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__- _ 'nr QLettiner. 12 PAGES. PART 2, PAGES 9 TO 12 - R VOLUM XXIX. LAURENS, SOUTri CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1914. NUMBER 32 ~7/ IALLIE LMI' ILU3 TRATED fy (W'rc x 172B aosaa-i'f/iu, cm SYNOPSIS. CI[AP'TgR I-JonI Valiant, a rich so oloty favorite, suddenly discovers that the Vatant , corporation, which his father ~OUnded ,and which was tho principal ourcu of his wealth, has failed. CHAPTER II-bo voluntarily turns ver his private fortune to the receiver L tecorporation. CHAPTER III. The Turn of the Page. John Valiant stirred and laughed, a ttle self-consciously, for there had !een drops on his face. Presently he took a check-book from his pocket and began to figure on the stub, looking up with a wry smile. "To come down to brass tacks," he mut tered, "when I've settled everything (thank heaven, I don't owo my tailor!) there will be a little matter of twenty eight hundred odd dollars, a passe mo $or and my clothes between me and ,he bread-line!" EN erything else ho had disposed of -everything but the four-footed com Tade there at his feet. "But I'd not sell you, old chap," he said, softly; "not a single lick of your friendly pink tongue; not for a beastly hun dred thousand!" He withdrew his caressing hand and looked again at the check-stub. Twen ty-eight hundred! He laughed bleakly. hy, he had spent more than that a yoonth ago on a ball at Sherry's! This (morning he had been rich; tonight he was poor! What could he do? He could not Temember a time when he had not had all that he wanted. He had never bor rowed from a friend or been dunned by an importunate tradesman. And be had never tried to earn a dollar in his life; as to current methods of mak Ing a living, he was as ignorant as a Pueblo lhdian. lie rose grimly and dragged his chair facing the window. The night was balmy and he looked down across he darker sea of reefs, barred like a gigantic checker-board by the shining nes of streets, to where the flashing electric signs of the theater district id their wide swath of colored ra diance. The manifold calls of the treet and the buzz of trolleys mado a ill tonal background, subdued and r-away. To be outs'de! All that light and oolor and comfort and pleasure would hum and sparkle on just the same, though he was no longer within the tircle of its effulgence-slaving per baps, he thought with a twisted smile, some tawdry occupation that called for no experience, to pay for a meal some second-rate restaurant and a llet in some shabby-genteel, hall room, till his clothes were replaced ill-fitting "hand-me-downs"-till by wretched gradations he arrived finally st the status of the dime seat in the gallery and five-cent cigars! There was one way back. It lay through the hackneyed gateway of marriage. Youth, comeliness and fine Unaen, in the world he knew, were a fair exchange for wealth any day. 'Cutlet for cutlet"-the satiric phrase an through his mind. Why not? rhera did so, And as for himself, it Ho Had Suddenlty Remembered That, it Was Hift Twenty-fifth Birthday. erhaps* heed be no question of plain and spinstered millions-there was tarine Fargo! *In his heart John Valiant was aware, by those subtle signs which men and women alike distinguish, that while :Katharine Fargo loved first and fore .moot her own wonderful person, he ad been an easy second in her re AUREN $TOUT gard. John Valiant looked down at the bulldog squatted on the floor, his eyes shining in the dimness. A little hot ripple had run over him. "Not on your life, Chum!" he said. "No shame less barter! There must be other things besides money and social posi tion in this doddering old world, after all! \Ve're going to begin something for ourselves, If it's only raising cab bages! And we're going to stand it without any baby-aching-the nurse never held our noses when we took our castor-oil!" It was folded down, that old bright page. Finis had been written to the rose-colored. hapter. And even as he ,told himself, he was conscious of a new rugged something that had been slowly dawning within him, a sense of courage, even of zest, and a furious hatred of the self-pity that had wrenched him even for a moment. le turned from the window, picked up his letters, and followed by the dog, went slowly up another flight to his, room. * * M i " " t * le tore open the letters abstracted ly: the usual dinner-card or two, a: tailor's spring announcement, a chronic serial from an exclamatory marble-quarrying company, a quarterly statement of a club house-committee. The last two missives bore a nonde script look. One was small, with the name of a legal firm in its corner. The other was largish, corpulent and heavy, of stout Manila paper, and bore, down one side, a gaudy procession of post age stamps proclaiming that it had been registered. "What's in t'aat, I wonder?" he said to himself, ard then, with a smile at the unmasculine speculation, opened the smaller envelope. "Dear sir," began the letter, in the most uncompromisingly conventional of typewriting: "Dear Sir: "Enclosed please find, with title deed, a memorandum opened in your name by the late. John Valiant some years before his death. It was his desire that the services indieated in connection with this estate should conl tinue till this date. We hand you herewith our check for $236.20 (two hundred and thirty-nix dollars and twenty cents), the balance in your fa vor, for which please send receipt, "And oblige, "Yours very tru'y, "Emerson and Ball." "(Enclosure) He