University of South Carolina Libraries
?I1 QLDD ^jvcI Firs. ] Novelized from the J Picture Play of the name by George Kleir CV>p)nflti, |9|t>, br Ad?U>4c M H?tk? SYNOPSIS. Plerpont Stafford, with Ids daughter i Gloria, is wintering at Palm Beach. Becoming lost in the everglades Gloria fall;? | into tlie hands of the Seminole Indians. ! she falls in love with her rescuer, Fre- I iieau. Five years later she leaves school and meets Freneuu at tlie theater; he has ft ruoilun Gloria. I.atcr Kreneau ns r suadcs her to forgive him. Gloria's sister-in-law. Rols, becomes intensely jealous and Doctor Royce discovers in her nn ally. Freneuu tukes leave of Gloria. Ethe sees from her window an attack made upon him. Doctor Royee convinces her it is delirium. She accidcntly sees the supposed suicide of Freneuu reported in the paper Gloria swears to find the murderer. Gloria insists in going to I'aim Bnach. She is recognized by her o'to'iine captor, tlie young Indian chief, lie tells her that Royce and not Freneuu was her rescuer at that time. Gloria attends night court", she sees Mulry there, also] the tramp who attacked Freneuu. Rut , Judge Freeman releases him. She follow., the tramp when he leaves court. She finds herself in a low saloon dance hall, and is selected by one of the patrons as Ids partner. Doctor Royce, however, follows her and when he attempts a rescue, e .Its down a riot on their heads. The hull is raided and the crowd, including Gloria and Royce, is arrested and taken beto e Judge Freeman. Cm imir arrives with the child Gloria promised to adopt. She orders Royce to take Cusimir's wife to the Stafford home. She follows Trask ami lands on a. houseboat to heir him a'CU: e 1 ol Frenenu's murder. She ? onfronts him; he imprisons her, but she tics him up and escapes. In the yacht Gloria and the nu n pursue the barge. In the light that follows Trask is badly wounded, lie is taken to the Stafford homo. Royce endeavors to return to Lois her letters lo t Freneuu. During a playful scuffle Glori sees and recognizes the envelope. Sho I suspects Royce of complicity in the mur- ' /!?.. Inll.. \ -.11 l>l ui.i . j vvi.m- icun nri till. 0110 SCCS 011C (1 | Lois' letters t<> Freneau. Judge Free-1 man confesses his part. When Lois is | confronted .she floes from Gloria intent ; on suicide. But Gloria races s\fier her ; and prevents her from committing tiedeed. She then returns the letters to 1 Lois and forgives her. Thinking that Pa-) vid is the one responsible for Freneau's | death, she takes him aside to confront , Trask. But Trask has been spirited away I by Judge Freeman who believes as Glo- i ria does. TWENTIETH EPISODE 'V . Love's Reward The mystery of mysteries, the mvs- j tery that envelops every other, is the 1 mystery of life ami its negative, death. Plerpont Stafford had given his daughter tlloria what the penniless Trask had given his daughter Nell, life, the i same all beginning, all necessary gift of Judge Freeman to his daughter Lois. Through the existences of those three daughters Richard Freneau had wandered like a handsome Don .1 nan. wrapping each in romance and grief, us in a crimson cloak with a black lining. At I'alin Reach lie had flirted with Lois Freeman and won the child heart of Gloria Stafford. Gloria's father laid wisely snatched her away' from his spell and sent her to school for live years before she should enter the school of life. In that long interlude Dick Freneau's frivolous heart h:. gone hutterllying hither and yon. in his humbler days :?t ' ' < - W He Talked Very Earnestly. an a broker's clerk he met Nell Trask, whose pretty face was her only fortune, and the cause of her misfortune. Freneau had dealt sacrilege to the power^of life and left Nell broken hearted with no wedding ring. In his luter prosperity as a winner and loser of fortunes he had forgotten Nell and turned to more gorgeous creatures, such as Lois. Her he had won away from the sacraments of her wedding ring. And then Gloria drifted hack into his life like a white dove, and he felt that he had never loved till now. What the result of such a union might have been no one was ever to know, for Gloria fell ill, and merely to breathe became the one great problem with her. m t v^CEPerhaps the torments of pain ami the terrors of delirium she underwent in that long battle were less than the pangs she would have had to endure as the wife of Freneau, for he had all the graces and none of the severities of character. Gloria had known only his charms when she saw him murdered before her window. She had a long battle to persuade her people that she even saw the deed. Iter doctor,! Stephen Royee, persisted in declaring that what she witnessed was the ticlion of her imagination. With great ditliculty she had learned a few truths. Site had overtaken Trask only to he told that she had