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I s. i-wi, ii w 1 1 rlv.ils l.ir tin; luiii'l nf Mil- I in MtrliU'.- In h.-r y.iutli S. I,..!, i, r, ami Valium (minlil H ilui-1 mi Iht i i ulllil li, M. h tin- fni iin-r w.im kill. ;il . til. ml 1 1 1 . 1 i I i.i j in .I V ruiirt ,,.-rxr.,wn nli nuns n n, I ii.,., rn ami llm Imll.l-'ni:-i In a i i i mm h in k'Ii i ti-il i iiii'lltlun V.iIiiiiiI ! k pi. , fin hin a in f.-it r;i I linm.. 1 Ills Il-ls hiii i,ri-.. .1 hv a fox lniiilln parly will, h irmiili--. Ms i-M;,,.. It.- n-ii.'-liuz.-M Hhlrli-y it tl i- I i-.i 1 1 nf rh.. jiuly. Ill- KiVi-H Hatli--iiiiuy In II i' iiii'in r.-il fnx. linM.MtiiM ills-1-iinM tin- ailii-ni rtf tin- in-w nwii.-r ami rill Hi. tin --iily In ulil.li tint i-l. J.-r Val-limt Val-limt Link (..in. CHAPTER XII Continued. Till Hit' mm was high Jolm Valiant lay on his buck in tlio fragrant grass), ini-tlilii i i vi I y watching a hucaneering rhick.'ii haw k draw widening circles KiiiMl Hit- blun and listening to the Tilii;iht tattoo of a "pccker-w ood" on a faraway tree, and the timorous wot wlii.tl Ic of a bob-white. The whole dare was very quiet now. For just wit- thrilling moment It had burgeoned into sound and movement: when the Bweaty horses had stood snorting and Klatniin In the yard with the hounds i'attiiet ing between their legs and the riding coals w inking like rubies In the early sunshine! Hal she recognized him as the n n i U'! -;i'd tinkerer of the stalled car? '".-'.I:.- saw nie drop that wretched brute lluiiUKh the window," he chuckled. "I rouH take oath to that. Hut sho didn't givi mi' away, true little sport that she -as. And she won't. I can't lltiuk oi ;my reason, but 1 know. Was she aiii y ? I wonder! " At length he rose and went back to the house. With a bunch of keys he had found he weut to the stables, after some difliculty gained access, mid propped (.lie crazy doors and window's win-dow's open to the sun. The building was airy and well-lighted and contained con-tained a dozen roomy box-stalls, a spacious loft and a carriage-house. The straw bedding had been unre-moved, unre-moved, mice-gnawed sacking and rotted hay lay in the mangers, and the aried harness, hanging on its pegs, was a smelly mass of mildew and decay. He found a stick, plowed away the festooning cobwebs, and moved the debris ' piece-meal. ''There !"' he said with satisfaction. "There's a place ror the motor if Vnele Jefferson ever gets it here." It was noon when he returned, after a wash-up in the lake, to the meal with which Aunt Daphne, in a costume dimly suggestive of a bran-meal poultice poul-tice with a gingham apron on, regaled li i in. Fried chicken, corn-bread so soft and' fluffy that it had to be lifted from the pan with a spoon, browned potatoes, and to his surprise, fresh milk. "Ah done druv ouah ol' cow ovalt, suh." explained Aunt Daphne. " 'Case she gotter be milked, er she run dry ez de' Red Sea fo de chillon ob Izril." "Aunt Daphne," Inquired Valiant with his mouth full, "what do you call Ibis preen thing?" "Dat 7 Dai's jes' turnip-tops, suh, Id er hunk er bacon in de pot. Law s- She Bit Her Lips as He Snapped the Offending Bole Short Off. er-me. et cer'n'y do me good ter see yo' g:t arter it cat way. suh. Keck'n vo' go: er apportite! Hyuh, llyuh!" "I have. ' 1 never grossed it before. cd it's a magnificent discovery. How-ever, How-ever, it suggests unwelcome reflections. reflec-tions. Aunt Daphne, how long do you estimate a man can cine like this on well, say on a hundred dollars?" Er lum'ed dollahs. suh? Dat's er risht smart heap o" money, doed et is: Well suh. pen's on what yo' raises. Kf vo raises yo' own gyarden-sass en ci-.ickns en nigs. Ah reck'n yo' kin live iengab dan dat ar Methoosa'.um. ru still hat" mos' of it in de ol' stock-in'." stock-in'." "Ah: 1 can grow all those things myself, you think?" Vo' -cert'n'y kin." said Aunt Daphne. -Ev'ybody do- chick'r.s done peck fo' deyselves en de yuddah things yo' o'cy goiter 'courage 'em en dey jes' grows." Valiant ate his dessert witn a UioucKtirl smile wrinkling his b.ow. A ,i if pM.