Page Eight
THE BANNER-COURIER, QREGON CITY, OREGON. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1922.
Periwinkle
House
By Opie Read
Illustrated by
R. H. Livingstone
Oowrlght. Tin B41 Sjndict, las.
'; 8YNOP8I3
CHAPTER I The time Is the late "60s
or early '70s and the scene a steamboat
on the Mississippi river. All the types
of the period are present and the float
ing palace is distinguished by merriment,
dancing and gallantry. There are the
customary drinking and gambling also.
Virgil Drace, a young northern man, is
on his way south on a mission of revenge.
He meets an eccentric character in the
person of one Liberty Shottle, who is
constantly tempting the goddess of
chance. They form a singular compact
CHAPTIfiit n. IWace gets nis mina oQ
his mission by entering Into deck sports
In which he exhibits an unusual athletic
prowess. Liberty Shottle Is again un
lucky at cards and attempts a financial
negotiation with Draco. The latter, see
ing an opportunity to use Shottle, con
fides to him that his mission Is to And
a certain ax-guerrilla, Stspho la Vltte,
who had murdered Drace's father. It is
his determination announced to his new
chum, to hang La Vitxe as high as
Haman. Drace has become enamored
of a mysterious beauty aboard the boat
CHAPTER III. The Bteamer reaches
New Orleans, at that time In the some
what turbulent throes of carpetbag gov
ernment Shottle becomes possessed of
two tickets for the French ball, a great
society event, and proposes that Drace
accompany him to the affair. The young
men attend and Drace unexpectedly meets
the girl who had fired his heart aboard
the steamer. She Is accompanied by -one
Boyce, whose proprietary Interest indi
cates that ha Is her fiance. Through
stratagem Shottle learns that the name
of the girl Is Nadine la Vltte and that
her companion of the evening is the man
who is seeking to marry her.
CHAPTER IV. Drace passes an uneasy
night torn by the suspicion that Nadine
is the daughter of old Stepho la Vltte,
row an admitted outlaw. Now, more
than ever, is he resolved to find where
the girl lives and to find Stepho. Drace
and Shottle begin a search of the city.
In one of their nocturnal pilgrimages
they come upon a mob Intent upon hang
ing a poor wretch from the limb of a
tree. It is a typical carpetbag execution
and aroused the resentment of an oppos
ing mob of citizens. Drace takes a hand
in the fight which starts and is instru
mental in preventing the execution. From
a window opposite the scene, ha catches
a glimpse of one he is sure Is Nadine.
CHAPTER V. The escapade the fight,
the interference with the execution get
Drace and Shottle into bad standing with
the authorities, but Instead of punish
ment are given until the next day to
board a steamer bound north. Returning
to the house where he thought he had
glimpsed the girl, Drace finds the place
abandoned. Through Colonel Josh, an
emissary employed at the suggestion of
Shottle, he gets a faint clue in the dis
covery that a certain Frenchman, a wine
dealer, is reported to be an Intimate of
Stepho la Vltte. There Is only a short
time before the departure of the steamer
when Drace and Shottle go to call on
the Frenchman. The latter Is too keen
to be inveigled into giving up any Infor
mation, but Shottle, spying around among
the casks and bottles, especially the ar
ticles made up for shipment, makes an
Important discovery. So as not to arouse
the suspicions of the Frenchman, he
casually draws Drace away from the
Slace and onto the steamer. On board
e Informs Drace that one of the cases
was addressed to Stepho la Vltte at Far
num's Landing, Mississippi. It Is the next
stop below Bethpage's Landing and Col
onel Bethpage is Liberty Shottle's uncle.
CHAPTER VI.
About four o'clock In the afternoon
-the Bumblebee passed Farnum's Land
ing, and later touched at Bethpage
Landing. Prom the crest of the high
embankment was an endless view of
spreading cane fields. The General's
house stood In the midst of old trees
near half a mile from the river. Lead
ing from the landing was a road In the
perpetual shade of low-branching live
oaks. Along the 'road wild popples
blazed In patches of sunlight, and In
the shnde glowed the color of darker
blood. In clumps of feathery grasses
Insects sang, while from everywhere
came the low and drowsy murmur of
the cane.
