Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_e zjen Lrertiser. 12 PAGES. PART, DPANES 9 T4 12 VOLUME~ XXIX. L-AMNEINS, SOUTH CAROLINA, WED[NESDAy9 APRIL 1, 1914.0UBR3 .ALIANIT ILWTRATED fy' I SYNOPSIS. CHAPrErn I-John Vallant, a rich so O ety favorite. Buddeilly discovers that the Valant corporation, which his father founded and which was the prIncipal source of his wealth, has failed. CHAPTER II-lIe voluntarily turns over his private fortmo to the receiver Pr the corporation. CHAPTER III-is entire remaining pssessions consist of an old motor car, a white bull dog and Iamory court. a ineglected estate in Virginia. CHAPTER IV-H-o learns that this es to came into the family b1y royal ant 'aad has been in tho possession or the Valianits ever since. CHAPTER V-On the way to Damory oourt he ineets Shirley Dandridge, an au burn-haired beauty, and decides that he is going to -like Virginia immensely. CHAPTER VI-An olfl negro tells Shir ley's fortuno and predicts great trouble for her on account of a man. CHAPTER VII-Uncle Jefferson, an old 'negro, takes Valiant to Damory court. CHAPTER VIII-Shirley's mother, Mrs. Mandridge, and Major Bristow exchange ,teminiscencesi during which it is revealed that the major, Valiant's father, and a man named Sassoon. were rivals for the ihand of Mrs. Dandridge in tier youth. Bassoon and Valiant fougiL a dual on her account in which the former was killed. CITAPTER TX-Valiant finds Damory court overgrown with weeds and creep ers and the buildings In a very much ,neglected condition. Uncle Jefferson and his wife, Aunt Daphne, are engaged as Pervants. CHAPTER X. The Hunt. He awoke to a musical twittering and chirping, to find the sun pouring iinto the dusty room in a very glory. He rolled from the blanket and stood upright, filling his lungs with a long Ideep breath of satisfaction. lie felt Isingularly light-hearted and alive. The bulldog came bounding through the iwindow, dirty from the weeds, and flung himself upon his master in a Icanine rapture. "Get out!" quoth the latter,.laugh ing. "Stop licking my feet! How the Idickens do you suppose I'm to get into my clothes with your ridiculous antics going on? Down, I say! Hark!" He broke off and listened. "Who's that singing?" The sound drew nearer-a lugu 'brious chant, with the weirdest minor reflections, faintly suggestive of the rag-time ditties of the music-halls, yet with a plaintive cadence. "Good morning, Uncle Jefferson." The singer broke off, set down the twig-broom that he had been wielding and came toward him. "Mawnin', suh. Mawnin'," he said. "hlopes yo'-all slep' good. Ah reck'n dem ar birds woke yo' up; dey's makin' seh er 'Intration." "Thank you. Never slept better in my life. Am I laboring under a delu sion when I imagine I smell coffee?" Just then there came a voice from the open door of the kitchen: "Calls yo'se'f er man, yo' triflin' recon structed niggah! W'en marstah gwine ter git he brekfus' wid' yo' ramshack ln' eroun' wid dat dawg all his Glawd'-blesisid mawnin'? Go fetch ~so me' fiah-wood dis minute, Yo' Iheah ?" A turbaned head poked itself through the door, with a good-natured leaf-brown face beneath it, which Ibroadened into a wide smile as Its owner bob edl energetically at Va 1llant's gret pg. "Fo' do Lawd!" she ~exclaimed, wiping floury hands on a ~gingham apron. "to' she' is up early, but Ah got ye' brekfus' ready, suji." "All right, Aunt Daphne. I'll be }back directly." He sped down to the lako to plunge hbis head into thle cool water and there ~by sharpen the edge of an appetite Ithat needed no honing. He came up the trail again to find 'the reading-stand transferred to the ;porch and laid with a white cloth on 'which was set a steaming coffee-pot, ~with fresh cream, saltless butter and corisp hot biscuit; and as ho sat down, with a sigh of pure delight, in his dressing-gown - a crepy Japanese thing retdeemed from womanishness by the bold green bamboo of its de 'sign-Uncle Jefferson planted before * him a generous platter of bacon, eggs tand potatoes. These he attacked with a