MAM' LINDA.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17388, 28 March 1928, Page 3

MAM' LINDA.

CHAPTER XIII. "Oil, no thin' much/' JJraidei- answerett,j >\;itU a white .sneer or fury. "We i'hC'opped 'here witli Pete Warren to borrow your horses to git Mm over the mountain to the Giimore gaol, an' your wile here grabbed Bill's gun while i was in the stable an' deliberately turned the- nigger loose!" "Great God! What's the matter with you?" Parsons thundered at Ins wife, who,.. red-faced and defiant, stood rubbing a small bruised spot no her ■wrist.

"iSiothin's the matter with me," she retorted, "except I've got more sense than you men Have. I. know that boy didn l icili them folks, an' I didn't intend to see yoii-aIJ Ivnch Mm."

"Well, 1 know he did!" Parsons yelled. "But he'll be caught before night anyway. He can't hide in them woods from hounds Mike they've got down the load."

"Your wife Mowed he'd he safer in J the woods than in the Giimore gaol," Braider said, with another sneer. "Well, he would. As for that,'' Parsons retorted, "if you think that army headed by the dead woman's'daddy an' brothers wohld halt at a puny birdcage like, that gaol, you don't know mountain' men. They'd smash the damn thing like an egg-shell. I reckon a slierilt' has to pretend to act fer the law, whether lie earns his salary or' not. Well, I'll go down te road an' tell 'em whar to look. Thar'll be a picnic som'er's nigh here in a powerful short while. We've got men enough to surround that whole,mountain.'l CHAPTER XIV. i . The following night was a cloudless moonlit one, and restlessly and heartsore Helen walked the upper floor of the verandah, her eyes constantly bent on the street leading past Dwight's uu to the centre of the town. The greater part of the day she had spent with Linda, trying to pacify -her and rouse the hope that Pete would.not be implicated in the trouble in the mountains. Helen had gone down to Carson's office about noon, feeling vaguely that he could advise her better tha anyone else in the grave situation. She had. found Garner seated at his desk, bent over n law-book, a studious expression on his face. Seeing her in the doorway, he sprang up gallantly and proffered a rickety chair, from which he had hastily dumped a pile of old newspapers. "Is Carson in?" she asked, sitting down.

"Olt. no. lie's gone over to the farm," Garner said. "I couldn't hold him here alter lie heard of the trouble. You .see, Miss Helen, he thinks, from a i'ew things nicked up, that Pete is likely to he suspected and he roughly handled and, yon know, as he was partly the cause of the hoy's going there, he naturally would feci -" "I was the real cause of it," the girl broke in. with a sigh and a troubled face. "We both thought it was for the best, and if it results in Pete's death I shall never forgive myself."' "Oh. I wouldn't look at it that way." Garner said. "You were both acting for what you thought was right. As I say. T tried my best to keep Carson from going over there to-day. but he would go. We almost had an open rupture over it. You sec, Miss Helen. I have set my head on seeing him in the legislature, and he is eternally doing things that kill votes. There is not a thing in the category of political offences as fatal as this very thing. He's already taken Pete's

|f"OUR"SERiAL"STOBY'|&i

By WILL N. HARBEN. (Author of "Ann Boyd," "Pole Baker," "Abner Daniel," etc )

j part and abused the men who whipped him, and now that the boy is stispeeti ed of retaliating and killing the Jolui--1 sons, why, the people will—well, J. j wouldn't be one bit surprised to see | them jump on Cawson himself. Men \ infuriated like that haven't any mors. sense than mad dogs, and they won't j stand for a white man opposing them. '.But, of course, you know why Carson is acting so recklessly?" "I do? What do you mean, Mr. Garner?" The lawyer smiled, wiped his facile mouth with his small white hand, and said tea singly: "Why, you arc at the bottom of it. Carson wants to save the boy simply because you are indirectly interested in him. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. He has been as mad as a wet hen ever since they whipped ePte, because he was the son' of your old mammy, and now that the boy's in actual peril Carson has gone clean daft. Well, it's reported among the gossips about town that you turned him down, Miss Helen—like you did some oT the balance of us presumptuous chaps that didn't know enough to keep our hearts where they belonged—but you sat on the best man in the bunch when you did it. It's me that's doing this talking." Helen sat silent and pale for a moment, or two, unable to formulate a reply to his outspoken remark. Presently she said, evasively : »

