f "
IWiCSCLTSWOOl
i
By M. V.
o
CHATTER VIII. (Continued.)
Hilly liilor looked very much relieved
r something. Probably at the prospect
of trouble. Or perhaps that there was
no pnlilic charge that any of Squire
Wie!;!y's money had cone into his pocket.
At the same moment Lizzy Wiekly was
snyi:ig:
"I don't mind it, father. And you
mustn't. We can't make it any better
by worrying so over it. And so far as
the land is concerned" hut she could
iiot go on without a Rort of spasm of
the throat that strangled her for ten sec
onds "why, . it isn't such a beautiful
tract as all that. Next time I'll buy a
quarter section in the second bottom
prairie. That will be a sensible pur
t'linKe. won't it?"
Mr. Wiekly looked at her with his
brows knitted into the sort of lowering
fiown that had until to-day been un
known upon his kindly face.
"You don't seem to understand," he
paid, harshly and slowly, and "with that
Ptraiige Hushing of tint, whole face that
liad made Dr. May shake his head, when
lie hail been called in to see the sick
man that morning "thnt I already know
that the mere hiss of those ugly wooded
l.ills and hollows is nothing! But is it
nothing that 1 must lose my fortune of
m.rio than a million three hundred tuou
H.'.nd, simply because I can have noth
ing upon which to raise a few hundred
dollars when it is needed to push my
t.isc? I believe that you actually want
imp to fail, or delay it until I die, so
that you can have it. Yes, that's it.
'I hat's the plot that you are capable of
concocting, and carrying forward! You
and that scoundrel, Mason! He put you
up to it! That's what you were in the
Woods that day for!"
He came toward her with his hands
clenched and his lips drawn in a sort
f horrible smile that changed and vi
brated between the appearance of ghastly
nirth and fierce anger. She had never
dreamt of such a mood in him. For he
had been the best and kindest of fath
ers never very helpful at bread-winning,
to be Riire! But so uniformly good
and kind, and sensible! And now in this
awful mood be surely meant to do her
harm!
At that instant Mrs. Wickly coming
Ji, fortunately announced In her ordinary
cheerful manner that "dinner was ready,
ond go on iu John; don't keep me wait
ing!" As if instinctively, or by force of long
taint, John Wickly turned slowly away,
nud with the menacing look fading into
41 sullen and brooding frown, he went
slowly out of the room and into the
kitchen, where they heard him moving a
chair as he always did 'in sitting down
to dinner.
CHAPTER IX.
"Xow, Lizzy, my child," said the moth
er iu a hurried undertone, "put on your
sunbonnet and run as quick as you can
can to Dr. May's and tell him that 1
want him to come, and bring some help,
if he thinks best. Run aow!"
"But hadn't you better go with me?
Is it safe for you alone?"
The girl clasped her arms convulsive
ly about her mother's neck.
"It will be perfectly safe for me, Lizzy.
Run, now."
The girl started, and her mother ran
after her to the door.
"When you come back, don't come in
horc he is, Lizzy. You know what
strange antipathies are often shown by
by by people under great mental excite
ment." She had hesitated at the very word
that was ringing louder and louder
through all the resounding labyrinths of
the brain. She had made a generaliza
tion where the specific object was most
glaringly before them, Lizzy thought,
an she ran through the dry, light, yield
ing sand of the street. If she had said
plainly what she so plainly meant she
would have said:
"Don't venture near him! ne is furi
ously insane, and is possessed of the
hallucination that you and Mr. Mason
arc plotting to injure and thwart and de
stroy him. He may kill you in a sudden
paroxysm of insane fury. Don't go near
him! Don't go near him!"
Unheeding the knots and larger
bunches of men that now literally dot
led all the conjoined thoroughfares of
Sandtown, scarcely stepping a foot out
of the way of the wagon loads of people
that were still coming in from the south
west by the River road and from the
northeast by the Overcoat road, Lizzy
ran on to the doctor's office, only to dis
cover that he wns not there.
