Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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• 1 V •' gs*- PsJ=r— MicKael J. PKillips •< Illu.«tration« by H«my J^y L«e Copyright MieK**! V. PKillipa BaUaaart thru PuMiabnra Au.locv*t«r S*i 8«rvio* ed to a past epoch in his life. She told him jthe news of the little town, flavored with a humor slightly em bittered, slightly ironic.- “Now tell me your troubles, buddy,” she ordered, —*- '-<* r ' when ScotJtdhle as ^.topic of conver sation was exhausted 1 . “None to tell,” he smiled. “Every thing’s fine. I’m working at Dave- naut’s”. “Don't you think I’m too old a friend to be kept on the outside, look ing in?” she shot back, with smiling eSmeetneas that, was impressive. “Come across, now; tell your name.” THE LEADING CHARACTERS Edison Forbes, a young resident ct Scottdale wkh an inherent craving for li<fuor, is held for the death of a woman who has been killed by a boot legging truck. Clmmutatnial cnvi- dence point* to Forbes ar.d rath er than tell the truth of the epksodw which would clear him bat cast another friends .into bad light, he sUtnds trial and is senten ced to a long term In prison. The governor of the state, an old friend of Eddie’s father, believes him inno cent snd pardons him shortly after his arrival at the jail. Back in Scott- daie he and PATSY JANE, his trusting wife, agrees that public sentiment again, t him m too strong so they migrate up north to some land that has been in the family for years. While there Utey form the acquaintance of than twenty-eight hundred you’re willing to pay. That’s seventeen dol lars an acre. Why is this worth so much?” The blue qyes flickered away. The combing fingers, sifting through the glossy beard, did not change their cadence. “It isn’t, Forbes. But it adjoins my property. I could use it to advantage. “Why not sell out and buy some where land is cheaper?" Seal man smiled. “I might ask you the same thing,” he replied, and Ed die* secretly acknowledged the jus- tire of the thrust. “This is my home 1 hav* an affedtion for it. I don’t want to live somewhere else.” “I suppose that's true.” said Eddie slowly. “But I'm not selling; that’s finsJ.” “You may lose it on the taxes—'” “The taxes will be taken cane of when the time comes," retorted Ed ISAIAH SEALMA.N. . ^ ^ neighbor who is anxious to buy their T Ed<he leama that the back amount to over eight hundred dollars but as he has five months to pay he decide# to refuse Sealman's offer of 11200 and try and get final title to his property—Sealman's offer having led him to think it very valua ble. Bat thing* do not go well. Ed die drinks heavily from some boot legger's potions, is forgiven by Patsy, but soon after falls in with the same gang, geta drunk, and wakes up in a freight car in Chicago—many mite* away. Stricken with remorse he re turn* to his cabin but finds his wife baa left anJ m her place a ruffian, who orders him out. A fight ensues in which Eddie finally knocks his op ponent cold. After ejecting the intrude); finding that* he seems to be hr league wfTK Sealnvsn, Eddie goe* to Long Portage and sees Patsy, who is working for Kinnane, a lawyer. She announces that she will not join him until he definitely qutfa drinking. Determin ing to comply, he finds a job with Dauenant, a rancher, and for several weeks abstains from the bottle that cheers. But one Sunday, Eddie walks on the lake trail, and encounters a aeries of truck smugglers. Among them he recognizes hisi “friends’’ who shanghaied him to Chicago—notwith- standing, Forbes hails them in greet ing. waa the essence of eloquence. In the unthinkable event that Dave- n«ut failed him, there was the gover nor. His months on the ranch had taught him much. His quarter-section was not so worthies* as he deemed it. Seeding, cultivating and the preven tion of further burning-ov*r by forest fires wouid build it up. He oou’d raise stock upon it, which would sup port them while it enriched the land. There was more depth to the soil than he realized. All this would take work, and plenty of it, but he wa« willing to work and to wait. He felt that his future, hi* and Patsy Jane’s, was somehow bound up with this scraggy oblong in the wilderness. The liquor which the bootlegger had given him remained in hi* bag. It was a trophy of victory, the aealp of t vanquished enemy. Sometimes he tcoji the bottle oct to look at it quizzically, to shake it until H gargled have eome young pigs. Wonder if sullenly. There were still spells of I could desl for one of them? Bull offered to let mine run with their hogs till fall. A good, thriving pig should make me some money.” When Edote left for the ranch that evening, a chubby young porker scrambled ineffectively in a gunny- sack in the tonneau of hie car. The little animal had cost five dollais. CHAPTER XVII An Old Sweetheart. “Welf, Forbes, are y<ou ready to ■ell (this place yet?” It wus Sealman who asked the question, on the following' mornjng. 