Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-04-15
CHAPTER I-Continued.


tots about a thing or two in this world
and the next. Well, you can only do
your best, you know; We'll try to make
you comfortable and back you up.
Come all the way from London today,
l suppose;-havey you got yourself fixed
up yet in the village?-what some
author chap-Matthew or Mark Sum-
mat or other-calls a Lancashire
Hell-hoIe.' Well, we're not quite so
bad as that yet here, but we're getting
to it. But it can't be helped, you
know; we ha' gone forrard and We mum
go forrarder, as the rabbit said when
he let tn weasel get him into a hole.
Yes, 'Hell-hole;' but it should be
useful change for you; it may give You
an idea when you want to describe to
your congregation the real"
"Jim, Iad," interrupted his sister,
"you re- forgetting yourself?''
"Eh2 Oh?-ah, we'll can remem-
Der, you know, when all round about
here was as sweet and pretty a place.
was born back O. tn White Moss" (in-
dicating that locality over his shoul-
der), "Toppleton way"
Thus the full, quaint and careless
stream of his talk flowed on, meander-
ing about o' person and another, this
subject and that. He seemed we'll of
curious and fearsome Lancashire lore
lore of the days when spinning and
weaving were done in the cottage homes
of remote hamlets and homesteads,
when Lancashire energy applied itself
to useful work and not to useless toll,
when its fabrics were made to be worn
and not merely to be sold-the days
when the steam engine was not yet
with its all-devouring, all-enslaving ma
chinery.
We had talked thus for about an hour
OR. rather, listened to Mr.. Birley
taIk-when he paused and looked round
Che had been fidgeting in his chair for
some time.)
"What's got 'Manule?" he said, ad-
dressing his sister. els he stuck till
midnight in his laboratory again?
Doesn't seem as if that smoke was to
come off tonight. In Paul's house now
it used to be Smoke where you please
drawing room or anywhere. Poor
Paul"
wss astonished and alarmed 70 see
Miss Lac1oix rise hurriedly, and glide
without word from the room. Mrs.
Steinhardt made as if she would follow
her, but she did not She sank back
in her chair with a sigh.
"Jim! JIM" she exclaimed, re-
proachfully. "Why will you say
things, when you know the poor girl
cannot bear allusions to it?''
"Ah," said Birley, humbly. ''Poor
lass!-Her father" he explained, turn
ing to me, "has never come back from
London. Poor Paul!' He was vlslbly
affected.
"He had to go to the law courts
there" said Mrs. Steinhardt, t'more
than year ago, about some dreadful
business of the chemical works-he was
my husbands partner"
"Hildersheimer V. Lacroix and Stein
hardt"-( Frank turned on the music
stool to correct his uncle's pronuncia-
tion.) "Well," said he, "that's all
right; anyway that was the case.
May be"-turning again to me-"you
remember it in the papers. 1t was
about the infringement of a chemical
patent Manuel had put them up to in
his eternal laboratory
flushing up. cit wasn't fathers fault
more than anyone else's."
cay, lad" said Birley, "of course
you know all about it. But you re
right to stand up for your father. How
ever, Paul, as the chief of the firm,
went up to London to fight the case; he
fought and lost to the tune of 10000
pounds damages-which, I suppose,
drove him mad, poor fellow, for he's
never come back-made away with
himself, very likely, or, somehow, got
made away with"
"But, surely" interrupted Frank
again, "it could hardly be the damages
did it, uncle? You remember he went
to Paris after the trial about some pat
tern business for the print works, and
then got back to London again"
cay, lad-out 900 pounds dam
ages can make man feel very queer all
the way to Paris and back. At any
rate, poor Paul's gone lost in the great
London wilderness"
''It is a very extraordinary affair, "
said I. "But don't remember seeing
anything of it in the papers"
''It got into the papers, though" /"
said Birley, sto some extent-not
much. We didn't want noise about
a private, painful thing like that"
"But." said 1, wondering, 81 sup
pose inquiries were NADER"
"They made inquiries high and low, :"
said Birley; "they laid detectives on,
and everything, but nothing came Of it.
Did there, Frank"
"No," said Frank" nothing at all. "
"Did YOU try to trace him out of Lon
DOM" asked. 81 suppose they did, "
said Birley.
"Yes-oh yes," said Frank.
wondered that Birley should keep
using the word they" Had he borne
no share in the investigation himself?
I had my thought answered at once.
81 wasn't able to go to London my
SELF" said Birley; 81 was laid up with
broken leg; and, when I got better,
didn't think it was any use my going.
There was an end of Paul-that was
certain; for he wasn't the man to knock
under like, and get lost just"
In a little while Miss Lacroix re-
turned, with apology for her with
drawal.
~ had little of headache. said she.