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Show but upon that girl of the red rose when Shottle appeared again. Liberty stood In his presence, not with a droop but straight In the manly resolution to discharge the duties an adverse fate had thrust upon him. In the belief that It would make him look more like a slave, he now wore his coat turned wrong side out. "Master, I salute you," he remarked. "All right," said Drace. "But turn your coat. I want my slave, the grimier grimi-er of my mill, to appear respectably clad. You may sit down." "I thank you, sir." "You didn't last long." "No, master. The tangled-haired hag kicked me sidewlse, like a cow. In only two pots ! But what can you expect of a man that has an ace-full beaten? How long can a man preserve his freedom at that rate? And a fellow fel-low with a spindle chin and a nose no bigger than the average wart beat 13 oil fcfe1 ' OPIERI-AD i V$ek&fr&&r ILLUSTRATED BY W R.H. LIVINGSTONE me with four jacks. Crushed me ! And he would have crashed Julius Caesar just the same. Well, after all, freedom free-dom has many responsibilities. As a slave I'll cultivate what virtues I can get hold of, and look toward old age and a cabin on the hillside. And now, as it is natural for every man to hide his degradation, will you permit me to call you Virgil in the presence of other oth-er people?" "I thought you didn't believe in the natural thing! But all right; I grant your request. And now I suppose I'd better give you some pocket-change. It isn't well for even a slave to be broke." The slave's face brightened with hope. "You couldn't make it as much as five dollars, could you?" "No, thirty cents." Shottle took the money and sat drooping. Drace gave him a cigar, and they smoked for a time In silence. At, last Shottle looked toward Drace, his face guiltless of the whimsical humor that had hitherto possessed it. "Master," he said, "I don't want to be inquisitive, and if I'm prying into what's none of my business, I won't mind your saying so. But I want to be a faithful slave, and I can serve you best if I know what what are my masler's purposes in life. For example, exam-ple, was there any special reason for your learning to throw and tie that way? Is there anybody in particular I could help you to put the rope on?" Drace made no answer for a moment, mo-ment, but bent a searching eye upon his new servitor. Somehow the man's soul seemed to shine transparent in his face. "Liberty," he said, "did you ever hear of a man named Stepho la Vitte?" Liberty nodded. "Yes, I've heard of him ; they say he's an outlaw, a smuggler." smug-gler." "And worse," said Drace. "He's 1 lie man who Liberty, give me your word, your oath, that you'll keep this a sacred secret !" Liberty gave hi word and his oath with n certain quaint dignity, and i VENGEANCE1 I SYNOPSIS Tlie time is the late i '60s or early '70s and the scene a W .' steamboat on the Mississippi river. I All the types of the period are present and the floating palace Is j distinguished by merriment, dancing danc-ing and gallantry. There are the customary drinking and gambling also. Virgil Drace, a young northern north-ern man, is on his way bouUi on a mission of revenge. He meets an eccentric character in the person of ! one Liberty Shottle, who is constantly con-stantly tempting the goddess of chance. CHAPTER 1 Continued. 2 "Don't call me Liberty. Call me Lib just Lib ; that's enough. But let me tell you something. Never in all my life have I ever come as near being be-ing a rich man as I was just now. I had won by George, I had so much money stacked up in front of me that a mulatto from the North called me 'marsler.' And then a cog slipped. We could have split and had a small fortune for-tune apiece." "Blundering fool again?" Drace inquired. in-quired. "Yes, sir, and I was the fool. I wanted to be a rich man and came within one of it. You know, sometimes some-times Fortune hesitates as to whether she shall crown you or stop you." "In your case, she didn't seem to hesitate long, Lib." "No the hair-tangled hag! And then do you know what she did just rs I was forced to get up from the table In as hot a fever as ever scorched a man's blood? She smiled at me. Now, I'll swear to that. But it's all over. A fellow ,has his little day, and then stretches out and lets the undertaker measure him." "Yes, Lib, and I'd advise him to bring along extra tape when he comes after you." Shottle attempted to smile, but the fever within him was still so hot that master, I hope I ask you ; isn't it something to own a companionable slave?" "Yes. By the way, do you know New Orleans very well?" "What! Does a bloodhound know the scent of a darkey?" "All right, Lib here's $100. And I believe that within an hour from now you'll be my property." CHAPTER II Drace sat musing over the strange creature who had just left him, but soon his mind flowed down, another channel, far different from a whim or an amusement his mission In the South, secret, grim and desperate. But life on a river steamboat in that day left little time for brooding for, n few moments after Shottle left to risk his liberty and Drace's hundred, a roustabout roust-about thrust his head in at the door and announced that down on the deck there was to he a throwing and tying match. The big fireman of the Leona was about to encounter Vicksburg Joe for the championship of the River. In an instant Drace was on his feet, all his instincts keen and ready to jump. He was something of a boxer and wrestler, but he had not been taught in this peculiar art of tying an adversary once one has thrown him. And there was that in his mind which made the acquisition of this knowledge seem to him desirable indeed. As he joined a group of men making mak-ing their way below, he overheard the Colonel, Miss Lucy's admirer, explaining explain-ing the gentle pastime. "Tying a man once you have thrown him," the Colonel Colo-nel was saying, "is the climax of prowess. I saw Cal Blodgett throw and tie Nick Pavin at a barbecue at Mount Zion campground, and I have cause to remember it, for the young lady I went with deserted me for the hero, sir actually stuck flowers Into his hair. -Here we are." Two enormous fellows were struggling, strug-gling, while nearby lay a convenient his effort ended in a grim tightening of the mouth. "That's all right, Virgil, but you must remember that you are one out of a million. How a fellow can lose $200 at