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' f "7, I CONQUEST 5 By BOOTH T ' Author of "CherVy." "M I COPYRIGHT. 1905. BY *- 191 (Continued from last week.) "TTai ir %>e said cavalierly to Ariel. He went iu quickly after Mr. Fear and Closed the door. This was Joseph Louden, attorney at fcw. And to Ariel it was like a new I face seen in a flashlight?not at all the f*ce of Joe. The sense of his strangeness, his unfamiliarity in this elec- ' trical aspect, oyercame her. She was possessed by astonishment Did she know him so well after all? The Strange client had burst in. shaken beyond belief with some passion unknown to her, but Joe, alert and masterful beyond denial, had controlled kin instantly; bad swept him into the Other room as with a broom. Could It he that Joe sometimes did other things In the same sweeping fashion? She heard a match struck lu the next room and the voices of the two menJoe's, then the other's, the latter at first broken and p rotes tire, bat soon rWng shrilly. She could hear only fragments. Once she beard the client cry, almost scream, "Joe, 1 thought Oltodlne had chased him around there to do me!" And instantly followed {xmden's voice: "Steady, Happy, steady."' The name "Claudlne" startled her, I tad, although she had had no comprehension of the argot of Happy iFear, the sense of a mysterious catastrophe oppressed her. She was sure I: f - IU 9 ? j v / "Steady, Happy, ttcady!" (bit something horrible had happened. She went to the window, touched the i hade, which disappeared upward immediately, and lifted the sash. The front of a square building in the courtfeouse square was bright with lights, tBd figures were passing In and out of tUf Main street doors. She remember- ; Od that this was the jail. "Claudlne!" The voice of the husband of Claudine was like the voice | Of one lamenting over Jerusalem. "Steady, Happy, steady!" "But, Joe, if they git me, what'U she dot She can't hold her Job no longer ?inot after this." I The door opened, and the two men | eame out Joe with his hand on the fiber's shoulder. The splotches bad *|?n* from Happy's face, leaving it an van, deathly white. He did not -glance toward Ariel. He gazed far beyond all that was about bim, and lOdd^fily she was aware o( a great. tragedy. The iittie man's chin trembled, and he swallowed painfully. ^ Nevertheless be bore himself upright tad dauntlessly as tbe two walked alowly to the door, like men taking P*rt in some fateful ceremony. Joe j topped Upon the landing at the head Of the stairs, but Happy Fear went ? on, clumping heavily down the steps. "It's all right, Happy," Bald Joe. -Trs better for you to go alone. Don't worry. I'll see you through. It 1 .brill be all right." "Just as you say, Joe," a breaking voice came back from the foot of the j "Inst as vou say." ) The lawyer turned from the landing ' asd went rapidly to the window beside i 'Ariel. Together they watched the I tabby little figure cross the street below, and she felt an Infinite pathos gathering about it as it paused for a moment, hesitating, underneath the arc lamp at the corner. They saw the white face lifted as Happy Fear gave one last look about him; then he set bis shoulders sturdily and steadfastly , entered the door of the jail. Joe took a deep breath. "Now we'll go," he said. "I must be quick." "What was itV* she asked tremulously as they reached the street. "Can you tell me?" "Nothing; just an old story." He had not offered her his arm, but walked on hurriedly a pace ahead of j .her, though she came as rapidly as she could. She put her hand rather timidly i on his sleeve, and without need of more words from her he understood ; her insistence. 'o/ CANAAN ARKINGTON, omifur Beiucaire," Etc. HARPER Is BROTHERS C? 4 "That was the husband of the woman who told you her story." he said. 'Terbaps it would shock you less if I told you now than if you heard It tomorrow. as you will. He's just shot the other man." "Killed him!" she gasped. "Yes." he answered. "He wanted to mn sxrflv hut I wouldn't lot him. He has my word that I'll clear him, and I made him give himself up." CHAPTER XVI. WHEN Joe left Ariel at Judge Pike's gate she lingered there. -I her elbows upon the uppermost crossbar, like a village girl at twilight, watching his thin fig- j ore vanish into the heavy shadow of the maples, then emerge momentarily < ghost gray and rapid at the lighted crossing down the street, to disappear again under the trees beyond, followed a second later by a brownish streak as the mongrel heeled after him. When they bad passed the