-lied back his chair he smote his hatiii-i to tht-r arid laul:i-d aloud. "Ii.i' k to the Mill:" hi said. "John Val.ar.t, ariie-r' The miracle of il is that il sound.-! ood to me. I want to rai.-e r:iy own j-'rub and till my own soil. I want to be my own man! And I'm bediming to H.-e my way. Crops will have to wait for another season, but there's water and pasture for cattle cat-tle now. There's timber lots of it on that hillside, loo. 1 must look into that." He filled his pipe and climbed the staircase to the upper floor. There were many bedroom with great four-posted, four-posted, canopied beds and old-fashioned carved furniture of mahogany and curly-maple, and In one he found a great cedar-lined chest tilled with bed linen and napery. In these rooms were more evidences of decay. The bedroom he mentally chose for his own was the plainest of all, and was above the library, fronting the vagabond vaga-bond gardan. It had a great black desk with many glass-knobbed drawers draw-ers and a book-rack. lie lingered longest . In a room whose door was painted The llilarium. It had evidently been a nursery and schoolroom. Here on the walls were many shelves wound over with networks net-works of cobwebs, and piled with the oddest assemblage of toys. There were school-books, too, thumbed and dog-eared, from First Reader to Caesar's Gallic Wars, with names of small Valiants scrawled on their flyleaves. fly-leaves. He carefully relocked the door of this sjom; he wanted to dust those toys and books with his own hands. In the upper hall again he leaned from the window, sniffing the far-flung, far-flung, scent of orchards and peach-blown peach-blown fence-rows. The soft whirring sound of a bird's wing went past, almost al-most brnshlng his startled face, and the old oaks seemed to stretch their bent limbs with a faithful brute-like yawn of pleasure. In the room below he could hear the vigorous sound of Aunt Daphne's hard-driven broom and the sound flooded the echoing space with a comfortable commotion., He went to his trunk and fished out a soft shirt on which he knotted a loose tie, exchanged his Panama for a slouch hat, and whistling the barcarole bar-carole from Tales of Hoffmann, went gaily out. VI feel tremendously alive today," he confided to the dog, as he tramped through the lush grass. "If you see me ladle the muck out of that fountain with my own fair bands, don't have a fit. I'm liable to do anything." any-thing." His eye swept up and down the slope. "There probably isn't a finer site for a house in the whole South," he told himself. "The living-rooms front south and west. We'll get scrumptious sunsets from that back porch. And on the other side there's the view clear to the Blue Ridge." lie skirted the lake. "Only to grub out some of the lilies there's too many of them and straighten the rim and weed the pebble margin to give those green -ocks a show. I'll build a little wharf below them to dive from, and yes, I'll stock it with spotted trout." He was but a few hundred yards from the house, yet the silence was so deep that there might have been no habitation within fifty miles. All at ence he stopped short; there was a sudden movement in the thicket beyond be-yond the sound of light fast footfalls. as of some one running away. He made a lunge for the dog, but with a growl Chum tore himself from the restraining grasp and dashed into the bushes. "A child, no doubt," he thought as he plunged In pursuit, "anl that lubberly brute will scare it half to death!" He pulled up with an exclamation. In a narrow wood-path a little way from him. partly hidden by a windfall, wind-fall, stood a girl, her skirt transfired with a wickedly