surprising keenness, As he buttered his fifth biscuit he looked at the dog, rolling on his back in morning eceta ~sy, with a leek of humorous surprise, "Chum," he said, "what do ~you think of that? All my life a single troll and a cup of coffee have been 1the most I could ever negotiato for ~breakfast, and then it was apt to taste ~like chips and whet-stones. And now look at this plate!" The dog ceased Iwinnowing his oar with a hind foot and looked back at his master with ;much thp same expression, Clearly Lhis own needs bad net been forgot (MwR3. LIFIyOQ OMmM" AURrN STOUT ten. "Reck'n Ah bettah go ter git dat ar machine thing," said Uncle Jefferson behind him. ".Ol' 'ooman, heah, she 'low ter fix up do kitchen dis mawn in' en we begin on do house dis eve nin'."' "Right-o,' said Valiant. "It'o all up hill, so the motor won't run away with you. Aunt Daphne, can you get some help with the cleaning?" "Ho'p?" that worthy responded with fino scorn. "No, suh. Moughty few, in do town 'cep'n low-down yaller new issue trash dot ain' wu'f killin'! Ah gwineter go fo' dat house mahse'f 'fo' long, haminah on tongs, en git it fix' up!" "Splendid! My destiny is in your hands. You might take tho dog with you, Uncle Jefferson; the run will do him good." When the latter had disappeared and truculent sounds from the kitchen indicated that the era of strenuous cleaning had begun, be reentered the library, changed the water in the rose glass and set it on the edge of the shady front porch, where its flaunting blossom made a dash of bright crim son against the grayed weather-beaten brick. This done, he opened the one large room on the ground-floor that he had not visited. It was double the size of the library, a parlor hung in striped yellow silk vaguely and tenderly faded, with a tall plate mirror set over a marble topped console at either side. In one corner stood a grand piano of Circas sian walnut with keys of tinted mother-of-pearl and a slender music rack inlaid with morning-glories in the samo material. From the center of the ceiling, above an oval table, de pended a great. chandelier hung with glass prisms. The chairs and sofas were covered with dusty slip-covers of muslin. Ho lifted one of these. The tarnished gold furniture was Louis XV, the upholstery of yellow brocade with a pattern of pink roses. Two Japancse hawthorn vases sat on teak wood stands and a corgr held a glasa cabinet containing a collection of small ivories and faience. He went thoughtfully back to the great hall, where sat the big chest on which lay the volume of "lucile." ie pushed down the antique wrought iron hasp and threw up the lid. It was filled to the brim with textures: heavy porticres of rose-damask, table covers of faded soft-toned tapestry, window-hangings of dull gre'en-all with tobacco-leaves laid between the folds and sifted thickly over with the sparkling white powder. At the bot tom, rolled in tarry-smelling paper, he found a half-dozen thin, Persian pray er-rugs. "Phew!" he whistled. "I certainly ought to be grateful to that law firm that 'inspected' the place. Think of the things lying here all these years! And that powder everywhere! It's done the work, too, for there's not a sign of moth. If I'm not careful, I'll stumble ever the family plate-it seems to be about the only thing want ing." Hie thought a moment, then wecnt quickly into the library and began to ransack the trunk. At length he found a small box containing keepsakes of various kinds. He poured the medley 'on to tihe talie-an uncut moonstone, an amethyst-topped pencil that one of his tutors had given him as a boy, a tiger's claw, a compass and what-not. Among them was a man's seal-ring with a crest cut in a cornelian. He looked at it closely. It was the same device, The ring had been his father's, Just when or how it had came into his possession he could never remem ber. It had lain among these keep sakes so many years that he had al most forgotten its existence, H~e had never worn a ring, but now, as he went back to the hall, lie slipped it on his