Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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> j. /I SfeCONQUEST : / OF CANAAN i y ? By BOOTH TARKINGTON. LA?tKor tf "Cherry." "Monsieur Benu* ' ^ ea.ire," Etc. ! Copyright, 1906, by Harper <ft Brothers (Continued from page 8 ) ana who naa known mm m ais boyhood In the town. A lady, turning i a corner, looked up carelessly and then half stopped within a few feet of him as If startled. Joe's cheeks went a audden crimson, for it was the lady of his old dreams. As she came to her half stop of surprise. startled, he took his courage in two hands and. lifting bis bat. stepped to her side. , "You?you remember me?" be stam- . mered. "Yes." she answered, a little breathlessly. "Ah, that's kind of you!" he cried j and began to walk on with her uncon\ aclously. "I feel like a returned ghost wandering about?Invisible and unrecognized. So few people seem to remember me!" "I think you are wrong. I think you'll find everybody remembers you," she responded uneasily. "No: I'm afraid not." he began. "I"? She Interrupted him. They were not far from her gate, and she saw her fa- i ther standing in the yard directing a | paiuter who was at work oil one of the cast Iron deer. The judge was apparently In good spirits, laughing with the workman over some Jest between them, but that did not lessen Mamie's nervousness. "Mr. Loudeu," she said in as kindly a tone as she could. "I shall have to ask you not to walk with me. My father would not like It." Joe stopped with a Jerk. "Why. I?I thought I'd go In and i shake hands with him?and tell him 1 I"M~ Astonishment fhat partook of terror i and of awe spread itself instantly upon her face. "Good gracious!" she cried. "No!" "Very well." said Joe humbly. "Goon- j by." Joe gat him meditatively back to Main street and to the Tocsin building. This time he did not hesitate, but mounted the?siairs and knocked upon the door of the assistant editor. "Oh." said Eugene. "You've turned up, have you?" "I've come back to stay. Gene.'* said Joe. Bautry dropped his book. "Ex.*eedingly interesting." he said. "I suppose you'll try to find something to do. 1 don't think you couid get a place here. Judge Pike owns the Tocsin, and I greatly fear he has a prejudice against you." A *- - -~ "l expect ue uas, ?ive oiui&icu, somewhat sadly. "But I don't want . newspaper work. I'm going to practice law." "By Jove, you have courage, my festive prodigal! V raiment!" Joe cocked his bead to one side with his old look of the friendly, puppy. "You always did like to talk that noveletty way, Gene, didn't you?" he said impersonally. 'Ko$>oe's color rose. "Have you saved up anything to starve on?" he asked crisply. "Oh, I'm not so badly off. live had a salary In an office for a year, and I had one pretty good day at the races"? "You'd better go back and have an?\ other." said his stepbrother. "You don't to comprehend your standing In Canasu." "I'm beginning to." Joe turned to the door. "It's funny, too. in a way. Well, I won't keep you any longer. I just stopped in to sjy good day." He paused, faltering. "All right, all right." Eugene said briskly. "And, by the way. I haven't mentioned that I saw you In New York." i "Ob. I didn't suppose that you would." " 4 -J aatT anvfhlnflP nhAllt I AUU )UU Utxuu % so/ au; , It I fancy." "I don't think," said Joe?"I don't think that you need be afraid I'll do that Goodby." "Be sure to shut the door, please. It's rather noisy with It open. Goodby." Eugene waved bis hand and sank back upon the divan. Joe went across the street to the National House. The sages fell as silent as if he had been Martin Pike. Joe bad begun to write his name In the register. "My trunk is still at the Btation," he said. "I'll give you my check to send down for It." "Excuse me," said the clerk. "We have no rooms." "What?" cried Joe Innocently. He looked up Into the condensed eyee of Sir. Brown. "Oh." he said, "I see." Deathly alienee followed him to the door, hut as It closed behind him he heard the outbreak of the sages like a tidal wave striking a dump heap of tin cans. Two hours later he descended from an evil ark of a cab at the corral attached to Beaver Beach and followed the path through the marsh to the 3bl'.iig pier. A red bearded man i seated on a plank by the water Ashing. "Mike." said Joe. "have you got room for me? Can you take me in for a few days, until I And a place In town where