Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1( $10,900 For 1,000 - Words or Less For an Idea For a Sequel to "THE DIAMOND FROM THE SKY" * a ** ! u t lbe American z urn n ami lecturing Company's Pictorized i Romantic Novel In Chapters. This oontcct is open to any man, v woman or child who is not connected, dirsctly or indirectly, with the Film Company or the newspapers publishing the continued story. No literary ability is oeoessary to qualify as a contestant You are adrised to oes tbs continued photo play in the theaters where it will be shown?to read the story as it runs every week, and then send in yoar suggestion. Contestants must confine their contributions for the sequel to 1,000 bvordr or las*. It is the idea that u wanted. 8YNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS. A bitter feud has existed between Colo* nel Arthur Stanley and his cousin. Judge ; Lamar Stanley. The feud has been engendered in family jealousy over an heirloom, the diamond from the sky, that was found In a fallen meteor by an adventurer ancestor. Also, the succession to the Stanley earldom in England may come to an American Stanley. When a daughter is born to Colonel Stanley of the eldest branch of the Stanleys in America and the mother of the child dies at its birth, the chagrined colonel buys a newborn gypsy boy and substitutes him as heir. Three years later the gypsy mother, having had no part in this bargain, steals the colonel's little daughter, being reared in secret, and leaves her own eon undetected as the heir. The gypsy mother has also obtained possession of the diamond from the sky and a document containing the secret of the false ^ heir. She rears the little girl, Esther r Stanley, as her own and grows to love her. When Esther is grown a beautiful k young girt. Hagar, now gypsy queen, returns to Virginia with her. She has a wild plan that Dr. Lee, the late Colonel Stanley's old friend, may now adopt Esther, as originally Intended. Her hope also is that her son. the supposed Arthur Stanley 2d, may fall in love with Esther and thus the Innocent girl may become by marriage what she is by birth?mistress of Stanley hall. Dr. Lee adopts Esther^ but also demands that Hagar turn over to his custody the diamond from the sky. Dr. Lee also Informs Hagar ? that her son, the supposed Arthur Stanv ley 2d, is *a profligate and not worthy of Esther, but Hagar hopes for the best and with her people departs. Arthur Stanley does fall in love with Esther and 60 does his boon oompanion, Blair Stanley, the cousin who would be the rightful male heir of Stanley were the Stanley secret j known. In ste&Ung t:ie diamond emir T causes the death of the doctor. Outside Is Arthur, serenading Esther. Blair, es^ caping, insultingly infers to Arthur that he has left Esther's room. Arthur forces him to fight a duel In which Arthur Is victor and tumbles Blair into an open grave. He searches Blair and takes the diamond from the sky. Blair is only stunned and tries, with the aid of his mother, to place the blame for the murder of Dr. Lee upon Arthur. The sheriff attempts to take Arthur, but after a thrilling drive in a high powered motorcar Arthur eludes his pursuers and is % thrown into the river after a emashup. His body is seen floating down the river. Arthur is revived by Hagar, who reveals his identity and upbraids him. Needing money, he pawns the diamond In Richmond. Blair is in Richmond, living riotously. and he, too, is forced to visit the pawnshop. After explanations the two agree to stand by each other. At a ball, to which Blair has invited Arthur and at t which a supposed New York society belle Vl is the guest of honor, they are stunned to find the diamond on the breast of the New York visitor. She is an adventuress who has borrowed the diamond for the evening. Hagar attends the ball as a fortune teller, accompanied by Luke LovelL While Hagar is telling the "belle's" fortune the diamond is snatched from her breast. CHAPTER IX. "For the Sake of a False Friend." HAGAR*S hands almost touched the diamond from the sky as she clutched at It over the shoulder of Vivian Marston as It disappeared through the velvet window curtains clinched In a strong, dark fist. As for Vivian Marston, she caught ^ her breath with a great gulping sob, - and then she shrieked in wild alarm and pain, for the hands that had so mysteriously