Cheraw chronicle. (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, April 18, 1912, Page PAGE EIGHT, Image 8
?0^?HALACE OF COURAGE
jr(ContInued from page 6.)
grin, mortification, shame. He had
been overcome. He would have been
a dead man and by Newbold's hands,
If the others had not interfered. Ha
almost wished they had let his enemy
alone. Well, he had lost everything
but a chance for revenge on
them all.
"She has been alone here with this
man in this cabin for a month," he
said thickly. "I was willing to take
her in spite of that, but?"
"He made that damned suggestion
before," cried Newbold, his rage returning.
"I don't know who you
are?
' "My name is Robert Maltl&nd, and
I am thiB girl's uncle."
"Well, If you were her father, I
could only swear?"
"It isn't necessary to swear anything,"
answered Maltl&nd serenely.
"I know this child, and I believe I'm
beginning to find out this man."
"Thank you, Uucle Robert," said
Enid gratefully, coming nearer to blm
as she spoke. "No man could have
done more for me than Mr. Newbold
has, and no one could have been mora
considerate of me. As for you," she
turned to Armstrong, who now slowly
got to his feet, "your Insinuations
against me are on a par with your
charges against the dead woman, beneath
contempt."
"What did he say about her?' asked
old Klrkby.
"You know my story?" asked New- J
bold.
"Ves."
"He said that my wife had been unfaithful
to me?with him?and that he j
had refused to take her back. Great
God!" ,
"And it was true," snarled Arm- strong.
T+ nts. a11 If m A ?a..1J a.
4b nag ait mauiauu UUUIU UU [o
check Newbold's rush, but in the end
.It was old Kirkby who most effectively
Aakerposed.
^That's a damned lie," he said quiet*
J7 whh his usual drawling voice.
1 "Yon can say so," laughed Arm*
strong, "but that doesn't alter the
facts."
"And I can prove it," answered the
old man triumphantly.
It was coming, the secret that she
had tried to conceal was about to be
cjfivealed, thought Enid. She made a
"Siovement toward the old man. She
opened her mouth to bid him be silent
and then stopped. It would be uselees
she knew. The determination
was no longer hers. The direction of
affairs had been withdrawn from her.
After all it was better that the unloving
wife should be proved faithful,
even If her husband's cherished memory
of her love for him had to be destroyed
thereby. Helpless she listened.
knowrtjg full well what the old
frontiersman's next word would be.
"Prove it." mocked Armstrong.
"How?"
"By your own band, out of your own
mouth, you dog," thundered old Kirkby.
"Miss Enid, where are them letters
I give you?''
"I?I?" faltered the girl, but there
was no escape from the keen glance of
the old man; her hand went to the
bosom of her tunic.
"Letters." exclaimed Armstrong.
"What letters?"
"These," answered Enid Maitland,
holding up the packet.
Armstrong reached for them, but
KIrkby again interposed.
"No, you don't," he said dryly.
"Them ain't for your eves yet. Mr.
Newbold, I found them letters on the
tittle shelf where vour wife first struck !
when she fell over onto the butto"
where she died. I figured out her
dress was tore open there, and them
letters she was carrying fell out and I
lodged there. We had ropes an' wo
went down over the rocks that way.
I went first an* I picked 'em up. I never
told nobody about it, an' I never
ehowed 'em to a single human bein'
until I give 'em to Miss Maitland at
the camp."
"Why not?" asked Newbold, taking
the letters.
"There wasn't no good tellin' nobody
then, jest fer the sake o' stirrin' up
. trouble."
"But why did you give them to her
at last?"
"Because I was afeered she might
fall In love with Armstrong. I sup\i
posed she'd know his wrltln', but w'en
she didn't I just let her keep 'em
anyway. I knowed it'd all come out
somehow; there 1b a God above us in
spite of all the damned scoundrels on
T earth like this 'un."
"Are these letters addressed to my
idead wife?" asked Newbold.
r "They are," answered Enid Mail
ft land. "L.00K ana see.
L "And did Mr. Armstrong write
them?"
"He'll deny it, I suppose," answered
i Kirkby.
B "But I am familiar with his hand
ft writing," said Maitland.
B Taking the still unopened packet
H from Newbold, he opened it, examined
L
back.
"There Is 110 doubt about It," he
said. "It's Armstrong's hand, I'd
swear to it."
"Oh, I'll acknowledge them," said
Armstrong, seeing the absolute futility
of further denial. He had forgotten
all about the letters. He had not
dreamed they were in existence.
"You've got me beat between you; the
cards are stacked against me. I've
done my damndest"?and indeed that
was true.
