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^ SEMX-WEEKL^^ ^ ^ I. m. GRISTS SONS, Publisher, J & #amilB Betrspaper: Jor the promotion of the political. Social, agricultural and ?omine?ciat Interests of the fjeople. . ^ j """Vn'ol"c.^v*"ve^n""" ESTABLISHED ih->-,. ' ' YORKV1LLE, S. C. TITKSDAY. AUGUST 101.0. " NO. (il. *** A ***** A ***** A *?*? J I When a M. < I By MARY 9 ROBERTS /ft t j R/NEHART I * Copyright 1909? } & *** ***** ***** ***** i CHAI'TKR XVI?Continued. " Klannigan was not a handsome man at any time, though up to then he had at least looked amiable. But now as I stood with my hand on the hack of my chair, his face grew suddenly menacing. The silence was absolute: I was the guiltiest wretch alive, and opposite ?"> ?u.. law tau-HPiul anil dowered. and held the yellow remnant of a pineapple cheese! And in the silence that wretched watch lay and ticked and ticked and ticked. Then Flannigan creaked over and closed the door into che hall, came back, picked up the watch, and looked at it. "You're unlucky, I'm thinkin,'" he said finally. "You've got the nerve all right, but you ain't cute enough." "I don't know what you mean," I quavered. "Give me that watch to return to Mr. Harbison." "Not on your life," he retorted easily. "I give it back myself, like I did the t bracelet, and?like I'm going to give back the necklace, if you'll act like a sensible little girl." I could only choke. "It's foolish, any way you look at it," fie persisted. "Here you are, lots of | friends, folks that think you're all right. Why, I reckon there isn't one of them that wouldn't lend you money if you need it so bad." "Will you be still?" I said furiously. "Mr. Harbison left that watch?with me?an hour ago. Get him, and he will tell you so himself!" "Of course he would," Flannigan conceded, looking at me with grudg, lug approval. "He wouldn't be what I think he is, if he didn't lie up and down for you." Tnere were voices 111 ?he hall. Flannigan came closer. "An hour ago, you say. And he told me It was gone this morning. It's a losing > game, miss. I'll give you twenty-four hours and then?the necklace, if you please, miss." CHAPTER XVII. A Clash and a Kiss. The clash that came that evening had been threatening for some time. Take an immovable body, represented by Mr. Harbison and his square jaw, and an irresistible force, Jimmy and ^ his weight, and there is bound to be trouble. The real fault was Jim's. He had gone entirely mad again over Bella, and thrown prudence to the winds. He mooned at her across the dinner-table, I and waylaid her on the stairs or in the back halls, just to hear her voice when she ordered him out of the way. He telephoned for flowers and candy for her quite shamelessly, and ht got out a book of photographs that they had taken on their wedding journey, and kept it on the library table. The sole concession he made to our presumptive relationship was to bring me the responsibility for everything that went wrong, and his shirts for buttons. The first I heard of the trouble was from Dal. He waylaid me in the hall after dinner that night, and his face was serious. ' I'm afraid we can't keep it up very long, Kit," he said. "With Jim trailing Rella all over the house, and the old lady keener every day, it's hound to come out somehow. And that isn't all. Jim and Harbison had a set-to today about you." "About me!" I repeated. "Oh, I dare say I have been falling short again. What was Jim doing? Abusing me?" Hal looked cautiously over his shoulder. but no one was near. "It seems that the gentle Bella has ^ been unusually beastly today to Jim. and?I believe she's jealous of you, Kit. Jim followed her up to the roof before dinner with a box of flowers, and she tossed them over the parapet. She said, I believe, that she didn't want his flowers: he could buy them for you, and be damned to him. or some ladylike equivalent.* "Jim is a jellyfish." I said contemptuously. "What did he say?" "He said he only cared for one woman. and that was Rella: that he never had really cared for you and never would, and that divorce courts were not unmitigated evils if they showed people the way to real happiness. Which wouldn't amount to anything if Harbison had not been in the tent, trying to sleep!" Dal did not know all the particulars, but it seems that relations between Jim and Mr. Harbison were rather strained. Rella had left the roof and Jim and the Harbison man came face to face in the door of th?* tent. According to Dal. little had been said, but Jim, bound by his promise to me, could not explain, and could only f stammer something about being an old friend of Miss Knowles. And Tom had replied shortly that it was none of his business, but that there were some things friendship hardly justified, and tried to pass Jim. Jim in.^an... enraged; he blocked the door to the roof and demanded to know what the other man meant. There were two or three versions of the answer he tent. The general purport was that Mr. Harbison had no desire to explain further, and that the situation was forced on him. Rut if he insisted?when a man systematically ignored and neglected his wife for some one else, there) were communities where he would he J tarred and feathered. "Meaning: me?" Jim demanded, apolectic. "The remark was a general one,") Mr. Harbison retorted, "hut if you wish to make a concrete application?!" Dal had gone up just then, and . found them glaring at each other. Jim with his hands clenched at his sides, and Mr. Harbison with his arms folded and very erect. Dal took Jim by the elbow and led him down-stairs, muttering. ami the situation was saved for the time. Rut Pal was not optimistic. "You can do a bit yourself. Kit." he finished. "I<ook more cheerful, tlirt a little. You can do that without trying. Take