they'll let me stay?" The red bearded man rose slowly. \ pushed back his bat and stared bard at the wanderer; then be uttered a howl of Joy and seized tie other's ha4l* In his and shook them wildly. "Qlorr be on high!" be shojited. "It's m jot? L.ouaen code oaitr We aerer "Excv*c me." v-id the clerk. "Wc haw itl> riwnuk knew how we missed ye till ye'd goue! Place fer ye! Can I flud it? There ain't a Imp o' perdition In towu. inciadiu' myself, that wouldn't kill me if 1 couldn't! Ye'U have old Maggie's room, my own auut's. Ye remember how she used to dnuce? Ha. ha! She's been bur.i!n' below these four years! And we'll l^nve the celebration of yer return this night. There'll be many of 'em will come when they hear ye're back in Canaan! We'll all hope ye're goiu' to stay awhile!" CHAPTER IX. IF any echo of doubt concerning bis undesirable couspicuousness sounded faintly In Joe's mind. It was slleaced eftsoous. Canaan had not fo;-g)treii h.iu. Far from It. so far that it uegati painting him out to strangers 0:1 the street the very day of his return His course of action, likewise that of his frieuds. permitted him little obscurity, and when the rumors of his finally obtaining lodgiug at Beaver Beach and of the celebration of bis in SCAiiatiou mere were v?u- . time 1 lie stooJ iu the lime light in- j deed. :is a Mephistopheies upsprung ' through t!ie trap door. Tlie welcoming festivities bad not | beau sj discreetly conducted as to ac- I cord wttb tbe general policy of Beaver Beacb. An unfortunate incident caused the arrest of one of the celebrators and tbe ambulaucing to the hospital of another on the homeward way, the ensuing proceedings in court bringing to the whole affair a publicity devoutly unsought for. Mr. Happy Fear (such was the habitual name of the imprisoned gentleman) had to bear a great amount of harsh criticism, for injuring a companion within tbe city limits after daylight and for failing to observe that three policemen were not too distant from tbe scene of operations to engage therein. "Happy. If be bad it in mind to harm him," said the red bqprded man to Mr. Fear upon the latter's return to society, "why didn't ye do it out here at the beacb ?' "Because." returned the indiscreet, "he didn't say what he was goin* to say till we got in town." Extraordinary probing on the part ot the prosecutor had developed at the trial that the obnoxious speecn nau referred to the guest of the evening. The assaulted party, one "Nashville" Cory, was not of Canaan, but a bit of driftwood haply touching shore for the moment At Beaver Beach, and?strange is this world?he had been Introduced to the coterie of Mike's Place by Happy Fear himself, who had enjoyed a brief acquaintance with him on a day when both bad chanced to travel Incognito by the same freight Naturally Happy had felt responsible for the proper behavior of his protege?was, in fact, bound to enforce it; additionally, Happy had once been saved from a term of imprisonment (at a time when it would have been more than ordinarily Inconvenient) by help and advice from Joe, and he was not one to forget Therefore he was grieved to observe that his own guest seemed to be somewhat Jealous of the hero of the occasion and disposed to look coldly uiM)n him. The stranger, however, contented himself with Innuendo (mere expressions of the face and other manner of things for which one could not squarely lay hands upon him) until such time as he and his sponsor bad come to Main street in the clear dawn on their way to Happy's apartment, a variable abode. It may be that the stranger perceived what Happy did not?the three bluecoats in the perspective. At all events, he now put into words of simple strength the unfavorable conception he had formed of Joe. The result was medlaevally Immediate, and the period of Mr. Cory's convalescence in the hospital was almost half that of bis sponsor's detention in the county Jail. When Happy Fear had suffered, with a give and take simplicity of pa tience, ms anoimem 01 momus m durance and was released and sent into the streets and sunshine once more, be knew that bis first duty lay in the direction of a general apology to Joe. But the young man was no longer at Beaver Beach; the red headed [ proprietor dwelt alone there and, receiving Happy with scorn and pity, directed him to retrace his footsteps to the town. "Ye must have been in the black hole ! of incarceration iudeed if ye