Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1911 — The RING and the MAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The RING and the MAN

With some incidental TbEBE Woman

By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

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SYNOPSIS.

A foolish young tenderfoot becomes fascinated with the bold, artful wife of a drunken prospector In a western mining town. They prepare to elope In a blind* Ing blizzard but are confronted by the maudlin husband. Ho is shot by the wife, but the chivalrous boy pnls a note Xo the body taking the crime upon himself.

PROLOGUE—Continued. '■ •■'>&.<’ <V- : . > The Storm Without The woman's first thought when she stepped outside the door was that at all hazards they must go back. The wind almost swept her away; only the steadying grasp of the boy, better prepared than she for the attack of the storm, enabled her to keep her feet Yet the presence of that ghastly thing on'the floor which was affecting even her Iron nerve, prevented their return. . Whatever happened they must go out The door of that shelter was .closed to them forever by the'dead or dying tenant She realized however, that their chances of escaping freezing to death* in this mad endeavor were so small as to be practically none. Well, fate had forced her Into this position. She would follow the path she had chosen, whatever might be at the end of the way. : ' Speech was well nigh Impossible. The boy staggered on past the win* dow, and she followed until the lee of the house was reached. Between a great drift and the wall, In a little open space the horses were tied. The boy was a natural horseman. He had picked out the best two broncos in the camp. *lf any animals could take them to safety, these eould. Not yet chilled by the fierce cold, they untied the shivering, reluctant, terrified horses from the wooden pins driven into the chinks between the log walls of the house to which they had been hitched, mounted them, and threading their way round the drift started southward on their awful ride. They left death behind them—and lo! death loomed before and on either hand. Except where the storih was broken by houses, drifts had not yet formed. The wind was too terrific; it swept the level prairie dean. But away from'ths shelter of the house they got the full force of it Although they were thickly clad in wool and: lQr » the pressure of the storm drove their garments against their bodies, and soon filled them with ley cold. There was no help for It, no relief from it They had to bear it They could only bend their backs to It and keep on, trusting to the endurance of their horses. The woman judged that it bad been about one in the morning when they had started. The Overland Limited ran through the station at three. No horses that lived could have made that 15 miles in two hours under those conditions. It was more than probable, however, that the Merited would be greatly delayed by the storm, and if they kept going steadily they would be likely to catch it At , any rate, when, they reached the station, they weald find food, fire and shelter. If their homes did not give out, if Ehor were not tamed adrift cm foot

In the storm and snow, and left to plod on until they fell and slept, and froze, and died, they would perhaps get away. ">" ■ v "' : ' More experienced than the boy, aB these possibilities were present to her. She did not pray, she could ask nothing of God; but she went warily and carefully, helping the horse where she could. As for her companion, he did not give these matters very much consideration. He kept going toward the south to the railroad station because that was the only thing to be done. Another, however, rode with him, If not with her. Before his eyes was ever present that gory, grizzly spectacle of a human form, the red blood 'welling from Its breast, redder still from the white snow with which he was _surrounded. Thatawful figure beckoned him on. He was younger, finer, better, than she. He was more fool than knave; she'was all kiefig Her thoughts went forward to what was before her; but his went backward to what was behind. After a long time it seemed to them that the fierceness of the'Storm was somewhat abated. The wind was certainly falling; but the drifts were steadily rising, and their progress was more difficult every moment for that cause. Their very souls were numb with- the awful cold; Still they went forward, slower now, and more slowly ever. • How far they had come, what time it was, where they were, neither he nor she could tell. It seemed to them both that they had been hours on the way. The woman was sure that they must have compassed the greater part of the journey, when her horse suddenly stumbled and fell. Her broncho's matchless endurance had at last been exhausted by the terrible struggle of their journey. He lay dying where he' fell, and nothing she could do could get him up again. The boy had stopped, of course, when her horse had fallen. He had dismounted M helped her to rise. He had assisted her vain efforts to get her own played out horse on its feet The two stood staring at each other In dismay. "You must take'my horse,** said the boy at last The woman nodded. With his assistance she climbed slowly and painfully Into the saddle, took the reins from the boy, and started on. Her companion caught hold of the stirrup leather and staggered forward by her side. The going was now infinitely harder for the remaining horse. The woman Immediately realized that with this almost dead weight plunging through the deep drifts and dragging heavily at the stirrup leather, the remaining bronco would soon be exhausted. She had meant to play fair with him but It could not be. And so for a long time the trio plodded on In thia way, the woman nerving herself to a frightful action as beet she could. She hesitated to do it She was relueBut no bone that ever lived could stand such a strain. She know that it would bo a matter of mfootoe yow

