The Horry herald. (Conway, S.C.) 1886-1923, December 30, 1915, Page SIX, Image 6

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mx Copyright. 19IS. by A novelization of the photo play a rnitted to th? scenario department of conteat during December and January, came from many eectiona in the United ae well ae thousands of amateurs toek This instalment of this ro-j mantic novel and absorbing" narrative will be shown in motion pictures at The Casino Theatre on Thursday afternoon and night. $10,000 For!,000 Words or Less For an Idea For a Sequel to "THE DIAMOND FROM THE SKY" The American Film Manufacturing Company's Picturized Romantic Novel In Chapters. This contest is open to any man, woman or child who is not connected, directly or indirectly, with the Film Company or the newspapers publishing the continued story. No literary ability is necessary to qualify as a contestant. You arc advised to see the continued photo play in the theaters where it will be shown to read the story as it runs every week, and then send in your suggestion. Contestants mu-ri con- ; fine their contributions for the sequel to 1,000 tifords or less. It is the tactx that is wanted. CHAPTER I. A Heritage of Hate. IT is June in Virginia, June in the year of our Lord 18Sli. The fields are green, the early blossoming of the honeysuckle gives a fra grauce to the air. At suoli a time, in such a scone and such surroundings, two horsemen meet. Both are men of striking appearance and proud presence and are in the maturity of their middle manhood. They arc Stanleys, cousins in blood. The one on the bay hunter, Judge Lamar Stanley, is smooth of face, that is marked with cruel and heavy lines. Ills face is liarsh and set. and tlie grim lines of his countenance set 11 jo grimmer at the approach of his kinsman, Colonel Arthur Stanley The latter rides his chestnut saddler like a soldier. Judge Stanley's seat is that of a huntsman. Even as they ride they differ. Colonel Stanley's face is kinder. A white mustache imperial odd to his soldierly j appearance. In Richmond during the war Judge Lamar Stanley had been high in the | councils of the cabinet of President , Jefferson Davis. In the held Ills cousin, Arthur Stanley, followed the fortunes of the Confederate arms as a member of the si.of of General Lee. Crossing each other in love, crossing each other in martini, civic and social ambitions, their mutual hatred grew with their growing years. There were deep causes for all this in the thwarted social ambitions of the judge. As the scion of the elder branch of the American Stanleys, springing from their common ancestor, Sir Arthur Stanley, a gentleman adventurer, who came to America in 101 r>. Colonel Stanley held possession of the precious family heirloom, the diamond from the sky. The family tradition ran that this ! great gem had fallen in a hla/.ing me- j teor at the foot of Sir Arthur Stanley throe centuries ago just as he was about to bo burned at the stake by the Indians, whom he hn<l in some way affronted and aroused. The legend was that the Indians had deemed the falling meteor an omen from the Great Spirit that the white man about to bo tortured was under the favor of his protection. This lopend further stated that Sir Arthur Stanley himself had so accepted the diamond from the skv as a token of ! supernatural favor, especially as the Indians had called it "the fallen star." and as "The Fallen Star" Sir Arthur Stanley himself had been called after his banishment from the court of King James of England for some wild escapade of pallantry when he was but turned of twenty-two. In the ape stained family archives kept in the stroup box at Stanley hall, the great mansion home of Colonel | Stanley, there was the will of tho wild I Sir Arthur, and at its end there was a ! strange prophetic clause. This clause j read that when the noble line of Stan- i leys became extinct in England and an 1 heir of the old Stanley earldom was j ought among the elder sons of the yLmerlcan family of Stanleys in Vir- i rinia the diamond from the sky, the lerltage of the elder son of this elder iranch. should be borne and worn back o. England by the American earl when le came Into his English earldom. At the time we write?that is, in fune. 1S82?the la?t tl the earls of 1 3r AO*" L,. At* GARDBLL TRoy L,. McCardcII looted as ths best in over 19,000 subthe Chicago Tribune in a $10,000 prize Tho manuscripts in this competition I