throttled her fair neck and snatched from her breast the great borrowed Jewel had been no gentle ones. In an instant the ballroom was in an uproar, and a frightened flunky had run at the first wild report there had been a jewel robbery to the front doorway and bad blown three long, fright Quavering blasts upon a police whistle. Outside the Randolph mansion Luke Lovell was scuttling through the darkness with the diamond from the sky. Idling on the outside and waiting for his mistress, Ha gar, the gypsy queen, rand Esther, Luke had glanced through flie low window only to have his gaze fail upon the blazing JeweL Never overscrupulous, he always remembered the whispered gypsy gossip that Matt Harding, the dead husband of Hagar, bad made his fortune, now possessed by Hagar, by some bold coup. And here, thought the desperate Luke, was his chance for fortune. He was Quick to follow out the evil Impulse. , , H? gained tne street wicn tue wuu ' idea to hide the diamond In the first safe nook or cranny, and then to return as quickly as he could to bear the brunt of suspicion and of search. Inside the ballroom all was confusion and alarm. "Women screamed and fainted, and the men, foremost among j ( them Arthur and Blair, soon surrounded the hysterical Vivian Marston, listening to her broken story of being 1 strangled and robbed by two strong hands belonging to an unseen tliug in j the twinkling of an eye. I On the doorstep the frightened tiunky ! blew the police whistle again and j again. One i>ollce:nan who had been at the portals for some time, but bad sauntered away to give an eye to bis beat, was heard returning with rapid footsteps in the dark. Far off in the other direction another policeman oould b? heard rapidly approaching and sounding his night stick on the sidewalk. Luke saw the gleam of brass buttons under a gas lamp not a hundred yards away. He turned, his booty clasped in his strong bronzed right hand, to flee In the opposite direction. But coming in this direction was the other accursed policeman, making the night niaeous with the poinding of his club on the pavement Luke realized he was trapped. To throw the diamond Into the street might mean Its finding and his subsequent conviction for its theft His hand struck something oold. It was an iron mall box on a lamppost Beneath the lamppost was a circle of shade that masked his action. Quick as thought be dropped the jewel, witjp Its locket and chain, Into the mall box and ran toward the policeman pounding the sidewalk, crying excitedly, "He crossed over here and went through that hedge and lawnf* "Oh, no, he didn'tT said the puffing policeman, giving the sinister looking Luke a glance of quick suspicion. "He ran right Into my arms. I got him. Brady !r' he added to the other officer. Together they haled the protesting Luke to the portals of the Randolph mansion on the front street, and they dragged him la Here Luke told his story with many vehement asseverations as to his o^u honesty. He said he had strolled to the corner of the house from the front doorstep and had been astounded to [ see a tall, dark man leap from toe j ground floor balcony of a side window, dart across the street and through a hedge and across the lawn on the opposite side and disappear in the dark. He was making after this fleeing marauder when the policeman grabbed him, be added sullenly. Hagar vouched for her man, and Luke insisted on being searched. This being only fair, the search was made and the missing Jewel was not found. But the police insisted on holding the gypsy, and he was being led away when, as fate would have it, an even greater contretemps was to occur, an even more unenviable notoriety was to attend Richmond's most fashionable function, Mrs. Burton Randolph's annual ball. Sheriff Sam Swain of Fairfax appeared in the doorway, accompanied by Detective Tom Blake. "I want Arthur Stanley over there for the murder of Dr. Ilenry I^ee of Fairfax!" cried the sheriff. The fact1 of Blair Stanley blanched. "Remember your promise, Arthur," be j whispered. "You cannot go to the galI fHRossa KSSEMI i ?SHj^^t^\;; :< ''w^ iv*T^ They Surrounded the Hy.'erical Vivian Marston. lows for me. You must tell the truth If you are tried. But you can save me If you escape." Arthur nodded and broke loose from the grasp of Sheriff Swain. Blair fought as best he could to aid his