jagged sapling. He saw instantly how it had happened: the windfall had blocked the way, and she had sprung clear over It, not noting the screened spear, which now held her . s effectually as any railroad spike. In another moment Valiant had reached her and met her face, flushed, half defiant, her eyes a blue gleam of smoldering anger as she desperately, almost savagely, thrust wild tendrils of fiame-colored hair beneath the broad curved brim of her straw hat. At her feet lay a great armful of cape jessamines. A little thrill, light and warm and ( joyous, ran through him. Until that instant he had not recognized her. CHAPTER XIII. i John Valiant Makes a Discovery. ' I'm so sorry." was what he said. a3 ; ! he kr.eeled to release her. and she was j ! grateful that his tone was unmixed 1 I with amusement. She bit her lips, as j ' bv sheer strength of elbow- and knee j he snapped the offending bole short j off one of those quick exhibitions j of reserved strength that every wom-i wom-i an likes. j "I don't know how I could have been so silly thank you so much." ! said Shirley, i-antir.g slightly from her exertions "Fir. not the least bit hurt only dress and you know very well that I wasn't afraid of that ridiculous dog." A richer glow stole ' to her cheeks as she spoke, a burn- I iiii recollection of a rose, which Horn her hursi that morning al Duinory I Court, she ha . glimpsed in its glass on the porch. I'.oth laughed a little. He imagined ; that he could smll that wonderful ! hair, a subtle fragrance like that of ; sun-dried seaweed or the elusive scent that clings to a tuft of long-plucked Spanish moss. "Chum stands absolved, ab-solved, then," he said, bending to sweep together the scattered jessamine. jessa-mine. "Do you do you run like that when you're not frightened?" "When I'm caught red-handed. Don't you?" He looked puzzled. She pointed to the flowers. "I had stolen them, and I was trying to ' 'scape off wld 'em' as the negroes say. Shocking, isn't it? But you see, nobody has lived here since long before be-fore I was born, and I suppose the liower-thieving habit has become ingrown." in-grown." "But," he Interrupted, "there's acres of them going to waste. Why on earth shouldn't you have them?" "Of course I know better today, but there was a a special reason. We have none and this is the nearest '"-4P Xs4 "It Won't Hurt," Reassured the Would-Be Would-Be Operator. place where they grow. My mother wanted some for this particular day." "Good heavens!" he cried. "You don't think you can't go right on taking tak-ing them? Why, you can "'scape off' with the whole garden any time!" A droll little gleam of azure mischief mis-chief darted at him suddenly out of her eyes and then dodged back again. "Aren't you just a little rash with other people's property?" "Other people's?" "What will the owner say?" He bent back one of the long jessamine jessa-mine stems and wound it around the others. "I can answer for him. Besides. Be-sides. I owe you something, you know. I robbed you this morning of your brush." She looked at him, abruptly serious. "Why did you do that?" "Sanctuary. His two beady eyes begged so hard for it. 'Twenty ravenous raven-ous hounds,' they said, 'and a dozen galloping horses. And look what a poor shivering little red-brown morsel mor-sel I am!' " For just an instant the bronze-gold head gave a quick imperious toss, like a high-mettled pony under the flick of the whip. But as suddenly tbi shadow of resentment passed; the mobile face under the bent hat-brim turned thoughiful. She looked again m him "Do vou think it's wrong to kill things?" she asked gravely. "Oh. dear, no," he smiled. "I haven't a single ism. I'm not even a vegetarian." "But you would b if yoa had to kill your own meat?" "Perhaps. So many of us would. As a matter of fact. I don't hunt myself, my-self, but I'm no reformer." "Why don't you