Drace was enchanted with the scene,
the sweet air. Beside him Shottle
long-legged his way, his neck stretched
out
"Yonder comes Uncle Howard, the
General," he said.
Toward them, with a slow but firm
and emphatic step, came a tall, spare,
erect old gentleman; and as he drew
nearer, Drace saw that he wore a mus
tache and whiskers trimmed neatly
down to a sharp point. The soldier
within him predominated, the profes
sional soldier, who Is often gentler
and more kindly than the volunteer.
Shottle hailed him, and he quickened
his pace.
"Well, well, Liberty Shottle! Wel
come, sir, and your friend "
"Uncle, tills is Virgil Drace, my best
friend."
,The old man straightened, held out
both his hands and made Liberty's
friend welcome most hospitably.
Now they walked toward the house,
the General with his hand on Drace's
arm. Over the yard fence poured a
stream of hounds, and an old 'possum
dog "barked up" Shottle as if he had
treed. The double hallway doors stood
open. The General conducted Drace
Into the library, a room that looked
big enough for a tennis court Then
he . hastily withdrew, and Shottle
spoke :
"Gone to find Aunt Tycie. Tou'U like
her. No hickory tree sap is any sweet
er than her disposition. She was a
Shottle, my father's young sister.
She's young," as I told you. And she
looks younger now than when she
married. Did yon ever notice that
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Presently the great plantation bell
on a tower In the yard rang time for
the evening meal. The General arose,
and bowing to his wife, gracefully of
fered her his" arm. To Drace it was a
pretty ceremonial, and he contrasted
It with the more brusque customs of
eVeryday life Jn the North. ,
When an opportunity offered, Drace
inquired of the General, as casually as
possible. If he knew anything" of an
old fellow named Stepho la Vltte, who
was reputed to live somewhere In the
vicinity.
The General seemed somewhat sur
prised at the Inquiry. "Yes," he said,
"I know something of him. And I be
lieve there are rumors that he is some
times seen across the Elver near here.
During the war he was a guerrilla and
cast much blame on the Confederacy.
I met him once, after the war near
your father's house, my dear. My
mules were tired, and I had halted in
the shade to let them rest when up
came two men ; one put his hand on
the wheel of my buggy and said that
my mules were his that they had
been stolen from him. I laughed, but
meantime I had the muzzle of a pistol
between his eyes. He didn't flinch nor
wink. He looked at me and said that
he may have made a mistake. I told
him I thought he had. Then, taking
his hand off my wheel, he bowed him
self back and said that he would See.
me again, to apologize. But I haven't
seen him since."
In the evening how still and sweet
was the air ! From the quarters came
the weird drone of the negro's chant,
for the habit of the slave had not fal
len with his chain. In the parlor Aunt -Tycie
sang, In this house a custom to
be dreaded by the learned ear; but
Drace's ear was not learned ; Shottle's
was as an oyster-shell clapped to his
head; and In music the General could
not distinguish Intention from accom
plishment. . It was a song of love,
"Hast Thou No Feeling to See Me
Kneeling?" and when its last 'note had
found a dark corner wherein to die,
Drace requested her to sing It again.
She .gave him a grateful look ; the Gen
eral smiled at him ; and as the song be
gan again to mourn its way, Shottle
said to himself:
"If Providence will lend virtue to a
sch,eme, that will cost you money, 'Vir
gil. Came here to rest after going
through more than Stonewall Jackson
could stand, and this Is what I getl
Oh, It's respectable and ought to be
endured, and so ts a casket lined with
satin, but it doesn't suit me. Lord,
but this atmosphere is unsympathet
ic !"