supposed cousin, but his now hysterical relative, the chagrined Mrs. Randolph, threw her arms wildly about him and so held and hampered him as she shrieked, "They will kill you, Blair!" that he could do but little. Then, too, Vivian Marston added her efforts to restrain him. It was no time for Hagar to speak. She realized that it were better that Arthur escape if he could even under the onus of unjust suspicion. One of the policemen released his hold on Luke Lovell and came to the aid of the sheriff. Arthur fought like a madman, and the struggle surged from the ballroom to the hall and out down the steps to the sidewalk. Arthur was slowly but surely being overpowered when Hagar, who hovered near the fighting men. plucked Detective Blake by the sleeve and gave him a significant sign. Such was the mastery of that look and sign that the de tective relaxed liis efforts in aiding his ( more oificial brethren of the law. Arthur wrenched himself loose and i felled the sheriff and the policeman, broke through the ring of cabmen and 1 flunkies and was gone! Hagar new rea ped she should have taken Blake more Into her confidence, ! for all the detective knew was that his client had been seeking Arthur Stnn! ley with no good intentions to the fu! gitive. So when later on the same day j he had located Arthur with Bialr be had given the same information as to strenuous encounter tnrougn wnicu ue had just [Missed Ills silk hat, somewhat ruffled and battered, as examination proved, was still ui>on his head. "How will I ever escape in these togs?" he said to himself ruefully. "They'll have my description broadcast in an hour." Yet he did not falter for all that, but hurried on in the night through the deserted streets, and in some fifteen minutes' brisk walk found himself, by rare good luck, in the railrrwi/t vnrrla nnd hv n lnnc freieht train. H? Dropped the Jewel Into the Mail Box. where Arthur might be found that nipht to Sheriff Sum Swain, freshly arrived from Fairfax. Down the street, the quiet, deserted residence street of Richmond's fashionable residential neighborhood, fled Arthur. Behind him the sound of the 1)0lice whistles and the pursuit grew fainter. Arthur, In splendid pnysicai trim and spurred by excitement, ran like a deer. He slipped down an obscure alley, crossed by the backs of a half score of mansions, and foundphimself in a mean street that led down to the railroad tracks. The pursuit was left far behind or else it had gone off in a false scent in another direction. Arthur slackened his jwce and regained his breath. He looked down at himself and saw that he was in evening attire. True, in the struggle his clothes had received some rough handling. His dress coat was torn under the sleeve and his low cut waistcoat flapped apart, bereft of its buttons. And Arthur gave a little laugh as he saw his shadow under a dim street lamp and realized that despite the just slowly moving out With reckless haste he threw himself under a freight car and drew himself upon the brake beam. His head ached from the notse and the reaction of all he had passed through In the crowded hour at Mrs. Randolph's ball. Every bone In his body ached as he held to the Jolting, creaking, brake beam. Cramped and bruised from the position In which he lav on his narrow, perilous perch above the grinding wheels, a dreadful impulse seized upon Arthur to let go his straining grasp and end the now fitful fever of his life beneath the clanking wheels that ground and groaned beneath him. What was he after all but a living falsehood and a cheat? Not a Stanley of Stanley hall, spending with a free hand as became a reckless gentleman, but a gypsy Impostor, a cheat wasting substance that was not his! A fugitive from Justice and a bankrupt believed by all who had known him to be the murderer of a kind and gentle old man who had never harmed lilm, but on the contrary had been his friend and had been one of the agencies by which he, a hedge born gypsy, had been reared in a mansion under a high name never his. The glamour of his self sacrifice In smeiuujg rwiur uuu uiua wu&iug self a voluntary murder suspect passed from Arthur. He saw now that in saving Blair he had only done so to save himself from the open shame and humiliation that would come to him when the searching inquiries of a murder trial, with the evidence that Hagar possessed?evidence