turned to the memorandum. It showed a sizable initial deposit against which was entered a series of annual tax payments with minor disburse ments credited to "inspection and care." The tax receipts were pinned to the account. The larger wrapper contained an un sealed envelope, across which was written in faded ink and in an unfa miliar dashing, slanting handwriting, his own name. The envelope con tained a creased yellow puarchment, from between whose folds there clumped and fluttered down upon the floor a long flattish object wrapped in a paper, a newspaper clipping and a letter. Puzzled he unfolded the crackling thing in his hands. "Why," he said half aloud, "it's-it.'a a deed made over {me." lie overran it swiftly. "Part of an old Colony grant * * *a plantation in Virginia, twelve hun dired odd acres, giveni under the hand of a vice-regal governor in the six teenth century. I had no idea titles in the United States wvent back so far as that!" His eye fled to the end. "It was my father:! What could ho have wanted of an estate in Virginia? It must have comec lnte his hanids in the course of business." lie picked up the newspaper clip ping. It was worn and broken in the folds as if it had been carried for months in a pockketbook. "It will interest readers of this sec tlon of VIrginia (the paragraph be-, gant) to learn, from a recent transfer received for record at the County. Clerk's ofice, that Damory Court haa, passed to Mr. John Valiant, minor-" He turned the paper over .and found a date; it had been printed in the year of the transfer to himself, when he was six years old-the year his father had died. "--John Valiant, minor, the son of the former owner. "There are few inudeed who do not recall the tragedy with which in the public mind the estate is connectedl. The fact, moreover, that this old home stead has beeni left in its present state (for, as is well known, the house hjas remained with all its contents and fur nishings untouched) to rest during long a term of years unoccupied, could not, of course, fail to be commented) on, and this circumstance alone has, perhaps tended to keep alive a melan-1 *holy story which may well be for. gotten." He read the elaborate, rather stilted phraseology in the twenty-year-old pa-: per with a wondering interest. "An old house," he mused, "with a bad. 'name. Probably he couldn't sell it,, and maybe nobody would ever live in' it. That would explain why it re-, mained so long unoccupied-why there are no records of rentals. Probably the land was starved and run down. "It's an off-set to the hall-bedroom; Idea, at any rate," ho said to himself) humorously. "It holds out an escape from the noble army of rent-payers. When my twenty-eight hundred is gone, I could live down there a landed! proprietor, and by the same mark an honorary colonel, and raise the cab bages I was talking about-eh, Chum? -while you stalk rabbits. How does that strike you?" He laughed whimsically, He, John) Valiant, of New York, first-nighter at tits theaters, hail-fellow-well-met in its. club corridors and welcome diner at any one of a hundred brilliant gl and-silver-twinkling supper tables,, eni .ombed en the wreck of a Virginia) plantation, a would-be country gentle-; man, on an automobile and next tot .nothing a yearl He bethought himself of the fallen' letter and possessed himself of it, quickly. It lay with the supersorip tion side down. On it was written, i the same hand which had addressed. the other envelope: For my son, John Valiant, When he reaches the age of twenty. five. That, then, had been written by his, father-and he had died nearly twentyi years ago! He broke the seal with a strange feeling as if, walking in some familiar thoroughfare, he had stum bled on a licheneri and sunken tomb stone. "When you read this, my son, you will have come to man's estate. It is curious to think that this black, black; ink may be faded to gray and this: white, white paper yellowed, just from lying waiting so long. But strangest of all is to think that you yourself' whose brown head hardly tops this desk, will be as tall (I hope) as I! How I wonder what you will look like then! And shall I-the real, real I, I, mean-bo peering over your strong broad shoulder as you read? Who knows? Wise men have dreamed such a thing possible-and I am not a bit wise. "John, you will not have forgotten, that you are a Valiant. But you are also a Virginian. \Vill you have dis-. covered this for yourself? here is the deed to the land where I and my father, and his father, and many, many more Valiants before them were born. Sometime, perhaps, you will know why you are John Valiant of New York in stead of John Valiant of Damory Court. I can not tell you myself, be cause it is too true a story, and I have, forgotten how to tell any but fairy tales, where everything happens right,; 'where the Prince marries the beautiful: Princess and they live happily to gether ever after. "You may never care to live at Damory Court. Maybe the life youl will know so well by the time youj read this will have welded you to It self. If so, well and good. Then leave: the old place to your son. But there 1st 'such a thing as racial habit, and the' call of blood, And I know there Is, such a thing, too, as fate. 