anne oould hear her heart in the stillness. Her eyes fastened first on Donald's discarded sketchbook, then on his kneeling figure. C*Of course. What doesn't she objeot to? She doesn't want me to eat potatoes lest they make me fat nor to take oold baths, because they make me blue. She rubs my nose bard every night, because one little pink vein—see it—shows. She almost ories when I do my hair high and takes to her bed if I insist on more than one oup of ooffee. I am not allowed to speud a penny as I please nor to have an original idea about a gown or bat In fact, I'm my mother'a •took 1» fcaCut aha ia alvui Mi- After awhile it became evident that something delayed the return of the cage. Hours seemed to crawl by as they sat tnere, nana in nana, soaroeiy speaking until it became imperative to talk and let sound trouble the black pall dividing and overhanging them. The clamor following disgrace sur- E'ed it Women bowed by the maltionsof toil and years stood shoulD shoulder with idle men, all talking loudly, their eyes fastened upon the plflyu kaad whose sto- f'Joe," he said after a long silenoe, and now bis voioe was quiet, "something wonderful is going to happen to yon, something better than your Btarved mind oan understand. I'm going to take yon to a great big city with me. I'm to give jw good things to §n*. And they had read much together— the exquisite prose of Huysmaua and Mallarme, Kipling's crushing phrases painting the arid glitter of India, "Teas," bare armed and fawn eyed, loving tragically iu a aatting of cloyer and Dr. Ericsson had muoh to engross him and keep him away. The wild winter weather had brought the usual 111 aniens. ancLUa. fcww «•».*«. Than AliiiMilhiliii ihftl Mam-