The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-04

ing the minister's secret. He left af- ter warning Mir. Lyon to keep every thing in future from MT. Jermyn. Then he cudgeled his brain to discover the hidden connection of all the threads that he held. He could find no way to do so unaided, and at last decided to hunt up the man Johnson. who had been mentioned by Trounsem.
 Johnson was present in Little Treby, as it happened, having been appointed one of the managers of Harold Tran some's campaign. These two birds got together without difficulty. and found that their feathers matched very well. They exchanged information and agreed to work together.
 While all this was going on great change had come into Esther Lyons and ideals had changed at the very time when her old ideas of romance and ideals were about to be made true.
 The fiery zeal of Felix Holt that had begun by diverting her had ended by converting her.. In the light of her new knowledge she saw her father as ho was--not as the absent-minded, the illumined, strong soul that he real ly was, though envelened iD SC queer n body. She saw Felix too, not as a vulgar laborer not as a creature de- void of manners because he despised cravats and etiquette, but as c dream CT who was determined to make his Ideals square with his practice if all the world did otherwise and sneered at him.
 So when Mir. Lyon. shaken by the knowledge that Christian shared his secret, determined to tel: Esther at once the revelation. which seemed to him a confession of his own miserable
 weakness and sin. seemed something else to her. She saw a vision of pas sion and struggle, of delight and re- nunciation. That which once would have been of the keenest interest to her-that her parents had a higher rank than that of the poor dissenting preacher was nothing to her now. She threw her arms around the old mans neck and sobbed: Father! Father! Forgive me if I have not loved you enongh. I will will"
 She saw little of Felix in these lat- ter days. He had thrown himself heart and soul into the work of bringing some understanding of their duties and opportunities into the minds of the dull, apathetie mine and field laborers who lived around Little Treby. This work brought him into collision with Mir. Transome and his agents. for tn hough he was a Radical himself, he objected to the electoneering meth ods of Mir Jermyn and MT. Johnson, which consisted largely of the time honored device of bribing the rough and ready non-voters to appear at the polling places and intimidate the oth- CT side
 He appealed to Harold Transome. who agreed with him, though some- what haughtily. that these methods would have to stop The two went to Jermyn and Johnson and warned them. | But Jermyn and Johnson did not pay much attention to the warnings. The result was that on election day the town was filled with men who were treated freely to liquor at the Radical expense and who soon showed a de- sire to pass from hoots and jeers to more material steps against the\ vot- CTS on the opposite side.
 Felix. unable to prevent the bribery and the deliberate indictment to drunk en violence, remained away from the polling places. He visited Esther in the morning and spoke to her about the danger to riot that lay in the situ- ation ,sparing no words in denounc- ing his own party for thus degrading the easily tempted workingmen.
 Then he went home. but late in the afternoon a call came that he could not refuse. The people had begun to riot and foremost among them were the wine workers and laborers among whom Felix had been busy teaching their children and otherwise trying to elevate their condition.
 He rushed out and made his way into the crowd. The constables were gathering with swords and guns. and tn 0 mob was ugly. It had already at- tackled one of the taverns and taken out a mine superintendent named Spratt, who was hated particularly.
 Felix arrived in time to see Spratt dragged. screaming and yelling, down the steps. Forcing his way in, he tried to get close to the victim. The men, recognizing him. thought that he had come to help tn em, and to onlookers he seemed a leading spirit of the moo.
 The c6nstables attacked at this rno- ment. one spirited fellow. Tucker. fought his way into the crowd and, seeing Felix close to the cowarlng spratt leaped at him with his sword. Felix had no time to explain. To save his life he clinch ed, threw the man and wrested the weapon from iiin.
 Don't touch him" he cried. Let him go! Follow me!'
 It was a tangled business. His first thought was to draw the crowd away from the constable. His next was to lure them away from Spratt, whom they were determined to kill. He sue-