finger. The motto below the crest was worn away, but it showed clear in the marble of the hall-mantle: I clingo. His eyes turned' from the carven words and strayed to the pleasant sun ny foliage outside. An arrogant boast, perhaps, yet in the event wvell justi fled. Valiants had held that selfsame slope when the encircling forests had rung with war-whoop and blazed with torture-fire. They had held on through Revolution and Civil WVar. Gooll and bad, abiding and lawless, every gener atien had cleaved stubbornly to its acres, I clingo. ils father had clung through absence that seemed to have been almost exile, and now he, the last Valiant, has come to make good the boast, Ils grnze wavered The tnil of his eye had caught through the window a spurt of something dashing and vivid, ;that grazed the corner of a far-off field. Ho craned his neck, but it had passed the line of his vision. The next moment, however, there came trailing on the satiny stillness the high-keyed ululation of a horn, and an iinstant later a long-drawn hallo-o-o! mixed with a pattering chorus 'of yelps. le went close, and leaifing from the sill, shaded his eyes with his hand. 'The noise swelled and rounded in vol ,ume; it was nearing rapidly. As he looked the hunt dashed into fNll view between the tree-boles-a galloping melee of khaki and scarlet, swarming across the fresh green of a wheat field, behind a spotted swirl of hounds. - "Confound it!" said John Valiant belligerently; "they're on my land!" They were near enough now for him to hear the voices of the men, calling encouragement to the dogs, and to see the white ribbons of foam across the flanks of the laboring horses. One scarlet-coated feminine rider, detached from the bunch, had spurred in ad vance and was loading by a clean hun dred yards, bareheaded, her hat fallen 'back to the limit of its ribbon knotted Under her chin, and her waving hair gleaming like tarnished gold. "How she rides!" muttered the soli tary watcher. "Cross-saddle, of course, -the sensible little sport! She'll never in the worl do that wall!-Yes, by George!" Jchn Valiant's admira tion turned to uelight. "Why," he !sald, "it's the Lady-of-the-Roses!" IO put his hands on the sill and ,yaulted to the porch. CHAPTER X1. Sanctuary. The tawny scudding streak that led Ithat long chase had shot into the yard, turning for a last desperate double, 'It saw the mftn in the foreground and .Its bounding, agonized little wild heart ;that so prayed for life gave way With a final effort, it gained the porch and crouched down in its corner, an abject, sweated, hunted morsel, at hopeless bay. Like a flash, Valiant stooped,'caught 'the shivering thing by the scruff, and as its snapping jaws grazed his thumb, dropped it through the open winaow% behind him: "Sanctuary!" quoth ha, and banged the shutter to. At the same instant, as the place overflowed with a pandemonium of nosing leaping hounds, lie saw the golden chestnut reined sharply down among the ragged box-rows, with a shamefaced though brazen knowledge that the girl who rode it had seen. She sat moveless, her head high, one hand on the hunter's foam-flecked neck, and their glances met like crossed swords. The look stirred something vague and deep within him. For an unforgettable instant their eyes held each other, in a gaze rigid, challenging, almost deflant; then it broke and she turned to the rest of the party spurring in a galloping zig zag: a genial-faced man of middle age iin khaki who sat his horse like a cavalryman, a younger one with a preckless dark face and straight black hair, and following these a half-dozen -youthful riders of both sexes, one of the lads heavily plastered with mud from a wet cropper, and the girls chiefly gasps and giggles. The elder of the two men pulled up beside the leader, his astonished eyes 'sweeping the house-front, with its open blinds, the wisp of smoke curling from the kitchen chimney. Ho said something to her, and she nodded. The younger man, meanwhile, had flung himself from his horse, a wild eyed roan, and with his arm