"He's done gone down town some'rs,
long go. Reckon you'll fine 'im mebby
nome'rs whur they're agoun to hole the
meetun on the bank hustun. I'll go down
mi seef I kin ketch 'im fur ynh, ef you
wawnt me to," said young Billy Dikes,
who wns known to be "reading medicine
and tendun to Doc's hosses fur Mm," as
his father, little Bill Dikes, had tiaid jo
cosely in explanation of the process by
which young Billy had already achieved
the title of "the young Doc" upon the
spontaneous motion of the humorous
lloosiers of bis acquaintance.
The young Doc had clearly volunteered
to "ketch Mm," as an afterthought found
ed upon the signs of great anxiety and
distress in the young woman's face
signs of need of help that had appealed
successfully to the chivalric hearts of
these rough people of Sandtown ever,
heretofore, and will continue so to appeal
successfully, so long as one of their
.characteristics shall remain nnplaned
way by the smoothing and polishing pro
cesses of advancing civilization.
TAYLOR
"You jist set right down right h-yur,
in this h-yur chur," continued the kindly
young Hoosier, exhibiting all the hos
pitable instincts of all the hospitable
Dikeses, as far back as anybody can re
member. "Is your pap much worse,
Lizzy?"
All Hoosierdom has a fashion despis
ed of the polished East as it is of call
ing everybody by his or her christened
name! A fashion .that it is to be hoped
will not be planed away in the polishing
processes of westward-advancing civiliza
tion. "I'm afraid he's very much worse in
deed," Lizzy said, taking the offered
chair, and feeling that even this rude
sympathy lightened the burden of her
great grief. She had dreaded to reveal it
to the world. But she found that the
world of Sandtown knew it nlready, and
took active and partisan interest iu do
ing what it could to help her.
"I h-yurn urn say at this h-yur feller.
Mason is jist about the whole cause uv
yur pap's uh uh sickness?" "the young
Doc" said, as he put on his hat and lin
gered a little.
"I don't know. I can't think so. 1
don't know what Mr. Mason has really
done In all this terrible business. Will
yuti please hurry, Mr. Dikes? I left
inoliiei uiuiiu wi.k ::il. AM i m nneHiy.
so uneasy."
She sat down ngain as the young Doc
sprang out of the open oflico door and
ran down t he-street throwing up little
arcs of dry, sandy loam after each broad.
scraping shoe-sole until he disappeared
in the crowds that still closer and closer
drew to each other and grew nnd blocked
up all the thoroughfares of Sandtown till
not even a re-enforcing team from the
very uttermost end of the Overcont road
dared attempt a passage, but stopped and
bitched farther nnd farther out.
She sat and listened to the low buzz
of voices in the streets and in the court
house, and heard here and there louder
tones, and occasionally a wild, yell and
then a shout of laughter that indicated
some ludicrous accident to somebody by
somebody else.
Then all at once there was a complete
diminuendo as if all the voices had sud
denly and steadily slipped away to the
westward, and out of hearing. And then
she saw a two-liorse wagon drive away
from her father's door, with a number
of people in it. She had not seen the
wagon drive up. She had not been look
ing that way. But there was something
ominous in the driving away of that par
ticular wagon, that was now far out on
the Overcoat road, toward the little rail
road station. She watched it with parted
lips and widening eyes until it had hid'
den itself in the clouds of drifting, light,
sandy loam that perpetually rose up and
settled down upon the grayed surface of
all the jitnson leaves and the oak and
the maple and walnut foliage, that bore
their burdens of earth in patient assur
ance of the rain that must come and
wash them clean and bright again.
And then out of the hush, the finished
diminuendo of this general assembly of
the makers of public opinion for this sec
tion of the Wabash country, there drove
a strange and unknown two-horse car
riage, with a driver, whose figure com
ing within the field of her abstracted and
unfixed vision instantly caught and con
centra ted her gaze. Beyond a doubt it
was Mr. Mason, this time in broad day
light, driving toward her through the
crowd, and going eastward as to the rail
way station. He would stop when he
should see her! And there were others
iu the carriage one a fine, dignified look
ing gentleman. Was he Mr. Huntley?
She stood in the door nnd even stepped
down into the sand outside in order to
make sure that Mr. Mason would see
her. He had doubtless repented of his
determination to keep Prof. Huntley
away from her; and now he would make
all necessary and possible amends for all
his ungraciousness.