States and Canada. Authors of note part. Stanley was a bachelor Invalid and recluse, without hope or desire of an heir. Colonel Stanley had no son to succeed to the earldom in England. He was married to a fair young wife, who expected shortly to become a mother. XUnrrt t h In niiilil n nrinl If r?sx??l*1 hnt*/\ aw* ?v civ tii in vunu u & it wuiu u *a\j hope for the English great title ill the family nor to ever possess the diamond from the sky. On the other hand, Judge Lamar Stanley had a son, a sturdy boy of three. Ills proud wife, equally with himself, dreamed of a day when this boy should bear the honors and have the vast estates of the Stanley earldom and the wonderful, priceless diamond from Hie sky. As the two horsemen, kinsmen and bitter enemies, rode down upon each other In a sniillng Virginia lane neither would swerve his horse a hairsbreadth for the other. Into each other, full tilt, their blooded horses charged, and then the superior horsemanship of the soldier, skilled *jj cavalry encounters, told. Over went horse and judge into t,he dust of the road, and. with a mocking laugh and not deigning to look back at Ills fallen kinsman, who arose and cursed and shook his list at him, Colonel Stanley rode on. The judge, discomfited in the dust, saw the dark face of a gypsy grinning at him through a hedge near by. The hedge was on the property of Judge Stanley. Mounted on his horse again he now saw a gypsy van on the other side of the hedge. Judge Stanley, quivering wiiu rage, roue Into tlio g:q? of the hedge and hoarsely ordered oil' the intruders. "IHil, yo' sec, it Is like tills,*' expostulated the gypsy, "I am alone here with my wife, sir. Our people has gone on. My wife is very sick. We can't go on. sir." "What do I care what nils your wretched wife!" snarled the Judge. "Drive your horses olT my land and get out. 1 am judge in this county." "Mebbe you are president of the United States, too." grumbled the gypsy. "Do you think you own the roads because the gentleman tlmt Just rode by knocked you olT your horse 011 the road?" Housed to a burst of fury, the Judge drove his horse at the gypsy and lashed him cruelly with the heavy riding whip he always carried. A wan but handsome gypsy woman, clutching at her side as though in pain, tottered out from the van as though to protect the gypsy from the sheer brutality of the horseman. Stanley struck the gypsy woman across the face, leaving a livid weal. To his surprise she never Minched, hut faced him dauutlessly. "The bitterest disappointment of your life and a death that will be a buzzard's feast for you for that blow!" she said tensely, a light of prophecy in her courageous eyes. The judge faltered and wheeled his horse, hut turning to the gypsy man he cursed liiin again and hid him he off ills land. Then lie rode on. Meanwhile Colonel Stanley had rid* don to tlie village of Fairfax and had halted his horse at the gate of a pretty cottage. A sign by the gate bore the words, "Dr. Ilenry Lei?.*' The doctor was an amiable man of some sixty years, inclined to corpulence. a kinsman of (leneral Kobert F. Lee. The doctor had heen a surgeon in the Confederate army. Some fifteen years older than the colonel, lie had been the guardian of the other. During the war the colonel had saved the doctor's life by carrying him when wounded Irak to the Confederate lines under a galling fire. A further bond between them, if others were needed, was the mutual hatred they bore to J Judge Lamar Stanley, who through j some legal chicanery had impoverished the doctor in his old age, a breach of confidence if not of trust. "Yes, doe-1 tor. conic at once. My wife will need you tonight." said the colonel. As the colonel iicurcd his estates and was within sight of the broad lawn of Ids colonial mansion. Stanley hall, a landmark of the countryside, ho saw a gypsy van approaching. On the driving seat were two figures, a man and a woman. The man was, bellowing hoarse curses at a disapixmring horseman, whom even at tlie distance the colonel recognized as his hated cousin. J tlie Judge. As lie n en red the approaching gypsy outfit the colonel noticed the woman had fainted from pain and weariness. He had just time to wheel his horse close beside the van and catch her as she was falling from tlie seat. In a few words the gypsy man ex plained their miserable situation. The kindly heart of the colonel was touched. The fainting woman had now revived and was