thrust through its bridle, strode forward among the welter of hounds, where they scurried at fault, hither and thither, yelping and eager. *"What rotten luck!" he exclaimed. "Gone to ground after twelve milesi After him, Tawny! You mongrels! Do you imagine lhe's up a tree? After him, Biulger! Bring him hero!" He glanced up, and for the first time saw the figure in tweeds looking on. Valiant was attracted by his face, its !dash and generosity overlying its in ~herent profligacy and weakness, Dark !as the girl was light, his features had the same delicate chiseling, the in breeding, nobility and indulgence of generatIons, Hie stared a moment, ,and the somewhat supercilious look traveled over the gazer, from dusty boots to waving brown hair, "Oh!" he said. Ils view slowly 'took in the evidences of occupation. "The house is open, I see. Going to get it fit for occupancy, I presume?" "Yes." The e ther turned. "Well, Judge 'Chalmers, what do you think of that? The unexpected has happened at last." Hle looked at the porch. "Who's to occupy it?" "Thej owner." "Wonders will never cease!" said the young mian easily, shrugging, "Well, our quarry is hero somewhere. F~romn the way the dogs act I should say ho's bolted into the house. With your permission i'll take one of them in and see." lie stooped and snapped a leash on n. dog-colar. "I'm really very sorry," said Valiant, "but I'm living in it at present." The edge of a smile lifted the care. fully trained mustache over the other's white teeth. It had the per fectly courteous air of saying, "Of course, if you say so. But-" Valiant turned, with a gesture that Included all. "If you care to dismount and rest," he said, "I shall be honored, though I'm afraid I can't offer you such hospitality as I should wish." The judge raised his broad soft hat, "Thank you, sir," he said, with a soft accent that delightfully disdained the letter "r." "But we mustn't intrude any further. As you know, of course, the place has been uninhabited for any number of years, and wo had no idea it was to acquire a tenant. You will overlook our riding through, I hope. I'm afraid the neighborhood has got used to considering this a sort of no-man's land. It's a pleasure to know that the Court is to be re. claimed, sh. Come along, Chilly," hc added. "Our fox has a burrow under the house, I reckon-hang the cunning little devil!" lie waved his hat at the porch and turned his horse down the path, side by side with the golden chestnut, After them trooped the others, horseE walking wearily, riders talking in lowv voices, the girls turning often to send swift bird-like glances behind thew to where the straight masculine figure still stood with the yellow sunshine or his face. They did not leap the wall this time, but filed decorously through the swinging gate to the Red Road Then, as they passed from view be hind the hedges, John Valiant heard the younger voices break out together like the sound of a bomb thrown into a poultry-yard. John Valiant stood watching till the last rider was out of sight. There was a warm flush of color in his face, At length he turned with a ghost of a sigh, opened the hall door wide and stalking a hundred yards away, sat down on the shady grass and be gan to whistle, with his eyes on the door. Presently he was rewarded. On i sudden, around the edge of the sill peered a sharp, suspicious little muz zle. Then, like a flash of tawny light the fox broke sanctuary and shot for the thicket. * * * * * * * The brown ivied house in the vil lago was big and square and faced the sleepy street. A one-storied wing con tained a small door with a doctor's brass plato on the clapboarding be. side it. Doctor Southall was one of Mrs. Merryweather Mason's paying guests-for she would have deemed the word boarder a gratuitous insult no less to them than to her. Another was the major, who for a decade had occupied the big old-fashioned cor ner-room on the second floor, com panioned by a monstrous gray cat and waited on by an ancient negro named lereboam, who had been a slave of his