■ ■ ■■ ... . » fall and We wMn he had fa Haw like hie dead brother back on the trail, and then she and the boy would inevitably perish. Well, it was his life or hers! The decision was forced upon her. And perhaps after all it was just as well to get rid of them'both_and have done with It She reached ovdr, and before the boy realized what was happening she caught his hand, tore his fingers from the saddle strap, and thrust him violently backward. Unprepared, unsuspecting, half-dazed, he could offer no adequate resistance. He reeled and fell supine in a deep and overwhelming drift She struck the horse heavily with the whip that hung from the saddle bow, and the animal plunged forward wildly. She knew that she was safe unless he should try to shoot her; for he was too weak and too exhausted to catch her. The boy’s senses were quickened Into Instant action by her conduct After the first moment of surprise, he knew at once that she was deliberately abandoning him to die in the snow. A hot rush of blood, In spite of the cold, swept over him.. He thrust his hand within his coat and dragged out a weapon. He raised it and trained It on the woman's back, and for the moment his hand did not tremble. Then there rose‘before him that other gory figure.. Though he had lived some months on the wild frontier and had seen more than one man killed there, he had never been connected with the murder before, even as an accessory after the fact, and the hor ror of It was still upon him. He lowered the pistol, though he could easily have shot her dead.

Such treachery on the part of a woman would have killed some men; not so this boy. In that moment he became a man. He saw himself a fool; he determined that he would not also see himself a coward. Clenching his fists and summoning his strength, he followed sputhward afoot in the woman’s wake.

He walked—ls that be the word for his progress—with his head down and his body bent lower and lower. He took long rests between the steps. By and by he fell forward on his face. The sensation of delicious rest and drowsiness that swept over him wooed him to lie still and die.* but there were still sparks and remnants of manhood and courage in him. He shook off his desire to sleep at last and strove frantically to rise. Finding that he could not, he crawled forward on his hands and knees, slowly working himself over the snow covered ground, round the drifts like a grbat animat There was no use. Humanity could not stand the strain any. longer. One more movement he made, and just as he was about to sink down forever he heard a long, deep hollow, mournful sound. He stopped, Interested, dimly wondering what it could be. Whatever it was, it meant life of some kind. It came from directly in front of him. It nerved him to further effort. Summoning the last vestige of his strength, he advanced a little farther. He knew what it was now. It was a locomotive. " ' He lifted his head and saw lights faintly. He divined- that it was the station, the train, the Overland limited! She would get on it and go away! What mattered it? And what of himself? There was help; there was life! He actually rose to his feet and wavered on. By happy chance the contour of the ground had caused the space between him and the lights to be swept comparatively bare of snow. It was not now difficult, walking, yet he staggered like a drunken man. '* Ah! the lights were moving bedartte his eyes, they danced and flickered. The train was going! He broke into a reeling run, hoarse whispers on his frozen lips. Too late! He stumbled and fell across the car' tracks, dimly conscious of the lights, of the departing train. He had just sense 1 enough and strength enough to cry out as he did so. Some one on the station platform heard his voice. Men came toward him; he was lifted up and carried into a warm room. Something burning yet deliciously reviving was poured down his throat "The woman!** he gasped out looking up in the faces of the station agent and his helper bending over him. “She took the limited not five minutes ago," said the man staring at him curiously. “The train was two hours and a half late or she’d never have got it” ' ‘ “She’s gone thenF* gasped the boy. "YM." “Thank God she got away!” he murmured as.be lapsed into complete unconsciousness. There was good stuff in the boy. He was glad the woman bad escaped in spite of all. He did not want another human being's life on his hands.

