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VAIiXNI& ~tI1ALLUE ERTI LUTRATID 4- L SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER i-John Vallant, a rich so ciety favorite, suidenly discovers that tile Valiant corporation, which his father founded and which was the principal source of his wealth, has failed. CHAPTER II-He voluntarily turns over his private fortune to the receiver ior the corporation. CHAPTER III--Ills entire remaining Ipwessions consist of an old motor car, white bull dog and Damory court. a lwlected estate in Virginia. CHAPTER IV-ITo learns that this es 'tate came into the family try royal grant and has been in the possession of the Vallants over since. CHAPTER V-On the way to Djamory court he meets Shirley aindridge, ian ni burn-haired beauty, and dcides that hok is going to lik Virginia Iminensely. CIIAPTElR VI-An old negro tells Shir ley's fortune and Ipredicts great trouble 'for her on account of a man. CHRAPT I- Un v cr--irio Jefferson, -an old negro, takes Valiant to Dlamory court. CHAPTER VIIT-Shirley's ninther. Mrs. Dandridge, and Major Bristow exciango i'eminiscences during which it is revealed that the major. Valiant's father, an] 11 man named Sassoon. were rivals for tho hand of Mrs. Dandridgo in her youth. Bassoon and Valiant fought a duel on her account In which the forruer was killed. CITAPT'iT TX-Valiant finds Dlamory court overgrown with weerls and oroep 'ers aid the hilldigs in a very much )neglectei conlition. Uncle Jefferson a nil Rhis wife, Aunt Daphne, are engaged as servants. C[APTIE:R X-Valiant explores his 0 CeStral home. ito Is surprise'i t'y a t fx hunting party wihichii invales his estat'. le recognizes Shirley at tile ii-ad of tih' party. ' ust thei fron the reu-r of the house camne a strident voice: "Ye', ltaih'el Talie y' han s outer den cherries! IDor' yo' kiowv of yo' swallahs demi ar pits, yo' gwi neter hab 'pendegeettus eni iti l 1) enl die?" 'The sound of a slap and shrill yelp followed, and around tle porch dashed an infiantile darkey ts nude as a block Puck, with his haida full of cherries. who came to a sudden demuralized stop in the embarrassing foregrouni. '"Ralph! " thundered the doctor. "Didn't I tell you to go back to that kitchen?" "Yes. suh," resIonded tha Imp. "Hut yo' didn' tell tme tet' stay dar!" "If I see you out here again " roared the doctor, I'll tie your ears back and grease you-and S\\'A .1OV you!" At wich grisly threat, the apparition, with a shrill shriek. turned and ran desperately for the corner of the house. "I hear," said the doctor,' resumnting. "that tle young man who caie to fix the place up has hird Uncle Jeffer son and his wife to help himt. \\'ho's - responsible for that interesting infor mation?" "Rickey Snyder," said 'Mrs. Mtson. "She's got it spy-glass rigged up inl a sugar-tree at. Miss Mattio Sue'SA and she saw themi pottering around there this morning." "Little limb!" exclaimied Mrs. Gif ford, with emphasis. "'site's tas cheeky as a town-hog. I can't imnaginie what Shirley D~andridgo was thinking o1' when she brought that low-bornm child out or her sphtere." Something like a growl camne from the doctor' as he struck open the scree-door'. " 'Li2mib!' il bet ten dollars site's an antgel in a cedar tree at a churmch fair comp la red with somte better-born young om-s I knows of wh'lo are' 0only lit to live when they've got the scar-let-Cev'er and who ought to b)e in the t'ef'ormnatory long ago. And as f'or Shimrley Dlandlridge, it's my opintion she and het' nmothler' and a few others like her' have got abotut the only drops otf the milk of human kindn'-ss in this w~ hole aban doned community!" "Dreadfutl man! " said Mrs. Gifford, sotto voce, as the door biangedl vicious' ly. "To think of his being born a Southtali! Sometimes 1 can't believo it!" Mrs. Mason shook her' head andi smiled. "Ahi, but that Isn't the real Doctor Southall," slit said. "That's only his shell." "I've heard that he has another side," responded the ether with guarded grimness, "but if he has, 1 wish he'd manage to shmow~ it