The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 70: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A54 THAT MAY APPLE. mightily afflicted, but an honester, truer hearted boy don’t live on this earth ” than Jack. Why, he’d wrong nobody.”’ : As he spoke, he looked with anguish and affection upon his unhappy son, and the eyes of every one present followed the direction of his inipassioned gaze. The young man seemed almost maddened by this concentration of attention upon him, the reason for which he could not divine, and springing forward, with his countenance distorted by emotion, he seized the lapels of his father’s coat and shook him, as if he would force an explanation, even by violence. ‘Then Hattie came down from the porch and told him. ‘The move- ments of her fingers, hands, and arms, and her changes of facial expression, were rapid as lightning and executed with a vehemence that was startling, I cannot describe the strange, horribly ‘‘ creepy ’’ feeling it gave me, to see her, perfectly silent herself and in dead silence all about, abandoning herself to that tornado of passionate pantomime, and to behold how, in swift response, intense amazement flashed and then hot indignation blazed in his set, white face. When she stopped, he emitted one of his blood curdling, beast-like | smothered howls and at one bound placed himself before me, his glaring eyes not a foot from mine, his hands tremulously beating his breast, and the in- articulate sounds from his lips making my heart ache with pity for the -agonized efforts of his frenzied will to control his useless organs of speech. The poor fellow acted as if crazy and, I believe, very nearly was so, but I under- stood him. He was demanding if I suspected him of having stolen the money.. It was too solemn a moment for anything but the simplest truth, whatever its consequences. I nodded affirmatively. Mechanically he moved backward a pace or two, and stood motionless as a statue, his face dead white like that of acorpse. Icomprehended the agony of that dumb soul and in the same instant an intuitive sense of his abso- lute innocence flashed upon me, as far beyond argument or doubt as if it had been a revelation direct from heaven. It seemed to me as if I would gladly have given years of my life if I had not nodded; and as if not all the money in the world was worth the infliction of such agony upon a human soul. But the mischief was done. I could only await the consequences, hoping that when he became more calm I might make some atonement. Suddenly he wheeled, and darted into the house. I glanced up at Mary. Her face was a reflex of Jacob’s, white and agonized; and the same expression was in the countenances of his father and sisters. His mother, thank God, was not present. Only the judge looked quite calm and unconcerned, Either he had so often seen men’s hearts in their faces that he had grown hardened to the pain of others, or experience had taught him that faces, and even souls, as well as lips; can lie, and so had made him cynical. I caught a sparkle of triumph in his eyes when Jacob ran into the house, just a flash and no more, but suffi- cient to show he supposed the young man had gone to get the wallet and give it up. When Jacob came out again, which was very quickly, he carried in his hands two rifles. He put the weapons in his father’s hands, pantomimed COMME MOOKS