The Argosy — page 321: what you’re looking at

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

302 In the Past. from observation behind the larger and handsomer monuments which half surrounded it. It bore this plain inscription: Sacred to the Memory of Rose CARSON. Aged 32. As the two young men stood, talking slowly in subdued tones, a man — appeared before them, so suddenly that he seemed to start up from the ground. It was Mr. Dewar, his face pale, and his hands trembling. “What do you here?” he asked, addressing Frank with mingled anger and agitation. ‘* Father!” ejaculated Frank, retreating a step in surprise at the unexpectedness of the meeting. “What do you here?” demanded Mr. Dewar again, in the same voice, The reply came from Carson. He too had grown pale, and he stood looking strangely at Frank’s father. ‘*He came with me,” he said quietly. ‘‘I brought him here.” Mr. Dewar’s eyes turned to Carson’s face, and fastened there— dilated, inquiring, and wild—as if they would never leave it. “And you?” he asked; ‘‘ why have you come P” ‘*’'To visit my mother’s grave.” The two men stood looking at each other in silence for a few moments, with faces paler than before—their very lips were white. Something strange was working in each man’s breast. “Your mother? Which Carson, without moving his eyes, pointed to the little gravestone. Mr. Dewar shook visibly. ‘“‘And—your father?” he asked, in a hoarse whisper, and as if impelled by an unseen PPwer, “His name,” replied Carson, slowly, | ‘was Henry Carson.” Mr. Dewar staggered as though he had received a blow; but as the two young men stepped forward to his assistance he waved them off with one hand, with the other grasping for support the high rail- ings round an adjacent grave. ‘Then he appeared to recover himself somewhat, and, with bowed head and short unsteady steps, he walked away, and out of their sight. “What does it mean, Carson?” asked Frank, wonderingly, and not quite grasping the truth. ‘Tt means strange things,” replied his friend, passing his hand over his eyes. ‘‘ It means, Frank, that I was nearer the truth than I imagined when I said, as we came along, that we are ‘almost brothers.’ ” IV, A HEAVY hand was laid upon John Dewar. ‘Twenty-four hours after the scene at Rose Carson’s grave, he was stricken down with brain COMIC OOOKS.G©