Max on for a day or so: it would be charity anyhow. Rut don't let Tom) ? ***** A ***** A ***** A +**> an Marries $ = | Author of * |A "The Circular Staircase" ^ ?nd Z "The Man In Lower Ten" A I The Bohbs-Merrill Co. r ***** ***** w ***** +** Harbison take it into his head that you are grieving: over Jim's neglect, or he's likely to toss him off the roof." j nave in> ri'uauii u? uiui iin. Harbison cares one way or the other about me," I said primly. "You don't think he's?he's in love with me, do you, Dal?" I watched him out of the corner of my eye, and he only looked amused. "In love wtth you!" he repeated. "Why bless your wicked little heart, no! He thinks you're a married woman! It's the principle of the thins he's fighting for. If I had as much principle as he has, I'd?I'd put it out at interest.' Max interrupted us just then, and asked if we knew where Mr. Harbison was. "Can't find him," he said. "I've got the telephone together and have enough left over to make another. Where do you suppose Harbison hides the tools? I'm working with a corkscrew and two palette knives." I heard nothing more of the trouble that night. Max went to Jim about it, and Jim said angrily that only a fool would interfere between a man and his wife?wives. Whereupon Max retorted that a fool and his wives were soon parted, and left him. The two principals were coldly civil to each other, and smaller issues were lost as the famine grew more and more insistent. fa niinit it vi'fl Q They worked the rest of the evening, but the telephone refused to revive and every one was starving. Individually our pride was at low ebb, but collectively It was still formidable. So we sat around and Jim played Orieg with the soft stops on, and Aunt Selina went to bed. The .weather had changed, and it was sleeting, but anything was better than the drawing-room. I was in a mood to battle with the elements or to cry?or both?so I slipped out, while Dal was reciting. "Give me three grains of corn, mother." threw somebody's overcoat over my shoulders, put on a man's soft hat?Jim's I think? and went up to the roof. It was dark in the third floor hall, and I had to feel my way to the foot of the stairs. I went up quietly, and turned the knob of the door to the roof. At first it would not open, and I could hear the wind howling outside. Finally, however, I got the door open a little and wormed my way through. It was not entirely dark out there, in spite of the storm. A faint reflection of the street lights made it possible to distinguish the outlines of the boxwood plants, swaying in the wind, and the chimneys and the tent. And then?a dark figure disentangled itself from the nearest chimney and seemed to hurl itself at me. I remember putting out my hands and trying to say something, but the figure caught me roughly by the shoulders and knocked me back against the door-frame. From miles I've pot you!" and then the roof Rave from under me, and I was floating out on the storm, and sleet was heating in my face, and the wind was whispering over and over, "Open your eyes, for God's sake!" I did open them after a while, and finally I made out that I was lying on the floor in the tent. The lights were on, and I had a cold and damp feeling, and something wet was trickling down my neck. I seemed to he alone, hut in a second somebody came into the tent, and 1 saw it was Mr. Harbison, and that he had a double handful of half melted snow. He looked frantic and determined, and only my sitting up quickly prevented my getting another snow hath. My neck felt queer and stiff, and I was very dizzy. When he saw that I was conscious he dropped the snow and stood looking down at me. "Do you know," he said grimly, "that I very nearly choked you to d?*ath a little while ago?" "It wouldn't surprise me to he told so," I said. "Do I know too much, or what is it. Mr. Harbison?" I felt terribly ill, hut I wquhl not let him see it. "It is queer, isn't it?how we always select the roof for our little?differences?" He seemed to relax somewhat at my gibe. "I didn't know it was you," he explained shortly. "I was waiting for? some one, and in the hat you wore, and the coat, 1 mistook you. That's all. Can you stand?" "No," I retorted. I could, but his summary manner displeased me. The sequel, however, was rather amazing, for he stooped suddenly and (ticked nie up, and the next instant we were out in the storm together. At the door he stooped and felt for the knob. "Turn it," he commanded. "I can't reach it." "I'll do nothing of the kind," I said uhrpu'iuhlv "I ?.f hip ilnvvil I c:m W.'llk perfectly well." He hesitated. Then lie slid me slowly to my feet, but he did not open the door at once. "Are you afraid to let me carry you down those stairs, after ?Tuesday night?" he asked, very low. "You still think I did that?" I had never heen less it than at that moment, hut an imp of perversity made me retort, "Yes"' He hardly seemed to hear me. He stood looking down at me as I leaned against the door-frame. "Hod Lord!" he groaned. "To think that I might have killed you!" And then he stooped and suddenly kis?.-d me. The next moment the door was open, and he was leading me down into the house. At the foot of tin- staircase he paused, still holding my hand, and faced tne in the darkness. "I'm not sorry," lu- said steadily. "I suppose I ought to lie, hut I'm not. Only I want you to know that I was not guilty ?