better let him go since his confession would involve her brother David. She had refused to believe that David had taken justice into his own hands, and like tut ancient Indian hired a brave to assassinate his enemy. Trask alone could clear David of that charge or fasten it on him. And Trask had vanished. Doctor Koyce hud done all ho could to lvl't'H (Iliirin I Vi I'll /lini'/iinir tlx. . ~ ..x ? r .?? J I "i.? Jfiv i VI III VJ > V~J I about the crime. But now that site had leaned a part of Freuoau's duplicity, he was ready to help her learn till the truth, lie was eager to know it himself. When she told hint that Trash had been carried off. he said: "They can't carry him far without hilling him. He is doomed anyway, I'm afraid. We must tind him soon or there will be nothing to liud." lie spohe a truth that Trash himself was beginning to realize. The human frame is not built to serve as a buffer between yachts and barges, and Trash's frame was wreehed within bis llesii by bis accident. His fear of justice bad made bint consent to the effort to escape from the Stafford house, hut the judge's automobile had not gone far when he was compelled to beg that it run more slowly. Finally it grew plain to him that he was about to escape from earthly judgment and punishment altogether. He had nothing to fear from the police or the wear ers of che black robe. He began to fear the more what higher courts awaited him. lie dared not enter those tribunals with a burden on his soul. Suddenly he felt that Gloria, who had been his tormentor and his enemy, was one person on earth who could give him comfort. lie began to cry out that he wanted to be taken back to her. .Ted and Nell and the ehuutTeur thought him mad, but they were afraid of him. lie held the uncanny weapon of the power to die "He'll be dying on us," the chauffeur said, as he checked the car and begun to turn it round. He had a superstitious fear of thwarting a man's last wish. He was not afraid of anything else, but he was in a panic lest Trask should die in his car. He paid little heed to Trask's groans and made all speed to the Stafford home. Uoyce had just taken Gloria into his car to set forth on a hunt for Trask when Judge Freeman's motor brought him back. Judge Freeman saw the meeting and he was covered with chagrin. He saw that Gloria recognized his chauffeur, and she threw him a look of reproach, hut she was too much absorbed in Trask's needs to re prouch him. To (ilorin's astonishment, when Trask was lifted from the car he did not glare at her, but put his hand out to her. "He's got a lot he wants to tell you," Nell explained. Uoyee motioned for one of the reclining chairs to he brought from tho sun parlor and Trask was placed in it. When they started to take hint into the house, however, he shook his head and moaned: "No, no; leave me out under the sky over where there's dowers." It is strange how the suffering of an enemy pleads and prays for him. (Gloria was distracted with sympathy for Trask, and her heart ached for hint as for an old friend in distress. She had the servants carry him to a llower-walled nook where the breeze was spicy and there was shade without gloom. .Judge freeman watched the group (iiicl an Idea came to him. He stepped into the house and motioned to IMorpont Stafford's secretary to bring his note pad and pencils. j "Is it a dictation?" the secretary ; asked. "Yes," said tlie Judge, "but it's be( yond mine. It's possibly the final statement of a dying man and it may ! have legal importance." lie led the secretary back of the I arbor, where he could hear without being seen. The secretary did not | relish such eavesdropping, but the i judge kept him to the work. There was some delay in making | Trusk as easy as possible, and Koyco THE HORRY HEF ?eut for his medicine ease thut he might keep him from a sudden collapse. Trask grew impatient with the delay and clutched at Gloria, mumbling: "listen, missy; 1 dou't know ylt Jest who you air, but I got a notion you got a right to know what 1 " know about that yellow dog Frenctiu." Gloria winced at the insult to her: dead lover, but site made 110 protest. Trask held her with lean lingers that ' hurt as he dragged her close, "You said you seen me kill that man. j What was he to you?" Gloria flushed as she sighed: "I loved him. NVe were engaged to be married." Trask chuckled gruesoinely. "I thought likely. I guess 1 done you a service giltin* rhl of lihn. He was engaged to iuy girl tirst, missy. lie promised to marry her. He told me he was goin' to marry her and he allowed he'd come right back. But he never did. "You see, I used to be at bnrgeninn, but my wife?Nell's mai?got lung trouble and the doctor said I had ought to take her to South Cu'lina or some- ; wheres. So I did. I took to lninln' i down there?found some zinc. New i York brokers