second corner she could no longer be certain of them, although the street was straight with flat draftsmanlike western directness, both figures and Joe's quick footsteps merging with the night 8tlll she did not turn te go. did not alter her position nor cease to gaze down the dim street Few lights shone, almost all the windows of the houses were darkened, and save for the summer murmurs, the faint creak of upper branches and the infinitesimal voices of Insects in the grass there was silence? the pleasant and somnolent hush, swathed in which that part of Canaan crosses to the far side of the eleventh hoof. But Ariel, not soothed by this balm, sought beyond it to see that unquiet Canaan whither her old friend bent his steps and found his labor and his dwelling?that other Canaan where peace did not fall comfortably with the coming of night; a place aa alien In habit. In thought and almost In speech as if It had been upon another continent. And yet?so strange la the duality of towns?It lay but a few blocks distant Here about Ariel as she stood at the gate of the Pike mansion the houses of the good (secure of salvation and dally bread) were closed and quiet, as safely shut and sound asleep as the churches. But deeper In the town there was light and life and merry, evil industry, screened, but strong to last until morning. There were haunts of haggard merriment in plenty; surreptitious chambers where roulette wheels swam beneath dizzied eyes; 111 favored bars, reached by devious ways, where quavering voices offered song and were harshly checked. And through the burdened air of this Canaan wandered heavy smells of musk like that upon Happy Fear's wife, who must now be so pale beneath her rouge. And above all this and for all this and because of all this was that one resort to which Joe now made his way?that haven whose lights burn all night long, whose doors are never closed, but are open from dawn until dawn?the JaiL There In that desolate refnge lay Happy Fear, surrendered sturdily by himself at Joe's word. The picture of the little man was clear and fresh in Ariel's eyes, and, though she had seen him when be was newly come from a thing so terrible that she, could not realize it as a factj she felt onl^ an overwhelming pity for him. She was not even horror stricken, though she had shuddered. The pathos of the shabby little figure crossing the street toward the lighted doors had touched her. Something about him bad appealed to fcerj for he bad not seemed wicked. His face was not cruel, though it was desperate. Perhaps it was partly his very desperation which bad moved her. She bad understood Joe when be told her that this man was bis friend and comprehended his great fear when he said: "I've got to clear him! I promised him!" Over and over Joe had reiterated: "I've got to save him! I've got to!" She had answered gently, "Yes, Joe," hurrying to keep up with him. "He's a good man," he said. "I've known few better, given his chances. Ana none of this would have happened except for his old time friendship for me. It was his loyalty?oh, the rarest and absurdest loyalty!?that made the first trouble between him and the man he shot. I've got to clear him." "Will it be hard?" "They may make it so. I can only see part of it surely. When his wife left the office she met Cory on the street. Yi>u saw what a pitiful kind j of fool she was. Irresponsible and helpless and feather brained. There are thousands of women like that everywhere?some of them are 'court beauties," I dare say?and they always mix things up, but they are most danger-! ous when they're like Claudine, because then they live among men of action like Cory and Fear. Cory was ! artful. He spent the day about town ; telling people that he had always lik-1 ed Happy; that his ill feeling of yesterday was all gone. lie wanted to find him and shake his hand, bury past troubles and be friends. 1 think he iold Claudine the .same thing when they met ana convinced the tiny Dramlet of his sincerity. Cory was a man who 'had a way with him/ and I can see Claudine flattered at the idea of being peacemaker between 'two such I nice gen'tlemen as Mr. Cory and Mr. Fear.' Her commonest asseveration? quite genuine, too?is that she doesn't ! like to have the gen'lemen making j trouble about her. . So the poor imI becile led him to where her husband ! was waiting. All that Happy knew of j this was in her cry afterward. He was sitting alone, when Cory threw . open the door and said. 