haven't heard that Sir. I^oudeu has his law office on the square and his llvtn' room behind the office. It's In that little brick buildln' straight acrost from the sheriff's door o' the Jail. Ye've been neighbors this long time. A bard time the boy had Dersuadln' anv one to rent to mm. Dot oy paym' double tDe price be got a place at last. He's a practiciu' lawyer now. and all the boys and girls of our acquaintance go to him with their troubles. Ve'll see him with a murder case to try before long as sure as ye're not worth yer salt! But F expect ye ran still roll him by his name of Joe. all the same!" Ft was a bleak and meager little ofdee into which Mr. Fear ushered himself to offer his amends. The cracked plaster of the walls was bare, save for dust. There were no shelves. The fat browb volumes, most of them fairly new. were piled In regular columns npou a cheap pine table. There was but one window, small pane4 and sbadeless. An inner door of this sad chamber stood half ajar, permitting the visitor unreserved acquaintance with the domestic economy of tDe tenant, for It disciosed a second room, smaller than the office and dependent upon the window of the latter for air and light. Behind a canvas camp cot. dimly risible in the obscurity of the inner apartment, stood a small gas store surmonnted by a stewpnn. from which projected the handle of a big tin spoon, so that it needed no ghost from the dead to whisper that Joseph Louden, attorney at law. did his own cooking. Indeed, he looked,It! Upon the threshold of the second room reposed a small worn. light brown scrub brush of a dog. so cosmopolitan in ancestry that bis species was almost as undeterminable as the cast Iron dogs of the Pike mansion. He greeted Mr. Fear hospitably, baring been so lately an offcast of the streets himself that bis adoption had taught him to lose only his oW tremors, not U-1 ? 4 thn comn tlma Trw> ui9 ilv/^rtri uiuctvj. m iuv ?uu>v i.u<v ? rose quickly from the deal table, where he had been working, with one hand in his hair, the other splattering ink from a bad pen. "Good for you. Happy!" he cried cheerfully. "I hoped you'd come to see me today. I've been thinking about , a job for yon." "I don't want a Job. nohow!" said j Mr. Fear, going to the door. "I don't j want to work. There's plenty ways fer me to git along without that. But I'll say one thing more. Don't you worry about gittin' law practice. Mike says you're goln' to git ail you want, and if there ain't no other way. why. a few of us'll go out and make some fer ye!" These prophecies and promises, over which Joe chuckled at first, with his head cocked to one side, grew very soon, to his amazement, to wear a supernatural similarity to actual fulfillment His friends brought him their own friends such as had siuned against the laws of Cauaan. those under the ban of the sheriff, those who had struck in anger, those who had stolen at night, those who owed and could not pay. those who lived by the dice, and to his other titles to notoriety was added that of defender of the poor and wicked. He found his hands full, especially after winning bis first important case, on which occasion Canaan thought the Jury mad and was Indignant with the puzzled Judge, who could not see Just how it had happened. Joe did not stop at that He kept on winnlnr cases, clearinz the innocentand lightening the burdens of the guilty. He became the most dangerous attorney for the defense in Canaan. His honorable brethren, accepting the popular view of him, held him in personal coutempt, but feared him professionally, for be proved that be knew more law than they thought existed. Nor could any trick him, falling which many tempers were lost, but never Joe's. His practice was not all criminal, as shown by the peevish outburst of the eminent Buckalew (the squire's nephew, esteemed the foremost lawyer In Canaan), "Before long there won't be any use trying to foreclose a mortgage or collect a note unless this shyster gets himself in Jail!" The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was auguBt?tb?se was a kind of sublimity in its immenseness?on a day when It befell that the shyster stood betwixt him and money. That was a monstrous task?to stand between these two and separate them, to hold back the band of Martin Pike from what it had reached out to grasp. It was In the matter of some tax titles which the magnate had acquired, and in court Joe