listening apathetically. "So Judge Stanley has ordered you off the earth?' remarked the colonel. "Well, my good man. that little copse of woods right over there, not far from my house, belongs to me. Camp there as long as you wish and I will see your sick wife gets every attention. She expects a child, you say? Ah, the curse of Eve falls alike in hut and mansion. We expect this same momentous event I at iny house. You are doubly welcome. I will send Dr. Lee. our family physician, to attend your wife. The prypsy woman now spoke for the first time. "For your kind heart I read your fortune. A bitter disappointment and a bitter triumph over those you hate the most comes to you, sir." "Well, better fortune thun that to the child you exj>ect," said the colonel with a kindly smile. "And here is $20 to buv christening elnth?? ??iwi #?,.?.?.i w wuu LUUUU the fortune of my expected uamesake ?if he Is a boy.' "It will be n boy, and you will be aware of him," said the gypsy woman, and again she-closed her eyes and shivered as in great pain, not noticing the money. "Take It, you fool woman, when the kind gentleman offers it!" snarled the man. Seeing the colonel still offering the money, the gypsy woman muttered her thanks and took the money reluctantly, and the gypsy, loud in his protestations of gratitude, drove his caravan to tlie copse. Arriving at the gateway of Stanley hall, the grand old munslou built by a great-grandson of the original forbear of the family in America, the colonel cantered his horse up the splendid wide driveway. There on the lawn his ilower faced young wife, Ethel, in a garden chair, swaddled in silken shawls and carefully attended by her-old colored nurse. Mammy Lucy, awaited him. The old negro manservant, Ned, chief factotum and butler of the establish* incut, appeared on the piazza and called J loudly to a half grown colored lad to i 1uko i no master's norse. | The colonel ami the old nurse gently supported the (lower faced young wife from the lawn to the portals of the grout mansion. It must not be thought that any overwhelming desire for title or exalted po sit ion for themselves or for their ex peeted child actuated Colonel Stanley and his fair young wife, in fact, the colonel was not only contented but proud in his position as head of the Stanley family in America and master of Stanley hall. It was only the grasp 1 ing snobbery of.his cousin that had led I the colonel to encourage tS*o hope that ! his wife might bear a son to cheat his j kinsman foe of his hopes. For the proud elder branch of the Stanleys?the Ix>rds Stanley of Warwickshire. England-only survived in the person of a testy old bachelor Invalid. The next of kin and in direct line for the earldom of Stanley was Colonel Stanley of Virginia, and, failing ids surviving or having a son, the earldom would go to his cousin. Judge Stanley or the Judge's sou, Blair, now a child of three. It was a sore point with the last Lord Stanley that he had always hated i women after a love disappointment in early manhood and had never married, and now the succession would go to what he denominated as his "Yankee relatives." But tlie diamond from toe sky was a comforting thought in a measure to On the Porch of the Old Virginia Mansion. i (In? old earl. It gave those "Yankee relatives" a prestige that even an earl ; might envy. I For some time past the earl, through i his solicitor, Marinnduke Smythe. had been in correspondence with the afore| said "Yankee relatives." Mnrmadtike Smythe was a long, lean, j lank, dry as dust British barrister. He. | too. was versed in full knowledge of the fame and fabulous value of the diamond from the sky. He, too. knew the legends concerning It. Hut to his timid mind faroff America was still a wilderness, peopled by savages. So it had been with much trepidation nnd much nervous caressing of his scanty black sldewlilskers that Mnrmadtike Smythe. barrister at law, Temple chum hers. London, had received or ders from tils distinguished patron. Cecil, eighth enrl of Stanley, to depart for America and arrange for the succession. CHAPTER II. *1 Will Cheat Lamar Stanley!" IN the preliminary correspondence concerning this matter Lawyer Smythe had been gratified to note that one of the Stanleys near of kin in Virginia was a Judge. To Lawyer Smythe's insular British understanding being a Judge in the jungles of Virginia was to be an uncouth, tobacco eating, hoarse voiced, red faced j