'But hia new owner could see hie valued iqultrplied by four against the day of tax-reckoning. The perspective of a lifcie distance, from Sealman made the man uncon vincing. JIU explanation of why he wanted the Forbes tract did not ex plain. He was not the type of man who would let sentimental considera- t on stand in the way of his making a dollar. Home was * hou*e that shettererf him, tnrbe ibftTRfcffiKI WitV- out regret if the abandonment would brirrg money. . “I feel, somehow, that Sealman was mixed up in those two rum-runners feeding me drugged whiskey,” mused Eddie. "They had no reaoon of their own for getting me out of the j lodge in the ple<asant' country due country. I was sent out by freight, north of Long Portage, perhaps 20 so the motor-tramp could come in miles from where his cabin stood, and jump my claim. He was to keep me off with the gun. It wasn't an Be longing. Rut the "No" of a bronze- hard resolution drove the bcaata of appetite sn.tddy te their la’r again Things were moving. If not hap pily at least with sober satisfaction, the Sunday morning that Nance En- cell drove to the door of the wilder- nets cabin. He was squaring the un even walls of the room, preparatory to giving them a coat of paint, when the imperious blast of a motor-horn called him to the door. The girl left her cxr and advanced to meet him, hand out-stretched. “Hello, there, Eddie!” she called joy ously. “Gee. but is’s good to see you.” “Nance!” There was more of sur prise than pleasure in hia manner, which she noted with a humatrous grimace. “Where did yoc timi" 1 . CHAPTER XVIII r- Patsy Sees “Nothing to tell, really,” he re iterated. “Bunk!” The word was freight ed with con temp too# impatience. “1 know what I know, Eddie. You know I’m interested. I’ve been inqiring a- round. You’ve had trouble over thik place. There is tax-money nearly duo. You’ve been putting on some boOta with old John W. Barleycorn and losing spectacularly. And Patay’s left .out.” * “You astonish me,” he said lightly, though the red crept up in his tanned cheeks. “Really, it’s all in the way yob fay it. Those things are really.” “I came here to say was this; I—” and then she stopped as if quite unable to go oru But she shrugged and plunged bravely ahead. “I have money enough to wipe out those taxes and never miss it. Won’t you—” * “No, Nance. Thank- you just the same, but ^it isn’t necessary. I can get it all right.” It was now his turn to stop, em- barassed, for the eyes into which he looked were slowly filling with tears. “I’d like to do a little something—” she began again. “Sure you can get it, Eddie?” “Sure, Nance. -But I’m mighty * grateful to you just the same.” A smile broke through. “All right, old independence,” she said, with hard gayety. And before he realized whst her next move might be, she leanaiT forward and kissed him on the mouth. It was Nance who realized first, a shade before Eddie did, that there was someone in tjw'back yard, some one who aaw them through the open ‘__or—me,” A lovely red swept over her face.,' She turned swiftly without another word and ran to her car, which was standing in front of the house. There came the roar of its powerful engine as she, too, drove toward Long Portage. - * Eddie tried to busy himself with his task of smoothing and planing. But the work had lost its savor. He wanted to get to Patsy Jane as soon as possible, to explain Nance’s visit and her impulsive Idsf. Yet for several hours, pride held him back. For, he toM himself, Pat had taken too much foi^H^rited and had run a- way' without^Plng him a chance. He should let her get huffy over it, all. He should let her tome to senses—. By three o’clock he