If you have patience to-wait, bed
time always comes; history Is strewn
with bedtime. It came slow-footed for
Shottle, but quickly enough for Drace,
with his nerves of steel wire. And
how delighted he was with his room, a
museum of antiquity, a great four
poster bedstead with a canopy heavy
enough to have served as deadfall to
some medieval giant A chair that
looked like the oaken throne of an an
cient Briton, a wardrobo wherein Blue
beard might have hanged his wives,
a rough-hewn mantelpiece remindful of
a beetling cliff these were featured
In the light of a hanging lamp big
enough to turn the ashes of a cre
mated dragon.
The night was warm, and through
the windows the air came cool and
lulling from the Gulf; but Drace lay
until daybreak before he slept, and
when he awoke the noontime bell was
ringing. A negro knocked to tell him
that dinner was ready. The General
and Tycie were seated, but Shottle
was not at the table wkh them; and
following Drace's look of inquiry, came
explanation from the General:
"I gave him the five hundred dollars
that he was, to put In with the five
hundred furnished by you to be in
vested lnltlatlvely in that cotton-bagging
factory at Vlcksburg, and he took
an early boat for that city. I think it
Is a fortunate thing for the South
that they discovered a wild plant, a
sort of jute, really better for making
ropes and bagging than either flax or
hemp. I had seen nothing about the
discovery, but I am not a very close
reader of the newspapers. But Shottle
assures me that this wild jute can be
grown on the poorest land and that it
needs no tending. I am naturally cau
tious, Virgil, aed I did not myself In
vest, but backing your judgment In
the matter, I loaned Liberty five hun
dred. When do you expect active op
erations toward building the factory?"
Tycie forestalled Drace's answer:
"Oh, I am sure it will succeed, and
it will be a great thing, especially for
Liberty.' He has tried so hard, but
somehow his energies haven't been
properly directed. And he Is so cap
able!". She was so confident, and so hopeful
for her luckless kinsman, that Drace
played protecting villain to Shottle's
purposes.
"Well, I don't know exactly when
they are to begin work, but soon, I
trust"
She gave him a grateful look for his
trust, now perfectly assured of Shot
tie's useful future. But the General
did not appear to be easy in his mind,
and a little later when he and Drace
were walking about the yard, beneath
the trees, he referred again to the in
vestment Drace would have shuf
fled away from it, but the old gentle
man cornered him with a question: .
"I want the truth. Did Liberty lie
to me?"
"Yes. sir, he did."
"I began to think so the moment he
left me. Well, it is a singular thing.
ADS BRING RESULTS
"I Want the Truth. Did' Liberty Lis
to Me?" s '
that when he is with me, I believe in
him, but the moment .he is gone my
faith has gone with him. I have had
much experience with men, Mr. Drace,
in the army and elsewhere, but my
wife's nephew Is the most I don't
know how to define him. Let me
tKank you for protecting him In the
presence of my wife, and I regret that
I may have seemed In doubt. But
Drace, that fellow makes- me angry
with myself. Confound him, he almost
convinces me at times that I have no
stability of ' character. And yet I am
fond of him. I am alwaya glad to see
him come. And let me say that he Il
lustrates one truth very clearly that
ability consists mostly in the fervor
with which we go at a thing. . I sup--pose
he has cost you considerable."
. "Oh, not very much. I am fond of
him too, and I believe he is going to
be of much help to me." 4
"Well, Tve lost five hundred this
morning, but I can stand it. I have or
dered the mules hitched up, and am
going to drive with you about the
plantation. I am going to show you a
government here In the delta."
-During the drive the old gentleman
was talkative, sometin,;s with the
school man's hesitating precision, but
more often as the free companion,
agreeable rather than discursive.
Drace evinced in everything a keen in
terest, but it was not real. His heart
was "not with him. It was in New Or
leans, In a narrow street where hoards
were nailed across a door.
