The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1907-06-20
Continued from last week.
CHAPTER XXI.

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 a fair history of this day Of revo-
luton. There remained no doubt that
Joe Looden was in attendance at the
deathbed of Eskew Arp, and some
how 1t 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 dipping curl
osity to learn how Judge Pike had
''taken" the strange performance Of bis
daughter, and the eager were much dis
appointed when 1t 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 trile fat and unsen-
Sational were recompensed late in the
afternoon when 1t became known that
Eugene Bantry had resigned his posi-
ton on the Tocsin. His reason for
seyering his connection was dumfound-
ting. he had written q formal letter
to the Judge and repeated the gist Of 1t
to his associates in the Office and &C
ouaintances upon the street. He, de-
clared that he no longer sympathized
with the attitude Of the Tocsip toward
bis 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,
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 cursedv' was the simple
comment of the elder Louden when hist
stepson sought him out at the factory
and repeated this statement to him.
sso am ], think" said Eugene wan
II, "Goodby. I'm going now to see
mother, but I'll be gone before you
come home ..-''asssr ya.ss ~
"Gone where"
"Just away. 1 don't know where"
Eugene answered from the door. Il
couldn't live here any longer. T.
you've been drinking" said Mr..
Louden. inspired. You'd better net
let Mamie Pike see you."
Eugene laughed desolately. II dom
mean 10. | shall write to her. Good
by," he said and was gone before Mr..
Louden could restore enough order out
of the chaos in y mind to stop him.
Thus Mrs. Louden's long wait at 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 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. Flltcroft, lady Of temper,
whose rheumatism confined her 10 a
chair, had her grandson wheel her out
upon the porch, and as the dusk fell
and she finally saw her husband COM
ing at a 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-seven
years she would never be able to un,
derstand him. She repeated this with
genuine symptoms Of hysterla when
she discovered that the colonel had
not come straight from the Tabor
house, but had stopped two hours al
Peter Bradbury's to talk it over"
One item of his recital, while sufh
ciently startling to his wife, had re
markable effect upon his grandson
This was the information that Arle
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. EskeW
had dropped off into a sort OF doze--
more like a stupor perhaps-and We
all went into Rogers old studio. ex
cept Louden and the doctor, and while