- before. I didn't intend to now. 1 am almost as much surprised as you are." I was quite unable to speak, but I wrenched my hand loose, lie stepped hack to let me pass, and I went down the hall alone. CHAPTKR XVIII. It's All My Fault. I didn't go to the drawing-room again. I went into my own room and sat in the dark, and tried to he furiously angry, and only succeeded in feeling queer and tingly. One thing was absolutely certain: not the same man, hut two different men had kissed me on the stairs to the roof. It sounds rather horrid and discriminating, hut there was all the difference in the world. But then?who had? And for whom had Mr. Harbison been waiting on the roof? "Did you know that 1 nearly choked you to death a few minutes ago?" Then he rather expected to finish somebody In that way! Who? Jim, probably. It was strange, too, but suddenly I realized that no matter how many suspicious things I mustered up against him?and there were plenty? down in my heart I didn't believe him guilty of anything, except this last and unforgivable offense. Whoever was trying to leave the house had taken the necklace, that seemed clear, unless Max was still foolishly trying to break quarantine and create one of the sensations he so dearly loves. This was a new idea, and some things upheld it, but Max had been playing bridge when I was kissed on the stairs, and there was still left that ridiculous incident of the comfort. Bella came up after I had gone to bed, and turned on the light to brush her hair. "If I don't leave this mausoleum soon, I'll be carried out," she declared. "You in bed, Dollie Mercer and Dal flirting, Anne hysterical, and Jim making his will in the den! You will have to take Aunt Selina tonight. Kit; I'm all in." "If you'll put her to bed. I'll keep her there," I conceded, after some parley. "You're a dear." Bella came back fnom ?*T ln.ro i * \>A1I know Jim pretty well. Don't you think he looks ill? Thinner?" "He's a wreck," I said soberly. "You have a lot to answer for, Bella." Bella went over to the cheval glass and looked in it. "I avoid him all I can," she said, posing. "He's awfully funny; he's so afraid I'll think he's serious about you. He can't realize that for me he simply doesn't exist." Well, I took Aunt Selina. and about two o'clock, while I was in my first sleep, I woke to find her standing beside me, tugging at my arm. "There's somebody in the house," she whispered. "Thieves!" "If they're in they'll not get out tonight," I said. "I tell you, I saw a man skulking on the stairs," she insisted. I got up ungraciously enough, and put on my dressing-gown. Aunt Selina. who had her hair in crimps, tied a veil over her head, and together we went to the head of the stairs. Aunt Selina leaned far over and peered down "He's in the library," she whispered. I "I can see a light." The lust of battle was in Aunt Seli- s na's eye. She girded her robe about I her and began to descend the stairs g cautiously. We went through the hall I and stopped at the library door. It was empty, but from the den beyond e came a hum of voices and the cheerful t glow of fire-light. I realized the situa- r tion, then but it was too late. "Then why did you kiss her in the 1 dining-room?" Bella was saying in her clear, high tones. "You did, didn't s you?" r "It was only her hand," Jim, desper- 1 ately explaining. "I've got to pay her > some attention, under the circumstances. And I give you my word, I d wsi? think itur ,,f van whan I ilirl if." t The wretch! Aunt Selina drew her breath in sud- 8 denly. t "I am thinking of marrying Reggie Wolfe." This was Rella, of course. "He wants me to. He's a dear boy." * "If you do, I will kill him." "I am so very lonely," Rella sighed. ? We could hear the creak of Jim's shirt bosom that showed that he had sighed > also. Aunt Selina had gripped me by t the arm, and I could hear her breath- 4 ing hard beside me. "It's only Jim," I whispered. "I?I s don't want to hear any more." Rut she clutched me firmly, and the I next thing we heard was another 1 creak, louder and? f "Get ti|?! Get up off your knees this 4 instant?" Rella was saying frantioal- 4 ly. "Some one might come in." 4 "Don't send me away," Jim said in I a smothered voice. "Bvery one in the 4 house is asleep, and I love you, dear." Aunt Selina swallowed hard in the 4 darkness. 4 "You have no right to make love to 1 me," Rella. It's?it's highly improper, f under the circumstances." ' And then Jim: "You swallow a cam- ' el and stick at a gnat. Why did you f meet me here, if you didn't expect me ' to make love to you? I've stood for a lot, Rella, but this foolishness will | have to end. Either you love me?or i you don't. I'm desperate." He drew t a long, forlorn breath. "Poor old Jim!" This was Rella. A j pause. Then?"Let my hand alone!" Also Rella. I "It is my hand!"?Jim's most fat- 1 nous tone. "There is where you wore 5 my ring. There's the mark still." ' Sounds of Jim kissing Rella's ring-fin- ' ger. "What did you do with it? Throw ' it away'.'" More sounu.s. Aunt Selina crossed the library 1 swiftly, ami again I followed. Hella I was sitting in a low chair by the fire, i looking at the logs, in the most exquisite negligee of pink chiffon and s ribbon. Jim was on his knees, staring < at h< r adoringly, and holding both her 1 hands. ' "I'll tell you a secret," Hella was saying, looking as coy as she knew how? which was considerable. "I?I still I wear it, on a chain around my neck." < On a chain around her neck! Hella. 