Well, he had played a great game,
battling for a high stake he had stuck
at nothing. A career in which some
good had mingled with much bad was
ni ^
lank Hit Fingers Around tfie Other** j
Throat. ,
opw at an end. Re had lost atterlft: j
would he show himself a good loaerT' <
"Mr. Armatrong," eald Newbolfli ,
luietly, extending hie hand, "here arerour
letters." ,
"What do yoa meanf
"I am not In the habit of reading; let-- ,
:ers addressed to other people without j
permission, and when the recipient of ,
hem la dead long since,. I am dbubly .
pound." I
"You're a damned fool;" cried Ann- j
itrong contemptuously. 1
'That kind of a charge from your <
cind of a man Is perhaps the highest 3
:omplalnt you co*!d pay me. I don't ,
enow whether I shall ever get rid. of .
he doubt you have tried to lodge In ]
ny soul about my dead wife, but?"
"There ain't no doubt about It," pro- il
;ested old Klrkby earnestly. 'Tve =1
ead them letters a hundred times [
>ver, bavin' no acruplea whatsoever,
in' In every one of 'em he was begftn'
an' pleadln' with her to go away i
with him an' flghtin' her refusal to do
t. I guess I've got to admit that she
\f ;/ iIt
Was the Woman Who Broke the
Silence.
didn't love you none, Newbold, an' she
did love thiB here wuthless Armstrong,
but for the sake of her reputation, I'll
prove to you all from them letters of
hisn, from his own words, that there
didn't live a cleaner hearted, more virtuous
upright feemale than that there
wife of yourn, even if she didn't love
you. It's God's truth an' you kin take
It from me."
"Mr. Armstrong," cried Enid Maitland,
interposing at this juncture. "Not
very long ago I told you I liked you
better than any man I had ever seen.
I thought perhaps I might have loved
you, and that was true. You have
played the coward's part and the liar's
part in this room?"
"Did I fight him like a coward?"
asked Armstrong.
"No," answered Newbold for her, re
membering tne struggle; -you iougui
like a man."
Singular perversion of language and
thought there! If two struggled like
wild beasts that was fighting like men!
"But let that pass," continued the
woman. "1 don't deny your physical
courage, but I am going to appeal to
another kind of a courage which I believe
you possess. You have showed
your evil side here in this room, but
I don't believe that's the only side you
have^else ^couldn't have_liked ?ou in
the. past You have made a charge <
against two women; one dead and one
living. It makes little difference what i
you say about me. I need no defense. 4
and no Justification In the eyes of 4
those here who loVe me, and for the
rest of the world I don't care. But you
have slain this mail's confidence In a 4
woman he once 1 erred, and who he 4
thought loved him. Am yon are a man,!
tell him that It was a lie and that she
was Innocent of anythlag else although 4
she did love you." 4
What a singular situation, an obser- 4
ver who knew all might have reflect*
ed! Here was Enid Maltlaad pleading 4
for the good name of the weman who 4
had married the man she now loved, 4
and whom by rights she should hove
Jealously hated. 4
"You ask me more than I call * 4,
faltered Armstrong yet greatly moved 4
by this touching appeal to his better '
self. 4<
"Let him speak no word," protested 4
Newbold quickly. "I wouldn't believe v
him on his oath."
"Steady now, steady," Interposed f
Klrkby with his frontier Instinct for 4
fair play, "the man's down, Newbold, 4
don't hit him now." J
"Give him a chance," added Maltland
earnestly. ?j
"Ton would not bellere me, eh?" 4
laogbed Armstrong horribly, "well J
tbem this to what I say, whether it la <
true or a He yoo can be the judge." 4
What waa be about to say? Theyi 4
?n reeognlaed Instinctively that hie J
forthcoming' deliverance would be a 4
final one. Would good or evfl domfn- <
ate hfm now? Enid Maftland had ft
made tow plea and It had bees a pow- ?
BTful oner the man did truly lore J
the woman who urged hlra; there wm J
nothing left tor Urn bat a chaste* that *4
the should thin* better of Wat than. ?
he merited; he lad1 com* to th* cad J
jt hie resources. And EhM Mgltflwdi
ipoke again as he hesitated. 4
"O, thinis; think; befiorv yew wgm&T 4
rtn? cried. 4
"It I thought," answered; Amm- J
strong quiclcJy, "F should gp> mad_ BF*w- ;
5oldv your wife was as pur* a* the f
mow; that si* loved' me 1 cannot and* 4
*111' not deny, she married you< to m 4
Bt of jealousy and anger after a gnarrel
between us In which I was to- 4
blame;, and whan' I came hack, to the 4
samp- In your absence, r strove tx> 4
make It up and used every argument
that I possessed' to get her to leave 4
rou and to live with me. Although 4
she had: no' Iowa for. you she was too 4
good and too true a woman tor that. 4
Now you've got the truth,, damn you, 4
believe it or not as you. like; Hiss
Maltland," he added swiftly. "If lhad! 4
met you sooner,. L might have Been 4
a better man. Gbod bye." 4
He turned suddenly and none pre .