'I've got you tliic timo Hnnnv!' His nistol was raised, but never fired. He waited too ' long. meaning to establish his case of I rourse the murderer, after consultation j with his lawyer, claims that their nature was threatening. Such a statei ment in determining the truth is worse ; than valueless. It is known and readily proved that Fear repeatedly threatened the deceased's life yesterday, and there is no question in the mind of any man. woman or child who reads these words of the cold blooded nature of the crime. The slayer, who had formerly made a murderous attack upon bis victim, lately quurreled with him and uttered threats, as we have stated, upon bis life. The dead man came to him with protestations of friendship and waa itruck down a corpse. "It is understood that the defense will in desperatiou set up the theory of self defense, based on an unsubstantiated claim that Cory entered the room with a drawn pistol. No pistol was found in the room. The weapon with which the deed was accomplished was found upon the person of the murderer when he was seised by the police, one chamber discharged. Another re[ volver was discovered upon the person of the woman when she was arrested on the scene of the crime. This upon being strictly interrogated she said she had picked up from the floor in the confusion, thinking It was her busband's and hoping to conceal It The chambers were full and undischarged, and we have beard it surmised that the defense means to claim that It was Cory's. Cory doubtless went on his errand of forgiveness unarmed, and beyond doubt the second weapon belonged to the woman herself, who has an unenviable record. "The point of it all Is plainly this: Here Is an unquestionable murder In the first degree, and the people of this city and county are outraged and incensed that such a crime should have been committed In tbelr law abiding and respectable community. With whom does the fault lie? On whose bead is this murder? Not with the >&tborlties, for they do not countenance ' ? U ? ? + V.o A/innt. LTIUJC. HAS 11 U/UIC IV t'ODO iuui, vvuutIng on juggleries of the liw, criminals believe that they may kill, maim, burn and slay as they list without punishment? Is this to be another Instance of the law's delays and Immunity for a hideous crime, compassed by a cunning and cynical trickster of legal technicalities? The people of Canaan cry out for a speedy trial, speedy conviction and speedy punishment of this cold blooded and murderous monster. If he Is not dealt with quickly according to his deserts the climax Is upon us, and the limit of Canaan's patience has been reached. "One last word, and we shall be glad to have Its significance noted. J. Louden, Esq., has been retained for the defense! The murderer before being apprehended by the authorities went straight from the scene of his crime to place his retainer In his attorney's pocket! How long Is this to last?" The Tocsin was quoted on street corners that morning. In shop and store and office, wherever people talked <f the Cory murder, and that was everywhere, for the people of Canaan and of the country roundabout talked of nothing else Women chattered of it In parlor and kitchen; men gathered in small groups on the street and shook their beads ominously over it; farmers, meeting on the road, halted their teams and loudly damned the little man In the Canaan jail; milkmen lingered on back porches over their cans to agree with cooks that It was an awful thing and that if ever any man deserved hanging that there Fear deserved it?his lawyer along with him. Tipsy men hammered bars with fists and beer glasses, inquiring if there was no rope to be bad in the town, and Joe Louden, return ng to his office from the little restaurant where he sometimes ate his breakfast, heard hisses following him along Main street A clerk, a fat shouldered, blue aproned, pimple cheeked youth, stood in the open doors of a grocery and as he passed stared him in the face and said "Yah!" with supreme disgust. Joe stopped. "Why?' he asked mildly. The clerk put two fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly in derision. "You'd ort to be run out o' town!" he exclaimed. "I believe," said Joe, "that we have never met before." "Go on, you shyster!" Joe looked at him gravely. "My dear sir," he returned, "you speak to me with the familiarity of an old friend." The clerk did not recover so. far as to be capable of repartee until Joe had entered his own stairway. Then, with a bitter sneer, he seized a bad potato from an open barrel and threw it at the mongrel, who had paused to examine the landscape. The missile failed and