seine Mrs. Mason took off her- glasses ar.d wiped theta catrefully. "I saw it when my husbantd died," she said softly. "That was beflooyou camte. TIhey were old frientds, yott know, ie was sick almost a year', andt the dioctor' used to carry himi out htei'e on the porch ever'y day in hiIs armns, lIke a child. And then, when the typhus camefi that stumnmer among the~ negr'oes, he qul~aantinedt im iself withI thelm-the -oply white man thtere---anid treate'd and nursed them nd but Itried the deadI with his own hands, till it was stampe I out. Thant's the real Doctor Southall.'' The rockers vibrated in silence for a moment. 'Ten Mrs. Glifford said: "I never knew before thatt hie had any thing to (10 with that duel. Was he one of Valiant's secondls?" "Yes," said Mrs. Masoni; 'and the major was the othier. I was a little girl wheni It hatppened. I cans barely remember It, but it made a big sensar tion."] "And over a love-affair!" exclaimed Mrs. (ifford in the torte of one to whom romanice wasi daily bread. "I suppose it was." For a time the conversation lan guished, Then Mrs. (Afford asked sud- I desn1s- "Who do yon sunnoae ihe, (IMA AUREN STOUT -ould have been?-thie girl behind that Aid Valiant affair." Mrs. Alason shook her head. "No mne knows for certain-unless, of aourse, the major or the doctor, and I wvouldn't question either of them for 6vorlds. You see, peoplo had stopped gossiping about it before I was out of school. Thero's Major Bristow at the gate now. And the doctor's just com ng out again." The major wore a suit of white linen, with a broad-brimnmed straw [tat, and a pink was in his button iole, but to the observing, his step night have seemed to lack an accus :otetd jauntiness. As he caein up the ath e doctor opelled is ollice. 'llow do youi feel this morning, Ala "or." "Feel?" rumbled the major; "the ,vay any gentleman ought to feel this imo or the morning, salh. Like hell, iah." ihe doctor bentt his gaze on tho ilarious blossom in the other's lapel. 'If I wvere you, Iristow," he said tcathingly, "I reckon I'd quit galivant ing around to bridge-lghts with per 'umery on my handkerchief every 3venintg. It's the devil of an examniplo .0 the young." The rocking-chairs behind the screening vines became motionless, ind the ladies exchangd sirrepLtitious smiles. If the t.wo geitlemnenl were twaire of each otlier's sterling quail ]es. their mu tual a )preciationl was in nverse rat io to its expression, and, is the lluci lnin mysteries, cloaked yefore the world. In paublic the doctor ,vas wont to remi-rk that the tajor alked like a Caesar, looked like a ian.0.-tun1C' aId was the only man ho lad over seen who cotild strut uit ing down. Never were his gibes uo arbed as when Iainehl.d igainst the najor's white-waistc-ated and patri 11t valin, and ''oiversely, never did he major's bland suavity so nearly ipproach ann undigiflied irritation as 'hen r-ni vingfm tite envenomned darts ar that accomalitished cynic. Tho major set tied his black tio. "A AIttle wholesonie exercise wouldn't be i bad thing for you. )octor," he said mccinactly. "YoWre looking a shade sIsty todlay." "Exercise!" snapped the other riciously, as lie pounded down the steps. "IMa. ha! I suppose you exer fe--azying ot to the Dandridges me a week for a jilep, and the rest >f the time weaii ing out good cano-bot LOns and palm-leaf fans and mussing i1 the heat. You'll go off with apo Ilexy one of t hese days." "I Shali if the *y're scared enough to 2all you," tl Imiajor shot after him, tettled. Bilt the doctor did not pause. 1le Vet on down tiho street without urning his head. TV major lifted his hat gallantly .0 t00 hldies. whose presence he had list observed. "llo sit doawn, Major," said Mrs. GIif rordi. ''There's a quiestion I'm just lyinig to ask you. We've had such an inter-stinlg conversation. You've he'ardl the inew s, of courise, that young .