1 who is decolette whenever it is allow- 1 able, and more than is proper! That was the limit of Aunt Selina's endurance. Still holding me, she step- ] ped through the doorway and into the , firelight, a fearful figure. Jim saw her first, lie went quite . white and struggled to get up. smiling , a sickly smile. Hella, after her first < surprise, was superbly indifferent. She , glanced at us, raised her eyebrows, and then looked at the clock. I "More victims of insomnia!" she - ? i: ..II 1 said. "Won t yon come in. .inn. i>>h< ' up a chair h.v the (ire for your aunt." Aunt Sclina opened her mouth twice, like a fish, before she could speak. | Then? "James, I demand that that woman . leave the house!" she said hoarsely. Rclla leaned hack and yawned. . Indians Anxiously Of Charges of I I wflHi . y'' - Copyright by American Press Assoc! The investigation of the sensational P. Gore of Oklahoma against J. F. M In connection with contracts with the will bring together the greatest gatheri sentatlves In the history of the new st fairs during the last few days of the r ate and house appointed a committe charges made by the blind senator. T Senators Jones of Washington. Burton Hughes of Colorado and Percy of Mis of Burke of South Dakota, Campbell o of Texas and Saunders of Virginia, clvillzwl tribes are watching the outc as this Is the first time since they bee of Uncle Sam that a scandal has been e "James, shall I go?" she asked amia?ly. "Nonsense," Jim said, pulling himlelf together as best, he could. "Look lere, Aunt Selina, you know she can't ;o out, and what's more, I?don't want ler to go." "You?what?" Aunt Selina screechd, taking a step forward. "You have he audacity to say such a thing to ne!" Bella leaned over and gave the fire og a,punch. "I was just saying that he shouldn't ay such things to me, either," she renarked pleasantly. "I'm afraid you'll ake cold, Miss Oaruthers. Wouldn't ou like a hot sherry flip?" Aunt Selina gasped. Then she sat lown heavily on one of the carved eakwood chairs. "He said he loved you; 1 heard him," he said weakly. "He?he was going o put his arm around you!" "Habit!" Jim put in, trying to smile. You see, Aunt Selina, it's?well, it's a labit I got into some time ago, and I ?my arm does it without my thinking ibout it." "Habit!" Aunt Selina repeated, her oice thick with passion. Then she urned to me. "On to your room at mee!" sin* said in her most awful tone. 'Go to your room and leave this?this shocking affair to me." But if she reached her limit, so had . If Jim chose to ruin himself, it was lot my fault. Any one with common icnse would have known at least to lose the door before he went down >11 his knees, no matter to whom. So vhen Aunt Selina turned on me and lointed in the direction of the stair ase, I did not move. "I am perfectly wide awake," I said oldly. "I shall go to bed when I am ntirely ready, and not before. And as 'or Jim's conduct, I do not know much ibout the conventions in such cases, nit if he wishes to embrace Miss Cnowles, and she wants him to, the dtuatiou is interesting, but hardly lovel." Aunt Selina rose slowly and drew the olds of her dressing-sown around her, iway from the contamination of my ouch. "Do you know what you are sayng?" she demanded hoarsely. "I do." I was quite white and stiff rrom my knees up, hut below I was ivavery. I glanced at Jim for moral support, hut he was looking idolatroiisly it Delia. As for her, quite suddenly she had dropped her mask of indiffer>nce: her face was strained and anxous, and there were deep circles I had lot seen before, under her eyes. And it was Delia who finally threw herself into the breach?the family breach. "It is all my fault. Miss Caruthers," the said, stepping between Aunt Selina ind myself. "I have been a blind and wicked woman, and I have almost wrecked two lives." Two! What of mine? "Yoll see," she struggled oil, against the glint in Aunt Selina's eyes. "I?I lid not realize how much I eared, until it was too late. I did so many things that were cruel and wrong?oh, Jim, Jim!" She turned and buried her head on his shoulder and cried; real tears. I could hardly believe that it was Delia. And Jim put both his arms around her md almost cried, too. and looked nan gratingly happy with the eye he turned In 1 Sella, .nn?l scared tn death out of the lie he kept on Aunt Selina. She turned on me, as of course I knew she would. "That." she said, pointing at Jim and Hclla, "that shameful picture is due to four own indifference. I am not blind: I have seen how yon rejected all his loving advances." Holla drew away from Jim, but he jerked her back. "If anything in the world would reconcile II it* to divorce, it is this unbelievable situation. James, arc you shameless?" ' Await Result Hind Senator Gore, ? Bpjfj^ - 0 atlon^ ^ V f i charges preferred by Senator Thomas C cMurray for alleged attempted bribery i' Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian tribes tl ng of United States senators and repre- w ate. Owing to the chaotic state of af- ci ecent session of congress both the sen- rr e of five members to Investigate the !l hose named by the vice president are w of Ohio, Crawford of South Dakota, c slssippL The house committee consists ti f Kansas, Miller of Minnesota, Stephens jr The chieftains and braves of the five j, ome of the Investigation with Interest, n ame active participants In the affairs K xposed In connection with their affairs. tl ' g But James was and didn't care who ^ knew it. And as there was nothing tl else to do, and no one else to do it, 1 ^ stood very straight against the door- a frame, and told the whole miserable , story from the beginning. I told how % Dal and Jim had persuaded me, and t] how I had weakened and found it was ^ too late, and how Bella had come in that night, when she had no business to come, and had sat down in the basement kitchen on my hands and almost turned me into a raving maniac, as I went on I became fluent: my sense w of injury grew on me. I made it per- 8 feetly clear that I hated them all, and p that when people got divorces they p ought to know their own minds and h stay divorced. And at that a great ?j light broke on Aunt Selina, who hadn't * understood until that minute. si In view of her principles, she might C have been expected to turn on Jim and fl Bella, and disinherit them, and cast e, them out, figuratively, with the flaming word of her tongue. But she did not! vi She turned on me in the most terrible way, and asked me how I dared to come between husband and wife, be- w cause divorce or no divorce, whom Hod 11 hath joined together, and so on. And a j when Jim picked up his courage in both 0l hands and tried to interfere, she push- w ed him back with one hand while she ^ pointed the other at me and called me ; a Jezebel. si [To be Continued. 