got IntTested, sent a young feller named Freneaiu down to look over the prop'ty. "He wais there when Nell fetched' rne my dinner pail, lie took quite ai shine to her?hung 'round for several days, l-'oor girl, plumb crazy over him. She hadn't saw many fellers and he wus a killer anywhere he went, I. guess. "I kotehed him with his arm 'round Noll and 1 was pun' to heat him up. Wlsht 1 had. But he says they were engaged. So I wished 'mn well, Noll boin' happy as all got out. Thou he gets a telegram to go hack to the city. Ho ne\er comes hack, never writes. Seemed like Noll took oil inore'n she'd ought to, and by and by I know why. "ller maw didn't get any hotter and she died down there?died before she kniiwod what had happened to the girl. Iluvin' my wife die and after "Leave Her to Me, Miss, She Belongs to Me." i wards bavin* Noll goin' crazy with shame tit not boin' nobody's wifo drove mo out of my senses kind of. I never boon quite right since. "I get over boin' nuid at Noll, and we conio away front there before the things got worse. I took up the barge business again and didn't have much time for lookin' up Mister Kreneau. When 1 found him by accident it was outside your house in the city. I jumped for him and he hit me. I chased his automobile and got ruiv over by another one. Went to the hospital. Come out a mite wronger than what I went in. I guess. "Nell told me she'd found where lie lived and she'd went to se<? him, took the baby with her. hogged him to love nor again, or leastways I ? marry her for the baby's sake. But no, ho wouldn't, lie jest laughed at her :in< 1 tohi 1??t to go on away. "When she told me that, my head kind of filled up with poison. I didn't want anything hut that feller's life. I put out after him and always jest missed him. That night I followed i him to your house, seen him go in ! there, and I waited for him. A police- ' man chased me away and he must ' have went away without my seein' him, for I crop' hack to that big monument to watch for him. lie didn't come out, hut I waited. By and by I seen somebody eotnin' up Riverside drive. It was him. 1 thought I must a went crazy. I guess I had. But I ' waited for him. He stopped and lighted a match to light a cigarette with. ?... J T ' - iiiiu i nop up i)c111ut tiltn and got a grand holt on his neck with these old ten fingers and?" His great crooked fingers made a feeble repetition of their work, and Gloria covered her eyes. Trask laughed. "1 s'pose I'd ought to feel sorry, and 1 do, now that I've got to go where he's ; , went. But. it felt mighty good then to know he wasn't goin' to break any more hearts or fool any more girls. | "I left him lay there In the snow and I got away fust as I could. Next day I I expected to see a big holler in the pai pers. Not a word. A hull week passed and not u word. 1 felt creepy about it. 1 '.A IDC OOWWAT, 8. O. Thon I road about him beln* fobnd down In the bay and I couldn't understand. I been driven ueur out o* my senses try in' to tigger out how he got there." The secretary In hiding wondered, too. but the judge kept silence and so did Cloriu on her side of the ilowor screen. Dloria was not concerned about Trask *s bewilderment. She was staring at the little baby that Nell carried always in her arm. Her last spark of love for Freneuu died out in her soul, ' leaving it utterly dark. There was not enough embers left to Hare with jealousy. She was restless to have done with Freneuu forever. When Trask appealed for her for- > giveness if he had cuused her any pain. * she gave it freely. Her bitter heart : felt that Trask had done a cleansing task in removing Freneuu from the earth. Trask sank back exhausted and his ' hand relaxed its hold on her. Then ! she left him to the ministrations of Doctor ltoyce, who whispered to her that she had better not linger to the lust/ He sent her away. She went to i her room in a loneliness more pro- , found than she had ever felt. She j had not eveu a dead love for eompun- I ?....wl?l?. VI... ?l... ..I...*-.. I liUMi UIIU m 'vi in i llll* IMIHIU* | graph of Freneuu there and her lips curled with disgust at the kisses she ' had .squandered on that worshiped image. In her wrath she broke it to pieces, j ami laying the fragments in the empty 1 lireplace, set a match to them. She watched them burn and tiling herself across her bed weeping madly. She wept herself to exhaustion and finally to sleep, it was a troubled sleep with a hideous vision of Freneau in infernal ( Humes that mounted about him as the i Humes had danced around his photo- ! graph only they did not consume him. He put his arms out to her through the flumes, appealing l'oi pardon. She heard him say: "Gloria, I had repented of my evil ways and vowed to mend them, but 1 was struck down before 1 could. Forgive me!" She answered him harshly: "Ask Nell, not