The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-02-11

mountain and were preparing to erect
a stone crushing plant and to install
an army of Sicilian diggers at the foot
of the beetling height she was shocked
and indignant. There was justification |
sufficient for her wrath. Less than
two years previously she had bought q |
piece of land abutting on the noun |
tain and had built thereon handsome |
house In which she had settled herself |
comfortably with the assurance that |
no uncongenial neighbor could ever
harass her from the mountain side |
That the Unforeseen was actually i'm
minent and, above all, that John Ros-
| sitter should be its agent made her des-
| perate She resolved that 1t should not
be.
So she went to him with her ava
lanche of protests and reproaches. To
her surprise and infinite chagrin she
was unable to lodge them effectively.
He listened with admirable gallantry,
but Janet Armitage realized before she
had launched 1.-THE of her argument
that John Rossiter had made up his
mind.
II couldn't-nobody could-have be-
lieved you capable Of such-such an
awful desecrationT she declared, with
manifest intention to put him on the
defensive.
II hated to do It," he confessed so
berly. "I'really did"
"why did you. then?" she demanded
illogically.
81 must have money" he replied sim
ply.
Zone needs very little In Crosskill,"
she said "You certainly must need it
very much to be tempted to do what
you expect. 1t must be another case
of life or DEATH
"Oh, hardly as bad as thatr' He
laughed rather uneasily. Then his face
sobered and his voice became lower
and somewhat unsteady. ut might
not seem necessary to another man.
but it does to me. Shall tell you all
about 1t, JanetY
NO." she returned hastily. Il must
decline to have anything to do with
such detestable thing"
'Then we must let 1t go at that" he
said, with quick resumption Of his
business manner. "Let it stand that
want money for precisely the same
} reasons that influence the average
man-for a steam yacht, house in
Fifth avenue, a castle in-in Killar-
ney, a.
Janet did not remain to hear fur
> / A. ho~ b,,k rA{ C,s{aHof1
she retired and from that day gave
herself up unreservedly to the task of
frustrating the design Of 4he traprock
company. The weight OF public SEN
timent was with her, and she manipu-
lated it in every possible manner that
her ingenuity could suggest.
Nothing was of the slightest avail
The big crushing machinery came NJ
the river in sections. was unloaded at
the foot of the mountain and put to
gether and began at once its merciless
0 reduction of the picturesque outcror
' which had been loosened by the mighty
+ fulminations and sharp pickaxes of the
!. gang of dwarfed and noisy Palermi
tans that had camped just without ia
nets Enclosure.
1t was a trying period for Janet Ar
mitage. She was the most wretchet
woman in Crosskill when she knew
that she should have been the happi
est She was the prey Of contendins
emotions. It almost crushed her to b
brought face to face with the knowl
edge that the power to make her su
premely unhappy had been delegates
to any one. and it grieved and humili
ated her inexpressibly that the persol
delegated should have been John Ros
sitter. Most exasperating of all was tn
tardy conviction-unwelcome yet IN
mistakable-that the man who ha'
brought her to this extremity OF dis
comfort was dearer to her than lif
itself
All this came home to her with TIRE
mendous significance as she sat alon
at her dinner on Christmas day. Ey
erything seemed strangely unreal. Th
season itself was as unlike the typic.
holiday time as 1t well could be. Thu
far there had not lodged single snow
fake Oh the hemlocks to herald the al
proach Of winter. The air was sol
and balmy, and there was hazy In
in it that suggested belated India
summer. The unseasonableness of tt
I'D weather was positively disquieting.
was impossible to At the Christms
K, essentials into the scene.
" "Open the windows, Beppo-wid
" openv' she called out to half grow
II hov Who stood looking in on her fro
the veranda outside. "It's positive
On sitting" Beppo was swarthy Sic
II. ian lad whom she had rescued fro
Cd the mountain gang and befriended al
n who was repaying her for her prote
X ton with q devotion that was almo
ed tragic in its earnestness.
ho Beppo threw open the unlatched do
lly windows and stood In one of them
w. an attitude of rapt admiration. The
". was nothing at all reserved about Be
~ DO. His effusiveness was thing
ee- be dreaded and repressed. Standil
nd framed in the tall window, he seem
as to Janet to be especially out Of pla
vn and melodramatic. It irritated her
lid see him standing there, so suggesti
a Of an opera chorus or trumpery \
lch apolitan figurine. 1t was all very we
oc- she told herself. to have him abo
t. when he was starved and helple
,ed waif left to shift for himself, but NJ
lay really she must send him down
up the yards to see II anything could
or made Of him.