1 A Python on a Gunboat. Once when the British gunboat Rat- '. tier was in eastern waters the crew () had a lively time looking after a python f< on board that got loose. Besides the python there was on board a big Borneo orang-outang. The Sl python, which was 1!? or 20 feet in a length, having dined heartily on a deer about three weeks before, began to feel j. its appetite returning and in searching sl about its box for a place of egress NV found one side in bad repair. It did | not take the python long to come p through the weak part, and. unite un- p observed, it began its perambulations J around the boat. ,. Seeing the orang-outang chained up a few yards off, the big snake invited tl itself to a dinner very much to its taste. It would have been all over S( with the orang-outang had not the quartermaster at that moment made 1> the discovery that the two pets were ^ about to be merged into one. He promptly cut the orang-outang loose, h The latter was up the masthead lie- jj fore any mischief could be done, and a lieutenant, the proprietor of the orang-outang, the quartermaster, uul a member of the crew Hung themselves ? upon the hungry python?one at the head, another at the tail, and a third K in the middle. Then the fun began, for the python wanted to get one of the aggressors tl nicely in its coils, and the men were '1 determined it should be kept out in Jj something as nearly approaching a straight line as possible. t< For a minute it was the T.aocoon ? group all over again, only in this case J' the three men and the snake were p sprawling over the deck instead of t< standing upright in a classic attitude. I1 Re-enforcements, however, arrived ? in hot haste, and about twenty blue- p jackets, each embracing a foot of py- it thou, reduced the reptile to comparu- j* tive quiescence. The procession march- K ed back to the python's box, coiled the f< creature inside, and stint it up. Hut s the orang-outang sat aloft in the ' | masthead a long time before he came w *l- i....i..,, th.i? hi. w:is off the ii Ill lllf CII||I III.->I<MI ...... menu fur the dav.?Harper's Weekly. ti ^ ? p .t' ' Portuguese jrinleners at ('iMitu w Deign tin. on St. Miehael's Azores, are s Retting rich raising line pineapples g under Klass for the New York market, ii They are the biggest ami best that n reach this country. b ittisrrUanrows iJratUufl. OLD TIME TRAIN GAMBLER. lade Things Lively In the Southwest With Gambling. Seated around a luncheon table t the Waldorf one day not long ago ,-ore three men discussing spectacular ambling that used to prevail on old fississippi River steamboats. "I oubt." said one. "If gambling ever I sal used more exciting melodrama han In those days." The second man oncurred In this opinion by his sl?nce. The third, however, who had own the initial seed that had prouted in the present conversational rend, smiled as if ho realized his hance had come. "Xonsense," said e; "the real melodrama of gamling from an American standpoint i far removed from the days you have lentioned. It existed not on the MissisIppl steamboats, but on the railroad rains of the west and southwest, and tie time was not so very long ago, Ither." The speaker, a gray-haired, pleasnt-faced man of about 48 years, was, s his companions well knew, one of rie most famous gamblers of his day 1 the western states. Since reformed, e was known to have served two rms in the penitentiary. His name, rn years ago, rang as familiar In the hady circles this side of the MissisIppi as it did to the westward. It as In response to the pleadings of tie two men with him that, over the nfTee and cigars, he told of some of tie experiences in railroad gambling 1 which he and some of his fellowamblers had figured, and which he ave as examples of some of the more xciting episodes that had taken place n the steel roads of the west. His arrative. which speaks for itself, Is >ld in his own words: "At the time of which I am speakig," he began, "I was working the Nebraska trains wilh three confedrates. Poker was our game, not iree-card monte, as you may have inneht One dav we irot wind of the ict that a man, who shall be called larke for present purposes, was golg to leave Omaha for a western trip ne next day. This man was very ealthy and was known to be a great ard player. Getting together with ly two confederates, we formed our tt!e scheme and started in to lay our rires at once. Accordingly, when larke got on the train ready for his rip he found the three of us deep 1 a game of poker. We were playig for very small stakes, and paying o attention to him, kept our eyes lued to the game. The tedium of le journey, as we had figured, soon ot on Clarke's nerves, and he spent Is time watching us play. Presently le playing fever got in Its work on im, and he asked us if he might take hand. I told him grutfly that we Id not know him, and that, anyway, 'e were afraid if a starnger entered ne game he might want to boost the mit. "After a lot of talk, however, we it him in with apparent reluctance, nd, once in, we let him win pot after ot. Not one of us, seemingly could in. We complained about our luck, rumbled, grew angry, protested, inally, when Clarke won a particuirly good-sized pot, after we had been laying in constant bad luck for three ours, I jumped to my' feet, knocked yer the chips, grasped Clarke by the boulders and shouted out that he as a cheat! The other two men also prang up, and one of them, seizing larke's coat, drew a 'card hold' om under the lower left side. " 'You're right,' cried my confedrate. 