\ir. V'aliantt is contmig to Damory (Curt? Theii major sat down heavily. In the bright light hiis face seeimed sudtdently pale antd old. "No '' the ladly's tone was arch "'I Iave all theI rest of us really got rihead of you for once? Yes, it's true. There's sotme one there getting it to rights Ne'w here's t he qjuest Ion. T'here was a womnan, of course, at the bo01ttom1 of the V'alIint duel(. I'll never :Iream of aiskinag you wh'lo sihe was. init which was it sihe loved, Valiant :r Sassoon ?" CHAPTER XIl. The Echo. Wh'en'l thle mtajt'or ntered htis room, er1-bourat, h is a nen ot body-servant, was daiiwdllinig about pttinmg tings to right s, htis seamedl'( visaigo untder his white wool suggesting a charred 41tumip beneathi a crisp powderiong Of 41now. "J1edige Chal malhs dlone ieily roam ter ax yo' ovah tot' Glahden Ilalu es sutppaht t er-ntightI suh,'' he said. ''Teil himit not totiight, .lorry,"' said te othier weariily. "Somte othetr time." ''Te old dar'ky ruintatedI as he plioddedl downi to the dloctor's tele phione. '"W\hut do mtattah ntow? le tot dlat at' way-off-yottdah look ergen." lio shtook htis head forebodingly. Thle major had, indeeOd, a far-away eok as Ito sat there, a heavy lonely Igure, that bright morning. it had dilppedl to his faco with the news of he ar'rival at l)aam'ry Court. Hie told ilmtself that he0 felt queer. Suiddoenly he( sefeed to hear elfin voice's close to his ear: "Which wvas It she loved? Valiant ar Stissoon?" It was so distinct that ho started, rexed and( (listutrbed. Really, it was ibisurdc. le wvould 1)0 seeing things text! "Southall tmay b~e right about htat exercise," 1)e tmuttered; "I'll walk ntore." 11(1 began the prtoected no rm withou~it delay, striding up aind lown te r'oom. I ut the little voices >resently sounded agalit, shoutting like ;nomtes inside a hill: "Which was it? Valiant er Sas toon?" "I wish to God I knew!" said1( the ntajor roughly, standiag still. It si ncd them, but tho mnd ofhi ow. voiee, 'as 11ough 'it -had been ~a~ pre concerted signal, drew together a hun dred inchoate images of other days. There was the well-ordered garden of Damory Court-it rose up, gloomy with night shadows, across his great clothes-press against the wall-with himself sitting on a rustic-bench smoking and behind him the candle lighted library window with Beauty Valiant pacing up and down, waiting for daylight. There was a sun lighted stretch between two hemlocks, with South'all and he measuring the ground-the grass all dewy sparkles and an early robin teetering on a thorn-bush. Eight - nine - ten - he caught himself counting the paces. He wiped his forehead. Between the hemlocks now were two figures facing each other, one twitching un. certainly, the other palely rigid; and at one side, hold emreen-wle, a raised umbrella. In some ghostly way he could see right through the latter see the doctor's hand gripping the handle, his own, outstretched beyond its edge, holding a handkerchief ready to flutter down. A silly subterfugo those umbrellas, but there must be no actual witnesses to the final act of a "gentlemen's meeting"! A silly code the whole of it, now happily out, grown! The scene blurred Into a sin *gle figure huddling down--huddling down "Which did she love?" The major shook his head helplessly. It was, after all, only the echo, become all at once audiblo on a shallow woman's ips, of a question that had always haunted hint. It had first come to him on the heels of that duel, when he had stood, somewhat later that hate 'fu morning, holding a saddled horse before the big pillared porch. Lt had whispered itself then from every mor 'tng leaf. "Sassoon or Valiant?' It she had loved Sassoon, of what use the letter Valiant was so long penning in the library? Hut-if it were Valiant she loved? The man who, having sworn not to lift his hand against the other, had broken his sacred word to her! Who had stained the unwritten codo by facing an opponent maddened with liquor! Yet, what was there a Iwom1ani might not condone in the one man? Would she read, forgive and send for him? The major laughed out suddenly, harshly, in the quiet room, and looked down as if he expecte(l to see that -letter still lying in his hand. But the laugh could not still a regular pulsing