The Forrest City times., 1910-11-04

it's affairs. He came armed with letters of in. frodaction that opened the most excl1Is3ve
 homes of the aristocratic English families to
 nm. Among the many young girls that he met Was the village belle, the aIianced of the young Scotch American It was another varfa-
 ton of that old triangle the woman and two men. From the first the friends of young Thea1n- son could see that his was hopeless His attanced wife and the young stranger spept more and mere oi their time together Little rumors began to find their way about the village The SossIRs, ever ready in q small town were soon busy. Thompson. moody and hurt by her svs. tematc neglect, was the last to hear and the las 10 eo9htenance the whispered talk that was go- ing the round of the village loadng places
 There was a great hue and cry along the quiet old streets one summer morning Thomp- son $ bride to be had disappeared. Her mother had gone to her room 10 awaken her and found her gone. She had gone with the voung man ager of Abion's latest business house. and from lhaldat te this neither of them have been heard from
 Young Thompson changed in q day from a cheerful happy lad to grmfaced man He became moody and silent He neglected his work and never went near the home to which he had expected te lead his bride Less than q month after the hisht of the elopers there was more excitement i Albion. IL was reported that Fd ward Thompson had disappeared The strain and the shame of living in a town where every man woman and child knew the story of his filling had proven teo much for his sensitive hgh-strung nature
 While life flowed on in the same uneven c,,r rent in the village of his nativity he Was wander ing here and tbere among 1he emerald islands the lfEeans and the coral reefs of the seas that behold the southern Cross
 All the islands that lie off the farniItar trool, of the steamers knew him first and last in the three ar our years that he spent with the traders and copra buyers The Philippines the Iadrones the 9'IoRonS and dozen other island groups of The southern Pacific were visited by him in the epic wears of his Odyssey Finally he and his tradiae companions touched at the island of Nai keVa in the *ljis One of the eternal civil wars tnat are tW2tS disrupting the peace of the little island kingdoms was brewing in Nakeva when the tramp schooner dropped anchor ins ida the reef oi coral that formed the harbor hreakwater he" c.aA'm had risen for the throne and he and his followers We're demanding the seeutar and tho head of the old king
 thoi soe had left Illinois. had put the states oehld hi0 to escape the constant reminder of his lost love that he saw in every woman The Wandering life of three or four years had cleansed his heart of but little bitterness against woman klna lie had put the oil life behind him and dreamed only of adventure and never of bright eyes idl1 loving lips II was mixed crew of h2aaFas. Naa}sians and hafcastes aboard the little traaiag schooner. They cared but little for the kings and cHieftains Of the islands but fl was a part of their policy te be polite tn the ma tNe rulers. An audience wds arranged with the nattfe sovereign and part of the sNps compa,v attended iadea with ealicoes. mirrors and brass roas as glt'S II was in the royal hut Thomson hrst SOW the Princess Lakanta She stood at tbe side ot her iather's throne when the white men entered the na!m hut for their talk with the old king 0''
 some indefinite attraction seemed to draw the white adtenteter and the brown-skinned rrincess to each other They met many tf,nas -bfIa tba schooner was taking its load of native nrod uets- There was more than a little Spanish blood m the veins Of the old kings daughter Her mother Nas a haifcaste Spanish woman and much ot the langaoroas beauty of the maids of old Castle was the heritage Of this barbaric princess of the remote isle of Nafkeva Tn The half twilight of the eocoanut groves he heard her