"It"s a lie!"
"It"s the truth!" Teeters thundered, opposite. "Mullendore confessed.
Anyhow, I"ve got other proof--the original owner of the gun who left it at your house when he was a kid. Feller--come out."
"Disston!" Toomey gasped as Hugh stepped from the semidusk of the corridor into the light. The thing he had feared most since some ugly perversity of his nature had kept him silent because of his dislike of Mormon Joe and Kate had come to pa.s.s.
In the swift movement of events, matters of more interest were transpiring than Toomey"s nervous collapse. With a cry that has no counterpart save as it comes straight from a woman"s heart, Kate had sprung to her feet and gone to Disston with her hands outstretched.
"Hughie! Hughie! You"ve come back. Speak--say something so I"ll know that I"m awake." The Boosters" Club and its guests did not exist for Kate.
"Katie--Katie Prentice, is this wonderful girl you?" His face was radiant with admiration and amazement as he held her at arms" length.
"For months and months, Hughie," she said softly, "I"ve wanted to tell you that I was wrong and you were right. There is nothing of any great importance except love. _Without it success is empty--empty as a gourd!_ Tell me, Hughie--tell me quick that it isn"t too late to make amends for my mistake!"
Her answer was already in Disston"s eyes so his whisper was superfluous--"I told you it was _for always_, Kate."
THE END
POPULAR COPYRIGHT NOVELS
ABNER DANIEL. By Will N. Harben.
ADVENTURES OF GERARD. By A. Conan Doyle.
ADVENTURES OF A MODEST MAN. By Robert W. Chambers.
ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. By A. Conan Doyle.
ADVENTURES OF JIMMIE DALE, THE. By Frank L. Packard.
AFTER HOUSE, THE. By Mary Roberts Rinehart.
ALISA PAIGE. By Robert W. Chambers.
ALTON OF SOMASCO. By Harold Bindloss.
A MAN"S MAN. By Ian Hay.
AMATEUR GENTLEMAN, THE. By Jeffery Farnol.
ANDREW THE GLAD. By Maria Thompson Daviess.
ANN BOYD. By Will N. Harben.
ANNA THE ADVENTURESS. BY E. Phillips Oppenheim.
ANOTHER MAN"S SHOES. By Victor Bridges.
ARIADNE OF ALLAN WATER. By Sidney McCall.
ARMCHAIR AT THE INN, THE. By F. Hopkinson Smith.
AROUND OLD CHESTER. By Margaret Deland.
ATHALIE. By Robert W. Chambers.
AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
AUCTION BLOCK, THE. By Rex Beach.
AUNT JANE. By Jeanette Lee.
AUNT JANE OF KENTUCKY. By Eliza C. Hall.
AWAKENING OF HELENA RICHIE. By Margaret Deland.
BAMBI. By Marjorie Benton Cooke.
BANDBOX, THE. By Louis Joseph Vance.
BARBARA OF THE SNOWS. By Harry Irving Green.
BAR 20. By Clarence E. Mulford.
BAR 20 DAYS. By Clarence E. Mulford.
BARRIER, THE. By Rex Beach.
BEASTS OF TARZAN, THE. By Edgar Rice Burroughs.
BEECHY. By Bettina Von Hutten.
BELLA DONNA. By Robert Hichens.
BELOVED VAGABOND, THE. By Wm. J. Locke.
BELTANE THE SMITH. By Jeffery Farnol.
BEN BLAIR. By Will Lillibridge.
BETRAYAL, THE. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
BETTER MAN, THE. By Cyrus Townsend Brady.
BEULAH. (Ill. Ed.) By Augusta J. Evans.
BEYOND THE FRONTIER. By Randall Parrish.
BLACK IS WHITE. By George Barr McCutcheon.