treated the case with such horrifying simplicity that it seemed almost credible that the great man had counted upon the ignorance and begottedness of Joe's client, n hard drinking, disreputable old farmer, to get his land away from him without paying for it. Now, as every one know such a thing to be ludicrously Impossible, it was at once noised abroad in Canaan that Joe had helped to swludle Judge Pike out of a large sum of money?It was notorious that the shyster could bamboozle court and Jury with his tricks, and it was felt that Joe Louden was getting Into very deep waters indeed. This was serious. If the young man did not look out he might find himself in the penitentiary. Joe did not move into a larger office; he remained in the little room with its one window and its fine view of the Jail. His clients were nearly all poor, aud many or nis rees | quite literally nominal. Tatters and rags came up the narrow stairway to his door?tatters and rags and pitiful fineries; the bleared, the sodden, the flaunting and rouged, the furtive und wary, some in rags, some In tags and some?the sorriest?in velvet gowns. With these, the distressed, the wrongdoere, the drunken, the dirty and the very poor, his work lay and his days and nights were spent. When Joe went about the streets be was made to feel his couditiou by the elaborate avoidance, yet furtive attention. of every respectable person he met, und when be came home to his small rooms and shut the door behind him he was as one who has been hissed and shamed in pnblic and rnns to bury his hot face In his pillow. He petted his mongrel extravagantly (well he might) and would sit with him In bin rooms at nlaht holding long con verse u-itU li:.u. iUe two uloae togetner. The do-^ ?mh uot bis ouly conflduut. There ratne to Ik* another. a more utid uure frequent partner to tbeir eon venation*, at last a familiar spirit. This tbird came from a brown jus wbicb Joe kept on a shelf in hisbedroom, a vessel too frequently replenished. Wbeu the day's work wa? done be shut himself up. drank aloneand drank hard. Sometimes when the Jug ran low and the night was late- hewould go out for a walk with: his dog and would awake in bis room the next morning not remembering where hehad gone or how he had come home: Once, after such a lapse of memory; he woke amazed to find himself at Beaver Beach, whither, he learned from the red bearded man, Happy Pear had brought him, bavlug found him wandering dazedly In a field near by. These lapses grew more frequent until there occurred that which was one of the strange things of his life. It was a June night, a little more than two years after his return to Canaan, and the Tocsin had that day auuuuuixu i Lie aiipruauuiug uiurrmj;<; of Eugene Bantry and his employer's daughter. Joe ate nothing during the day and went through his work clumsily. visiting the bedroom shelf at Intervals. At 10 In the evening he went out to have the Jug rifllled. but from the moment he left hi? door and the fresh air struck his fa -e he had no clear knowledge of wb: r he d'd or of what went on about hi::i until be woke in his bed the u :;i ; And yet. whatever lifrV part of the soul of him remained that night still uudulled. uot numbed, but alive, was in some strange manner lifted out of Its pain toward u strunge delight. His body was an automaton, bis mind in bondage, yet there was a still small consciousness in him which knew that In bis wandering something incredible and unexpected was happening. What this was be did not know, could not > "i! don't want a Job, noJu*wf to. id Mr. Fear. see, though his eyes were open, could not have told himself any more than a baby could tell why it laughs, but It seemed something so beautiful and wonderful that the night became a night of perfurpe, Its breezes bearing the music of hnrps and violins, while nightingales saog from the 'maples that bordered the streets of Cnuaan. (Continued next week.) Are you keeping up with "The Rise of Jimmie Johnson"? This man out acquainting of SCHNAPPS qualities that ? less expense tl SCHNAPPS has been a paper so that every che opportunity to get acqw facts and Imow that dm to produce the cheering < the famous Piedmont coi tobaccos, and that SCHN> ought to chew. Still tb who accept other and c that do not give the same ' # % ' . ' " w ^ " -,T ~ -C: "..- '. . .tmnm mmjm t . * m TO OT3T3 M ill Mm. 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