Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1907-02-28

THE SECOND
DANDY CHATTER
CHAPTER xiv.-(continued).
BY Tom Gallon.

Betty Siggs threw long cloak
round her, noiselessly lit candle, and
crept out of the room There was no
sound anywhere, save the quick pat
ter of her own feet on the stairs and
the rapid scurry of mouse flying
from the light. Betty reached the par
Tor, set down her candle, and faced
the window, over which the curtain
had been drawn again.
Now, under all the circumstances, 1t
Is probable that ninety-nine people
out of a hundred would have hesitated
at that hour to draw back that cur
tain: and the hundredth would have
done tiff at all--out of sheer brava-
i do. But the curious thing was that
Betty had no fear of it at all; SO COM
| pletely was she dominated by her
dream, and SO much did she seem to
be dreaming still, that she walked up
] to the curtain and softly drew it aside.
I; Nor did she think it strange, under
the circumstances, that there was a
face upon the other side: for, although
she believed she looked upon Dandy
i Chatter, somehow the dream-face had
got mixed UP with it; the dream-eyes
OF the child she believed dead smiled
at her out Of the face of the man. Still
keeping her eyes upon the window
she slipped along to the door and soft
i ly drew the bolt and opened it; and
1 then, for no known reason, and yet for
some reason which seemed strong
within her, began to tremble very
much as though she faced something
uncanny.
j A figure moved toward the door,
j slipped into the room, and took her in
his arms. Not Dandy Chatter; not the
man with a price on his head and
blood on his cruel hands; not 1he man
whose name was a byWord and a re-
her boy, her dear lad, back from his
/ grave thousands of miles away! You
couldn't have tried to deceive old Bet
j ty Siggs at that moment; she knew
i that no other arms could hold her like
that
Then, when he called her-as he
had done all those long years before
| lllLlC lllOGucl WllCl llC WlllopSlSN,
did she remember Tallapoone Farm,
and the mare with the rat-tail, and
| Peter, the sheepdog, and a dozen other
| things that would have stamped him
as her boy, If nothing else could have
| done, old Betty woke from her dream
and burst into a flood of tears, and
laid her old gray head down on his
| shoulder.
| Perhaps it was we'll that Toby was
sleeping soundly above. For, if he
had happened to dream, and had wan
dered, in his night apparel, down to
! that same parlor, he would have been
very properly scandalized. For here
was the supposed Dandy Chatter, sit
tting on the table, with Betty Siggs
| (hngging him mighty tight round the
necls) on his knee the while he rapid
| ly sketched out all that had happened
in those eighteen years.
| "Ah, little mother, little mother!" he
said, drawing her face down that he
might kiss it. you didn't know to
whom you were talking when I stroll
ed in here the other day, and you
Tread me lecture on the sins of DAN
j DIV Chatter. It's been long time, lit
tie mother: picked up. more dead
than alive, by an exploring party in
the bush; taken with them miles into
| the interior; then more miles by "a
party bound for the west with whom
they came in contact. Then, five or
six years OF life with dear old couple
who had no chicks of their own, and
were fond of the friendless boy
thrown on their hands. Then. when l
could, II went back to Tallapoona, only
i to find that you had gone to England,
1 no one exactly knew where.
An you KEEP a thought of me all
those years. did you, PHILIP ahispered
i the old woman, proudly.
Eyes, and came back to you as soon
as I could. AT least, not to you, be-
4 cause I didn't know where you were.
But remembered the story you had
4 told me: and knew I had the right to
Il the place which had been my fathers.
But I would not have turned out my
brother: my idea was that we might
live together peaceably. sharing what
there was. But he is dead"
She looked round at him. with a
startled face; and he realized, in q
moment, that he had given her the
|Sclue to the whole mystery. Therefore,
4 with much pains, and many pauses to
allow her to fully digest the extraor-
binary story, he told her Of the whole
4 business Of his arrival in England;
Of his discovery Of the strange like
ness between ~himself and the real
Dandy Chate.s and Of his determine
4 ton, on discovering that his brother
was dead, to trade upon it. OF his GER
Il tainty that his brother had been muir
|dered and Of the impossibility Of fix
4 ing the crime upon any ones shout
Ederr
But Betty siggs saw only with the
a limited vision of love; knew only that
Il her aoy was with her again, and that
q he Mas innocent Of the crime She had
;lunccnsciouslys laid to his charge.
Ior, this be news for Toby. she
1 cried athissll be something to laugh