hunt?" "I don't enjoy it." He flushed slightly. "I hate firearms." he said, a trifle difficultly. "I always have. I don't know- why. Idiosyncrasy, I suppose. sup-pose. But I shouldn't care for hunting, hunt-ing, even with bows and arrows. I would kill a tiger or a poisonous reptile, rep-tile, or anything else, in case of necessity. neces-sity. But even then I should hardly enjoy it. I know some animals are pests and have to be killed. Some men do, too. Bui I don't like to do it myself." "Wouldn't that theory lead to a wholesale evasion of responsibility?" "Perhaps. I'm no philosopher. But a blackbird or a red fox is so pretty, even whpn he is thieving, that I'd let him have the corn. I'm like the Lord High Executioner in 'The Mikado' Mi-kado' who was so tender-hearted that he couidn't execute anybody and planned to begin with guinea-pigs and work up. Only I'm afraid I couldn't even rr.anage the guinea-pig3." She laughed. "You wouldn't find many to practice on here. Do you raise g'rlrea-pigs up North?" "Ah." be sa'd ruefully, "you tag me. too. Have I by chance a large letter X tat'.ooed upon my manly brew? But I suppose it's the aeer.t. I'ncle Jefferson Jef-ferson catalogued me in five minutes. He saiii he didn't knew why I was from ce Xorf.' but he 'kcowed' it. I've arrnexed him and his wife, by the way." "You're lucky to have them. Ucc' Jefferson and Aunt Daph might have I slipped out of a plantation of the l2st century. They'r absolute! ante-bei- Hum. -Most of the negroes are more; or h-s spoiled, as ou"ll find, I'm afraid." She turned the conversation i bluntly "Had ou seen Damory Court before?" "No, never." "Do you like the general plan of the I place?" ! "Do I like it?" cried John Valiant. "Do I like it!" A Quick pleasure glanced across her face. "It's nice of you to say it that way. We ask that question so often it's become mechanical. You see, it's our great show-place." At that moment a patter of footsteps foot-steps and shrill shr-ieks came flying over the last-year's leaves beyond the lilac bushes. It's Rickey Snyder." she said, peering out smilingly as two children, pursued and pursuer, burst into view. "Hush!" she whispered; "I wonder what they are up to." The pair came in a whirl through the bushes. The foremost was a seven-year-old negro girl, in a single short cottonade garment, wizened, barelegged and bareheaded, her black wool parted In little angular patches and tightly wrapped with bits of cord. The other was white and as freckled as a turkey's egg. with hair cropped like a boy's. She held a carving-knife carving-knife cut from a shingle, whose edge had been deeply ensanguined by poke-berry poke-berry juice. The pursued one stumbled stum-bled over a root and came to earth in a heap, while the other pounced upon her like a wildcat. "Hold still, you limb of Satan," she scolded. "How can I do It when you won't stay still?" "Oh, lawd," moaned the prostrate one, in simulated terror; "oh, Doctah, good Doctah Snydah, has Ah gotter hab dat operation? Is yo' sho' gwine-ter gwine-ter twitter aroun' mah insides wid dem knives en saws en things?" "It won't hurt," reassured the would-be would-be operator; "no more than it did Mis' Poly Gifford. And I'll put your liver right back again." "Wait er minute. Ah jes' remem-bahs remem-bahs Ah fo'got ter make mah will. Ah leabs " "Nonsense!" objected the other irritably. irri-tably. Yor made it yesterday. They always do it beforehand." "No, suh; Ah done clean fergot et. All leabs mah thimble ter de Mefodis' church, en mah black en w'ite kitten ter Ricke- Snyder, en " A twig snapped under Valiant's foot. Both scrambled to their feet, the black girl to look at them with a wide self-conscious self-conscious grin. Rickey, tossing her short hair back from her freckled face, came toward them. "My goodness. Miss Shirley," she said, "we didn't see you at all." She looked