poker and get up from the table with money still in' his pocket Is beyond me. However, it means that you haven't got poker In your blood, which of itself is a marvel. But I.want to tell you that every man is food for some sort of desperate passion. If it isn't gambling, it may be love. How nbout that?" "Hasn't caught me yet," answerer Drace, stoutly, even though the pic ture of the girl In the passageway was at the moment fionting bi-ight before 1 his mind's eye. "Of course," he add ed, "I may marry, Liberty ; that sort of thing runs in our family, you know. But I don't, think the subject very interesting." in-teresting." "I grant you. In this we walk shoulder to shoulder. But there is Bometbing of vital interest. Just now I lost." "Yes, and a very natural thing," Drace agreed. "No, it wasn't natural. It was unnatural un-natural that I should lose just at that time. It was an accident. Listen to me for just a minute. Anybody can do the natural and expected thing. A dog or a cat or any other animal al- Drace went on : "Liberty, before the war my father, Alfred Drace, was manager of a lino of steamboats on the Ohio. In his employ em-ploy was the Creole Stepho la Vitte. After a time If came to my father's knowledge that Stepho was not only dishonest in ordinary dealings but had been guilty of piracy along the Gulf coast. And so my fattier dismissed Stepho from a position which the Creole's Cre-ole's dishonesty had made lucrative and valuable to him. "Just after that," Drace went on, "the war broke out. La Vitte became a guerrilla one of the men of Qunn-trell's Qunn-trell's stamp, who kept out of the army but who gathered in bands and lived by rapine along the border. I was only a little hoy. Liberty, when' La Vitte's band of guerrillas crossed the Ohio near ('incinmitj and raided the little town where we lived. But the horror of that night still burns like a flame in my brain. Liberty." Drace stopped, drew from a breast pocket a card and handed it to Shot-tie. Shot-tie. On it was written in bold black characters: "Stepho la Vitte. with the compliments of Alfred Drace's son Virgil." Shoitle read the card, then looked inquiringly at Drace: "Liberty ," the voung man explained. mm "those guerrillas under La Vitte burned our Jittle town and killed nearly near-ly every grown man in if. For word was brought of their coming, and the men nearly all of them married men or old who hail not gone to the war seized weapons and went out to defend de-fend their houses. "They were massacred almost to a .man. . . . And it was not plunder alone that led them to choose our little lit-tle town for outrage. Liberty, but a passion for revenge. For next, morning morn-ing my father was found hanging to a tree. And on his breast w:is pinned a card that, read: 'Alfred Drace. with the compliments of Stepho la Vitte." Liberty looked again at the card he held in his hand, then handed it back to Prace. "I reckon I understand now, master."" he s:tid. "You are bunt in' ' this Stephu to "' "To hang him as high as Hainan and to pin that card on his breast." declared Drace passionately. "While my mother lived. Liberty. I could do j norhi'iLT. You know how women are in such matters. B:i' she died this spring. Liberty, after long years of grieving fur the man that d d out- j law foully murdered. Now T am free to strike for my honor and my fat Iter's memory to carry justice to that murderer." mur-derer." "The barbaric rose maid the girl who br.d touched his heart I with a torch." j I (TO EK CONTINUED. J I And on His Breast Was Pinned ;. Card That Read: "Alfred Drace, With the Compliments of Stepho La Vitte." rope. Finally Vicksburg Joe tied the fireman, and he lay helpless, unable to get up. "I will give yon rive dollars if you can throw me and tie me that way," called Drace to the victor when the excitement had a little subsided. Joe looked at Drace a moment. The young man looked powerful enough to be dangerous, hut live dollars was five dollars. lie smiled, bowed, spread out the wrinkled rug and took Drace by the hand to lead him forth. To the astonishment of all, Drace threw JIasfer Joe; but he could not lie the champion. "Show me how it's done," said Virgil, Vir-gil, "and I'll give you the money." For a long time, and until the Colonel Colo-nel and Shottle were worn out with waiting, the two struggled; and so apt was the student that he succeeded tin-ally tin-ally in turning the master over and tying him. Hut It seemed that the burly chump.'ou was too willing, and Drace insisted on another fall. And now, though the struggle was genuine on Joe's part. Drace tied him. Still more, another live promised, and Virgil Vir-gil was willing to quit. "Finest sport I ever had!" he said as he turned away to the upper deck ' again to avoid the questions and felicitations fe-licitations showered upon him. . . . Drace was musing not. it must he confessed, upon The serious purposes which had brought him to the South. ways does. It is doing the thing that nature didn't intend that marks the progress of civilization. Now, I have n proposition to make that may seem unnatural. Perhaps no man you ever met before would make It. F.ut you never met such a man as I am, before. be-fore. You couldn't look forward and see me. Could you?" "I didn't," Drace cheerfully admitted. admit-ted. "And it would have been hard for you to believe that I exist, which I don't, according to t tie belief of some of my folks. Now, then, what are we getting at? Another stake? No, I am not going to ask you to risk any more of your money. But this is my proposition: You let me have $100; If I win, I'll pay back all I owe. And If I don't, I'll belong to you your property, body nnd soul but with this understanding, I am not to perform per-form any menial service In public. And It is further understood and agreed upon that if by any chance can raise $100. I nm to have the privilege privi-lege of buying my freedom. The first $100, you understand, was a stake and not a loan. Before you decide, weigh the advantages of owning n man. T will be your Greek, your enslaved philosopher, phi-losopher, be your Epietetus and turn you: ruin". We will revive the ethics of ancient society. Won't that prove that history really does repeat itself?" "Yes." answered Drace. "but I don't carf .tny more whether history repeats re-peats herself thnn I do that a statu-Biering statu-Biering man repeats himself." j "No nty dear friend soon to be raj |