sound that was in his ears-elfln like the voices, but as distinct-the sound of a horse's hoofs going from Damory Court. H-e had heard those hoof-beats cho in his brain for thirty years! * * * * * * * . Till the sun was high John Valiant lay on his back in the fragrant grass, meditatively watching a bucaneering chicken-hawk dr, w widening circles against the blue 111d listening to the vibrant tattoo of a "pecker-wood" on a far-away tree, and the timorous wet whistle of a bob-white. The whole place was very quiet now. For just one thrilling moment it. had burgeoned into sound and movement: when the sweaty horses had stood snorting and stamping in the yard with the hounds scampering between their legs and the riding-coats winking like rubies in the early sunshino! Had she recognized him as the smiudged tinkerer of the stalled car? "She saw mec drop that wre'tched brute through the wvindow," ho chuckled. "I could take oath to that. liut she didn't give mae away, true little sport that rshe was. And she won't. 1 can't think of any reason, but I know. Was she angry? I wonder!" At length he rose and went back to the house. W\ith a bunch of keys lie had found ho went to the stables, after some dilliculty gained access, and propped the crazy (loors and win dows open~ to the sun. Trho building was airy and well-lighted and1( con tainedl a dozen roomy box-stalls, a spacious loft and a carriage-house. The straw bedding had beent unre mnoved, mice-gnawed sacking and rotted hay lay in the mangers, and the warped harness, hanging on its pegs, was a smelly mass of mildew and decay. ie found a stick, mowed away the testooning cobwebs, andl moved the debris piece-meal. "Thero!" ho said with satisfaction. "There's a placo) for the motor-U Uncle Jefferson ever gets. it here." It was noon when lie returnied, after a wash-up in the lake, to the meal wvith which Aunt D~aphne, in a costume dimly suggestive of a bran-meal poul tice with a gintgham apron on, regaled him. Frzied chicken, corn-breadi so soft and fluffy that it had to be lifted from the pan with a spoon, browned Ipotatoes, andl to his surprise, fresh milk. "'Alh (dono druv ouah oh' pow ovah, suh," explained Aunt Daphne. "'Case she getter 1)0 milked, or she run dry ez d10 Red Sea fo' do chillon oh Izrih." "Aunt Daphmno," inquired Valiant with his mouth full, "what do you call this green thing?" "Dat? Dat's jes' turnip-tops, suhi, wid or hunk er bacon in d1o pot. Laws. er-me, et cer'n'y (10 me goodI ter see ye' git arter' it dat. way, suht. Iteck'n yo' got er app~ertite! llyuh, llyuh!" "I have. i never guessed it, before, and it's a magniicent discovery. I low ever, it stuggests unweicomno reflee tions. Aunt D~aphne, how long dor you estimate a man can (1ino like this on --well, say on a huIndlredl dollars?" "Er hiun'ed dllahs, suhb? Dat's et right smart heap o' monmey, deed et isi Well suh, 'pen's on whut, ye' raises Ef ye' raises ye' own gyarden-sass or1 chick'ns on nigs, Alt reck'n ye' il live longahi dan daft ar Methoosalum en still haf mos' of it in de 01' stock In'." "Alht I can grow allis thosa thingi imyself, you think?r "Yo' cert'n'y kin," said Aunt Daphne, "El'ybody do. Do chick'ns done peak Ifo' deyselves en do yuddah things-yo o'ny gotter 'courage 'em en dey joe grows." Valiant ate his dessert with a thoughtful smile wrinkling his brow. As he pushed back his chair he smote his hands together and laughep aloud. "Back to the soil!" he said./ "John Valiant, farmerl The miracle of it is 'that it sounds good to me. I want to raise my own grub and till my own soil. I want to be my own man! And I'm beginning to see my way. Crops will have to wait for another season, but there's water and pasture for cat tie now. There's timber-lots of It on that hillside, too. I must look Into that." He filled his pipe and climbed the staircase to the upper floor. There were many bedrooms with great four posted, cagnopied beds and old-fash toned carved furniture of mahogany and curly-maple, and in one ho found a great cedar-lined chest filled with bed-linen and napery. In