he felt sure she would produce to save the life of her son?would result in his acquittal of murder, but would leave him stripped of the peacock feathers of the Stanley heritage that he. the gypsy Jackdaw, had worn so long. He saw in the dust and darkness the baleful gleam of the diamond from the sky. He saw the accusing, fierce gaze of his gypsy mother, and then, like a benediction and a saving grace, he saw. in the dust and gloom, the sweet face and the sad, wistful eye of Esther! He grasped the cold iron rod itanchly now. Let destiny deal him wL.it it might, he would stand the buftx ts and fight on for Esther's sake! CHAPTER X. Lost?The Diamond Prorn the Sky! j?\N*D what of tlii? diamond from /VA the sky? Torn from the fair throat of Vi\ U;u .Marston, it lies in a mail box. with no light to gleam upon it and be reflected back intensified. With letters and packages and newspapers folded tight lies the diamond from the sky without a stamp to make it mall of any class. Then comes tlie busy mail collectoi, with bis mail collecting car. There is some excitement at the Randolph man- ' sion close by. Police whistles are blowing and a thundering fight is going on on the sidewalk. But Bob Adams is one of Uncle Sam's mail men. Way for the U. S. mail, which has no time to stop for police, police whistles or shindies on the street But it attracts his attention, as do some hurrying passersby. and he opens the mail box and mechanically drags its contents into the open maw of the drawstring regulation canvas mail bag. Into the sack while Bob Adams, mail man, looks with averted head toward the "elegant scrap" goes the mail from box 413, and with it goes the diamond from the sky. Bob Adams gets bock from his collection route to tlie postofflce an hour later. Ills work is through, and he stops in to see his friend, the sergeant at potice headquarters, to lcirn what the row was all about that caused such a commotion and evidently put a crimp In the swell ball given by that grand? dame of Richmond, Mrs. Burton Randolph. Meanwhile 011 the sorting tables at the postoflice the local collections are being dumped from the mail bags. The clerk looses the drawstrings and holds the bags up from their bottom corners and shakes out the mail with deft and practiced rapidity. On the floor the emptied mail bags pile. They see hard service, and some are rent anif frayed. The inspector comes on his rounds and goes over the empties, marking briskly with a large piece of chalk "Repair" on those that need mending and renovation. Out to the loading platform go for the time being the condemned mail bags, and there all night they lay in the arc light, with only the eye of the night watchman upon them occasionally. Dawn tweaks at a small way station forty miles from Richmond. Here the freight train halts for orders, and here Arthur, so cramped and sore that every fiber of his I>elng aches, crawls from his perilous perch and creeps from under rue car into tne ausKy uuylight. Choked with dust, marked and matted with grease and dirt, disheveled and pitiful in what was hLs masculine finery of the night before, Arthur limps to a small pool of water between the tracks and is not too dainty to throw himself down beside it and suck up its refreshing coolness to his cracked Hps and p.-wched and feverish throat The trainmen are busy with their own concerns at water tank and telegraph station, far up the track and on the other side of tft? train. Across from him is a freight, going out on a ( branch line. The open door of a freight car seems to call him to its sheltering haven of escaiie. Arthur darts across the track, realizing what a ridiculous figure he must seem in his stained and disheveled dress suit a marked and battered silk hat still clamped tightly cn his head. The outgoing freight is gaining momentum as Arthur flings himself half jfBpWBgHM Fighting Wildly With the Outcasts. Into the open doorway, bu'. he misses his hold and would have fallen under the wheels but that two strong and dirty hands seize him by the shoulder and another pair as dirty and as 6trong grasp him also, and he is hauled into the oar like a grain sack to find himself safe on his side and looking up . * ~ ~ + ?Ki?Art CT-rin _ tUtU llit; tuuuicuuui.cs Ui lum ning, grimy' knights of the road. "You had a close shave of it, bo," wheezes the whisky voice of the first