Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-04-18
CHAPTER I.
THE TALL ROBBER AT ISSTENS.

IAlL I.NDDnrs "A Aoo3n3Nos
For few seconds was totally at a
loss to know why was sitting in the
ditch with torn garments and bloody
hands. Then / remembered the skir-
mish with the robbers, the hot chase
and the stumble. That had all happened
by starlight. it was bright morning
now.
The ditch in which I found myself
was one my fathers men had finished
digging few days before to drain off
the great swamp of LISTENS. There was
enough water in the bottom of it to
make the seat of my riding breeches
decidedly damp and to completely cool
my spleen I crawled stifay out into
the grass, and there to my vast satis-
faction found my sword. l took it up.
wiped the innocent moisture of dew
from the blade and turned to my left
toward the great house of LISTENS.
II was here in the same house and
courts that my ancestors had lived since
the very beginning of the kingdom Of
Wassmark
All the land. meadow and swamp,
rock and forest, to the amount OF ten
square miles. had been given to one
Clare the LISTENS by the fret king of the
country The word LISTENS. learned
doctor once told me, stood in some crazy
and forgotten language for sworder or
swordsman.
Clare the LISTENS, with rock from his
own quarries. built the house, and from
that day to this whereon / write his
descendants have lived in it.
broke through shaggy hedge of fir
and went up the wide avenue of beeches,
Passing a great gate. all ribbed with
iron and pierced with musket holes, l
entered the courtyard. The main door
of the house stood before me ten PAGES
with three shields above it.
The oldest and least skillfully exc
cuted Of these shields bore long un-
wieldly sword and underneath strange
letters and marks partly obliterated by
rain and sun. The next. which was
larger than either Of the others and only
two centuries old. bore coat of eight
quarterings with the old two handed
sword for crest Get up on my parents
wedding day. Its gold was hardly tar
nished. and its gules and azure tlazed
bravely. 1t bore the arms Of my moth
er's family. the great D'Artagans Of
Normandy.
Can you wonder that Harry, my eld-
or brother. and were as proud as the
very devils
But have given the slip to my story.
telling all the arms and family history
with too much Of my native pride. Par
don: l am not yet old enough to be
modest.
Upon entering the dining hall /
found Harry. Viscount LISTENS, in my
fathers great chair with his head
swathed in bandages-
"Hello. Dartl" he cried. speaking as
we'll as be could through the rags.
"Half the household is out hunting for
you"
embraced him and sat down to
meat pie that invited me from the
table.
"Where have you been. old hot
head9" asked Harry.
II spent the night in the ditch and
got out of it about 10 minutes ago." /
answered. hunting about for decanter.
He laughed as loudly as he could
considering his headgear.
"You made longer run than l did,
and it is pity you did not catch your
man. Fact is''-he sighed and rubbed
his head-"one of the rascals clubbed
me in the avenue"
I am not man to talk much when l
am hungry, but paused with the wine
glass half way to my lips and asked
what the clubbing amounted to. "Noth-
ing but swollen head and loose
tooth, he answered.
There was silence after that until
pushed my plate away and showed back
my chair.
"We will 90 out and see the prisoner
now: he Is down in the cellar" said
my brother. I noticed my sword, and
as I always like to have it in my room
I put it under my arm. so that I might
take it up with me after inspecting the
captured robber. AS we went along
Harry talked about the fight. He told
how our father had run one of them
through behind the stables; how old
Pierre had shot another; he wounded
one, and Paul and Red Harding caught
their leader.
"And the three you went after got
away" be said. grinned soberly at
this. 1.-TWO Of them are bagged sure
enough, my Lord Harry" I answered.
1.-THE first is in the end Of the great
ditch, with sword cut to sleep with,
and the second got in the way Of a
pistol ball at the end of the patch they
are plowing up in the swamp"
Harry clapped me on my mud stained
back. "You old fire eating cadetr' he
cried. his gray eyes dancing. We felt
very well satisfied with ourselves, for
these robbers were one of the cruelest
and boldest bands in the northern
mountains, but when we arrived at
that part of the cellar in which the
prisoner had been bound our joy turned
to chagrin. The man had gone-clean
as a gray wolf out Of pit.
Dart, this is a frightful mess we
are in, muttered the viscount, "for
as sure as death be will have his whole
tribe on us hot foot.
perhaps he is still near" ven:
tured. "Let us hunt for him. ] will