From what he had been able to
gather from the General and by talk
ing In seeming idleness to boatmen
and to men along the River, Drace
confirmed the information snatched by
Shottle from the label on the French
man's wine case namely, that old
Stepho had a haunt somewhere In the
neighborhood. A shrewd old negro had
said that the outlaw lived In the
swamp, in a house built of periwinkle
shells. On the opposite shore, and
several miles below the General's
home, there lay a great wood of cy
press and a thick tangle of salt cedar,
a sort of everglade, a marsh with hun
dreds of knoll-lslands here and there
rising among the bayous. Here was In
deed an outlaw's paradise, for Drace
was told that not" nearly all its lanes
and crooked byways of brown water
had bgen explored. Herein he began
his search for old Stepho, day after
day penetrating farther and farther in
to this moss-hanging wild. He did not
confide in General Bithpage, for his
mission was sacred unto himself alone,
and by himself alone must it be ac
complished. At his feet in the canoe lay a rope,
one end of it a hangman's noose, and
he smiled at It, grim and firm of faith.
Sometimes his canoe would stall in the
carpet of scum. But he forced his
way through into a narrow and unob
structed channel. Now he paddled
swiftly. In front of him a great alii- J
gator arose and sank, the canoe graz
ing his scaly back. With a shriek great
birds flew, flapping low', their long legs
stretched out behind them. Drace was
armed with a revolver, but did not
wish to fire it, caution warning him.
When he ceased for a time to paddle,
how still everything was! ,
The adventurer liked to feel that no
one had ever been there before. But
now suddenly something caught his
eye. In the green tangle on a low
bank he saw a pole with wires strung
to It ajsort of gate. The wires were
covered with vines, trained about them.
But for what purpose, here in this
brushy tangle? He caught hold of a
weed and pulled the canoe up closer,
took hold of the pole and now he
found a lower slat to which the wires
were also attached. Farther along he
discovered -a sort of hinge attached to
a snag almost hidden by briers.
"I'll open this gate and see what lies
beyond," he mused, drawing the canoe
back to the other end. He pulled at
the pole, and it yielded. The gate
opened, and through the weeds that
appeared to have been bent by the
passing of a boat, he saw a narrow
channel. . -
It was easy enough to shove through
the weeds and to eater the new canal.
Soon it broadened, winding about
among the enormous cypress trees.
Now he came upon a "widening that
looked like, a millpond,. except that in
the midst of it arose an island of tall
cane. It was an attractive sight, and
he censed paddling, to look. Slowly
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Ee drifted toward the" island's shore.
He took hold of cane root and pulled '
the nose of the canoe hard into the
bank. Then he got out, parting the
stiff and stubborn cane in a shade as
dense as night But now through this
parting hallway he could see sunlight
beyond, and knew that he was about
to come into an open space. And out
into it he looked with a start; for
there, a few feet from the edge of the
fringe of cane, stood a small house
made of minute shells cemented perl
winkles. Its. roof was of thatch, the
long rushes gathered from the swamp;"
and about the door was a cypress vine,
its red blooms dazzling in .the sun.
And then a bended cane Drace held
was crushed in his hand, for through
(Continued on page 10)
LOWER HIGHLAND
. Mrs. Dan Fellows J
jr ac jf f jf tf is jf tc if a" ? j? j? ?
Edward Stuart spent several days
last week in Portland.
' T. J. Wirtz is working for Ed.. Mc
Intyre, at present.
Mr. and Mrs. Bert Cota and Miss
Toomb were Oregon City visitors last
Saturday . "
Mr. and Mrs Calvin Garinger and
Eli Fellows visited Mrs. Laub in Port
land last Sunday.
Stephen and HI Fellows made a trip
to Oregon City, last Friday
Mr. and Mrs. Holmes and daughters
attended church at Oregon City, last
Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs. C. F.'Grossmiller,and
family attended the stock show in
Portland last meek.
Mrs. Ercel Kay of Salem spent the
week-end at the home of her, father,
Dan Fellows.
We are having some lovely fall
weather and the farmers are all busy
putting in crops and digging potatoes.