father's. The doctor was a sallow taciturn man with a saturnine face, eyebrows like frosted thistles, a mouth as it made with one quick knife-slash and a head nearly bald, set on a neck that would not have disqualified a year Hag ox. On this particular morning neither the major nor the doctor was in evi dence, the former having gone out early, and the latter being atethe mo ment in his office, as the brassy buzz of a telephone from time to time an nounced. Two of the green wicker rocking-chairs on the porch, however, were In agitant commotion. Mrs. Ma son was receiving a caller in the per son of Mrs. Napoleon Gifford. "After all these years!" the visitor was saying in her customary italics. (The broad "a" which lent a dulcet softness to the speech of her hostess was scorned by Mrs. Poly, her own "a's" being as narrow as the needle through which the rich man reaches heaven.) "We came here from Rich mend when I was a bride-that's twenty-one years ago-and Damory Court was forsaken then. And think what a condition the house must be in now! Cared for by an agent who comes every other season from New York. Trust a man to do work like that!" "I'm glad a Valiant is to occupy It," remarked Mrs. Mason in her sweet flute-like voice. "It would be sad to see any one else there. For after all, the Valiants were gentlemen." Mrs. Gifford sniffed. "Would you have called Devil-John Valiant a gen tieman? Why, he earned the name by the dreadful things lie did. My 'grandfather used to say that when his wife lay sick-ho hated~ her, you know -ie would gallop his horse wvith all lisa hoeunds full-cr-y after- him under her windows. Thon that ghastly story of the slave lie pressed to death in the hogshead of tobacco." "I knew," acquiesced Mrs. Mason. "He was a cruel man and wicked, too. Yet of course ho was a gentleman. In the South the test of a gentleman has never been what he doees, but who he is. But his grandson, lleauty Valiant, who lived at Damor-y Court thirty years ago, wvasn't his type at all, lie was only twenty-five when the duel occurred." "He must have been brilliant," said the visitor, "to have founded that great corporation. It's a pity the son didn't take after him. Have you seen the papers lately? It scens that though he was to blame for the wreck Ing of the concern they can't do any thing to him. Some technicality in the law, I suppose. But if a man is only rich enough they can't convict himi of anything. Why he should sud denly make ui) his mind to come down here I can't see. With that old- af fair of his father's behind him, I should think he'd prefer Patagonia." "I tako it, then, madam," Doctor Southall's forbidding voice rose from the doorway, "that you are familiar with the circuiimstances of that old af I fair, as you term it?" The lady bridled. Her passages at arnms with the doctor did not invaria bly tend to sweeten her disposition. I'i sure I only know what people say," sho said. "'People?'" snorted the doctor iras ciby. "Just another name for a corn munity that's a perfect sink of mean ness and malice. If one believed all he heard here he'd quit speaking to his own grandmother." "You will admit, I suppose," said 'Mrs. Gifford with some spirit, "that the name Valiant isn't what it used to be in this neighborhood?" "I will, madam," responded the doc tor. "When Valiant left this place (a mark of good taste, I've always consid cred it) he left it the worse, if possi ble, for his departure. Your remark, however, would seem to imply de merit on his part. Was he the only man who ever happened to be at the lucky end of a dueling-ground?" "Then it isn't true that Valiant was a dead shot and Sassoon intoxicated?" "Madam," said the doctor, "I have no wish to discuss the details of that unhappy incident with you or anybody else. I was one of those present, but the circumstanceu you mention have never been descanted upon by me." "I see by the papers," said Mrs. Gif ford, with an air of resignedly chang ing the subject, "they've been investi gating the failure of the Valiant Cor poration. The son seems