Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1907-06-19
CHAPTER XXI.
THERE was meat for gossip
a-plenty in Canaan that after
noon and ayaninu Thera xyora


noon and evening. There were
4 runors that ran from kitchen
to parlor, and rumors that ran from
parlor to kitchen; speculations that de-
tanned housewives in talk across front
gates, wonderings that held cooks in
converse over shadeless back fences in
spite Of the heat and canards that
brought Main street clerks running to
the shop doors to stare up and down
the sidewalks.
Out of the confusion Of report the
judiciors were able by evenfall to ex-
tract a fair history of this day of revo-
luton. There remained no doubt that
Joe Louden was in attendance at the
deathbed of Eskew Arp, and some
how it came to be known that Colonel
Flitcroft, Squire Buckalew and Peter
Bradbury had shaken hands with Joe
and declared themselves his friends
There were those, particularly among
the relatives of the hoary trio, who eX-
pressed the opinion that the colonel
and his comrades were too old to be
responsible and commission ought to
sit on them. Nevertheless some echoes
Of Eskew's last argument to the con-
clave had sounded in the town and
We're not wholly without effect
Everywhere there was nipping curl
osity to learn how Judge Pike had
taken the strange performance Of his
daughter, and the eager were much dis
appointed when it was truthfully re-
ported that he had done and said very
little. He had merely discharged both
Sam Warden and Sans wife from his
service, the mild manner of the dis
missal almost unnerving Mr.. Warden,
although he was fully prepared for
bird shot, and the couple had found
immediate employment in the service
of Ariel Tabor.
Those who humanity felt the judges
behavior to be trif1e fat and unseen
sational were recompensed late in the
afternoon when it became known that
Eugene Bantry had resigned his posi-
tion on the Tocsin. His reason for
seyering his connection was dumfound-
ing. He had written a formal letter
to the judge and repeated the gist of it
to his associates in the office and ac-
qnaintances upon the street. He de-
| clared that he no longer sympathiZed
With the attitude of the Tocsin toward
his stepbrotlier and regretted that he
had previously assisted in emphasiZ-
ing the papers hostility to Joe, par
ticularly in the matter of the approach
ing murder trial This being the case,
he felt that his effectiveness in the
service of the paper had ceased, and
he must in justice to the owner re-
| sign.
well, I'm cursed" was the simple
comment of the elder I.ouden when his
] stepson SOUGHT him out ut the factory
and repeated this statement to him.
$50 am l. j think. said Eugene wan
ly. "Goodby. I'm going now to see
mother, but I'll be gone before you
| come home"
"Gone where's"
"Just away. i don't know where"
Eugene answered from the door. II
couldn't live here any longer. r.
you've been drinking" said Mr..
Louden, inspired. You'd better not
let Mamie Pike see YOU"
Eugene laughed desolately. II don't
mean to. shall write to her. Good
by" he said and was gone before Mr..
Louden could restore enough order Out
of the chaos in his mind to stop him
Thus Mrs. Louden's long wait ut the
window was tragically rewarded, and
she became an unhappy actor in Ca
naan's drama Of that day. Other ladies
attended at other windows or nea1
their front doors throughout the after
noon-the families of the three patri
archs awaiting their return as the time
drew on with something akin to fren
zy. Mrs. Fltcroft, II lady of temper
whose rheumatism confined her to q
chair, had her grandson wheel her out
upon the porch, and as the dusk fel
and she finally saw her husband com
ing at laggard pace, leaning upon
his cane his chin sunk on his breast
she frankly told Norbert that although
she had lived with that man fifty-sevel
years she would never be able to un
derstand him. She repeated this witt
genuine symptoms of hysterla whel
she discovered that the colonel haC
not come straight from the Taboo
house, but had stopped two hours a
Peter Bradbury's to talk it over"
One Item Of his recital, while suffi
GENTLY startling to his wife, had re
markable effect upon his grandson
This was the information that Arie
Tabor's fortune no longer existed.
whats that" cried Norbert. start
ing to his feet "What are you talk
ing about?"
ITS true" said the colonel deliber
ately. 'she told me so herself. Eskev