If so she could very, very freely, nay
even joyously forgive him. And that
much the more readily because of the
fact that since, so many people, in fact
practically the whole community, had
joined as with one voice in denouncing
and threatening Mr. Mason, she had turn
ed about and engaged, passively at first,
and then actively, in his defense.
What had he done to any and all of
the people of Sandtown that was half
so unfair, unjust and cruel as what he
had done to her? Compared with her
wrongs, theirs were a matter of nothing!
If she could afford-to become his com
pnnion, could anybody, in all Redden
township afford to say aught against
him?
As they drove rapidly nearer, she was
conscious of something altered about his
look, she could not tell precisely what
But it-wns something thut gave him a
totally different air, some way! Before,
he had been thoughtful, respectful, al
most subservient in all his actions in her
presence. '
Always watchful, respectful, and con
siderate, at all events, with a manifest
anxiety to jilease her. An anxiety so
manifest that perhaps it had tended to
prevent her from being pleased witfc him
at all. Now he had something of the
cold, hard, haughty look of the man who
is directing a great many men who are
"under him In every sense of the word
She saw this so plainly in that brief
time in which the powerful horses were
walking through the heavy-pulling dry
sana oi tne uvereoat road, that she com
pared this with his former bearing and
felt that there was a loss almost an un
comfortable loss.
And all these Impressions and reflec
tions wsrt redoubled and reduplicated,
and Intensified, w"hen to her utter surprise
and unending mortification the earring
did not stop, and the driver, Mr. Mason,
passed with only a cold and formal in
clination of his head toward her!
She fairly sunk down upon the office
door sill with a feeling of shame, sur
prise, almost angry resentment! She
looked after the carriage as the new
paint on is wheels glittered iu the sun.
She saw them whirl the light snud up
into little settling clouds, and she felt
absolutely like screaming at the very top
of her voice and starting in a wild chase
after the rapidly disappearing vehicle.
So engrossed was she with these feel
ings and rellections mat sue was un
aware ofhe approach of Dr. May along
with "Coonrod" Redden, and a constant
ly increasing posse of followers.
"Lizzy, you un your mother better git
into my cairge, uu Lum will drive you
lown to my house. Hits no use uh
mekun a furse 'bout things 'at caiu't be
hept. Yur pap's jist plum, slap dab
crazy, Un we've jist started Mm to the
assle-um. That assle-um is jist the plast
fur Mm. He'll git k'yored right away
ef they's airy a k'yore fur Mm. They
sont Billy Beaseley over to that assle-um
bout thee-four weeks ago. wasn't it, Doc?
I'n by gum; he's back at home now with
more saince un e liaa neiore lie went.
Yur pap nil git tuck k'yur uv, Lizzy. Me
un Joe Ellet nn Bill Shipley ull go over
to-niorry ur dny atter, un see to Mm. That
was that ornerry hee-hawun un whim
whnnimun feller, Mason, at druv a past
jist now, boys! I h-yuru 'at he's h-yur
to bid in all ar moggijis. 1 ve jist sont
him partickler nodus at he'll be hosst up
ef he puts his nose enside a this town
the next thee-four weeks, by gum!"
CHAPTER X.
The rain had put off its coming until
every broad black-green glossy jimson
leaf, and nil the lieiicuuly palin.iU-d foli
age of the wild hemp, nnd the maple,
and the white oak had long lain under
the common veil of sober gray, thrown
everything over by the rolling w heels and
tramping feet of the Overcout road in
the light, sandy loam came down at last
in a steady, growing patter thnt awoke
Lizzy Wickly for the twentieth time
throughout the hot, feverish, restless
night.
For the twentieth time she lay and
listened to the southwest wind, sweeping
in gusty circles that dashed the cool,
hard rain against the window panes with
a shot-like rattle ns if it were the dimin
utive pebbles of that threatening, specter-trodden,
ominous Overcoat road, ris
ing up and flying at her in a conjoined
onslaught of all possible evils.
How she tried to recall the almost
perfect happiness that had been hers only
a few weeks ago! And how did she only
succeed in fully understanding that she
hnd then been really happy and had not
known it. The angel of bliss had tar
ried with her for nights and days, and
she, too, culpably unaware!