"Then you- think both of them are in actual danger?" "Well, Pete hasn't one chance in a million," Garner said, gently. "There is no use trying to hide that fact; and if Carson should happen to run acress Dan Willis—well, one or the other would have to drop. Carson is in a dangerous mood. He believes as firmly in Pete's innocence as he'does in liis own. and if Dan Willis dared to threaten him. as he's likely to do when they meet, why, Carson would defend himself."

Helen drew her veil down over her eyes, and Garner could see that she was qiiivering from head to foot. "Oh it's awful—awful," he heard her say, softly. Then she rose and moved to the open door, where she stood as if undecided what step to take. "Is there no way to get any —any news?" she asked, tremulously. "None now," he told her. "In times of excitement over in the mountains, few people come into town; they all want to stay at home and see it through." She stepped out on the sidewalk, and he followed her, gallantly holding his hat in his hand. Scarcely a soul was in sight. The town seemed deserted.

"Madam, rumour," Garner said, with a smile, "reports that your friend. Mr. Sanders, from Augusta, is coming up for a visit." "Yes. 1 had a letter from him this morning." Helen said, in a dignified tone. "My father must have spoken of it. It ' will be Mr. Sanders' first visit to Barley, and he will find us terribly upset. If I knew how to reach him I'd nsk him to wait a few days till this uncertainty is over, but he is on his way here—is. in fact, stopping somewhere in Atlanta—and intends to come on up to-morrow or the next day. Does —does Carson —has he heard of Mr. Sanders' coming?" "Oh. yes; it was sprung upon him this morning for a deadly purpose." Garner said, with a significant smile. VThe whole gang—Keith. Wade and Bob Smith—were in here trying to keep him from going to the farm. They had tried everything they could think of lio stop him, and as a last resort set in to teasing. Keith told

him Sanders would sit in the parlour and say sweet things to you while Carson "was trying to liberate the exslaves of your family at the risk of bone and sinew. Carson was showing the finest proof of fidelity that was even given—fidelity to the man in the paiiojjr." "Keith ought to have been ashamed of himself," Helen said, with her first show of vexation. "And what did Carson say?"

"The poor chap took it all in good hmour." Garner" said. "In fact, lie was so much wrought up over Pete's predicament that he hardly beard what they were saying." "You really think Carson is in danger, too?" Helen continued, after a moment's silence. "If he meets Dan Willis, yes," said Garner. "If he opposes the mob, yes again. Dan. Willis has . already succeeded in creating a lot of unpopularity for him in tliat quarter, and the mere sight of Carson at such a time would be like a torch to a dry hay-

stack." • So Helen had gone home and spent, the afternoon and evening in real tortune of susnense. and now. as . she walked the verandah uoor alone with a, realisation 6f the grim possibilities of the case drawn sharply before her mental vision, she was all but, praying aloud for Carson's sale return, and anxiously keening her gaze on the 1110011111/ street below. Suddenly her attention was drawn to the walk in front of the Dwight house. Someone was walking back and forth in a nervous manner, the intermittent flare of a. cigar flashing out above the shrubbery like the glow o fa lightning-bug. Could it be.-had Carson returned and entered bv the less frequently /used gate in the rear? For several minutes she watched the figure as it strodeback and forth with never-ceasing tread, and then, fairly, consumed viith the desire, to set her doubts at rest she went down into the garden at the side of the house, softly approached the open gate between the two homesteads, and called out:- , "Carson, is that you? ' (To be continued.! i