The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-08
CHAPTER Ill.
A SNAKE IN THE GRASS.

June the first came in with the radiant
sunshine blazing on a wealth of bunting.
From staff and spire, roof and tower win
dow and balcony, the stars and stripes
were flung TO the breeze, and by thousands
the citizens had thronged the broad thor
oughfares TO give a parting cheer to the
second Badger regiment marching away to
the war. The dusk and the dew came set
thing down as the tail lights of the last
section Of the troop train drew slowly
away along the sweeping curve TO the
south, and then the dense throngs that had
shouted themselves hoarse as the big bat
TALON relied away were easily marshaled
into an impromptu mass meeting. The
Governor and the mayor were to speak,
and brief addresses. so said the handbills,
might be expected from such brilliant ora
tors as the Hon. George McKinnon and
others equally well known. The cathedral
bells had chimed the hour Of nine OF the
long June evening as a roar of cheers
about the temporary stage on Market
square greeted the executive Of the State
when he made his bow 20 the assembled
multitude-a roar distinctly heard far up
along the bluffs and on the narrow portico
of the modest home where. leaning back in
an easy chair, Paul Ladue. looking pale
and weak, sat with his slim hand clasped
I'm that of his faithful friend, Fred Benton.
They had Deen in earnest talk. Events
had crowded thick in the life Of young La
due since that untoward meeting on the
bluffs. The Iong-suspected and slumbering
enmity of McKinnon had burst at last into
furious flame. and the younger man found
himself suddenly involved in a whirl of
trouble. First and most serious the elder
Benton. after a conference with his junior
partner. had been moved to say to Elinor
that he forbade her receiving or being seen
with Paul Ladue. He would not ask her,
he said, if there had been love making be-
tween them; he knew it, and, as she was
burt a school girl and Ladue a feather
Drained boy, he demanded that it end then
and there. To LaGue he wrote a cold, cut
ting letter, accusing him of having taken
advantage of his intimacy in the house
hold to seek the love and destroy the peace
of mind of his daughter, when, if all signs
and only some of the stories were true. he
deserved neither home nor harbor in their
midst. and ended by forbidding him the
house. Then one or two singing articles
had found their way into an evening paper,
plainly pointing TO Ladue as a rebel SYM
respondence with the enemy. Then certain
creditors had made combined onslaught
on his falling. heart-sore father. Ladue
had gradually built up very fair business,
and had won the kindly regard of the COM
munity. All on sudden his store was
Stunned save by collectors, and one night,
after meeting at which McKinnOn was
the principal speaker. the front windows
Wa oh ad I'm nv hall a
patriots. and Paul. seated at a desk over
the books OF the firm, was struck in the
temple and felled by a stone. A cry of
shame had gone up from the lips of few
lookers-on. who drove the roughs away and
carried the stricken lad to his home. The
incident brought about temporary re-
vulsion of feeling among right-thinking
people. and Fred Benton had found and
soundly thrashed one of the gang of as
sailants. But little substantial comfort
could come to the Ladues, for the old man
had lost his nerve. He seemed broken and
bewildered. 1t cut him to the heart to find
that at this critical time in his career the
firm to present and press the claim of his
creditors was that of Benton. Gray &c Nc
Kinnon. He had the shattered windows
boarded up. and refused at first to reopen
friends and advisers, as luck would have
IL. had already gone to the front as officers
of volunteers. He was crushed and sorely
hurt and stung, and the well-meant words
OF sympathy spoken by few neighbors
failed to reassure him.
1t was then that Fred Benton had his
first difference with his father.
THE whole outrage. SIR" said he, sis
h.
i hold George McKinnon responsible for
every misfortune that has befallen the
Ladues in this town, and the only reason
i don't thrash him as 1 did that black
guard Irishman is that he is your partner"
II had startled and then angered the
elder man. so loyal and devoted had his
son ever been in the past. Well he knew
that though some letters had passed in
April between Paul Ladue and persons in
Alabama, Ii was impossible to prove that
he was planning to join the Southern army.
much less that he was furnishing Informal
ton. or laid and comfort to the enemy"
Since the first of May the worst that could
be said of him was that he had sent three
letters to a certain address in st. Louis,
and that three missives had come to him
bearing the ST. Louis postmark. Every
body knew that ST Louis WIS infested with
Southern sympathizers who had means of
communication with friends beyond the
line. and it was these letters McKinnon
referred 70 when he dared 10 suggest that
1t was the postmaster's duty TO open them
and learn their contents Not yet had the
North reached the point OF violating the
sanctiry OF personal mail.
so far from its being McKinnon's fault
the elder Benton answered, as soon as he
could control his voice, II hold your friend
Paul solely responsible McKinnon is an
intensely loyal man. and he and 1 both are
indignant that any man should be living
here in our midst and holding reasonable
correspondence with the enemy. You will
do well. sir. II you hope for commission.
TO hold aloof from so dangerous an associa
ton"
But Fred would not hold aloof. For three
days he was constantly at the Iadues.
comforting Paul as best he could, and on
this evening OF the third day. after rue
fully. enviously bidding adieu to MANY a
friend who had marched away with the
Second. he had cut loose from the crowd
and returned to his labor OF love- Enter
ing the shaded gateway. he had been sur
prised TO see a vision in white seated close
to Paul's reclining chair. and COMPOUNDED
and troubled TO find that it was Elinor.