The Spirit of the Violin

暂无简介John Graham and his wife, Mary, are working to carve out a home in the western wilds. Their modest home is brightened by the presence of their little baby girl. In the evenings John entertains Mary and the baby by playing on his violin. This is his one indulgence and Mary knows every tune that John can play. One day while John is on his way through the forest, he discovers a man wounded to the death, lying on the bank of a creek which runs through his homestead. John tries to bring him back to life, bathes his head with water from the running stream, but finds his efforts useless. The man is dead. A great gash on top of the head, evidently made by the bloody club lying by the body, caused the death. While John is examining the club, he is apprehended by a man named Rourke and some cowboys. Rourke declares that he has seen John strike the man dead with the club which they find in his hands. John is amazed and horrified at the accusation. John is tried and convicted for murder on the evidence of Rourke, and is sentenced to spend the balance of his life in the state penitentiary. Mary promises to remain faithful to him. Two years pass by. Mary struggles with the work on the homestead, and manages to eke out a precarious existence. John is industrious and the prison authorities find it difficult to believe that a man of his character should have been a murderer. They furnish him with opportunities for employment, so that he is enabled to earn considerable money which he sends home regularly to Mary. A gambler named Rann passes through the country and alights at the Graham cabin for a drink of water. He is smitten by the beauty of Mary and questions her as to why she lives alone in this place. The rascal pretends to be sympathetic and Mary tells him something of their misfortunes. He poses as a friend, obtains Mary's confidence and drives away with a dishonorable scheme fostered in his heart. Day after day the gambler returns and seeks to exert an influence over Mary. He learns that she receives letters regularly from her imprisoned husband, and one day an accident supplies the opportunity for a furtherance of his vile plans. He is accustomed to bring Mary her letters from the settlement as a matter of convenience, and one day a letter arrives, containing in addition, a blank sheet of paper upon which is printed the heading of the state's prison. Rann secures the blank sheet of paper, and proceeds to write a fraudulent letter, announcing the death of John Graham. Mary is wild with grief. Rann takes the letters which come from John, but instead of delivering them to Mary, destroys them. She has no reason to think that her husband still lives. Rann poses as her true friend. He tells her that he loves her and endeavors to win her affections, but the heart of Mary remains loyal to her husband. While in prison John becomes disconsolate because he does not receive answers to the letters which he sends regularly to Mary. He cannot think that she has forgotten him, and can only believe her to be sick and helpless or dead. Mary is oppressed by a greater loneliness than ever, while she can see her little daughter growing more emaciated every day because of the lack of sufficient nourishing food which she had heretofore been enabled to purchase with the money sent by John from the penitentiary. Rann persists in his wooing of the unwilling Mary. Finally conditions force her to an acceptance of his attentions, and one day she promises that she will become his wife. Rann determines to cheat Mary with a counterfeit wedding. He enlists the services of another rascal, who promises to perform the ceremony, while a woman confederate promises to do her part. The prison officials receive notice that a man who has just died in another prison has confessed that he was guilty of the murder of the man for whose death John Graham had been sentenced to prison. The confession has been made in proper form, duly witnessed and sworn to authentically. John Graham is set free, and starts home at once filled with doubts and anxiety. In the modest cabin where Mary has spent so many anxious months, the arrangement for the wedding has been completed. The counterfeit minister and the other accomplices of the rascally Rann are there. The pseudo clergyman begins to read in sanctimonious tones the words of the marriage ceremony. Just then John's treasured violin which has been suspended from a hook on the wall, falls clattering to the floor, while its strings give forth a harmonious chord, which sweeps through the room like a challenging voice. Mary, while not ordinarily superstitious, is startled and thrilled. Mary refuses to marry Rann and runs from the cabin with her baby. Rann follows and tries to argue with her, but Mary sends him away and declares that she will never marry him. John arrives at the cabin door just after the incident of the falling violin. He picks up the violin tenderly, runs his fingers over the strings and begins to play. Down by the creek where Mary sits hugging the baby, the sweet sounds fall upon her ear. She believes that John's spirit has returned to play for her and she staggers back to the cabin. Their re-union is a dramatic one. John searches for Rann, but the rascal has fled the country.