tramp to seize him. "But I gotcher, Steve!" "It's a plant, Strap!" cautions a little rat faced hobo who has skulked in the bock of the car and has given no hand in hauling Arthur from the jaws of death. "Whatcher mean a plant?" asks the one addressed as Strap. "Can't you see? It's a railroad bull," retorts the rat faced tramp. "Would any gay cat be wearin' the soup and fish?" and he points to Arthur's now dirty and disheveled evening attire. "Maybe de gink got it handed to him," suggests tiio- other tramp v;uo had assisted Arthur into the "side door Pullman." "Aw, can't ye see dcr.i glarl rues is his'n? Why. (ley are deity, bur d?y fits liim!" "You are right. Seotty." said the levler of the trio, and without ado he struck Arthur n terrific blow behind the ear that stunned him, for the moment. and the ueut instuut Arthur fed himself fl.ahtlng wildly with the thru strong and ac tive outcasts. Meanwhile, what of the diamond from the sky? Where was it? Be!) Aduru3 had swept if into tb mail bag without seeing it. the mai1 sorter at the postoffice hod given n< 1 $ L J # p y j M !! i > % i ':<> i '< 2&$> jj j j I* 9K ifc ? : " 1 ' " Only a H unchback Organ Grinder With His Monkey. cry to see it fall upon th.? sorting table and blaze back its sinister gleams puooui^ 11 UC4k4 JV4W V* V?V ? V? threw an empty mail bag marked with chalk "Repair," from a pile of those at the back of the track. The hunchback picked up the mall bag and called after the driver. But that worthy failed to hear the cry and Quabba waved the old mail bag after him. Then he felt something the size of an English walnut in his hand and under the dirty canvas of the bag. His sensitive fingers felt along the side earn of the bag and he could feel, even through the thickness of the canvas, that the object in the bag was a chain and locket The hunchback wheeled Into a near by alley, between two warehouses. No one had seen the mail bag fall from the truck, none noticed him turn up the deserted alley. It was only the work of an instant to loosen the drawstring and turn the mall bag inside out There, on the inside outside, strung the diamond from the sky. Its upper clasp engaged in the seam of the bottom of the bag. The itinerant musician thrust the diamond and its chain into his bosom and popped the mail bag in n garbage can hard by, then, his Ik art beating high. Quabba winked to the monkey and ceased to whistle to whisper: "We are <ieh men now, Clarence." And soon out from the alley came a hunchback organ grinder with his monkey. and the itinerant hunchback was the possessor of the diamond from the sky. to the incandescent light above, wnerp was the diamond from the sky? The watchman relieved at dawn on the loading platform outside might have known us he stepped across the mail bags marked "depair." But the side of Ills right shoe just grazed it. The truek driver might have known as he loaiie i the hags to be repaired, for like many a i>oor man he held a fortune in his hands for once at least In his poverty stricken life and never knew it Held by its clasp in the ravelings of the inner seam at the bottom of the bag. the heirloom of the Stanleys rested In the darkness of the soiled interior of the service worn old mail bag. The truckman held it in his arms and tossed it on top of Ills load. But his fingers just missed the feel of it. And so he threw away his fortune, perhaps an evil one, and drove o.? with his mind upon other matters than fortunes or missing gems of price. Down the city street from his huml-1 - 11 ?-vl.?tr. iwoMvwf nart uie iuwyiui$ [HUW: iii mc [x/vicoi *?? ? of the town carne Quabba. musician and a traveler. And he traveled not alone. With him was his orchestra and his collector of external revenue. True, bis orchestra was but a barrel organ and his collector of external revenue a monkey, but the organ was a fairly good one, sweet of tone, and the monkey was a simian of sorts and his name wns Clarence So it was that Quabba -was gay ot heart and sung to himself as he trudged along. Only a poor hunchback organ grinder with his monkey was Quabba. But his heart was light, his conscience untroubled and his appetite alas, only too good. The whole wide world was his, and no man was his master, and so Quabba the hunchback sang and winked at the monkey, Clarence, as if to say: "We ha vent a penny, Clarence, but what an appetite