The Holly chieftain., 1910-04-29
CHAPTER v.-contInusd.


II have heard papa say that life is
short and the tenure of once uncer-
tain. can remove you at any time
please Now do you understand that
this is . serious business? There's
likely to be q lot Of trouble. and no
time for asking questions, SO when
say It's SO it's So"
TITS So" repeated Ardmore do
silely.
Nov. here's the sheriff at Kildare,
on our side of the line. who writes
TO say that he is powerless to catch
Appleweight. He's afraid of the
dark. that man! You see, the grand
jwy in Dilwell county-that's Kill
dare. you know-has indicted Apple
weight as a common outlaw, but the
grand jurors were all friends of Ap-
ipleweight and the indictment was
only to satisfy law-and-order senti-
ment and appease the Woman's Civic
league Of Raleigh. Now, papa doesn't
Il mean don't want to offend those
Appleweight people by meddling in
this business. Papa wants Gov. Os-
borne to arrest Appleweight in South
Carolina; but l don't believe Gov. Os-
borne will dare do anything about 1t.
Now, Mr.. Ardmore, l am not going to
have papa called a coward by any
body, particularly by South Carolina
people, after what Gov Osborne said
iof our state"
why, what did he saw"
HE said in speech at Charleston
last winter that no people who fry
their meat can ever amount to any
thing. and he meant US! I can never
forgive him for that; besides, his
daughter is the stuck-upest thing!
And I'd like Barbara Osborne to tell
me how she got into the Colonial
Danes. and what call she has to be
inspector general Of the Granddaught-
lers Of the Mexican War; for I've
heard my grandfather Dangerfeld say
many time that old Col. Osborne
and his South Carolina regiment never
did 80 outside Of Charleston until the
war was over and the American army
had come back home"
Gov. Osborne Is contemplate
rufaan," declared Ardmore with deem
feeling. -
Miss Dangerfield nodded judicial
approval, and settled back in her chair
the better to contemplate her new
secretary. and said:
~rve written-that is to say. rapa
wrote before he went away, strong
letter to Gov. Osborne, complaining
that Appleweight was hiding in South
!. Carolina and running across the state
line to rob and murder people in
North Carolina. Papa told Gov. os-
borne that he must break up the Ap-
pleweight crowd or he would do some.
thing about 1t himself. It's splendid
letter: you would think that even a
coward like Gov. Osborne would do
something after getting such let
ter"
Didn't he answer the letter."
ANSWER it? He never got it! Pa
pa didn't send IT.; that's the reason!
Papa's the kindest man in the world,
and he must have been afraid of hurt.
ing Gov. Osborne's feelings. He wrote
the letter. expecting to send It, but
when he went OF to New Orleans he
told Mr. Bassford to hold 1t till he got
back. He had even signed it-you
can read It II you like"
It was undoubtedly q vigorous
epistle, and Ardmore felt the thrill of
its rhetorical sentences as he read.
The dignity and authority of one Of
the sovereign American states was
represented here, and he handed the
paper back to Miss Dangerfield as
tenderly as though 1t had been the
original draft Of Magma Charta.
"It's corker, all right"
'I don't much like the way 1t ends.
1t says, right here"-and she bent for.
ward and pointed to the place under
criticism-"it says. Trusting to your
sense of equity. and relying upon a
continuance of the traditional friend.
ship between your state and mine, I
am. sir. awaiting your reply, very
respectfully, your obedient servant
Now. wouldn't trust to his sense Of
anything, and that traditional friend.