'Look at this!' "Clarke, Hushing, protested?but in aiii, and subsequently gave up n.auu > us under our threat to have him rrested. One of us had slipped the iold' into position under his coat hile he was playing. Indeed, this iek was worked by us a dozen times year, anyway, in those days. "On one of the Denver trains, workil by another gambler and myself, e cleaned up $30,000 in six months, 'ive thousand of this amount we got y luring two men into a big stake Lime, and by holding up the table :akes finally with revolvers. We leaned off all the cash, jumped the rain and got away before the men ealized clearly what had happened. "Things at one period got to such pass on the trains running through le southwest that there would freuently be two separate sets of proi.ssional gamblers working a single ain. As a result the gamblers not lfrequently came to blows with one nother. The famous Pat Sheedy lory, alleged to have had its locale in gambling resort in Denver, as a matrr of fact had its setting on one of the exas trains. Boarding one of the itter trains, Sheedy found a profeslonal crook whom he recognized, but ho did not recognize him. The rook was sitting with a couple of raveling men, and was saying in a iud voice: "Here's a money-making roposition for you fellows. I'll bet ou $5110 to $250 that I can shuffle lis deck of cards and then cut the ueen of spades the first crack.' "Sheedy overheard and approached rie man. 'Excuse me, sir,' he said, >ut I'll take a hundred of that bet ' you'll let me shuffle the deck my?lf.' "The man agreed; the money was ut up with one of the strangers, the rcond having also 'come in,' and heedy slowly shuffled the cards. " 'Now. then.' said the man who ad made the proposition, 'I have bet tiat I can cut the queen of spades le first cut. Is that right?' " 'The others agreed. The man -i-.-i.. ? I.,, Irnlfo n >1/1 UU*KI> 11 It: ? ik ll u 11111 niM.v, ringing it down hard, split the deck f cards in two. 'There you are,' he lid. with a smile. 'I have cut the ueen of spades the first crack. ;indly hand me the money.' "Then Sheedy smiled. 'Show us tie queen of spades that you have ut.' he said. The man went through tie deck once, twice, three times. iVell. I'll he ?!' he blurted out. For heedy had palmed the card when e shuffled the deck. "On the train running out of Hous>n I and a working partner of mine nee had a carefully laid plan knocked ito smithereens by accidentally tuning across the trail of another gamier and his partner. We were all af?r the same man, a merchant with a lie of money, who was traveling est. Before we could get to this tan, however, the other gambler and is confederate got him in tow, and : was up to yours truly to think of way to get the best not only of the lerchant, but of that other rival ambler and his partner as well. Heore I knew it, however, the oppoition had the merchant in a threeornered game, and were fast taking way from him the money that my [ heme had figured out as already beig as good as in my pocket. "My partner and I put our heads ogether and worked up a second Ian. We waited until the merchant as in heavily on the game, and then prang our scheme. We asked the men to let us in the anie, and. of course, wisely, not darig to refuse, the gambler had to periit us to take a hand. The gamier and I weren't on the best of terms, anyway?we had come to blows?and he knew what the consequences would be If he said no. Once In the game, my partner and I went at it with hammer and tongs until, with the aid of a new-fangled crooked device of my own Invention, we managed to get most of the coin In front of us. Angered at the success of our move, the first gambler and his companion suddenly jumped up. and. turning to the merchant, proclaimed us to be crooks. Taken aback for the moment by the swiftness of the thing, I was nonplused, but only for a moment. I shot out my fist, caught the gambler under the jaw and knocked him out. My companion, meanwhile, tripped up the other fellow, and, scooping the money on the board with our hats, we hurried to the platform of the car and leaped Into the dark nt'ro. nnwr men. m-jh un uum ucui6 killed. "Revolver play was frequent on the trains running through Arkansas In the railroad gambling days. With Joe Ryan I once disarmed a man who pulled a gun on me when he learned that he had been losing his money to a professional card sharp. On another occasion I received a pretty bullet wound in the arm from a man who discovered that he was being tricked In a game of draw poker. "One of the most exciting episodes In which I ever figured, occurred on a train near Denver. Single-handed, I had started in to clear up a lot of money from three Denver miners who, inside information had revealed to me, 'had It on them.' Early in the journey I got them into a game and proceeded slowly but surely to win their coin away from them. To do this I had fitted myself out with two intricate 'hold-outs' and with a marked deck of cards. After we had been playing for almost six hours, and when I was away ahead of the game one of the members withdrew from the game. I was on In a minute. I knew he had become suspicious and, while not quite sure, was going to sit by and watch developments. "I played cautiously, but still man aged to Keep on winning, a snuri while later the second miner said he was going to withdraw. I had caught a signal to him from the miner who was watching me closely. "Well,' I said, 'then the game irf broken up.' "Nope,* Insisted the first miner, 'you two fellers play It out between you.' "Here was a difficult situation. I was to play draw poker with one man and two of his friends watching me with eagle eyes. I kept my nerve and dealt the cards, playing honestly now because I realized how desperately foolish it would be to try any further crooked work. Anyway, I was far ahead of the game. After each of us had dealt six or seven hands with equal luck I took up the deck to shuffle it. my turn having come to deal again. The men watched me closely, but I shuffled fairly and they could detect no trickery. I dealt the cards, but no sooner had I done so than both miners pulled out their guns and, In quiet tones, demanded that I give back every cent I had won. 