me. Come back and undo the evil you did." He sighed: "If only I could. There is only one evil that can be undone. I stole your love from a man who loved you before I did. and loves you still, (live him your heart, tlloria. (live him your heart, (lioria?tllo-ri-a!" His voice died away as the vision of him faded and she woke. She wept again to think of the pity of life and death and love, and her heart melted a little toward Freneau. She bathed her eyes and went out into the hall. There she found Nell Trask weeping incoiisoluhiy. Her father was dead. Gloria took the girl into her arms and tried to think of consolations where there were none. Her anger raged again at Freneau, whose treacheries were to blame for i everything. The man .Jed, hearing Nell weep, came blundering into the house and up the stairs and claimed her from Gloria's arms, saying: % ^ "Leave her to me. miss. She belongs to me. She told me ail you heard today a Ion# while ago. I love her just the same, or more, maybe. And I'll take good care of her and the baby. It's i a nice baby; it ain't to blame. I'll i take good care of the baby, miss, and Nell, too." Gloria surrendered the girl to him and saw that Nell leaned heavily upon l bis strong, encircling arms. Gloria left them . ' "t and went i down to the living room. There she found Judge Freeman. The haggard11 ess seemed to have left his ancient face. He spoke to her: "I heard '.vhat Trask told you. I never was so glad or so proud to be proved wrong. I owe David a humble : apology." "Will you make it to ldm?" "No, not for world. The most pro- j found apologies we make to people are 1 the silent ones they never hear. I < 0111(1 not apologize to David without telling him what I apologized for, and that I could never do. Lois is going t<> l?e a good wife to him. She ought j * b*ve her chance to build up their J'u i together. Have you the heart to their home to pieces now? Have V/1'1 1 , -n id W ^ irir i i^ill Gloria answered drearily: "T haven't tin4 strength. That's about all I know." She walked out upon the lawn where the sunset was adding almost intolerable beauty to the majesty of the river and the Palisades. The vast old peaks, like relentless judges, were being softened into a tenderness by the soft colors from the sky. Gloria sat down on a bench before a softly plashing fountain whose waters were made rosy by the light, ltoyce found her there and sat down by her. lie was tired and very solemn with the last rites of old Trask. "Is your heart at peace at last, GloriaV" he murmured. "At peace, no!" she gasped. "It is all in chaos." "About Freneau, I mean." "No, 1 hate him now?or at least I'm trying to." "Dou't hate him, Gloria. Don't hute him." "You ask Unit?*' "Yes, for how was he to blame? He was born what he was; he went the way his nature drove him. He had litle help from women except to he what he was. lie paid a hideous price for the wrong he did." "Don't you hate him?" "No." "Or anybody?" "No. Hate is not only unchristian, Gloria, it's unscientific; it's ignorant. Traak Tells It comes only from tin inability or tin . unwillingness to undcrsttitul. I ctin'l i hour to think of your dear heart piv- ( tnp out siK'h poison as hatred implies." i "You want me to love everybody, then?" "Yes." "Including you?" What more might have boon said there was no tolling, for Aunt llortensia enme hustling down the lawn with ; a yantlerglh of committee lists an.! tasks for (llorin. lWTore her tempest of garrulity, Hoyce took (light, (iloria j was kept on the run for days and ! nights. She worked as only rich wont- ; on work when sonic orgy of charity is on foot. fIloria in turn kept everyone in hor neighborhood scampering. Her father, hor father's seereiary, hor brother and his secretary, oven her brother's wife, i she made use of. Lois responded to the hash with an enthusiasm that surprised (Iloria. She la gan to understand that idleness had been a more cogent exetise for frivoiiiy than she had believed when Lois; gave it. She saw that Lois' heart, which had yielded too easily to the j blandishments of Preneau, yielded sis ; easily to the allurements of unselfish labor. The plans for the Polish fete were .....I fill- ? I. ... < Iiimp,?