The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-08-27
CHAPTER XII.
COLONEL LoRING AND PAULINE.

Mt Chateau dor feeling that 1t had
been an unfortunate affair for him,
and yet he could not have explained
with any degree of e1actitude why it
had been so.
The adventure with the hunchback
fingered in his memory as something
picturesquely sinister and pathetic;
then Colonel Loring arose before him
whichever way he turned his mind,
with the growing certainty that he
was identical with Pierre Rameau, the
robber; but above and beyond all,
Fairfax was annoyed with himself, be-
cause he had let the evening go by
without paying any special attention
to Pauline.
He felt humiliated that he should
have frittered away so much time
with the wound on his hand which.
after all, seemed so small thing,
while men like Parker and Lieutenant
Ballanche were boldly seizing upon
every advantage offered them for cul-
tivating the good will of Mrs. Vernon
and her daughter. He recognized
himself as one of those imaginative,
self-conscious youths who dream that
the smallest matter affecting them is
of prime Importance to the rest OF
mankind. He could not resist the
impulse to laugh in bitter way at
the turn affairs had taken with him.
Like small boy, he had made faces
over a sore finger, while the most i'm
portant crisis ,as he now felt of his
whole life had drawn past him.
Fairfax realized in way how little
right he had to connect Pauline with
any love-dream OF his own. He had
never spoken word of love to her,
and this seemed ine1plicsble to him
now. Why had he not? Perhaps he
had been fooiishly sure of his stand
ing in her regard; he had taken too
much for granted.
Reflections like these, while they
made him uneasy, as is one who con-
sciously walks upon treacherous
ground, led him to resolve that Pau
line should hear his plea and give
him his answer at the first opportune
moment. Young men often make
these resolves and almost as frequent.
ly, perhaps, recede from them when
the crucial moment comes. 1t is love
that makes them brave, and it is love
as we'll that makes them towards.
The summer went by-as summers
do in that beautiful gulf-ccast climate
with days that burned through the
noon and softened down to delicious
GOODNESS toward nightfall, and nights
whose dreamy splendor made the
creole city, with all its gayety, its in
trigue, its excitements, place of in
allurements.
In the autumn the English fleet
was making ready to swing round the
gult-coast. Colonel Nichols had ar
rived at Pensacola, and acting for the
British Government, had set on foot
a scheme by which he hoped to stir
up the Indians to renewed hostilities
and at the same time induce the white
population of Louisiana to revolt
against the United States Govern
ment.
Lieutenant Ballanche went away to
Join General Jackson, to whom he re.
ported the situation in the New Or
leans district, and did not return un-
til about the first days in December.
Colonel Loring also disappeared,
going, it was understood, on mission
connected with some scheme of his
in Mississippi, while Parker, the
shrewd and self-confident youth, had
hidden his many friends in New Or
leans goodbye and set out for his
home in Tennessee about the first Of
August.
Fairfax had still another cause for
discomfort which he made the most
of. Colonel Loring had rescued Pau
line and Mrs. Vernon from imminent
danger in the midst of crowd OF
riotiug sailors and boatmen. The
ladies were in the Vernon carriage,
and Just as it turned street-corner
they found themselves surrounded by
a mob of men who were fighting with
slaves, knives, pistols, cutlasses and
whatever weapons they could COM
mand.
Aside from the actual danger OF the
situation; the brutal fury of the COM
batants; the atrocious profanity aud
sickening sounds of slashing and
stabbing and shooting; the bewilder-
ment and fright of the coachman, who
presently abandoned his place to
seek safety in flight, and the wild
rearing and pluuging of the horses in
the midst Of the crowding and heed
less mass of riders-the ladies had
good cause to faint at the mere
thought of what brutality the scene
implied, if they had been of the tenn
perameut dear to old romance. They
called loudly Cor help, but who was
likely to hear or to heed?
Fairfax chanced TO be near the outer
fringe of the crowd and recognized
Pauline's voice. He rushed to the
spot, only to find that Colonel Loring
- ,...l- rJ,rod o1I Tho earuioa