'What,' I shouted Indignantly, 'do you mean to insinuate that I have played unfair?' 'No,' they said, 'only we want our money back.' "I protested, but to no avail. They and their guns insisted, and I had to sit by and see them gather into their pockets all the money I had managed to get away from them. That was one of the few times anybody beat me, I assure you, and I tell you It was one of the most exciting experiences I ever had. If I had protested too strongly the miners would have pressed the thing and would have found my crooked apparatus. Nothing, I am sure, would have saved my life then, and as I looked into the revolvers I realized that fully. Incidentally, that was the last time I ever wont around without a gun."?Harper's Weekly. STATUS OF ENGLAND'S QUEEN. Not a Sovereign Except By Right of Inheritance. It may be said that, by reason of curious provisions of law prevailing in Great Britain, the queen is, for private business purposes, not regarded as a married woman at all, seeing that she is the only woman in the realm who does not come within the scope of the Married Women's Property Act. The principle of this law may be stated simply thus: The king, as such, is entirely different from all other married men. His time is too fully taken up with the affairs of state to permit him to devote any part of the remainder to domestic matters. It follows, therefore, that the whole management of the queen's private business matters must devolve upon her majesty herself, and that no responsibility whatever in respect to them rests upon the king. If, therefore, such a thing could be imagined as Queen Mary contracting debts in her husband's name, the king would not be responsible for them, as any other husband in Great Britain would be unless he had given due notice to all concerned that he would for the future- decline to settle such accounts. The king may not be sued for the recovery of the amount of money represented by any indebtedness he may incur; but the queen is accorded no such protection under the British law. She has her own attorney general and solicitor general to represent her In all legal matters, thougn, 01 course, except for ordinary private purposes, their services are scarcely ever needed. Authorities have held that, while the constitution is glad to recognize the queen, the fact must not be lost sight of that, after all, her position is limited to that of Queen Consort, and that, therefore, she is in a sense one of his majesty's subjects. In certain contingencies, remotely likely to arise in these times, she would be treated as a subject; but in other respects she is accorded privileges by the realm that are given to no other person save the king. In this relation particular mention may be made of the question of high treason. Now, it is generally understood that the king is the only personage against whom it is high treason to plot; but it would also be high treason to conspire against Queen Mary. All consorts of British rulers have not enjoyed this privilege. When, for instance, Philip of Spain married the first Queen Mary, it was denied to him, though some time after the marriage a special act of parliament was passed in which he was granted the concession. The signature "Georgius Rex" will be attached to all state documents oi such importance as to demand it; but in no circumstances whatever would the corresponding one, "Marie Regina" be allowed to be affixed, either in conjunction with that of George or without it. Should Mary survive the king, many of the privileges that she at present possesses will be withdrawn from her, only nominally in some cases, but actually in others, while constitutional law provides that some curious restrictions shall be placed upon her. It will no longer be high treason to plot against her, and it is held by at least one high authority that she could not marry again without the special license and permission of the king's successor.?Harper's Weekly. YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER. A. D. 1816 Known as Eighteen Hundrsd and Froze to Death. A wayward spring such as that of the present year gives no hint of what the succeeding summer will bring of weather by any rules known to meteorologists. Within the memory of every adult, cold, backward seasons have been followed by warm, well-watered crop months, and by the reverse. Whether the summer be cold or warm, it is likely to have been outdone in the records of "the good old times," and it Is devoutlv to be hoDed that none of the readers of this magazine will live to see an equal In general Inclemency to the record summer of 1816, which throughout the United States and Europe stands as the most distressing of the nineteenth century. June, 1816, was the coldest ever known in the latitude of the northern states; frost and Ice were common. Almost every green thing was killed; fruit nearly all destroyed. Snow fell to the depth of ten inches in Vermont, seven In Maine, three in the interior of New York, and also In Massachusetts. There were a few warm days. All classes looked for them in that memorable cold summer. It was called a dry season. But little rain fell. The wind blew steadily from the