STAFFORD-
By Anna Chapman
J
"if K K " if K i s? jfifjf jcV jf3 '
The basket social given by the Staf-1
ford scrool Friday night, November 10,
was a great success: More than 150 i
was taken In from the baskets. The ;
program rendered by the students of
the grammar school, , was very good j
and showed careful and extensive ,
preparation on the; part of students
and teachers. The- proceeds derived j
from the sale of the baskets will be
used to put a floor in the gymnasium j
and play shed. . . j
Miss Josephine Seeman of Park- !
wood is visiting with Libbie Rabick
this week. I
The Misses Christene Elligsen ," Lib- '
bie Rabick and Josephine Seeman call-
ed on Eva Seedling, Saturday even
ing. Helen Wallis of Willamette called
on Lena Elligsen, Sunday afternoon.
Mrs. Lyle Tiedeman and Mrs. Otto
Pamperine spent Sunday at the Chas.
Tiedeman home.
Mrs. Adolph Delker and children,
Lydia, Marvin and Ellen; called on the
Chapman family, Sunday afternoon.
Mrs. Otto Pamperine, Ida Hafterson
0
2,000 Clackamas County people at
so small an expense.
Service
Counts
on your Winter Journey to
CALIFORNIA
(Observation Cars with comfortable chairs, wide windows and
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For low round trip fares, sleeping car reser-
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JOHN M. SCOTT,
General Passenger Agent, Portland, Ore.
and Phyllis Tiedeman attended the
church bazaar at Frogpond, Saturday,
November 11. "
Mr- and Mrs. Shaw- called on Mr.
and Mrs. Albert Chapman, Sunday afternoon,-
-
Mrs. Carl Ellinger spent Sunday at
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Zack Ellig
sen. ...
HAZELIA
By Hazelia School Pupils.
Lena Lehman and Everett Whitten
took dinner at the Tiala home, Sun
day. . - i .
Elmer Shipley of Pacific City visited
the home of his sister, Mrs. F W. Leh
man, Friday. . r ''
Mr. and Mrs. Wm Boyd of Oswego,
and' Mr. and Mrs. Fred Lehman were
callers at the Frank Whitten home one
evening this week.
"Margaret Papoun visited her school
mate, Evangeline Christiansen, Sun
day evening. '
"Mrs. George Espen of Portland spent
Saturday and Sunday with her aunt
and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. H. T. Dun
can. "
Mr. and Mrs "W". H. Zivney were call
ers at the Winthel Stangles home in
Wilsonville, Sunday.
E H. Cherney and family of Port
land ylsited J. Spousta and family,
Sunday. - '
John, JVilkins of Wilsonville took
dinner with his sister, Mrs. E. K.
Whitten, Sunday. .
Mrs. L. C. Lortz of Portland visited
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. E. John
son, Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Zivney and family
visited the former's parents in Oswe-
We believe that
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If you want to
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There is no oth
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SUNSET 1
OGDENftSHASTAl
'gp8 one day this week.
. Wilbur and Donald Lehman called
at the F. E. Whitten home, Sunday
afternoon. .
Mrs. W. L. Baker, Mrs. Hugh Baker
fand Miss Ethel Thompson visited at
the W..B. Cook home, Saturday, v
Miss Frances Willis took supper at
the B, J, Zivney home, Tuesday eve
ning. .
The farmers of Hazelia are busy dig
ging their potato crop. A fairly good
crop is reported by the farmers are
offered very low prices. i '
Mrs, A-J.' Thompson and daughter
Ethel and Mrs. Lizzie .Walling were
dinner guests at the J P. Coek home,
Sunday.
Several of the Hazelians' are on the
' ihe modem way
Turn, u at th mgn of the
aieio. ami, tnorougq fiuh
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Buy Pearl Oil in bulk the -same
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The Banner-Courier
sick list this week. Bad colds seem
to' be going the rounds.
A road meeting will be held at the
Hazelia school house November 25, for
the" purpose of voting a special road
tax for this district.
' Mrs. Lizzie Walling of Garden Home
is visiting old friends in and around
Hazelia "this week. She is staying with
Mrs. U. F Wanker and Mrs. -C W.
Childs, atypresent.
.. .. .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. ..
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From the best meats
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