The Press., 1907-01-23

tied by whoops and yells aud shouts
She brushed away her tears and re-
pressed her sobs and stepped out OF
| the shelter Of the grove to see what
was up.
She had heard Of rabbit being rout
Ell out of a wood pile and whole cor1n-
ty joining I'm the chase. and it flashed
across her mind that this was an oc-
currence OF the sort. She was soon
undeceived Three men, four boys and
| two dogs came running toward her,
and as she was seen there were cries
Of:
There Is one Of themI Come on,
boys! Head her of and don't let her
get away"
Men and boys and dogs bore down on
the helpless maiden, and almost before
she could scream she found herself
grasped by both arms and being hur-
ried along. She had been boosted over
fence and hustled through a thistle
patch before she could gather her wits.
Then she began to struggle and pro-
test. 1t was useless to struggle. and
the men and boys laughed at her pro-
testations When fright made her weak
and she sank down one Of the men took
her on and kept business moving. Be-
fore reaching the station and the train
they were met by one Of the guards.
The girl revived sufficiently to protest
anew, but he answered her:
"Of course she's one Of 'em, and q
cute wench she Is! This is the third
t.. oh
Bring her along"
Miss Viola was in a distressful con-
dition when the station was at length
reached. Her captors were met by
shouting men and barking dogs and
walls and screams from the two car
loads Of lunatics, and just then an auto
came whooping up and had to pause
for the crowd to clear the street. 1t is
useless to conceal the fact that 1t was
driven by Arthur Tyson.
whats the matterT he asked of an
excited farmer as the machine came to
| a halt.
more fun than I've seen in twenty
years." was the answer. "Those two
cars are full Of crazy folks. About a
dozen got away, and we've been chas-
Ing 'em down. They've just got the
last one"
Arthur stood up to look over the
crowd. A woman had apparently
tainted away, and two or three men
were about to pick her up and carry
her across to the train. AS her Shout
ders were lifted up he caught sight Of
her face, and next instant things were
happening again.
He sprang down into the crowd, ell
bowed men and kicked dogs right and
left, and in a moment was beside the
woman. The woman's hair was down
and her face covered with dust and
CRIME and her dress torn from neck to
In such matters.
The young man had knocked down
two men and had The girl on his arm
before he asked for explanations. Be
fore they were rendered he had to lay
his burden down and perform further
pugilistic feats, but In due time the
guards, the farmers, the farmers boys
and the farmers dogs admitted that a
mistake had been made
When the. auto resumed its journey
the girl was a passenger. She had
come to and realized that she was not
being taken of to an insane asylum.
1t was some hours later, when the
harvest moon was shining and the
whipporwills were singing, that she
told her story, and, though her aunt
was sitting right beside her and hold
ing her hand and calling her poor
DEAR" the story had only been finished
when Arthur Tyson leaned forward
and kissed her and said that he pro-
posed to see from that time on that she
had the legal and moral right to weep
In any grove she wanted to without be-
ing hustled around the country as an
escaped lunatic. The proposal hadn't
come In just the romantic form expect
ed, but Miss Viola was q girl Of sense
and realized that when exigencies
arise the machinery Of romance may
be thrown out of gear.