'Every man carries his fate on a riI band about his neck;' so tho Moslem put it. It was my fate to go away, and I know now-since dis tance is not mado by miles alone-i that I myself shall never see Damory! Court again. Blut life is a strange wheel that goes round and round and, comes back to the same point again' and again, And it may be your fate to! go back. Then perhaps you will cry! (but, oh, not on the old white bear's: skin rug-naver- agat, with me holdingi your small, small hand!) "'Wishing-H-ouso! Wishing-Hlouse! Where are you?' "And this old parchnmnt deed wil answer "'Ilere I am, Master; here I am!' "Ah, we are only children, after all, playing out our plays. I have had, many toys, but 0 John, John! The' ones I treasure most are all in the' INever-Never Land!" CHAPTER IV. A Valiant of Virginia. For a long time John Valiant sat motionless, the opened letter in his hand, staring at nothing. lie had ,the sensation, spiritually, of a traveler awvakoned with a rude shock amfd, wholly unfamiliar surroundilngs. lie was trying to remember-to putj two and two together. His father had! been Southern-borni; yes, he had known that. But he had known noth-, ing whatever of his father's early days,, or of his forebears; since he had been old enough to wondeor about such things, he had had1 no onaen toas questions of. Phrases of the letter ran through, his mind: "Sometime, perhaps, you! will know why you are John Valiant of New York instead of John Valiant' of Damory Court * * * I cannot tell you myself." There was some tragedy, then, that had blighted the place, some "melancholy story," as the clipping put it. Ilo bent over the deed spread out upon the table, following with his hlu ger tho long line of transfers: "'To John Valyante," ho muttered: "what odd spelling! 'Robert Valyant'-with out the 'e.' Here, in 1730, the 'y' be gins to bo 'L'" There was something strenuous and appealing in the long line of dates. "Valiant. Always a Va liant. flow they held on to it! There's never a break." A curious pride, now-born and self conscious, was dawning In hIm. H11 was descended from ancestors who had been no weaklings. A Valiant had settled on those acres under a royal governor, before the old frontier, fighting was over and the Indiana had sullenly retired to the westward. The sons of those who had braved sea and savages had bowed their strong bodies and their stronger hearts. to raze the forests and turn the, primeval jungles into golden planta. ions. There stole Into his mood an eery suggestion of intention. Why should the date assigned for that deed's de livery have been the very day on which he had elected poverty? IHero was a foreordination as pointed as the index-linger of a guide-post. "'Every man carries his fate,'" he repeated, "'on a riband about his neck.' Chum, do you believe in fate?" For answer the bulldog, cocking an alert eye on his master, discontinued his occupation-a conscientious if un successful mastication of the i ttish packet that had fallen from the folded deed-and with much solicitous tail wagging, brought the sodden thing in his mouth and put it into the out stretched hand. His master unrolled the pulpy wad and extricated the object it had en closed-an old-fashioned Iron door-key. * * * * * * * * After a time Valiant thrust the key into his pocket, and rising, went to a' trunk that lay against the wall. Searching in a portfolio, he took out a iarnall old-fashioned photograph; much battered and soiled. It had been cut from a larger group and the name of the photographer had been erased. from the back. 'e set it upright on the desk, and bending forward, looked long at the face it disclosed. It was the only picture he had ever possessed of his father. lie turned and looked into the glass above the dresser. The features were the same, eyes, brow, lips, and strong waving hair. But for its time-stains' the photograph might have been one. of himself, taken yesterday. (Continuled Next Week.) IETIR E) (EOROtI A PLA NTE' ADVICE TO KIDNEY Sl!FFEREI(S Ttegarding the wonderful curative merits of your Swamp-Boot, I cannot say too much. After suffering severe ly for three years or more with severe pains caused by weak kidneys, I was finally induced to try Swamp-Root through a testimonial I read in one of the newspapers. I was in such a con dlition that I was obliged to arise from my b~ed six or eight times every nIght. I purchasedi a tifty-cent bottle and he fore it was uisedi I feit s0 mulchi relief that I purehlased a one-dollar bottle and i by the time tis was taken thle 01(1 pains1 had1( left my back angq I couild sleep the whlole night through i. I am aL retIred planter, 70 years df age, anid owing to Drm. Kilme'r's Wvampl-Root, I am1 Inl tihe best lof h1 Itlh and1 feel lik e a bloy. T am in1w: s glad to ree omm ienld Swamnp-i 5oo to those who are Inl needl of it. Sineer(t y yours, hlowersville, GIa. Pezrsonlally' a ppear1ed before me1(, this Sth of Se'ptembher, 1909. C. 1'4 lI hery who su bsciibed the above statenmen t anld m ade oathI that the same is true inl sumbstanmce and( 1in fact. TI. Hi. MeI,ane, Notary Pubillic. teithr to Dr. H:~mier & Co., inghami ton, N. 1. Proi e Whait Svaimip-Iloot Will lDo For You. Fi.ndl tenl cets to iDr. Kilmer & Co., lHinghaI~ton, N. Y., for a sample sizie bot tle. It willI conlvince any13ong. Youl will also receive a booklet of valuable information, tellIng about. the kidnleys and1( bladd~er. Whben w ritinhg, he surme and ment11(1Ion the I ,aulrens Weekly3 Adl er1tisor. Itegularm fifty-cent and one (d11ar- size bottles for sale at all dIrugt stores. WILLIAMS' ICIDNEY PILLS ifave you overworlc'd1 your nervous. sys temr an11( ca usedl trouble with your ki<d neysm and bladdler? hanve you Jpa osin loins. side, back and bl:aider? 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