Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1912 — THE DAMAGED ARTICLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE DAMAGED ARTICLE

By ANNIE HINRICHSEN

(Couvright. 1911. by Associated Literary Press) A donkey, drawing a small cart, strolled leisurely along the road. It was a winding road, which led up a long hill and lost itself on the high cliffs above the lake. The donkey followed the road to the cliffs and as his driver left his destination to his own wishes he turned into a fork that ended at a cabin built on the edge of a bluff. Here he stopped, planted his feet wide apart and refused to retrace his journey. Miss Neale stepped from the cart and tried to turn him. Billy stood. From behind the cabin rolled a tiny bear cub. Billy, with one jump, loosened Miss Neale’s hold on the bridle, turned and galloped down the road. “My bear is harmless.” a young man came from the cabin. "I am sorry your donkey has been frightened. '

Mildred Neale’s eyes opened wide. Well-groomed young men in tailored clothes did not inhabit the cliff cabins. The young man looked after the departing Billy. “Is your home far from here?” “Six miles.” “Will you let me take you there in my car?” , “A car in this region?” “I brought a lot of my junk, including my car, with me when I moved here,” the man explained. “Since my bear—l found him in the woods the other day—has chased away your steed, you will surely let me provide you with another conveyance.” ‘‘You do not belong in this part of the world do you?” he asked as th© car glided away from the cliffs. I live at the V. i.low Branch farm You know the place?” “A model, up-to-date little farm. I have often passed it.” “I own and massage it. I am a woman agriculturist.” Her brown eyes met his frankly without the wavering of self consciousness. Her voice was devoid of the accent of the locality. “Have you always lived at Willow Branch farm?” he asked. “No. The place was my refuge after my father’s death. When his estate was settled this farm, which I had

never seen, was all that was left for me. I came here to try for my fortune as a lady farmer. And you? Why are you living on the bluff?” He turned abruptly from her, gripped the steering wheel and shot the car suddenly forward. When he spoke again he had apparently forgotten her question. Nearly every day the big car came from the cliff above the lake to Willow Branch farm. Even Billy, who at first acquaintance had feared it as greatly as he had the bear, recognized it as a familiar friend. "No man,” the cliff dweller announced, "has a right to bind a woman unless he can come to her as a whole man, sound in body and in reputation. The greater his love the less willing should be he to give her less than she gives him ” As Barnard spoke Mildred watched his face. On his forehead and around his eyes and lips were lines of mental pain.” "But suppose,” she suggested, "that the woman cares for him?” "He should not allow her to" he answered curtly. “He should go away —as —as I intend to.” "Are you going away?” “I must It is the only decent thing I can do. You know I love you, Mildred. But you don’t know—you don’t know why I must not ask vou to love me.” He hurried out of the room. A few hours later Billy trotted into the yard of the cliff dweller’s cabin. He had come very fast. His driver jumped from the cart before it stopped and hurried toward the house. Barnard came to meet her. "It is not true.” Her face was white and her Ups were quivering, but her voice was firm. "I do not believe a word of it You could not have done “Done what?" She opened a newspaper she carried. It was the magazine section of a Sunday edition filled with stories of people famous and infamous. On the front page was a large picture of the

cliff dweller. Beneath ft were great black letters. “Remarkable Disappearance of Daring Embezzler. Man Who Wrecked Garden Bank Still at Liberty. No Clew.” Several columns descriptive of the gentlemanly malefactor and his crimes followed. The cliff dweller reaS the story. “So you don’t believe I did it?” he asked. “I know you did not.” “Why do you know it?” “Because I know absolutely that you are good and honorable and true. I know it by the look in your eyes and the set of your chin and by the intuition which is given to a woman to show her the difference* between truth and dishonor. I understand now why you would not ask me to care for you. You thought your wrecked reputation made you a man unfit for a woman to love.’ But you are not a bank wrecker, and I care for you even if you will not ask me to.” . ■ • “Will you go back into the world with me if I give myself up and stand by me while I try to prove my innocence?” “Yes”

He turned a page of the paper. The second page contained a picture of a man weak of chin and crafty of eye. Beneath it in large letters were the words. “John Morley Barnard, Young Millionaire Seeks Health in Lonely Cabin on Lake Shore. Well Known Capitalist Lives in Retirement with an Automobile and a Pet Bear.” There were several columns describing the young man’s brilliant business career, his nervous breakdown, his cabin and his bear.

Mildred glanced through the story. “And that is you? I looked at the first page and then came as fast as Billy would bring me to tell you 1 believed in you.” “The compositor of the paper in making up the edition transposed th© two pictures and put my picture in the embezzler’s story and his picture in mine.”

“Then if you are not a fugitive from ■ justice why did you wish me not to care for you?”

“I. am a nervous wreck. You are strong and beautiful and young. You are making a success of the work you were brave enough to undertake. You have made for yourself a full and happy life. To tie you to an invalid would be a crime. A sick man is a miserable object, fit only for pity. I detest pity. I did not tell you anything about my illness because I did not want you to pity me. And I could not ask you to marry an invalid. I love you too well to place you at the mercy of a sick man’s temper. But, when I am well again I’ll come back to you if you will let me

“You poor damaged article,” she laughed with happy mockery: "You are to be well and strong again with my help. You have asked me to marry you. You asked me if I would stand by you while you tried to prove your innocence and I said yes. You won’t jilt me now, will you?”