Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1909-10-07
CHAPTER VI.

A. Overton had said, the meeting
Sas delayed exactly "a hours.
My courage always has an odd way
II disappearing when I am expecting
q use 1t, although l must say. when l
nave had actual occasion for 1t I have
always found 1t easily at hand. I can
lot deny that I was very much fright
sned for Giles on the morning Of the
meeting. and, to add to my misery, l
heard that Overton was considered
,ne Of the best shots In England.
The dreary breakfast gulped down;
he postchaise rafting up to the door
Il had hoped until the last moment
hat it would not come; the humping
along the road in the cool, bright sum
ner morning; the gruesome. long. a
low box that lay on the front seat Of
he chaise; the packet OF letters which
Giles had given me and which seemed
% weigh a hundred tons in my pocket
all these were so many horrors to
haunt the memory forever. But l must
say that, apparently, the misery was
al mine; for l never saw Giles Vernon
show SO much as by the flicker OF an
syelash that he was disturbed In any
way.
About half way from the meeting
ground we left the highway and turned
into a by-road: and scarcely had we
gone half a mile when we almost
drove into a broken.down chaise, and
standing on the roadside among the
turze bushes were the coachman. the
surgeon-a most bloody.minded nan
I always believed him-Mr. Buxton
and Overton.
Our chaise stopped. and Giles, put
ting his head out OF the window, said,
pleasantly: "Good-morning, gentle.
men; you have had an accident, l see."
"A bad one." replied Mr.. Buxton,
who saw that their chaise vas beyond
help, and who, as he said afterward,
was playing for a place In our chaise,
not liking to walk the rest OF the dis.
lance.
Giles jumped out and so did I, and
the most courteous greetings were ex-
changed.
The two drivers, as experts, *
amined the broken chaise. and agreed
there was no patching 1t up for ser.
vice: one wheel was splintered.
Mr.. Buxton looked at Giles mean.
lngly. and then at me, and Giles
whispered to me:
"Cffer to take 'em up. BY Jupiter,
they shall see We are no shirkers."
Which ! did, and. to my amazement,
In q few moments we were all lumber.
Ing along the road; Overton and Mr..
Buxton on the back seat, and Giles
and l with our backs to the horses,
while the surgeon was alongside the
coachman on the box.
Nothing could exceed the ~politeness
between the two principals. about the
seats as about everything else. Over.
ton was with difficulty persuaded to
take the back seat. Mr.. Buxton seated
himself there without any introduction.
Il hope 1t will never again be my for.
tune to negotiate SO delicate an affair
al q meeting between gentlemen with
n so much my superior In rank as
Mr.. Buxton.)
May / ask, Mr.. Overton, II you pre-,
fer the window down or up?" asked
Giles, with great Difference.
EITHER, dear sir" responded Over
ton. Il believe 1t was up when you
kindly invited us to enter"
True: but you may be sensitive to
the air, and may catch cold"
At which Mr.. Buxton grinned in q
heartless manner. The window re-
NAMED up.
We we're much crowded with the
two pistol-cases and the surgeons box
VI instruments. which to me appeared
moro appalling than the pistols.
At last we reached the 3pot-s
email, 0at place under a sweetly
blooming hawthorn hedge. with some
verdaat oaks at either end.
0uas and Overton were 70 scrupu