individual. lfc?, 9QWWKT, U. 9. The feud and its consequent bitter > enmities between Colouel Stanley and J Judge Lamar Stunlcy were hardly grasped by the testy old earl and his timid London lawyer. But the legal mind of Lawyer Smythe prompted him to rely mostly upon the far off Virginia judge. So it was that to carry out his mission in what he deemed were the wilds of America Lawyer Smythe determined to place himself in contact with the Virginia judge rather tbnu what he thought might be the more militant head of the American Stanleys, the exsoldier* ColoHiel Arthur Stanley. The lawyer had writteiT to the judge and hard upon the heels of his letter he had arrived at the little railroad station of Fairfax in the dusk of the evening upon the day in which the Judge and the colonel had encountered the gypsies. Matt Harding and his wife Hagar. All the barrister saw when he alighted from the slow local train that had ??.x ? ? * uruugui nira, mm wueu ills luggage i I The Mather of the Gypay Child. i hail been deposited beside him by unt ceremonious bands, was a shambling negro with a private mail pouch attached to a strap over bis ragged shoul- : 1 der. This negro was joined bv several other inessengers of his sort. who were busy receiving mail from the station agent, who was evidently also the local postmaster. Lawyer Smy the looked up and down the platform, expecting to see cowboys or a prairie wagon, or some sort of backwoods person to greet him or vehicle to convey him to Judge Stanley's ranch, lie dually summoned up courage to inquire of the station agentpostmaster, as that individual was locking up for the night. "Judge StanleyV" repeated the station agent. "Why, his nigger, Zeke, just got the Judge's mall and has gone. The judge couldn't have been expecting anybody, or lie would have sent his carriage. Hut inebbe Zeke will tell him lie saw you, and you will be sent for. You had better wait right here." And he turned the key in the i>ad-1 lock on the station door and trudged away, leaving the bewildered lawyer wondering if wild beasts might be j about. In the somber Jiving room that was part law oilice and chambers of Judge Stanley, the Judge and Ills equally stern visageil spouse were awaiting the evening mail on the last train down from Richmond. In a few minutes Zeke. tlie colored handy man of the household, entered with the judge's mail bag. The judge! eagerly separated a large, formally addressed envelope bearing English stamps and sealed at the back. The judge opened it. glanced at it hurriedly and banded it to his wife. "It is from the earl's lawyer. Marina uukc rtin.vTiio, you see. llo says he may arrive at about the same time this letter reaches us." lie turned to the slouchy negro. "Did you see a strange man get off the train?looked like an undertaker?all English lawyers do?" "Yes, suli, a strange gemman did get off de train." replied the negro, "but lie didn't say nufllii to me, and 1 didn't say liuflin to him!" "You black scoundrel!" roared the Judge. "That gentleman has come all , the way from England to see me on an Important matter. Get my liorse and }>ut a saddle on the black mare. I will go to the station for him myself!" At Stanley hall, in the old colonial bedroom of the mistress of the house, the colored nurse, Lucy, was ministering to her flower faced mistress, while Colonel Stanley stood by solicitously continuing the old colored mammy's words with affirmative nods. "Yes, my honey, de doctor will l>e here any minute." the old nurse was saying. "Ain't the colonel Jest back from goln' after him? lUess my soul, honey, dere come Dr. Lee hlsself drlvln' lip wld dat. ole rod hoes. Stonewall, of his." The colonel's wife lifted her fair face as the colonel bent over to kiss it. The old nurse softly bustled to the door and admitted the doctor. In the copse of wood*, hardly farther than a stone's throw from the mansion, night was falling darkly with the inutterlng8 of an approaching storm. Over u smoldering tire crouched Matt Harding, the gypsy, puffing at his short black pipe. A cry of pain 1 from the weather stained tent near by ! roused the tnan, and he arose and sulleuly walked over and entered the shabby shelter. , In a few womcuts be emerged and j hurried rapidly in' the direction of Stanley Hall. As he rupped at the great door of the mansion Ned. the colored butler, opened It. throwing a glare of yellow light upon the sinister face of the gypsy. "You can't