deemed that ■he should have come to her senses, for he drove townward, taking the curves of the sandy road at a reck- fem speed. His visit was fruitless. Mrs. Kmnane came to the door of her home in answer to his ring. She S' ♦ a^ tha£hh* *15 diof. H. ctHild f~l btr trip tlffiwr. th«t orfwr win- - ... .... ursv • as she laughed loundly and maliciously “Gome soon,” she said, raising her voice.. He turned his bead. Patsy Jane had come in Kinnane’a car, and had stopped it in the driveway near “Just as glad to see me as though I were the smallpox,” she commented. “Oh, well, once it wasn’t eo. Where did I come from? Our place on the North Fork.” • , \ * The Encells had, he remembered, a cident that he was talking to Seal- wished that she hadn’t oome. It was not a long drive, even for sandy wilderness roads. Only, he man on the road that, day after I drove him out. “The long and short of it is that Sealman wants my place. He wants it badly,' because it has a greater vahie, 1 omehow, than appears on the suifaoe. I wonder what-it is?” He pondered fruitlessly. “Well, no mat ter. I’ll hang on 1 tighter, fThe reason Sunday come out.” Summer advanced Inexorably. The fund in the Long Portage State bank “Well, aren’t you going to ask me in?” she rallied him. “Of course I want you to see the improvements I’m making.” She stood in the center of the floor A smile broke through. "All right, cfd independence,” she said, with hard gayety. And be fore h a n hfized what her next move might be, she leap ed forward and kiss ed him on the mouth. and they afien’t so. Mr. Barleycorn and I did do considerable scrapping and I got mussed. But I’ve licked him. He’s out for keeps. There is some tax-money due. But I’ll have it before the redemption period closes. Aa for your other assertion—well ithat’s quite wide of the mark, too, Nance.” Miss Encell rose from the long, log, slab chair with the ease and grace of a leopard uncoiling. She strode over to where Eddie wafc sitting. The slender hands, with amazing strength in their fragile-appearing roundness, “It’s not on the market.” ’Se ilman combed hi; beard slowly. Almost every cent of his » With plump fingers as he leaned a- . gainst the garage and watched Eddie ■barpening an axe on the grindstone. “I thought perhaps with you work- to Dav/enport’s and your wife not here ”-He paused sig- ■ me mfrantly. ^TH hang on, just the same.” ly lust offer was fifteen hun- deed. Things are going pretty well with me*. I might be able to borrow a littW more at the bank. We say two thousand?” Eddie ceased operations on the axe lb look tike sleek one eharply in the "With the taxes, that’s asore wages from Davenauft went into it. He could not poeKbly, of his own ef forts, ©am all of the tax money. But he wds reasonably sure that the deficit would be made up from one of two sources. One source was Davenaut, and his confidence seemed justified. Th? city man, big, incisive and iror*-gr*y. acid-tongued in reproof and treasuring „ closed on his shoulders. She all but and looked rniilmgly about herNAnc, liM hlm 0 „ hi , fe€t . They coofront- Encell tea. a, supeA and dtnkjing ed ^ Mher h „ hands ^ hij figure, vividly blonde. Her blonde hair was rough, not from lack of care, but from an excess of the owner’s energy, apparently. She wore whip- oord riding breeches that fitted .with revealing perfection and a thin, brown silk shirt, ita collar femininely rolling, cut low and held loosely in place by a flowing rni tie. She looked a daugh ter of the Vikings, but sophisticated modernized and raised from Viking stolidity by a complex modem civi- lizeitdon. “Eddie, as a housekeeper and car penter and landscape gardener you’re the antelope’s ankles,” she announced his words of commendation as though flippantly. “I remember stopping at they were jewels, nevertheless show- j this old cabin last summer. It was that he approved of Eddie. The deserted (then. And certainly forlorn lat In July Dot hard and intelligently, raised hie pay five dollars • month. enough.”" She sat dowp,^ It seemed pood to A«f Someone Davenaut from home, though Seottdale belong- I shoulders. “See here, Eddie,” she said, de cisively, “it won’t do. I know what I’m talking about. We’ll admit booze is out. But that doesnlt help you much. There’s a. lot of money due on your land, aside from this