we'll have for breakfast?as soon as we pick up the price of one I" "Hi there, get out of the way!" shouted a rough voice, and Quabba, roused from his reflections, stepped aside Just In time to avoid being struck by a ruioctnn A 'Inlf' nf ttui vplllclp They took some $20 they found upon Arthur, for in addition to having lent Blair money to lose in Mr. Abe Bloom's* gambling establishment Arthur had generously given him almost all of the rest of the proceeds from the pawning of the diamond from the sky. Then the tramps stripped Arthur and proceeded gravely to ^toot craps for his clothes. They were won by the more fortunate Mr. Strap McGee, more fortunate in the fact that the dice were his and he knew how to manipulate them. Bruised and battered as he was. Arthur could not restrain a laugh at the ludicrous aspect the tramp leader presented in the dirty and disheveled evening clothes, with Arthur's broken silk hat perched jauntily on his head. The freight stopped at a water tank. . and the throe tramps withdrew, with many caustic remarks at parting. Ar thur freed himself from his bonds and with some repugnance donned the frowsy garments of the tramp. Then he, too, sprang from the freight car and made through a cornfield across the country. He reflected, with a smile, that the actions of the tramp would be his salvation. He was right in this, for shortly afterward Mr. Strap McGee, despite his indignant protests and explanations, was seized by railroad detectives and held on a telegraphic description of his attire as Arthur Stanley, wanted for murder. At sunset a good looking young tramp stopped in tbe door yard of A*lex Smith's farm and asked for work. The farmer put him to chopping wood; for his supper, and so well did heacquit himself and so soon did he gain, the good graces of the farmer's wife and the farmer's little baby girl that despite the tags of his attire John Powell?for such was the name Arthurgave?was greeted on the barn floorin the morning, after a restful night in the haymow, with a proffer of steady employment That same night by the wayside.. Qtiabba and his external revenue eollector, the monkey Clarence, camped Soon He Gained the Good Graces of the Farmer's Little Girl. beneath a tree. Again Quabba showed bis companion the diamond from thesky, and again he said to the monkey, "We are rich men now, Clarence!" Then he placed it in his breast, and the monkey snuggled close to him and they fell asleep and had such dreams as man and monkey may. But in the dawn Clarence awoke J ?I -a J'- -3 l.v. A una gtuueu cue uiumuiiu wiujuuiuwu^ lug bis master and climbed the tree* at the long end of his tether to examine his find undisturbed. But an owl in the hollow above the lower branches annoyed Clarence, and when he felt the Jerk of his string he stole an egg from the owl's nest and left the diamond from the sky in its placeIn Clarence's monkey mind it was a case of fair exchange and therefore not a robbery. His irate master on the ground, now wide awake, yanked at Clarence viciously, and the indignant monkey dropped the owl egg down into his master's upturned face. Nor would he help the frantic Quabba search high and low upon the ground for the missing Jewel of price, so soon found, so soon lost again! In the empty freight car as it bowled along the combat was over. Spent, worn and battered. Arthur lay bound on the floor of the freight car. his hands pinioned behind him by the I dirty leathern belt of Mr. Strap Mej Gee, gentleman of leis.i* "He ain't no bull in plain clothes, if j dem is plain clothes.' panted Mr. McGee as he nursed a swelling eye; "he ain't no railroad rich eider. Lie's a welterweight champam." lie added ruefully. This also was the opinion of Spotty, the rat faced little tramp whose suspicions had caused the combat, and likewise was it the opinion of Chicago rete. tne umuous nosed tniru memoer of the trio of travelers, for all these gentlemen bore many signs of the conflict through which they had passed. They had conquered Arthur, but at a frightful cost to the allies. "He busted me snoot" moaned Chicago Pete, "an' jest for dat I'll hand him a shoe full of feet," and, standing over Arthur, helpless and pinioned, the gentleman from Chicago gave him a brutal kick in the ribs. "An* jest for dat we'll frisk young John L. an' swipe his glad rags, too." asserted Mr. Strap McGee.