north, cold and fierce. Mothers knit extra socks and mittens for their children In the spring and woodpiles that usually disappeared during the warm spell in front of the houses were speedily built up again. Planting and shivering were done together, and the farmers who worked out their taxes on the country roads wore overcoats and mittens. In a town in Vermont a flock of sheep belonging to a farmer had been sent, as usual, to their pasture. On the seventeenth of June a heavy snow fell; the cold was intense, and the owner started away at noon to look for his sheep. "Better start the neighbors soon, wife," he said in jest before leaving; "being in the middle of June I may get lost in the snow." Night came, the storm Increased, and he did not return. The next mornine the family sent out for help and started In search. One after another j of the neighbors turned out to look for the missing man. The snow had covered up all tracks, and not until the end of the third day did they And him oa the side of a hill, with both feet frozen, unable to move. A farmer who had a large field o' corn In another New England village built fires around it to ward off the frost; many an evening he and his men took turns watching it. He was rewarded with the only crop of corn in the neighborhood. Considerable damage was done in New Orleans In consequence of the rapid rise of the Mississippi river; the suburbs were covered with water and the roads were passable only in boats. I Fears that the sun was cooling off abounded, and throughout New England all picnics were strictly prohibited because of the danger to health. July was accompanied with frost and ice. On the fifth ice was formed of the thickness of common window glass throughout New England, New York, and some parts of Pennsylvania. Indian corn was nearly all destroyed; some favorably situated fields escaped. This was true of some of the hill farms of Massachusetts. August was more cheerless, If possible, than the months which preceded It. Ice was formed half an Inch In thickness. Indian corn was so frozen that the greater part was cut down and dried for fodder. Almost every green thing was destroyed In- this country and In Europe. On the thirtieth snow fell at Barnet, forty miles from London. Paper received from England stated "that It j would be remembered by the present generation that the year 1816 was a year in which there was no summer." Very little corn ripened In England, and the Middle States farmers supplied [themselves from corn produced In 1815 for seed in the spring of 1817. It sold at from four dollars to five dollars per bushel. September furnished about two weeks of the mildest weather of the season. Soon after the middle 11 oecame cuiu uuu nuoijr, iw formed a quarter of an Inch In thickness. October produced more than its share of cold weather; frost and Ice were common. The summer and autumn of 1816, cold, rainy, and ungenlal throughout Europe were peculiarly so In France. Constant rains fell during the months of July, August, and September. But for an abundant potato crop, famine, with all of its horrors, would have been her lot. The minister of the Interior established granaries where corn was sold to the destitute at a reduced price. Prices rose, however, to more than double, and hundreds perished from actual want. November was cold and blustering; snow fell so as to make good sleighing. December was mild and comfortable. , .Another effort of the lords of the weather to establish a record is chronicled of early July, 1879, the trial being most marked In England. Those who were in Great Britain on Fourth of July of that year say they will never forget it. During the whole week It blew a hurricane and rained In torrents, hailing occasionally, and occasionally reproducing November fogs. In Derbyshire, a little north of London, hundreds of lambs were frozen to death. Imagine if you can, such a degree of frost in July. In another locality one of the frequent showers deposited in the streets and on the houses masses of little worms. The scientists said that these had been picked up by a water-spout, or hurricane, and that there was nothing in Ihe occurrence. Others talked mysteriously about the opening of one I of the seven vials of wrath.--The Scrap Book. Fast Traveling. "Dreams are curious things," re1 marked the amateur psychologist, according to the New York Sun. "Time does not seem to enter into their composition at all. For instance, the other day I was sitting on the porch of a hotel with a friend of mine smoking after lunch. It was a drowsy day, and conversation lagged. Presently 1 saw my friend nodding in his chair. He had dozed off, holding his lighted cigar in his left hand, which was folded ovet his right. His left hand relaxed, and the end of the cigar came in contact with the right hand, inflicting a slight burn. "'The h? it won't!" exclaimed my friend, waking with a start. "The sentence sounded so incongruous that I burst out laughing. 'Won't what?' I asked. "'How long have I been asleep?' he asked. " 'Not more than a couple of minutes." I replied. " 'It doesn't seem possible,' he said, nnfitur tlmt time I had a dream that nearly took me around the world. I sailed for Southampton, did England, France, Switzerland and a part of Italy, then through the Orient to India. It was in India that I became much interested in one of the native snake-charmers. He had the snakes crawling all over him and offered me one to fondle. I told him I was afraid it would bite me. He assured me that it wouldn't and I took the reptile in my hand. It promptly fastened its fangs in me. I said, "The h? it won't!" and dropped it, and then I woke up.' "I explained the episode of the lighted cigar," concluded the amateur psychologist, "ami we both laughed."