these rooms wore more evidences of decay. The bedroom he mentally chose for his own was the plainest of all, and was above the library, fronting the vaga bond garden. It had a great black .desk with many glass-knobbed draw' 'er and a book-rack. He lingered longest in a room whose door was painted The Hilarium. :It had evidently been a nursery and 'schoolroom. Here on the walls were many shelves wound over with net works of cobwebs, and piled with the oddest assemblage of toys. There were school-books, too, thumbed and dog-eared, from First Reader to Caesar's Gallic Wars, with names of small Valiants scrawled on their fly leaves. lie carefully relocked the door of this room; ho wanted to dust those toys and books with his own hands. In the upper hall again he beahd from the window, sniffing the far flung scent of orchards and peach blown fence-rows. The soft whirring sound of a bird's wing went past, al most brushing his startled face, and tho old oaks seemed to stretch their bent limbs with a faithful brute-like yawn of pleasure. In the room below he could hear the vigorous sound of Aunt Daphne's hard-driven broom and the sound flooded the echoing space with a comfortable commotion. He went to his trunk and fished out a soft shirt on which he knotted a loose tie, exchanged his Panama for a slouch hat, and whistling the bar carolo from Tales of lioffmann, went gaily out. "I feel tremendously alive today," he confided to the dog, as he tramped through the lush grass. "If you see me ladle the muck out of that fountain with my own fair hands, don't have a fit. I'm liable to do any thing." His eye swept up and down the slope. "There probably isn't a finer site for a house in the whole South," ho told himself. "The living-rooms front south and west. We'll get scrumptious sunsets from that back porch. And on the other side there's the view clear to the Blue Ridge." lie skirted the lake. "Only to grub out some of the lilies-there's too many of them-and straighten the rim--and weed the pebble margin to give those green rocks a show. 'll build a little wharf below them to dive from, and-yes, I'll stock it with spotted trout." Ie was but a few hundred yards from the house, yet the silence was so deeop that there might have been no habitation within fifty miles. All at once he stop~ped short; there was a sudden movement in the thicket be yonId-thle sound of light fast footfalls, as of sonme one running away. Hie made a lunge for the dog, but with a growl Chum tore himself from the restraining grasp and dashed into the bushes. "A child, no doubt," he thought as he plunged in pursuit, "and that lubberly brute will scare it half to dleathi!" Ho pulled up with an exclamation. In a narrow wood-path a little way from him, partly hidden by a wind 'fall, stood a girl, her skirt transfixed with a wickedly jaggedl sapling. He saw instantly how it had happened; the windfall had blocked the way, and she had sprung clear over it, not noting the screened i'ncar, which now held her as effectually as any railroad spike. In another moment Valiant had reached her and met her face, flushed, half (defiant, her eyes a blue gleam of smoldering anger as she desperately, almost savagely, thrust wild tendrila of flame-colored hali' beneath the broad curved brim of her straw hat. At her feet lay a great armful of cape jessamines. A little thrill, light and warm and jcyous, ran through him. Until that instant ho had not recognized her. (Continued Next Week.) ('heek Your A pril ('ough Thawing frost. and A pril rain chill you to the very marrowv, you catch 'oldl---lhead~ and lungs stuffedl-yout are feverIsh-cough continually and feel miserablle- you need IIr. King's New Disc'overy. It soothes inflamed and Ir ritated throat and lungs, stops cough you head clears up, fever leaves and1( you feel flne. Mr. J. TV. Davis, of Stickney Corner, Me., "Was cured oi a dread ful cough after doctor's treat ImenImt anad all eot' remedies fai Iled. Rtelief 0or money b~ack. Pleasant chiildreni 111ke it. 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