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VO*-uME XXXV. LAURENS, SOUTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, 2 1 19-9. 17 11. 11.I~i2 AU2 HOME,T 2UGH JOHN 5OGA (oon tinued from Last Week.) CHAPTER V. M'sungo led the march home; the donkey came next, with his nose glued to M'sungo's back and with Andrea in the saddle. Clinging to his tall with both hands, more as a drag-anchor than as deterrent, came Bathtub, and behind him the long rank and file. Andrea was sti4l sniffing a little, but her tear-stained face, like a child's, was already cloudless. "I think -Marguerite is too funny," she said. "He's got his eyes tight shut and he's steering himself by his nose in your shirt. Will you please tell Batlitub to lot go his tail?" "Bathtub knows his business," re plied M'sungo, but, as it happened, even as he spoke, Bathtub cast off one hand to receive a lighted white cheroot, a communal bit of property that had come up the line of personal attend ants, six puffs to a "boy." He never got a puff, for on feeling less weight behind, Marguerite opened his eyes, looked straight back on both sis of his lean body at once, flattened his ears and broke from the path at a dead run. The high cantle of the stock saddle yaved Andrea from staying just where sho started from. She was a horse woman, born and bred, consequently even while her amazement was at its height, she wrapped the reins on her arms, drove her toes into the bucket stirrups and straightened her young back into the long, Strong and sawing pull of calm desperation, for Mar guerite was headed straight for the leafy, low-hanging branches of a vast mafuta tree. Yells of delight resounded from every black man in sight with excep tion of poor Bathtub, who had re gained his double hand-hold only after baving been Jerked from his feet, and now dangled along like the proverbial village tin can on the trail of a ter rified dog. Above the din came to Andrea's very busy brain a shout that stood out like a sudden scream in a long nightmare, "Marry him or jump off I" Before she could grasp the deadly import of those words .she was hanging like a half closed Jacknife over a limb of the tree watching Marguerite browse as though nothing had happened, his tall still tightly grasped by a now grinning Bathtub. Ten minutes later the procession was under way again in the order aforementioned with the variation that the reins of the bridle were knot ted to the back of M'sungo's belt. An drea, too dazed to protest, pondered over this indignity, but when she final iy found her voice she decided to use it for another purpose. "I think it was horrid of the blacks to yell the way they did," she re markeod with suspicious meekness. "Don't you?" M'suntgo seenmed relieved. "I certain. 1y do," ho answered promptly. "But yon'll have to accustom yourself to the fact that obolo is the basic considera tion between the black man and all women in the world.'' "What (10 you mean?" asked An drea, myutified. "What's obolo?" *In this country," explained M'sun go, "obolo Is the market price for women. The best nitive authorities, however, contend that obolo is not a vurchaso price hut the remuneration to the father for the board, trainlng and general keep of his daughter up to the time of her marriage, and they base their argument on the fact that while women are property they are not chattel, title being nontransfer able," "Can damaged goods be ex. chtanged?" inquired Andrea icily. "Certt'nly," ho answdred, absorbed ina his topic. "IExchmanged where there's another daughter available; twhere there isn't, money is refunded by order of the courts. liut what I was driving at is that In spite of the 'contention mentionedl above, wherever a woman is concerned a black can never get it out of his head that she can be replaced at the regular market price. Now you've got the kern~e1 of bis whole attitude toward womnen." I__SoIt It ad baan you they wouldn't A PCE MEW YOR ar rAINEDGLABS 2DUe3.-BTC ERRLL COMPA1Y have lugheil a yeillea."' "In this case, yes," he said. "The3 nmost certainly would, because the3 had no direct responsibility. 1ut where responsibility attaches the rulf for rien Is a life for a life, and it's a rule that has no exceptions. Anyon( can brain a woman if he feels like i1 and get away with the identical obolc her husband paid for Iyr." "You seem to be a great admirer of the native social system," said Andrev quietly. "I am," answered M'sungo. "Foi natives, of course." "Are you sure you're not a bit taint ed with it for yourself?" "Sure," le answered promptly "That's part of the secret of my grir on every country I've shot over. I'n aloof. I've never turned my back or the White Man's God. Circular A i not for me." "What's Circular A?" He hesitated. "Circular A," lie said finally, "is the regulation that govern. the relations between British oillelalh under the colonial office and the wom. en of the tribes they govern." "I'm British." said Andrea, after a pause. "and I blush for the necessity.' "Yoti are prompt, like most of us,' said AM'sungo, "to sit in Judgment be fore any force of nature that you'vc never felt. Poor devils of clean-bred youngstersl Take one that I knew, Three