Respectability, after bestowing a slightly injured look upon the clerk, followed his master. In the office the red bearded man sat waiting. Not so red bearded as of yore, however, was Mr. Sheehan, but grizzled and gray and, this morning, gray of face, too, as he sat, perspiring and anxious, wiping a troubled brow i with a black silk handkerchief. "Here's the devil and all to pay at i last, Joe." he said unea_sily_on the oth era entrance. "This is tne worst 1 ever knew, 'and I hate to say it, but I doubt yer pullin' it off." "I've got to, Mike." "I hope on my soul there's a chanst of it! I like the little man, Joe." "So do I." "I know ye do. my boy. But here's this Tocsin kickin' up the public sendI rnent, and if there ever was a follerin' j sheep on earth It's that same public sentiment." "If it weren't for that"?Joe flung himself heavily in a chair?"there'd i not be so much trouble. It's a clear enough case." , "But. don't ye see," Interrupted Sbeej ban. "the Tocsin's tried It and convicted him aiorehand? And that if things i keep goin' the way they've started today the gran' jury's bound to indict him and the trial jury to convict him? They wouldn't dare not to. What's more, they'll want to. And they'll rush the trial, summer or no summer, and"? "I know; I know." "I'll tell ye one thing," said the other, wiping his forehead with the black handkerchief, "and that's this, my boy: Last night's business has just about put the cap on the Beach fer me. I'm sick of it, and I'm tired of It I'm ready to quit sir." Joe looked at him sharply. "Don't you think my old notion of what might be done could be made to pay?" Sheehan laughed. "Whoo! Too and jer hints, Joe! How long past have ye come around me with 'em? 'I b'lieve ye c'd make more money, Mike'?that's the way ye'd put It?'if ye altered the Joe stopped. "WhyT" he asked mildly. Beach a bit Make a little countryside restaurant of It' ye'd say, 'and have good cookln', and keep the boys and girls from raisin' so much bell out there. Soon ye'd have other people eomin' beside the regular crowd. Make a little garden on the shore, and let 'on en nt tables under trees an* erSDe j irbors' "Well, why not?" asked Joe. 'Haven't I been tellin' ye I'm think* In' of It? It's only yer way of hlntto' that's fanny to me, yer way of aayln' I'd make more money, because ye're afraid of preachln' at any of as, partly because ye know the little good it'd be and partly because ye have humor. Well, I'm tblnkin' ye'll git yer way. I'm wlllin' to go Into the missionary business with ye!" "Mike!" said Joe angrily, but he grew very red and failed to meet the other's eye, "I'm not"? "Yes, ye are!" cried Sbeehan. "Yes, sir! It's a thing ye prob'ly haven't had the nerve to say to yerself since a boy, but that's yer notion inside. Ye're little better than a missionary. It took me a long while to understand what was drlvin' ye, but I do now. And ye've gone the right way about it because we know ye'll stand fer us when we're In trouble and fight fer us till we git a square deal, as ye're goin' to fight fer Bappy now." Joe looked deeply troubled. "Never mind," he said crossly and with visible embarrassment "You think you could not make more at the Beach if you ran It on my plan?" "I'm game to try," said 8heehan slowly. "I'm too old to hold 'em down out there the way I yooeta could, and I'm sick of It?sick of It into the very bones of me." He wiped bis forehead. "Where's Claudlne?" "Held as a witness." "I'm A>t sorry fer her!" said the red bearded man emphatically. "Women o' that kind are so light headed It's a wonder they don't float Think of her plckln' up Cory's gun from the floor and hidln' It In her clothes! Took It fer granted It was Happy's and thought she'd help him by hldln' It! There's a hard point fer ye, Joe?to prove the gun belonged to Cory. There's nobody about here could swear to It. I couldn't myself, though I forced blm to stick It back In his pocket yesterday. He was a wanderer, too, and ye'll have to send a keen one to trace him, I'm thinkln', to find out where he got it so's ye can show It In court." "I'm going myself. I've found out that be came here from Denver." "And from where before that?" "I don't know, but I'll keep on traveling till I get what I want." "That's right, my boy," exclaimed the other heartily. "It may be a long trip, but ye're all the little man has to ! depend on. Did ye notice the Tocsin j didn't even give him the credit fer giv' in* himself up?" "Yes," said Joe. "It's part of their | game." 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