Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-21

| 10 make the ruSe OF emptylnS ner Snoe
perfectly palpable, ''no, that's what
we've both allowed, dear, all along
And now, honey, it's near time for me
to go. Tell me something good-before
go. Tell me that you love me as you
used to-tell me how you felt that night
at the ball when you first knew we loved
each other. But stop-kiss me first
there once more-for keeps.
CHAPTER XII.
When Uncle Ben, or - Benjamin Dau-
bigny, Esq. as he was already known
in the columns of the ''Star, - accom-
panied Miss Cressy McKinstry onSher NAY
home after the first display of attentSoh
and hospitality since his ACCESSION to
wealth and position, he renlAined for
some moments III state of bswildered
and smiling idiocy. 1t was srue that
it was true that Cressy hafAae:-
cepted his attention with fay
amusement; it was true that she
had suddenly and audaciously left him
on the borders of the McKinstry woods in
q way that might have seemed rude and
abrupt to any escort less invincibly good
humored than Uncle Ben, but none Oh
these things married his fatiuous felicity.
1t is even probable that in his gratuitous
belief that his timid attentions had been
too marked and impulsive, he attributed
Cressy s flight to maidenly coyness that
pleasurably increased his admiration for
her and his confidence in himself.
In his abstraction of enjoyment
and in the gathering darkness he ran
against a fir tree very much as he had
done while walking with her, and he con-
fusedly apologiZed to it as he had to her,
and by her own appellation. In this way
he eventually overran his trail and found
himself Unexpectedly and apologetically
in the clearing before the schoolhouse.
''Ef this amt the singlerest thing,
miss, - he said, and then stopped sud-
denly. A faint noise in the schoolhouse
like the sound of splintered wood at
tracted his attention. The master was
evidently there. If he was alone he
would speak to him.
He went to the window looked in, and
in an instant his amiable abstraction left
him. He crept softly to the door, tried
it, and then putting his powerful shoul-
Ger against the panel, forced the lock
from its fastenings.
He entered the room as Seth Davis,
frightened but furious, lifted himself
from before the masters desk, which he
had just broken open. He had barely
time to conceal something in his pocket
and close the lid again before Uncle Ben
approached him.
"What mount We be doin' here, Seth
Davis?'' he asked with the slow deliber-
alton which in that locality meant mis-
chief.
"And what mount you be DOM here,
Mister Ben Dabney?' said Seth, resum-
ing his effrontery.
"Well, returned Uncle Ben planting
himself in the aisle before his opponent;
81 ain t dom no sheriff's posse bust
ness jest now, but 1 reckon to keep my
hand in far enuff to purtect other folks
glance at the broken lock of the desk
''Ben Dabney, - said Seth in snarling
expostulation 81 hahn t got no quar'n
with We. -
''Then hand me over whatever you
took just now from teachers desk, and
we IL talk about that afterwards, said
Uncle Ben, advancing.
81 tell ye 1 hahn It got no quar- II with
ye, Uncle Benz continued Seth, re-
treating, with q malignant sheer;
"and when you talk of protectin'
other folk IS property mebbe ye'd better
protect your own-or what ye'd like to
call so-instead of quar- lin with the
man that IS helpin' ye. I've got yer the
proofs that that sneaking hound of
Yankee school master that Cress McKin-
stry's hell bent on, and that the old man
and old woman are just chuckin into her
arms, is a lynn, black hearted, hypo-
critical seducer-''
"Stop!' said Uncle Ben, in voice |
that made the crazy easement rattle.
He strobe towards Seth Davis, no
longer with his habitual careful, hesitat-
ing step, but with q tread that seemed to |
shake the whole sehoolroom A single |
dominant clutch of his powerful rightl
hand on the young mans breast
forced him backwards into the 7
vacant chair of the master. His |
usually ford face had grown as
grey as the twilight; his menacing form
in a moment filed the little room and |
darkened the windows. Then in some
inAlRlicable reaction his figure slightly |
dTSoped, he laid one heavy hand trem-
bApgly on the desk, and with the other |
aHected to wipe his mouth after his old |
eHi &rfftssed fashion
TfWaat's that youwere sayin' o.
CGHsy& he said huskily.
e. I'd Hro AZ eo,-rrurrr ~pvr LIZ