weeks' training under his prede cessor, crazy to leave; a 'hundred thousand natives under his sole rulej one, perhaps two, bearded white faces a year. The long, long days after th< sportsman has been swallowed by the pot-hunter, when game becomes jusl meat! And then, the fatal hour al dusk when a passing native glrl-anj girl-looks to him like some woman al home! He marries, not by canonicalI perhaps, but by the common law of the land, and the 'people at homq shout 'crucify him,' but in the end it's God alone that will judge his agony and measu;e the price." He stopped speaking and for a long time they traveled in silene'. The suti was sinking fast-so fast that i1 seemed to be dropping by Jerks, likc the loose hand of a grandfather clock. "There is no twilight in the tropics,' saidi M'siNngo, "by the deliberate Judg ment of God who knows the capacity of the chart of man and would not have it burst." "I can feel what you mean," an uwered Andrea, "even though you haven't really saId it in words. The heart canm hold( Just so much beauty and no more; andl oven now, mine is aching I" "Andrea Pellor," said M'stmgo, "you have the faculty of' yo'ur sex. You have plauned the bautterfly." Shea felt a sudden revulsion a rage at this man, this stranger, wvho talked as she imuagined lie would *ght, with out gloves. Hecr eyes narrowed. "Up the way, whenu Marguerie bolted, juisl what was it you shinted at mne?"' lie pausedl in his strIde so0 suddlienly that the dozing dionkey butted into himr and almost knocked him ever. "Ehi What?" he asked to gala time. "Come on," persisted Andrea. "iusl say It again-what you shouted." "Well," lied M'sungo, "I may not remember the exact words, but it was to the effect that .you'd better head him oft or jump off." "Something like that," said Andrea incIsively. "only shorter. You yelled, 'Marry him or Jump off I'" "I believe you're right," said M'sun go, and added, apologetically, "You see, I didn't have much time to think,' "Exactly 1" said Andrea. "Instinc tively all yotu saw was a joke, like every nigger in the line. You didn't care what happened to me. I might have been brained undler that tree mnd you knew it end all you could think of was that you Just had time tc Iget in one more nasty bit of cleverness bef('ore-before I (lIed I" "Oh, no," pretested M'nungo. "Oc easy, now. Why, Marguerite has done that dozens of times. He knows ex actly hew to sice off his rider. And ibesides, he' always stops." "But what if he hadn't-what if hE had?" enntinnned Andrea hotly. "Oh. 'jo0 'knd* wliat I infeai. Wh'at if Ie had killed me?" "'But he wouldn't," insisted the man weakly. "He wouldn't think of it." Andrea pounded the horn of her sad. die. "But-what-if-he-had?" M'sungo suddenly whirled, thereby winding the quiescent neck of Mar guerite around his waist. He caught Andrea by both arms and fixed he. startled eyes with the blaze of his own. "You will have it i" he said, shaking her lightly, "your d- per sonal element I Well, I'll give it to you. If he'd hurt so much as a hair of your head I'd have shot him and then my. self and left word with you to bury ue both in the sume grave." She flushed and looked away. When her eyes come back to his set face there were three kinds of sparkling wickedness in thein-ten(lerness, th forked tongue of a serpent, and a two. edged knife. She chose the knife. "White Man," she said, "that wouh! have been adorable at the price-sln ply adorable !" * * * * The weeks that. followed were tb( rem-iking of Andrea physleally. Eac day ,;he %valked more anmi fcii. it less Fro'n head to toes her body wa.s with out blemish and In her eyei1, he cheeks an.1 in the spring of her ligh step. -heer health tlew its rejo'ci. hiner. Day by day she followed M'sungo farther afleld, took more of an Interest in what he was doing be cause she understood it better Ind learned to wait tbefore she sat in judg ment on his actions, oft en surprising. always swift and assured. She evenl hardened herself to tccompanyIrig hiun in 1isi hunts for imleat for tle cami pot and there wits nothing that lie dib that gave her a deeper insight into hhi composition than this sone butcher ing. He made no secret of his distaste for the job and neveri an apology. Hav Ing a disagreeable task on his hands he faced it squarely ind going out t( kill, laid his plans, held to them 'with unswerving concetstration and killed with a dispatch that was blood-cur dling but admirable. It' was during the return from one of these expeditions that lie expound ed his definition of justifiable plunder. With his memory raw, as Is the whole world's, from contact with the long heralded Superman come to life to ex pose in the flesh the brutalizing doc trine of "thine is name if I can take it," lie found himself on treacherous ground ain( his words picked their i way slowly as though bent on avoid ing all misunderstanding. "It is the truth," he said thought fully, "that the spirit of man advances only by plunder and the corolltry to that is the fatet that the plundered world is always the more fruitful, but the imimrdonale sitn as far as peopie are concerned is the failure to dtefine rohery under arnis from prodluctive pliunder, and you can almost say the