Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1910-12-02
CHAPTER XVI.


a half hour after court had opened
there was nothing doing save pother
among the attorneys.
Your honor" it spoke, II am Fran
els Wayne, the brother of the dead
woman whose death you are trying to
probe"
lie Malheureux!" exclaimed john
son and Larry Morris in breath. The
figure bowed to them and turned again
to the judge.
IF your honor please" said LIE NAL
heureux. with all apologies for my
hardness and for myself, would like
to tell my story. In this wallet are the
documents of proof.
MY story is my fathers shame. His
name was John Francis Wayne, and
he was the son of Thomas James
Wayne, once bishop of the diocese OF
Georgia. Among the slaves my grand
father owned was a fine fellow named
Ben, who had been stolen from the
Gold Coast. He had a son, also named
Ben, and the father of the African Be-
noni that you have just thrown into
Jail, because he has kept silence out of
respect for my infirmity. His son Ben
and my father grew up in that rela-
tionship that once existed in the South
between boy master and boy slave.
Ben's father had told his son how their
people were kings in mid-Africa, and
of the enormous wealth they held there,
all vested in diamond mines. The
black lad and the white one were adj
venturous youths, and planned from
boyhood up to sail to Africa as soon
as they were grown to manhood. Ben
was to be restored to his ancestral
power and my father was to be enrich
ed with half the wealth of the king
dom and to return here to America to
live. Father wanted to be a physician,
so his parents sent him to Germany
and later to France to study. Ben. the
slave, went with him as his valet.
though they were more like foster
brothers, and with good reason, as
Ben's mother had been my fathers wet
nurse. Ben was bright. and to At him
self to rule over his people and to head
his dreams of a vast African colonial
ton he studied side by side with my
father. They saved their money, did
these two boys, and when they were
matriculated made ready to go to At
RIGA. lowering around Paris before
their departure my father met the
beautiful twin daughters of French
man of rank and wealth, the Mademoi-
selles Desiree and Marie De La RouX.
They were like as two peas, and of ex-
ceptional grace and charm, and for a
long while father did not know which
to choose. He loved them both. FL
AAI
posed, was accepted and married with
in a fortnight. AS the two sisters had
never been separated Marie accom-
panied the newly welded pair to AT
RIGA. Shortly after their arrival in the
ancient kingdom of Ben's father, a
Journey accomplished only after terri
BILE hardships, Ben married Tyoga, the
mother of Benoni, and the foster moth
err of Meta. now Benoni's wife. The
natives gave them short shrift at first
Had not my fathers really marvellous
knowledge of electricity and his clever
acquaintance with black art as 1t was
then practiced in some portions of Ger
many stood them in good stead. their
lives would not have been worth much.
AS It was the barbarians considered
my father terrible sorcerer, and ex-
allied him to be their ruler. Shortly
afterwards Ben and father quarreled
and father had the faithful slave exc
cuted with terrible torture, for the sight
of the wealth in this African kingdom,
and its almost limitless diamond fields
had disclosed all the avaricious quail
ties of my fathers nature, and he felt
no affection except for the glittering
Jewels that his thousands of serfs piled
up at his feet. Tyoga remained staun IN
to her lonely young mistress even after
the fearful death of Ben. her husband.
Then Benoni and were born-with-
in a month of each other. when the
first year of the sojourn on African soil
was barely ended. Tyoga consecrated
Benoni to my service at his birth, and
he has been more faithful and loyal
than a brother ever since Within the
next year my sister Cerisse was born.
In appearance I was like my father,
but I had my mothers disposition.
Cerlsse was the image of our mother
and of our Aunt Marie, but her nature
was that OF our father. Intensely vain.
selfish and overbearing. Cerisse would
have been hated by all around the cas-
tie but for her exceptional beauty She
was barely two years old when a young
captain in the French army, RaouI de
L'Enclose. stationed in camp a few
rods from our demesne, met nv Aunt
Marie. They fell violently in love with
each other. and despite my fathers Cd
position were married nv the old
French Cure who had accompanied the
party on its migration into the African
wilderness. Father was wild with an.
ger about the marriage. He forbade
my aunt and her husband the house
and returned to my Aunt Marie her
half of the joint fortune that she and
her sister had brought with them TO
Africa, only because he feared that
Capt. de L'Enclos might invoke an in
vestigation of the Wayne desmene bv
the French government. My aunt wa,
by now thoroughly enraptarad with
life in the tropics, which was but nat
ural, as the De La Roux had originally
come from Martinique. Africa was
barred to them, because both she and
her husband feared my fathers vindic.
tiveness.
ITO be continued.)
Death presses heavily on that man,
who, being but too well known to 9th.