year’s taxes. You haven’t enough to meet it, and you won’t be able to get enough Tell the truth, now. Will you?” “I haven’t all of it,” he admitted. “I know where I can borrow if I have to.” ' She nodded and went on: “Patsy ha* left you, Eddie. All Long Port age knows it She’s a stenographer hi old Kinnane’s office. She’s living at their home. So—” Again the red flowed into his cheeks “And you’re ntill off ot» the wrong foot Nance. Everything is all right the garage. She had seeo the kiss, beard words of Invitation and the laugh. She turned on the instant, her head high, got into the car, swung it swityy and was off on the road she had come. Eddie was confused, resentful, in dignant. He was very angry with Nance. Yet good taste kept him from saying many of the things he yearned to say. “That wasn’t just fair, Nance’ he managed to say, at lasrt. She tossed her head. “I knew you before she knew there was such a per son in exi.ibence a s Eddie Forbes. If she has any sense, this won’t make any difference. Hang I don’t see the harm in kissing an old friend, so long a« it’s open and aboveboard! If she hasn’t any sense—” Uplifted eyebrows finished the sentence. Eddie’s anger grew. Nance had come from a generous motive. She had hefard that he was in difficulties; she wanted to relieve those difficul ties. Yet fhe result of her visit had * > , * i been to widen the rapidly closing gap between Patsy and himself. She had thrown 1 in that invitation to call as a deliberate and gratuitous barb. “You didn’t play fair, Nance,” he said coldly. “What you’ve done is to make things a little more difieult for ms.” “I’m sorry,” she replied, simply, end contrition came into her lovely eyes. She sighed. Her hands drop ped from hia shoulders. “I think 111 b« going. But If you need money, or way. “Do you know when shell be back?* he questioned, disappointedly. “No, Mr. Forbe*. She said to tell yo not to wait.” Summer reached its crest, snd the little, sheltered valleys about Long Portage and out through the wilder- ne a were alive with huckleberries. It waa a good frail season, for the rains had oome at the right time. The rich, purple berrierv each as large as the end of one’s little finger, grew in prodigal profusion. The sturdy vines were bending beneath their weight. Fortunately for Long Portage tha crop was a failure elsewhere, and the berries brought good prices in De- *roit and Chicago. Hie village was depopulated, for all those who could, left for the harveut. Skilled pickers made big monw. Many went out a dozen miles to camp in the more extensive patches, others drove for‘h and back, mom qg and evening in their cars, the tonneau laden with the spoils when they re- tmed with the setting sun. Even horses and wagoon were not despised, for some of the best berry patchet. were found on bumpy side trapped with deep sand, where fo footed motive power was surest 1 The huckleberries gave Eddie a chance to mm extra mkoey. life/ grasped it eagerly.. Davenaut was an enlightened rancher. He demanded except in cases of slight seasonal e- mergency, only eight hours a day. Eddie and some of the other hands rose at five and before, to get in a good twp hours picking before break fast. Then there were two hours in the evening, after which Eddie drove through tlte beautiful reluctant nor thern twilight to the buyer at the railroad expre^W office, with his pick. The fast night train delivered the fserricti, the dew of the secluded valley etill on them, at the markets next day. There was a good patch of berries on Eddie’s own quarter-seotion, near the mound. This he saved until the last. When everything on the olther side of the crSek within ftisy distance was exhausted he drove, early one ' morning, e ver to his own property. The sand of the narrow road was damp. He. noticed with surprise the (clear-cut impre-srfbn of rriotcur-tirea which, turning from the highway, also entered the southern field of his land. He followed the track to the mound, and around the base. * (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.) Hie friends of Miss Burcfchalter will be interested to lea that the B. A. Degree has been con- ferred upon her by the University of Vinginm. Her thesis waa entitled “The Negro in Eastern South Caroli na Fiction.” t m b Tha People-SentlaeL % V - J* ,^4 AAlT ■t I a *7*