The Sauk Centre herald., 1907-07-25
CHAPTER XXI.


THERE was meat for gossip
a-plenty in Canaan that after
noon and evening. There were
4 rumors that ran from kitchen
to parlor, and rumors that ran from
parlor to kitchen; speculations that de-
tained 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
judicious were able by evenfall to ex-
tract 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
were 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 trifie fiat and unsen-
satiOnal We're recompensed late in the
afternoon when it became known that
Eugene Bantry had resigned his posi-
ton 2n TIE Tocsin; His reason for
severing 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
quaintances upon the street. He de-
clared that he no longer sympathiZed
with the attitude of the Tocsin toward
his stepbrother 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,
be felt that his effectiveness in the
service of the paper had ceased, and
he must in Justice to the owner re-
sign.
''Wel. I'm cursed" was the simple
comment Of the elder Louden when his
stepson sought him out at the factory
and repeated this statement to him.
$50 am |, think" said Eugene wan
ly. "Goodby. Pm going now to see
mother, but I'll be gone before you
come home"
''Gone where?'
"Just away. don't know where,
Eugene answered from the door,. Il
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. Il don
mean to. l 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 at the
window was tragically rewarded, and
she became all unhappy actor in Ca
naan's drama of that day. Other ladies
attended at other windows or near
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. Flitcroft, lady Of temper
whose rheumatism confined her to a
chair had her grandson wheel her out