The Newtown bee., 1904-12-23

not there, and when the memory of | yesterday returned she sprang up | quickly and rang her bell. No one had | seen Cumbie. Alice dressed with | speed, sending first message to her father. A search party was sent out, but they did not find the girl. A bucket had been left near the spring, and fCotpr Lts going thither, but none, S range to say, leaving it. Richard Cabell rode up just as the judge had made this discovery, and he pointed out the marks to Richard. All at once he laughed Out:- Ut looks as if she were here still, and springing on huge log that lay beside the path, he calleds "Cumbie! Cumbie!" in the ringing tone by which dwellers along the river call to one an Otber.
 To their amazement and answer came as if from the bowels of the earth, and presently Cumbie, pale and trembling, 'ept flO Om the hollow log beneath Richards feet.
 | She had gone for water, believing the T, Tt of the tt@ CT negroes that the Indians had Departed at earliest d"ybreak, but hardly had she reached the spring when distant sound seemed to stop the very beating of her heart. Looking wildly about her, she saw the old log and crept inside just in time, for in few minutes a party cam stealttily out { the woods. She heard their voices as they stood near, and even upon the log as Richard had done, and was terrified lest her breath ing or heart beating should betray her.
 Hardly had they left when the judge came, but she had not dared appear until Richard called her by name.
 The next week the Willows received a gay party. Some French families had purchased Clinch mountain in North Carolina, but fortunately met Judge Wynstone in Williamsburg, who warned them of the dangers of the wild country, and begged the wO- men to pay his sisters and daughters visit while the gentlemen went for ward to prepare for them, or to see whether, settlement there were pra cticable.
 1.-The neighb ii lg families were de- lighted to entertain these charming refugees, and Madame La Tour has been teaching Alice and her sister and Richard a new dance, which was the lat. s fashion, The dear little French madame liked the ardent Virginian lover, and was pleased to make pre- text for throwing Richard into Alice s cOmpaniOnship, so that the sunny autumn days sped joyously along. l the French women proposed, delight ed with the wonderful new forests of tall chestnuts and lowly aniquipins, and Alice had promised to dance the first cotillion with Richard in the evening, after the nutting frolic was over. The latter part of the day she had been with Powhatan Paget, one of her many admirers whom Richard had never liked.
 NIa 1nv plo for hoy where crowd had already assembled and Richard went forward eagerly te meet Alice. To his great surprise, sht turned deliberately away without seeming to perceive his presence.
 Betty came forward quickly and drew Richard aside.
 "What does this mean?" he asked isternly.
 "I don't know, but think MT Page has told Alice some story. She look very proud now but I heard her sob bing an hour ago."
 "Paget shall answer to me for this I will go at Once-'
 "eh. Richard, no. Wait until Alic has left,-we, go to-morrow,-so tha she need not be b1oxued as the cause o the quarrel. She doesn,t deserve you Kindness. but wait, dear hichard, wal two days" reors were in her~hrigh eyes.
 "I1l wait then, Betty, for your sake two days, but no longer"
 He turned away and Betty said yer low: "A good many things may happe in two daysr'
 Alice and Richard thought their lov affair was theirs solely, or perhaps M Paget, as rival and foe, held one slen der thread. Several persons knew bet ter. Saul knew that, at the grea winter feast, if his owner got a woman he would, too. Sam had Richard promise for Dinah. They had also tn advantage of knowing everything a soon as it happened, and they wer able to pull the threads unseen.
 So it chanced that as MT Paget rod' e alone and dreamed of Alice, a terrify g ing and unfamiliar figure broke fortl e from the woods in the dusk, and fore l. told sudden and violent death, if he re mained in that place beyond to y morrOw'S sunrise. It was a super V stitiOus age and by a coincidence. al b the party on the evening before hat y told tales of strange predictions } strangely fulfilled, of unheeded warn ] ings and unforseen results. He hesi |, tated, he re membered, he decided ant the next day he was in Norfolk ant 2 had engaged passage on vessel goinI abroad. So vanishes Paget from thes, r pages.
 The week before Christmas Richard rode up to the Willows. This time