-Il Him H^tllll. lilt' OOY Stas was so much in the way that tiloria set 11i111 a task to keep Iiim out ' t>om under her feet. He brought in iho children of the vicinage and established himself as their lender. Some of the rich tots, like their parents, were good fellows; a few of them woeful snobs. These latter twitted Sins with his origin,. whereupon ' he had resort to the wild arbitrament of battle, and two or three small j bloody noses ruined two or three handsome suits of clothes. After that Stas ! was the accepted lender. in his researches among the picture books he found a "I'ied IMper of I lain- , liu" and made his "Aunt fllorin" tell j him all about it. He decided that she , should be the pied piper and he would i organize an army of children for her to pipe away. She kissed him for the i inspiration and that event was one of the successes of the afternoon. Mobs i of people thronged the Stafford estate ' on the afternoon of the festival and the roads outside were quadruply lined with automobiles. There was no hesitation about employing piratical methods of extorting from tin* rich as much money as they had been reckless enough to bring with them. The hollow eyes of the ragged 1 starvelings of Poland would have filled with wonder if they could have seen i in far-off America the well-fed, silk| clad aristocrats reveling in their be- ! ' half. It was a strange way of getting 1 food for the hungry, but it was the | iusiiion 01 me (my, aim mosi nnporuuit i of all, it accomplished its purpose. The workl was so packed with J tragedy and so hounded with cries foi 1 pity that it took Something more than , sorrow to wheedle funds from the i weary public. It took beauty and entertainment. Gloria furnished these in full measure at her festival. In her ! ragged doublet and hose, with her 1 I feathered cap atilt, she danced and piped, and the children followed about ! the lawn with a moving audience till she led her little army Into the great cave that IMerpont had ordered cou' Htrucled in one of his hills. The mothers left behind pretended to weep for their lost 6nes, and they begged the pled piper to return. So Gloria, contrary to tradition, came hack from the cave, and, surrounded j by her kidnaped troop, bowed and ! bowed. Gloria was good and tired when the last of the spectators. had gone hotne ! Impoverished. She stretched herself out on the divan in the living room and felt her old loneliness come back upon her. Her task was done and she was of 1 no more use to the world, for, of course, her father had pointed out to her that her project to take the funds to Poland in person was a beautiful Impossibility. There were several million soldiers between her and Poland, ? I "I WM'*1 '.I'JWHWWfMWMMMMMMMMMM 4 His Story. 9fl and the price of the voyage, even if H Die fct;K! iiiuko it, would huy severalII thousands of loaves of hreud. I She was In so l'ornni u humor tluit-.H \\ h n Doctor hnyee u?uk a chair close [ to iter nimI poured forth his praises, she aecepied them hungrily. He was A encouraged to the wihiost hopes hy her/H response' and he kept hunching his B chair closer and closer. I ilis head was ; h tost touching hers fH whetl her father laid cone into the,? room with the proceeds of the festival. I There were baskets of bills and boxes fjfl of colli and the total was thousands of. .? lioyce fell back disheartened. He jB hr.d forge;ten how richHloria was, and'fM how poor in comparison was even his success. He had been 0:1 the point of fl telling her how long and how deeply he $jB had loved her, lint he felt that suchujl a declaration would only be n sumptuous folly. l}M (lioria could not road his thoughts, (fl but she knew tlmt he bud suddenly hilled and shortly after he was gone. B And then she knew how much sbelB missed him. She was tempted to lull ! ill again so that she might summon VI him to wait upon her once more. Hut her health, which had broken down fl when she was in the first flush of her , affair with Freneau (for "affair" was ' what she called it now), held up splen* [ didly when she felt sick at heart and jfa weary of life. For some reason which he did not xvw make plain?largely because his excuse was artificial?Doctor Itoyce happened ^ to drop In at the country place a fcwtl days later. The fact was that he could neither endure the lack of Gloria nor j lind a plausible reason for calling. So ) J lie called and mumbled bis reason in-^? articulately. jnfl He talked very earnestly about noth-VW jng at all ami kept saying that he must),? go, bu! did not go. At length be really-iM started, and Gloria felt that site was|,u| being marooned once more on the dullaYfl waste of life. So she pretended to^yfl swoon. lie heard her little gasp and saw her toppling over on n carefully seloeti d soft spot. lie ran to her In fll great alarm, tried her pulse and found il it normal, chafed her hand and found Jj it warm, lie was bewildered. Thet? symptoms and the condition did not 1 jiho. i<y Gloria opened on? ?ye nnd watchedH him unbeknownst. Ho lot go her hand,*^j| and walked the floor. She sat. up in disgust, demanding.' I "Don't you know what is tlie matter with me?" .1 He shook his head meekly. fll She cast Iter eyes up in despair nndi'fl said: "I'm afraid you're too stupid a jjl doctor to keep in the family. Good-* by!" ffli "In the family?" he stammered, won-fl| Eif i,' i 'i |3frS*fr<y- \- :;. -. " -/>V >mtm I "I Got a Good Hold on His Neckl*v\! jj II ; i[! In} A 4 11 1 L