Her brain pictures came and went in
one unvarying triangle of great troubles.
Her father's dreadful mental disease,
with all the divergent and dependent
misery of this more than living death,
blighting and destroying their happy lit
tle home at one terrible blow. Her
strong and growing passion for a man
whom she had never seen face to face,
and whom she only knew through the
partial word pictures of his friend and
assistant; together with the attitude of
that frieud and assistant toward her.
And finally, as the smallest angle of
this triangle of constantly pressing griefs
the loss of her property upon which
she had built her hopes of future suc
cesses to be achieved in the great city
that was so fast spreading down and
across the prairies, that its subtle at
traction had long ago reached the wooded
hills of the Wabash country, and wns
drawing to itself all of the ambition, the
daring, the discontent, the spirit of ad
venture of these wide valleys and shaded
hills, nnd wood-hedged prairies.
Cutting into the second angle of this
trinngle, nnd even into both the others
was a perplexing mixture of regret and
indignation centered upon Mr. Mason.
Regret that she had been left, so far as
he knew or could know, In the attitude
of having treated him with inexcusable
rudeness and lack of feeling.
What did he think of her; what could
he think of her iu the light of that last
evening when he had appeared for a brief
time endowed with god-like attributes
that enabled him to defy the very demon
of the hurricane?
What a magnificent man must his prin
cipal be, indeed, to have developed such
heroic qualities iu this underling the
man who labored with him for a stipu
lated price, as he had confessed to her!
How hnd he slipped away like a thief
under cover of the night with all the
gossips of Sandtown wagging their heads
and smiling the knowing smile of absolute
faith in the certain villainy of the flee
ing man! Why had he not taken time
to come to her openly and without fear,
as he hnd done often and often before?
And could it be true ns more than In
timated by Conrad Redden, thnt he was
now in the neighborhood for the base
and heartless purpose of purchasing all
the heavily mortgaged property of the
Sandtown people for one-tenth of its real
value, just nt the time when a series of
unfortunate speculations had crushed the
Sandtown Fanners' Bank, and thus put
it out of the power of the people to bor
row money with which to save their
homes?
(To be continued.)
" ' Two of a Kind.
The two sportsmen looked at each
other In the parlor of the village Inn,
and at last entered into coiiversatlou
In regard to the exigences of the day.
"And you say you have caught sixty
trout In less than two hours," said one
at last "Well, I'm glad to have met
you; I'm a professional myself."
"Fisherman ?" Inquired tho otner
man.
"No er narrator," was the reply
Moblle Register.
Apparatus for Removing; Wall Paper.
At regular Intervals the wull paper
In every house has to be removed nnd
fresh paper put In Its place. As a
rule, wall paper does not retalu Its
newness for any great length of time,
and to keep the home looking bright
and cheerful the paper has to be re
plenished. Removing the old paper
always causes a lot of dirt, and unless
everything In the room Is covered or
else removed entirely the dirty water
splashes over It and causes damage.
An Improved apparatus for removing
LOOSENS THE WALL PAPKR.
wall paper Is shown here, the inven
tion of an Iowa man. This apparatus
is a receptacle having ua open face,
with a flange or rim surrounding the
outer edge, a scraper-blade being at
tached to the front edge of the rlni
A handle Is attached to each side of
the apparatus for holding It over a
covered surface. An Inlet Is provided
In one end of the receptacle through
which hot water or steam is Injected,
with an outlet below for removing the
water when cold. By applying the ap
paratus to the wall the paper Is loos
ened by the heat of the hot water or
steam, there being no chance of any
water being splashed around In this
way. The scraper blade does the rest.
The patentee Is Paul Wayts, of Ot
tumwa, Iowa.
Extensible Pew.
Ordinarily the seating capacity of
most churches Is sutliclent to accom
modate those who regularly attend,
and generally, when plans for new
ouurenes are wing drawn up, pro
vision Is made for seating the regular
attendants and no more. If enough
seats were provided for the Increased
number of members who go to church
on Easter Sunday and other special
occasions, the church would look bare
when the average number attend. The
consequence Is that when a noted
speaker or preacher is engaged to ad
dress a certain congregation, a great
many people are attracted thereby and
the church Is invariably overcrowded
QUICKLY PLACED IN POSITION.
and ninny are compelled to stand. The
only remedy for this Is to place chairs
In the aisles, and It is often neces
sary to do Oils while the service Is in
progress, causing noise and Interrup
tion. An extensible pew, designed to
be used especially when the church is
STEERS BY THE BOW.
