Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1909-01-13
CHAPTER /.
The Man with the Mc,es.

The first time that Col. Rupert W.p-
Pr saw Cary Mercer was under cir
4 lmstances calculated to fix the Incl
lent firmly in his memory. In the
lear 1908, home from the Philippines
IN furlough. and preparing to return
b task big enough to attract him
p spite Of its exile and hardships. he
ad visited the son of friend at Har-
ard. They were walking through the
Orridors of one of the private dormi-
ories where the boy roomed Rather
Hrimly the soldiers eyes were noting
Marble wainscoting and tiled floors.
Ind contrasting this academic en-
Fironment with his own at West Point.
caustic comment rose to bis lips,
but 1t was not uttered, for he heard
he sharp bark of a pistol, followed by
thud. and crackle as of breaking
glass.
DO you fellows amuse yourselves
shooting up the dormitory?" said he.
The boy halted; he had gone white.
1T cane from Mercer's room!" he
sA1Cuf anu ldu 0NlOoo tnC COlIluOI "
4 door with the usual labelling of two
Visiting cards. The door was not
ocked. Entering. they passed into
vestibhe, thence through another
door which stood open. For many
hay after the colone; could see s5nst
how the slender young figure looked,
the shoulders in huddle ON the study
table, one arm swinging nerveless; be-
side him, on the floor, a revolver and
sa broken glass bottle. The, latter
must have made the cracking sound.
Some dark red liquid, soaking the
open sheets of newspaper, filled the
room with the pungcnt odor Of alco-
hol. Only the top OF the lads head
showed-a curly, silky, dark brown
head; but even before the colonel lift
mating the brown curls. He laid the
head back gently and his hand slipped
to the boys wrist.
mo use, Ralph" he said in the sub
dued tones that the voice takes un-
consciously In the presence of death.
"And Endy was going to help him."
almost sobbed Ralph. "He told me
he would. Oh, why couldn't he have
trusted his friends!"
The colonel was looking at the
newspaper-"Was it money!" said he;
for a glance at the dabbled sheet had
brought him the headings of the stock
quotations: Another Sharp Break
In Stocks. New London Records" 1t
had been money. Later, after what
needed to be done was over. after doc
tors and officers of the law were gone,
Col. Winter heard the wretched story.
A young, reckless, fatally attractive
Southerner, rich friends, college So
cieties, joyous times; nothing really
wicked or vicious. only a surrender to
youth and friendship and pleasure,
and then the day of reckoning-duns,
college warnings, the menace of black
disgrace. The young fellow was an
orphan, with no near kindred save one
brother much older than he. The
brother was reputed to be rich, ac-
cording 10 southern standards, and
young Mercer, who had just come into
a modest patrimony of his own, invest
ed in his brothers ventures. AS to
the character of these ventures,
whether iimsy or substantial, the col
onel's infornants were absolutely
ignorant All they knew of the elder
Mercer was that he was often in New
York and had "a lot to do with Wall
street" He wasn't a broker; no, he
was trying to raise money to hang on
10 some big properties that he had;
and the stocks seemed to be going at
remarkable rates just now, the bot
tom dropping out of the market. If
certain stock of the Mercers-they
didn't know the name-could be kept
above "a he would pull through Col.
Winter made no comment but he
remembered that when he had studied
the mornings stock-market pages for
himself, he had noted bad slump in
the southern steels.Y and "Tidewater
on the tobogean slide; on three to
four points. declining from 27 and a.
fraction to 2S."
Another victim of the Wall street
pirates" was the colonel's silent judg-
ment on the tragedy. Lucky for her
bis mothers dead"
The next morning he had returned
and had gone TO his young friends
rooms
The boy IVES still fun of the horror
of the day before Mercer's brother
was in Cambridge. he sald-arriving
49,. --ayui=a 1eera New York. 'Endy