same thing of individual relationship." Ile glanced at her and something of his earnestness passed to her with the look. "Go on," she said kindly. "Can you believe me," he continued, $"when I tell you that no one wias more surprised than the Superman himself when lie assumed flesh after his long preparation and awoke to find himself a Vandal-a Frankenstein? The theory was perfect-all that was lacking were the things of the spirit, the breath of life without which any ani miatedl creation becomes automatically a monster. "And yet the collective spirit of man adlvances only by pilunder. You can see it in noy owvn c('unitry, yestcerday, In Africa today and it will conic in fte other Amenlens tomorrow. TIhe great e'st thing ever said tby Salisbiury, a rock among mcen, was thatt ruins ai-o not evidence of Occuption atnd flint packed epigram brings us face to face with daonger at the fork of thei road of freedom," "Oh, White Man," said Andrea, her brow puckered wvith internal effort, "please apply it to individuails." lie started to natil her to the tradi tions of her sex butt something truly pleading in the tone of her- voice inade him turn boldly to thie personial, after all, and howvever much we may Jeer at it, the ultimate measure of sincerity. "I will," he said. "If ever I'm bent on plunidering the heart of a woman, I'll travel the highroad of surrender in the company of ravage utnd love. I'll give and still give anid with each giv lag will grow the heaped mountain of my demands. Y'ou see it, don't you? That's justifiable plunder." Andrea's cheeks flushed, hier eyes were dreamiy with new thoughts and old emotIons. While the supply of the vast larder and the supervision of' thle fiber camp formed the major part of M'sungo'n untiring industry they were by no mecans the total of his aff'airs. Watch Ing him, Andrea soon leanied why lie never lunched, Ie hadn't the time; too many things pressed to his atten tlion. ie was ai governor Onl nio meanll scale andI (luring the midday irest hour he wvould_ pass from group~ t - goupJ Continued from 4th nage, this section. A Letter to Santa Claun. Dear Santa Claus: -T am in the first grade and am neve years old. I want you to 'bring me pretty curly haired, big doll and "Billy Whiskers" book, and a slat to write on. And some nuts and fruits, anl car dy, fire-crackers and othe firework You will find my stocking In it Isual placo on the right side of th fireplace by one more. Wishing you a Merry Christia Katherine lludgen! S SILI and Lac for ti Ladies' Silk prices are go vise hosiery I hosiery want by spending L) Ladies' pur brown, grey an< Ladies' pure t brown, grey an< Ladies' silk grey and white, Ladies' lac white, the pair ! HOL pA w in crepeanlie box, 75c, $1.00, $1 Boxed embroic floral corners; pric< Children's box - Ladies' Lisle H1 -white, brown, 50< -i pair. Ladies' woo) S75c and $1.00 the i A Dead Air and Disease. Dr. Leonard Hill, whose experiments a a few years ago, proved to the world a that it is not impure air but still, hu a mid, dead air that induces disease, de c livered recently a lecture on Infant mortality before the Royal Society of Arts. In this lie rnid that babies died from being tuo much clothed as well as from being Improperly fed. 3 They should not be kept too warm or e too quiet, but shotld tie allow ed at times to be quite niked aind should be played with just to give thn ex ercise. PECIA H OSI lies' Handk, ie Holiday Hosiery is very sce ing up every day. So uyers to get busy an s at once. You can a dollar now for silk I WDIES' SILK HOSIE 'e thread all silk fashon I white, the pair $3.00. hread silk hose with Lisle I white, the pair $2.50. hose with seam up the ba price the pair $1.50 and $ e and drop-stitched hosi 1.50. [DAY HANDKERCI Ladies' pure linei handkerchiefs, fine each. Ladies' fancy Cr kerchiefs in all c< and 50c each. Ladies' plain whi handkerchiefs, pric 75c each. Ladies' white lay plain white and co and 25c each. Ladies' boxed ho put up in fancy Christmas pack~ 50, $2.00 and $2.50. lered white hand kerchiefs with 3, by the box, 25c, 50c and 75e. ed handkerchiefs, price 15c, 25< osiery, black, Boys' and and 75c the .I hosiery, 50c, iery, black, air. fl35c, 50c and GOOD PLACE TO TR A Horses Versus Elephants, Tests made to determino the re8pec tive pulling power of horses, men and elephants showed that two horses weighing 1,600 pounds each, together, pulled 3,750 pounds, or 550 pounds more than their combined weight. One elephant weighing 12,000 pounds pulled 8,750 pounds, or 8,250 pounds less than its weight. Fifty men, aggregating 7.500 pounds, pulled 8,750 pounds, or ,is:ns much nq the single clophant, but, like the horse, thry pulhi more than their own weight. One huindred Men pulled 12,000 poutids. L l E RY erchiefs rrade trce, and the we would ad i supply their save a dollar osiery. RY ed hose, black, garter top, black, ck, black, brown, 2.00. ry in black and IIEFS i white hemstitched quality, 50 and 75c epe-de-Chine hand >lors, price 25c, 35c te hand embroidered e 25c, 35c, 50c and 'n handkerchiefs in lors, price 10c, 15c. liday handkerchiefs ages. Price, by the' fancy embroidered and 50c a box. Girls' Ribbed los brown and white, 75c the pair. ~DE