The Bout's Course Luld from the Front
of the Craft. , '
An Indiana man promises to reverse
the time-honored practice of steering
boats from the stern by means of his
patented steering bow. His ncheme Is
tor build the hull proper In one piece,
as at present, except that the for
ward portion Is finished without the
STEERING DONE BY THE HOW.
usual bow shape. This section Is to
be built separately and provided with
a number of hearing recesses to re
ceive pivot members in the hull plate,
as well as overlapping plates to fur
nish a practically continuous amooth
wave surface, so as not to increase the
vessel's water resistance. The steer
ing nose, or bow, Is to be operated by
overcrowded, is shown In the illustra
tion. It can be used only In combina
tion with a bench or pew having a box
seat, the extension being slldable end
wise in the box seat. The outer end
of the extension Is formed Into a de
pressed seat with folding back and
arms, and when so folded can be push
ed into the box seat so as to be out
of the way when not wanted. A spring
Is arranged so as to normally retract
the extension and hold It In position.
It would require only a few seconds to
withdraw the seat from Its normal po
sition, a catch preventing It from re
turning until relensed. Many church
es would find this "extensible pew,"
as the Inventor calls it, of great ad
vantage when the ordinary seating ca
pacity of the church Is not sufticleiit
to accommodate those who attend.
John P. Kline, of Reading, Va., Is
the patentee.
Heat Catcher.
It Is a well-known fact that In the
burning of coal or oil or other sub
stance for heating purposes, a large
amount of combustion Is lost and can
not be utilized. Inventors have work
ed over this problem for a long time,
but as yet no plausible solution has
been advanced. A New Jersey man
has patented a device which he calls
CATCITHS TIIE 11EAT.
a "heat catcher," an illustration of
which Is shown here. It is adapted to
be Inserted in a furnace or stovepipe
to catch and distribute the heat pass
ing therefrom. It Is cylindrical In
shape, a mass of refracting material
being placed In' the" Interior, through
which the heated products of combus
tion pass. An air pipe for distributing
the heat passes through the center of
the refracting material, being connect
ed with the outer air. A grate placed
near the bottom holds the refracting
material In position. Chambers top
and bottom are provided, which are
connected with inlet and outlet pipes,
respectively. A perforated plate placed
near the top of the upper chamber
serves to distribute water over sub
stantially tho entire cross-section of
the refrueting material, pipes top and
lKittotn supplying and removing the
water, the latter acting ns a cleanser.
Obviously, all wasted heat can be col
lected and used by such a device.
George Thomson, of Elizabeth, N. J.,
Is Uie patentee.
means of steering ropes manipulated
by any of the usual methods.
A Poet's Declining Year.
Swinburne, the poet, spends his de
clining years In tranquil pursuit of the
simple life, although It l.s doubtful
whether the liook or the fad has ever
dlstiirlcd his peaceful retreat. A friend
Bays of him that he lives In possession
of his needs. "Bounded on all sides by
the best lvooks, enjoying the close com
panionship of the truest friend ever
given to a man of genius, and finding
In a long walk nt itostinnn's pace a full
satisfaction for the body's craving nf
ter exercise, he lives through the twi
light of his days In a greater security
and under the ppell of a dceiier peace
than be knew iu the boisterous dawn
of his life."
List of the H.-oober Family.
Mrs. Isabella Beeclier II (Hiker, the
only surviving member of the famous
Beecher family, has celebrated her Kid
birthday at her home lu Hartford. She
Is the youngest daughter of Rev. Ly
man Beecher and sister of Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher and Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe. She was born In Litch
field, Conn. She was married In 1841
to John Hooker, for many years the
reporter of the Supreme Court, who
died Feb. 12, 11)01. Mrs. Hooker has
two children and six grandchildren,
and has for ninny years been actively
Interested In woman suffrage.
A gossip's specialty la th making of.
unhappy homes.