sec nobody tu this house. Mr. Man," said Ned. "But 1 tell you t'olonel Stanley promised me his doctor would be here tonight and that he would attend my wife. She needs the doctor now. it's n matter of life and death. And it's bad luck when a gypsy dies without being able to face the rising suu." "De colonel's nlluH doln' foolish kindnesses fo' poo' white trash," grumbled the darky as he shut the door on the strange caller and went reluctantly to bear his message. But the good old physician was positive that no harm would come from his absence for an hour or so and hastened away on his errand of mercy. At the little station of Fairfax meanwhile the now frightened London lawyer was wondering whether he should load the elephant rltle with which he had provided himself and fortify himself behind his luggage. As the beat of horse hoofs drew nearer the English lawyer rose with leveled ritle and cried: "Halt! Who goes there, friend or foe?" The approaching horseman. Judge Lamar Stanley, 'auglied grimly as he called out: "It's a friend! Don't fclioot!" And then he rode up to the platform and introduced himself to the Englishman and explained matters to the lattop'o eaflol'anf !<* ? 'PL..,. *1%.. 1 ? . 1 iv i ^ out 1^1 (iLiiuu. j ni'ii mu juu^tf fastonod the luggage of his visitor to the two saddle horses, and they rode off together. In the copse of wood the pattering night rain fell upon the gypsy tent. The storm passed as quickly as It had come, and the moon shone out refulgently. The Hap of the tent opened. and the bulky form of the good doctor was seen in the moonlight, lie held a small swaddled object in ids arms. "Matt Harding," said Dr. Lee impressively. "the storm has passed with the miracle of birth, and you may say, as was said of old, 'Unto us a child Is born; unto us a son Is given.'" "Thorn's fine words for rich folk." grumbled the gypsy grutHy. "To me it don't mean nothing but another mouth to food." The doctor regarded the man with such a look of sternness that the gypsy took the child from the doctor and entered the tent with It. lifter promising the physician to take good care of it and its mother. The good doctor hurried back to Stanley hall, where all were impatiently awaiting him. lie smiled reassuringly at the colonel's wife, the colonel and the nurse. "A fine boy has been born to the gypsy woman." he said. "It seems an omen of like good luck to Stanley hall. We may expect a little earl to be born here this night." he added gently. The colonel's flower faced wife shook her head and smiled lnwt ??* ?i.? ? ?V t r- UIU doctor, and the colonel spoke quickly. "I have no ambitions for any title for a son of mine." lie said. "Hut I wish a boy if but to thwart inv cousin. Lamar Stanley." A bitter expression crept into the face of the negro woman at the mention of Judge Stanley's name "Don't you worry, honey." she said softly to her mistress, "an* don't you worry either, colonel. IV good Lord don't Intend no luck for Judge Lamar Stanley. I was a slave girl on his fa tiler's place when de Jedge was a young man. He killed my brother like a dog. an' he had ine heat insensible when I called him 'Cain.' " A girl child was born at Stanley hall at midnight. The colonel blanched at the news, but the flower faced mother smiled and called her husband to bring the diamond from the sky. With trembling hands lie brought the precious heirloom, and the mother with her own weak hands placed the chain and the locket that contained the jewel around the neck of her newborn daughter. "She Is heir to Stanley hall, at least." murmured the mother, "and until you die," she added, turning to the colonel, "she may wear It as a 'charm against harm/ XS the Stanleys of our branch nave always done." Then as all turned away to hide their tears at the pathos of her words the young mother, with trembling hands, drew a slip of folded paper from beneath her pillow and. opening the secret catch at the back of the locket, placed a mother's last message unnoticed beneath the diamond from the sky. murmuring as she did so: " 'A charm against harm.' my little daughter: 'charm against harmP " And then she sank back upon her pillow, her bahe upon her breast. The old nurse turned and gazed fixedly at her mlstrees; then, with a scream of grief and terror, she threw herself t>eslde the babe and mother. "She Is dead!" shrieked the nurse. "My sweet mistress Is dead!" It was but too true; this gentle aoul had passed. Tn IIK?? ?