at Valiant. "Are you the man that's going to fix up Damory Court?" she inquired, without any tedious formalities. for-malities. "Yes." said Valiant. "Well."' she said critically,, "you've got your job cut out for you. But I should say you're the kind to do it." "Rickey!" Shirley's voice tried to be stern, but -there was a hint of laughter in it. "What did I say now?" Inquired Rickey. "I'm sure I meant It to be complimentary." "It was." said Valiant. "I shall try to deserve your good opinion." "But what a ghastly play!" exclaimed ex-claimed Shirley, "Where did you learn it?" "We were playing Mis' Poly Gifford in the hospital." Rickey answered. "She's got a whole lot of little pebbles peb-bles what they cut out " "Oh. Rickey!" expostulated Shirley with a shudder. Thev did. She Keeps -littIe pasteboard box like wed dmB-cak". with a blue ribbon around it bhe a snowing i- to Miss Mattie sue yester dav She was telling Her all about it. She' said all the women there showed each other their cuts and bragged about how long they were -You certainly have a highly deje oped taste for the dramatic said Shirley. "I wonder what your next effort will be." informed "It's tomorrow, Rickey m her "We're going to have the duel between Valiant and Sassoon. The smile was stricken from John Valiant's face. A el-the duel-between Valiant and Sassoon , !herB his blood heat quickly. Had there been such a thing in his fathers life. Was thai what had blighted it? "Only not here where it really happened, hap-pened, but in the Meredith orchard. Greenie's going to be" "Mi ain'l" contradicted Greenie. "Ah ain' gwineter be dat Valiant, no- ll0"WYou are, too!" Insisted Rickey, wrathfullv. "You needn't be so pickety and choosety-and after she kills Sassoon. Sas-soon. we put the bloodhounds on her traifV Greenie tittered. "Dey ain' no dawg aroun' heah'd tech me," she said, "en .'sides" "But, Rickey," Shirley interposed, "that wasn't a murder. That was a duel between gentlemen. They don't" "I know it," assented Rickey cheerfully. cheer-fully. "But it makes it more exciting. Will you come, Miss Shirley, deed and double? I won't charge you any admission." ad-mission." s "I can't promise," said Shirley. "By the way. isn't it about time Miss Mat-tie Mat-tie Sue had her tea?" "It certainly is, Miss Shirley!" said Rickey, with penitent emphasis. "I clean forgot it, and she'll row me up the gump-stump! Come on, Greenie," and she started off through the bushes. Shirley looked at Valiant with a deepening of her dimple. "Rickey isn't an aristocrat," she said; "she's what we call here poor-white, but she's got a heart of gold. She's an orphan, and the neighborhood in general, and Miss Mattie Sue Mabry in particular, have adopted her." He hardly heard her words for the painful wonder that was holding him. His father had taken a man's life. Was it this thought whatever the provocation, however justified by the customs of the time and section that had driven him to self-exile? He recalled himself with an effort, for she was speaking again. "You've found Lovers' Leap, no doubt?" "No. This Is the first time I've been so far from the house. Is it near here?" "I'll show it to you." She held out her hand for the bunch of jessamine and laid it on the broad roots of a tree that were mottled with lichen. "Look there," she said suddenly; "isn't that a beauty?" . She was pointing to a jimson-weed on which had settled, with glassy wings vibrating, a long, ungainly. I needlelike insect with an odd swordlike sword-like beak. "What is that?" he asked. I "A snake-doctor. If L'nc' Jefferson j were here he'd say. 'Bettah watch out! Dah's er snek roun' erbout heah sho'!' He'll till you full of darky superstitions." Suddenly the slim path between the trees took a quick turn, and fell away at their feet. "There," she said "This is the finest view at Damory Court " (TO UK CO.VTINt-KD ) |