to be get ting the sharp end of the stick. Per haps he's coming (own here because they've made it so hot fo- him in 4New York. Well, I'm afraid he'll find I this county disappointing." "lie will that !" agreed the doctor savagely. "No doubt he imagines he's coming to a kindly countryside of gen I-bo-n 1)1ol:le with soulis and imagi nations; h ie'll ind he's lit in a section that's entirely too ready to hack at his fathe: 's nam and prepared in ad. vaic to call hin Northern scum and turn: up its nose at his accent-a coin rjnii t so fill of dyed-in-the-wool ibbery th-:t it would make Boston c like a poor-white barbecue. I'm ate's im!'' (Continued Next Week.) OlREAT1 FORt YOU'R LIVER AND OW1'EI,' P'hy-slcians in Hot Springs, Arkan sas, prescribe them because they know they are better than dangerous calomel. Take HOT KlIItNGS LI.vl'VI, HUTTONS as directed and get rid of constipation, dizziness, biliou siness, sick headache, sallow, pimply skinl They are a fine tonic. for they drive itmpure matter from the blood, and give on1e a hearty appetite. All drug gists, .-'. cenits. IHot Spr'ings Liver' Huttons, liot S printgs ilthemtat!ismit ettedy andti I lot Spr-ings Bloody li-tmedy are sold1 in La:turtens by3 Lanun i~i'ug C~o. Let your Taste Govern the Color of your houe butv -3 'for the pa ( Dutcla Boy Fnix ~~ andi pure linlsee< lead and i pai Ci'eVICe and gri pS ' It expands and< * WOOd anld doe's ni Save money by ai Conme in andi let ui' figure - ~see~ ouri Owner~ 's ii Guji - tios and porutt facua. - Brooks I A Comn LICE? IL *LC)I i1 iici Conkey's Lice Fowder it '-ake.jukk .md -wre. Kils the Lice Doen't Hairm Chkhers Conkey 3 Lice L- d1 COIN K EY S Laurens Drug Ccmpany Laurens, S. C. To the Reatding Public of Laul rins and iaureni County: I amni establish inig a nilgainje4 sibsr-1 Iitioni agency at this l l ad -i II ( Vol 'e ared to IhIldle isbscriptions foI all kinds of magazinieis and newspa pers. I Ia' a eilat. little enta logile t .at shows hundreds of 0XVeilit. cilUbbing o Ters that are as cheap as offers -made by alny responlsible inagazinle agent ey aIiywhere. I also handie bus inssfor thile conilty Iapers, the Col uin ia State and othor state pa I o!lIS. It makes no difference what you want in the magazine llne I enn hand Your buiness and ill most il'tant(elS qave you mloney. C.1% e N011 your suscr-ip tiol aIl 0kye lie troube of' writing letters and also the ex Ien se of sendiig away mlionley. I will appreciate your business afn guarantee absolu te satisfae Ilion. Catalogue upon -reqIuest. Order thirough me and your pa pers will alwa-3's come to yotu. Arrange your whole ea ' r's reading malter at one trinsac D. AT. NORWOOD. Laurens, S. C. 'o tIe r Ident s F t.he VarioIs I1 o eraI-,(Ic Clutbs of I : urens Coun yii,:i Youl will pilase take notif P that unl der the riles of the Df-mo'eratic party or south Carolina the various l)lilemo cratic Clubs of the couity shall lleet on the -ith Saturday i) April, whiebi. will he the 25th lay of (he jnontli. for iie ipurose of, reorigani/ition or th1 various clubs, and th .fection of del. egates to the 'Uollity 46n ventioll whicI. will coliveile oil the 1st. Monday in lay, being thle Ith Inay (of said 1011th, at the ( County Court Holuse, Laun C0s, South Carolina. Please bear these dates ill mind and call your various elub together on. tile (late above ment ioned. John M. Cannon. Chairman, Democratic Party or laturens Co. larch 26, 1914. 36-4t: WILLIAMS' KIDNEY PILLS Have you overworked your nervous sys ten and caused trouble with your kid neys and bladder? Have you pains in loins. side, back and bliiOr? Have yotu a flabby appearaneon of the face, and on ier the eyes''' A frofifrnt desire to pass urine? If so, Willitrms' Iliney Pilla wIll cure yoi--Druiggst, Price 50Oc. WIL.LIAMS MFC.,CO., Props., Clevelaindl, Ohi LAURIENS DRUG 00. Laureun, S. C. ~nt stick to Mhite Lead ter Trade Mark) at coversi'every , into w<rdi po)res. :ontry tVjs with the >t ede~ik. >ainlting well and mlf your1 paint. incidentally, '4 I te. It's full of color augges Iardware pany