The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1910-11-18

us aHa1rs He came armed with letters of IN
PRODUCTION that opened the most exclusive
homes OF the aristocratic English families 70
MIN. Among the many young girls that he
met was the village belle, the afianced of the
young ocotchAmerican. 1t was another yaria.
ton OF that old triangle, the woman and two
men, From the first the friends of Young Thomn.
son could see that his cause t.as homeless His
afhanced wife and the young stranger spent more
and more Of their time together. Little rumors
began to find their way about the village, The
eossips' ever ready In small town, were soon
pussy. thompson, moody and hurt by her sys.
leinatc neglect was the last to hear and the last
10 countenance the whispered talk that was 60
Ing the round of the village loafing places.
mere was a great hue and cry along the
quiet old streets one summer morning Thomp
sons bride to be had disappeared Her mother
mad gone to her room to awaken her and found
ner gone. She had gone with the Young man.
ager OF Albion's latest business house, and from
tnal day TO this neither Of them have been heard
from
I 1oung thompson changed in day from
.heellui' happy lad to grm-faced man. He
became moody and silent He neglected his work
and never went near the home to which he had
expected to lead his bride Less than q month
after the flight of the clippers there was more
excitement In Albion. .1teTas reported that Ed.
ward Thompson had disappeared The strain and
tne shame OF living in town where every man
woman and child knew the story of his filling
mad proven too much for his sensitive, hgh.strung
nature. e
While life flowed on in the same uneven cur
rent In the village of his nativity he was wander.
Ing here and there among the emerald islands
the iagoons and the coral reefs of the seas that
behold the Southern Cross,
All the Islands that lie off the familiar track
VI TIC steamers Knew him first and last In the
'nfee OF TOUR years that he spent with the traders
ana copfa buyers The Philippines, the Ladrones
the Solomons and dozen other island grouns Of
the southern Pacific were visited by him IN the
epic years Of his Odyssey. Finally he and bia
trading companions touched at the island Of Mai.
keVa IN the Fills. One Of the eternal civil wars
tnat are always disrupting the peace of the little
lsland kingdoms was brewing in Naiknva whom
'he tramp schooner dropped anchor inside the reef
or coral that formed the harbor breakwater
he" claimant had risen for the throne and he
and MS followers were demanding the scenter
and the head Of the old king
thompson had left Illinois, had put the states
behind him to escape the constant reminder NJ
mis- lost love that he saw in every woman The
wandering life of three or four years had ceansed
MS heart OF but little bitterness against woman.
hii'u' ne nad put the old life behind him and
dreamed only of adventure and never Of bright
eyes and loving lips It was mixed crew NJ
hanakas, Malaysians and haf-castes aboard tho
little trading schooner. They cared but little for
lhe kings and chieftains of the islands bnt y
was part OF their policy to be polite to the ma.
1--WE rulers An audience was arranged with the
ha'lSe sovereign and part of the ships COMPANY
attended laden with caicoes, mirrors and brass
rods as gifts 1t was in the royal hut Thomson
hrst sow the Princess Lakanita. She stood at the
Side or her fathers throne when the white mon
entered the palm hut for their talk with the old
king. N0 viz
some indefinite attraction seemed to draw the
whlte adVehturer and the brown-skfnned nrtncoso
TO each other. They met many times while tho
schooner was taking on its load of native nrod.
uets' There was more than little snaniob
blood IN the veins of the old kings daughter Her
mother was haifcaste Spanish woman and
much OF the languorous beauty of the maids ~
Did CASTLE was the heritage of this barhario
princess OF the remote Isle of Naikeya. In the
lah twilight Of the cocoanut groves ha baard 10.