CHAPTER i. Tile Loneliness of Mr. Gormly. To bls great surprise, George Gormly sometimes found himself feeling lonely, and the oftener so as he grew older.. Every man who has a natural liking for women,—and what true man kgs not?—yet who has no intimate friendships with or relations to the other sex. Is likely to find himself in that state of mind sooner or later. Gormly was sufficiently aged; he was forty-four although he looked much younger. He was sufficiently experienced; he had dealt with women for a straight quarter of a century although he had neither loved nor married one. Ho was sufficiently self reliant; ho had built up by his own unaided efforts the greatest retail merchandise business of hie day and gate

Ho w&s ent—for he had done ft alone—to have been above the ordinary feeling at loneliness. Ne rerthelees, be was temperamentally lonesome, and at this particular moment desperately so. He had drifted into Nev York some 25 yeans before, utterly unheralded, unnoticed. He had begun by filling.# small clerkship in a little dry good/ store. He kept at it until he owned the store, and after that a larger store cm a better street He had developed a genius for trade, and an executive ability in accord, until the original little shop had expanded into a 15story building covering a block on the principal thoroughfare of New York city, and its owner had become a power in finance,—a merchant prince. Such was George Gormly. He was, too, a scrupulously honest man. He sold good goods, without deceit Things were as he represented them. He established principles of accommodation in his dealings that were unique when they were first instituted in New York. He made no dishonest dollars. His money was good everywhere because it was untainted. He prospered exceedingly, one expansion following another. Eschewing speculation of any kind and devoting himself strictly to the business, he found himself In middle life the head, the foot, the sole owner, of the greatest enterprise of the kind that the world had ever seem k ; '

This had not achieved lightly. He had brought ft about because, with absolute singleness of heart, he had put every ounce of strength and time and talent, which in him amounted to genius, at the service of his affairs. Time, talent, and genius do not always produce such results; fortune still must be 'considered in the game. Opportunity had favored Gormly. He had succeeded in everything beyond his own or anyone’s wildest dreams. ' He might have gone on indefinitely in his mercantile operations without attracting special attention to himself personally, had it not been for one fact That momentous happening was his meeting with Miss Haldane. It had come about In a commonplace way enough. Miss Haldane, deeply interested in social settlement work and being brought in contact thereby with some of the poorer employees of the great Gormly establishment, had concluded to call on the proprietor thereof to see If she could not induce him to make some adequate contribution to the work she had so much at heart. Like every other business man in New York, Gormly was overwhelmed by charitable demands. His business was one thing; his charity another. He employed a special secretary to look after the eleemosynary end of his affairs. - • ?

There were two reasons why the secretary felt himself unequal to deal with Miss Haldane and her demands. The first reason was Miss Haldane herself. She was a member of the oldest and most exclusive circle In New York society. Her family was one of the richest and most esteemed in thp.t hive of multi-millionarles, would-be-sos, also-rans, and other people. The second was the magnitude of Miss Haldane's demand. She wanted something like a million dollars. This amount appalled the secretary. She realized that a man like Gormly, Indeed most men if they had the power, would much rather give a million than a dime to an undertaking that appealed to them. Still, Gormly, having devoted his attention so exclusively to his business heretofore, was rather staggered by the magnitude of the amount. He would have been more staggered by it had he been less so by Miss Haldane herself. Miss Haldane had beauty. Thousands of people—women, that is, and some few men—have that. She had more; she had presence and personality. Hundreds of men, and some few women, have these. Those who have all three in either sex are rare and come to view infrequently. Whether It was Miss Haldane's undoubted beauty, or Miss Haldane's exquisite breeding and manner, or Miss Haldane's force of character and determination, that most impressed him, or whether his Instant subjugation was due to the influence, of all three, Gormly could not tell.

. He was given to self-analysis, as lonely people usually are. By analysing himself he learned to analyze others. Introspection and observation had been great factors In his success. Here again his experience was at fault; for Miss Haldane defied analysis, as the breath of summer compounded of a thousand balmy scents cannot be resolved into Its elements, save by the hard scientist who is Insensible to Its fragrance. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

"She Is Gone, Then?" Gasped the Boy.