The Forrest City times., 1894-05-18

Aic, Salu nal Iucker.
 'The more fool your gruffly retort- ed the other. And then the sound of their voices, receding through the dense undergrowth of the forest. grew indis- tinct, and finally died into silence, while Sophy Clare stood, pale aud paralyzed, with one hand clinging to the laurel branches and her chestnut brown hair blowing about her fright ened face. She knew Hal Tucker very well-a good-natured, shiftless, ne'er- do-weel. who lived on the proceeds of any odd jobs he could get in the neigh borhood, and had no more idea of pro- viding for the future than if he had been the grasshopper in Lafontaine's fable. And the voice of the other man was also familiar to her as that of one Jeremiah Slocum, who bore no envia- ble reputation among the simple set tiers of those wild western regions And, with thrill of the heart she re- memebred that Jerry Slocum had been sitting by, the night before. when Mill 1 Ter Harkins, who was one of the school trustees had paid her her months sal ary in clinking silver dollars
 Its they mean.' cried Sophy, out aloud. ''They mean to murder me. and all for the sake of that wretched paltry silver! One stroke of sharp knife, and the things done and can't be un- done.' o merciful heaven. Can it be that there are such brutes in the world? Hsrkins' folks going to sing l ing-school tonight, aud the coast will l.., Il xl I -l~ l. been in If had not been fortunate enough to overhear those horrible words. I must hasten home at once and tell Mir. Harkins. But, oh. if should chance to meet these ruffians on the road again."
 l She stood still and listened, but no sound greeted her ears other than the rush of the wind in the tree-tops over head and the murmur of the river be- low and the wild beating of her own 1 heart.
 At all risks" she thought, II must get home. 1 can't stay here in the forest all night, though perhaps the perils from wild beasts would be less 1 than the dangers from my own kind!' And flying in desperate haste through the gloomy paths, where the first faint silver rays of the starlight were beginning to irradiate the scarce ly visible way, she came at last in sight of the old stone mill by the waterfall. with the long, low dwelling of the Harkins' at it's side, all shining with welcome lights.
 Supports ben ready this half hour, !" said Mrs. Harkins. lean, fretful female, who always wore a sunbonnet, winter or summer. indoors or out, and shuffied around the house in Tapping carpet slippers. You're late, ain'tyo Miss Clare? And, good land alive, how pale you be.'
 'I-I walked very fast,' said Sophy, with convulsive catching of the breath and turning paler than ever as she saw, lounging on the wooden settle, just within the huge stone chimney. the very man whose voice she had heard half an hour ago in the twilight woods Hal Tucker himself.
 Involuntarily she drew back, falling almost into the arms of honest Hosea Harkins himself. who had just come in from the mill. with his working clothes on. and his hair and eyelashes powdered over with flour.
 Hello" said that worthy. You ain't a-goin' to faint away, be you, Miss Sophy?'
 But spirit and courage had come back to the Yankee schoolma' am once again. She drew herself up and pointed to the lurking vagabond on the wide, wooden settle.
 MT. Harkins," cried she, you are a consta ble are you not?'
 Wal, I guess I be-" answered the miller, staring with all his might out of pair of pale-blue eyes
 Tn that case" said Sophy, ''I call upon you to arrest that villain-that murderer And she pointed straight at Hal Tucker.
 ''Eh?" said the miller. his eyes more like over-ripe gooseberries than ever
 "Ehr echoed Mr. Tucker himself, coming upright, all in a heap like a jointed doll
 II heard him plotting in the woods this night" she gasped oIt, with his confederate Slocum, Let him deny it, if he dares!'
 'I swan to gracious was therer' said Hal, scratching his head. Me and Jerry."
 Let him deny" went cc Sophy, with an unconsciously tragic effect, that he was plotting to murder-with q sharp k aife-when all the Harkinses were at singing-school tonight. Oh! Mir Harkins. arrest him! For heavens sake, save my life! It was that was to have been the victim"
 The miller stared harder than before.