The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-05-02
CHAPTER 111-(continued.)

lnaC II all tall1eS so very exactly
and that this-this Philip de Mount
deal about your uncle Arthur, and his
movements in the past"
There's no doubt of that; and
Luke paused a moment and a curious
blush spread owe his face. The Eng
lishman's inborn dislike to talk of GER
tain subjects to his women folk had
got hold of him, and he did not know
how to proceed.
AS usual in such cases, the woman
unmoved and businesslike-put an end
to his access Of shyness.
The matter is or may be-too SER
u dear, for o to keep any of your
thoughts back from me at this juno
ture."
What I meant was he said alb
ruptly, that this Philip might quite
well be Uncle Arthur's son, you know;
but it doesn't follow that he has any
fora, Or to think that he IS Uncie Rad's
presumptive herr
THAT will, Of course, depend on his
proofs-his papers and so on she as
scented, calmly. Has anyone seen
them?"
"At the time-it was some time last
November-that he first wrote to Uncle
Rad, he a all his papers by him. He
wrote from st. Vincent; a 1 told
you that
NO"
We'll. it was from ST. Vincent that
he wrote. He had left Martinique, I
understand, in 1902, when st. Pierre, If
you remember, was totally destroyed
by volcanic eruption. 1t seems that
when Uncle Arthur left the French col
ony for good, he lodged quite a COM
Portable sum in the local bank at ST.
Pierre In the name of Mrs. de Mount
ford. OF course he had nc intention Of
ever going back there, and anyhow he
never did, for he died about three years
later. The lady went on living her own
life quite happily. Apparently she did
not tanker much after her faithless
husband. 1 p that she never i'm
agined for a moment that he meant to
stick to her and she certainly never
bothered her head as to what his con-
nections or friends Over in England
might be. Amongst her own kith and
kin, the half caste population Of a
French settlement. she was considered
very we'll off, almost rich. After a very
few a of grass widowhood, she mar
ried again, without much scruple or
conjunction, which proves that she
never thought that her English husband
would come back to her. And then
came the catastrophe"
What catastrophe?"
THE destruction Of st. Pierre. You
remember the awful accounts of it. The
whole town was destroyed. Every
0oihoAh III LII pldSS-l1Ic lOCdl DdIlk,
the church, the p~resbytery, the postof-
hce-was burned 60 the ground; every
thing was devastated for miles around.
And thousands persisted, Of course"
Il remember"
Mrs. de Mountford and her son
Philip were amongst the very few who
escaped. Their cottage was burned to
the ground, but she, with all a French
Women's sense Of respect for papers and
marks of identification, fought her way
back into the house, even when it was
tottering above her head, in order to
rescue those things which she valued
more than her life, the proofs that she
was a respectable married woman and
that Philip was her lawfully begotten
son.. Her second husband-I think
from reading between the lines that he
was a native or at best q half caste
was one Of the many who persisted. But
Mrs. de Mountford and Philip managed
to reach the coast unhurt and to put
out to sea in an open boat. They were
picked up by a fishing smack from Ma
rie Ga'ante and landed there. It is a
small island-French settlement, of
course-off G~uadeloupe. They had lit
tie or no money, and how they lived
I don't know, but they stayed in Marie
Galante for some time. Then the
mother died, and Philip made his way
somehow or other to Roseau in Domin-
lea and thence to st. Vincent"
when was that 2"
Last year, l suppose"
And" she said, meditating on all
that she had heard, ut was in st. Vim
cent that he first realized who he was
or might be?"
We'll. in a British colony it was
bound to happen. Whether somebody
put him up to it out there, or whether
he merely sucked the information in
from nowhere in particular, I can't say;
certain it is that he did soon discover
that the lame he bore was one of the
best Known in England, and that his
father must, as a matter of fact, have
been own brother to the earl of Rad
clyffe. So he wrote to Uncle Rad"
Louisa was silent. She was absorbed
in thought and for the moment Luke
had come to the end Of what he had
to say-or, rather, of what he mean
to say just now. That there was more
to come. Louisa well knew. Common
place women have a a of intuitively
getting at the bottom of the thoughts
of people for whom they care. Louisa
guessed beneath Luke's levity and his
school boyish slang-which grew more
apparent as the man drew to the enc
of his narrative-that beneath his out.
ward flippancy there lay a deep sub
stratum of puzzlement and anxiety.
The story as told by Luke sounded
crude enough, almost melodramatic
right out Of the commonplace range O.
Louisa's usual everyday life. Willis
she sat listening to the exotic tale
of secret and incongruous marriage
and Of those earthquakes n volcanic
eruptions which nae seemed SO re
mote when she had read about then
nine veal g in the newspapers. sht
almost thought that she must b.
dreaming; that she would walk vi
presently in her bed at the Langhan
hotel where she was staying with aunt
and that she would hen dress AND
have her breakfast and go out to NEE
Luke and tell him all about the idiotit
dream she had had about an unknown
heir to the earldom of R~adclyffs. wit
was a negro-or almost so-and wai
born in a country where there wer'
volcanoes and earthquakes.
How far removed from her at thi.
momen did aunt seem, and father
and the twins! Surely they could no