- - " ii mi; nuim/ an nour IftlOT LfT. LW stood over the shattered colonel. "Listen to the truth," said the doctor. "It Is Idle for yon to rave. I have told you, you have aneurism of the heart, and another attack like this may be your death. You cannot hope to live to marry a wife who may yet bear you a son.** M1 will never marry igalar cried H Colonel Stanley In anguish. MI bar# loved but one woman, could lore hut one woman, and she is dead! But, by Iieavena, 1 will cheat Lamar Stanley and all his brood! 1 have $5,000,4^ yonder safe. 1 will buy uie male chlldl born to the gypsy woman. I will hide away my own flesh and blood, my lit* tie daughter, and have her reared tenderly, yet lu secret And the gypsy's brat at my death shall be the Earl of Stanley lu England and pofcsess the j^H diamond from the sky. That will bo tine for Lamar Stanley and bis vermin offspring!" And he laughed and shook his hands in bitter rage. *'I mean It, and you must help me. You hate Lamar Stanley, for be rained 9H you. Mammy Lucy hates him. Hej^H killed her twin brother in cold blood. Come!" In the glow of his eampflre Mate Harding gazed greedily at the wealth beyond his wildest dreamB that Colo Ut'1 r?uiuu".v tutu ivunm uiui nuui fitful slumber to pour into bis lap. i Hagar, roused from her feared dreams, felt her babe being lifted from her bosom. The rural gypsy husband and father seized her by the throat she feebly struggled. He gagged and bound her hastily as he might and emerged panting from the tent, carrying the swaddled babe which he handed to the colonel and the doctor. 'Hoes my wife object?" he asked to the doctor's question. "Say. governors, she would soil every child she expects to have for half the money. We'll ho twenty miles away by sunrise and (Ifty miles more by another day. We'll be gypsy kings and queens and you'll^^H never hear of us again!" Hack at Stanley hall the docto^ ' tho colonel entered secretly by brnrv window mid lioro llwi l> x stairs to ly and yet resolved like all tIk* tlie faithful colored nurse arrayed thrajUfl| gypsy child in Line linen and hung about its neck "tin* diamond from the I I sky." while the little daughter, horn to Stanl< \ h:iII. whimpered 1 eshle Its fair dead mother. ^^b In answer to the summons to Stan- H|| ley hall came Judge Stanley, the kinsman enemy and the Knglish barrister. li was a strange group that gatiiereil in the colonel's lihrttry. the bullish barrister, the rim. h!tt< rl.v disappointed judge, silently facing Dr. Lee :md:HH Colonel Stanley. A pull at the hell rope and the weep| ing colored nurse entered the lihrary^^^ hearing tin* black haired, dark e.vedi^H bahe. a male child in Stanley hall, preKtimptlve heir to an English earldom. I I and hlazing on its In'east was the iliamond from the sky. Over the gypsy camptire within*tke-HM sound of a human call from Stanley hall a I >e re ft and frenzied mother tore-^H herself loose front her bonds. Like tigress, she threw herself upon lier hushttiKl and demanded her child. |^B Whim he fold her of the bargain and I I showed Iter the money that came from it she cursed him and the gold and, HI seizing it jagged burning billet from tbo^3 lire, she struck Matt Harding town. mill toiil'tn.r i II'/HUI ..I, ?!?/, irB/iinwl 11 it I 111, ill ill?| m will?rm?i 111: Matt Harding the Gypsy. schemes. Tbe k?**'^t door of Stanley hall stood ajar. For a moment Ha?&r swayed faintly at the portal, fbeft she staggered in and down tbe spa- II clous hall to the door of the library, I I guided by the sound of men's voices and the cries of a child?her child! Jler haads seized the knob and softly and silently she threw open tbe door IH just as her gypsy husband seized her The backs of the judge, the English lawyer, the doctor and the nurse were to the door, but Colonel Stanley stfigd behind the library table facing the "Yes," he was saying, "there la the newborn baby, a son. do you hear, a eon!" And ihen his eyes opened wide with horror, for there, struggling at the open door, were the gypsy woman and her husband. The man's hand I waa over the woman's mouth, and I with every effort he sought to str#bgle her to silence and closed the door. I Colonel Stanley clutched at his heart and fell senseless forward across the tlhrarv table! I TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. H If you wish to start this Story subscribe to The Herald. We can furnish you with all back numbers. * * v* II I