venting;.indeedt it was not poeeibB*,. he
ran to. the outer door;: as. he did! so ?S
bis hand snatched something that lay J
on the chest of drawer* There was. j
a flash of light as he drew In his- arm
but none saw what It was. In & few <5
seconds he was outside the door. The
table was between old Klrkby and the ?
exit; Maltland and Newbold were ^
nearest The eld man came to his
senses first.
"Alter hlm,'^ he criet^ "he means? " a
But before anybody could stir the ?
dull report of a plstoi come through t
the open door!
They found Armstrong lying on his a
back in the snowy path, his face as
white as tho drift that pillowed his *
head, Newbold's heavy revolver still
clutched in his right hand and a
bloody welling smudge on his left *
breast over his heart. It was the woman
who broke the silence.
"Oh," she sobbed, "It can't be?"
"Dead," said Maltland solemnly.
"And It might have been by my hand,"
muttered Newbold to himself in
horror.
"He'll never cause no more trouble ,
to nobody in this world, Miss Enid an'
gents," said old Klrkby gravely. "Well, ?
he was a damned fool an' a damned
villain In some ways," continued the
old frontiersman reflectively in the si.
lence broken otherwise only by the
woman's sobbing breaths, "but he had
some of the qualities that go to make
a man, an' I ain't doubtln' but what
them last words of hisn was mighty
near true. Ef he had met a girl like
you earlier in his life, he mought have
been a different man."
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Draught of Joy.
The great library was the prettiest
room in Robert Maitland's magnificent
mansion in Denver's most favored resaor?flAn
Tt tl*q a a loner low
iUVUW OVVWIVUI * V n Wk/ M ?vug| ? II
studded room with a heavy beamed
celling. The low book cases, about
five feet high, ran between all the
windows and doors on all sides of the
room. At one end there was a huge
open fire place built of rough stone,
and as It was winter a cheerful fire
of logs blazed on the hearth. It was
a man's room pre-eminently. The
drawing-room across the hall was Mrs.
Maitland's domain, but the library reflected
her husband's picturesque if
somewhat erratic taste. On the
walls there, were pictures of
E
t
t
h
I Do You
:
Assi&a
_
t* If you want a hom
if and if we haven't 1
t
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we can get it. we
ing some nice reside*
> in and some busine*
f
t* that will yield got
C your investment if b<
? Gome in and let
\ our list of homes', vj
$ farms. Buy now whi
> .
? and you will never n
I Maynard-Raley Ml
I
: Offices Ranard Hotel Bids:.
f ..
I
he west bjr Remington,. march- ?et 1
ndL Ductal, Dtxoa and others, broth
nd to set then* off, finely mount- bold,
d heads ?f bear and deer and! buffalo. Tb
I words and-other arms stood here and land
Sere. Tift wrltdnar taMe wni massive Kethf
iDd the chairs eaay, comfortable and that
Belting. The door was strewn with atrab
obes and rugs-. From tt? windows night
acing westward, since the house was had#
et on a high hill, one could see the takei
;reat rampart of the range. "W.'ty
There were tbcree men In the room Th
>n that brilliant. morning early In Jan- a bo!
tary something like a month after meai
hese adventures in the mountains and_
^hich have, . been so veraciously
ROY,
1 BAKIN
I powi
Ill Absolutely
H Economizes Bntl
Tfj Eggs; makes the
|| appetizing and \
M The only Baking P
W from Royal Grape Cr
Need?
i nAA^ Ml
j u^c.r m
i e wc have] it, y 11
0 vhat you want W
are also offer- Jj
1 ce lots, close ?. ^
> s lots at prices ?
) d returns on T
3 ught now. X
us show you X
i cant lots and X
1 e dirt is cheap
? gret it.
\] I Triisi Co. f
f :
Phone 84
o
y
rm tK~ TwiTnf thorn wfiro ma
l? s Maltland; the third was New94
ihock produced upon Enid Maltby
the death of Armstrong to>r
with the tremendous episodes
ha d preceded It had utterly prosed
her. They had spent the
: a t the hut In the mountains and
decided that the woman must be
l back to the settlements somp
al all hazards.
& wit of old Klrkby had effected
Lution of the problem, using a
is- certainly as old as Napoleon
the passage of his cannon over
(To be continued.)
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