The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1912-05-02
CHAPTER III-(Continued.)

81 know it, dear; I was only think
Ing.
and that this-this Philip de Mount
ford seems in any case to know a great
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 over his face. The Eng
lishman's Unborn 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 ousinesslike-put an end
to his access OF shyness.
"The matter is or may be-too SER
ious, dear, for you 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 1t doesn't follow that he has any
right to call himself Philip de Mount
ford, or to think that he is Uncle RAIDS
presumptive heir"
That will, of course, depend on his
proofs-his papers and so on" she as
sented, calmly. Has anyone seen
them?"
"At the time-it was some time last
November-that he first wrote to Uncle
Rad, he had all his papers by him. He
wrote from st. Vincent; have I told
you that
NO"
well, 1t was from st. Vincent that
he wrote. He had left Martinique, ]
understand, In 1902. when st. Pierre, II
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 no 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 banker much after her faithless
husband. I suppose that h 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 q
1 French settlement. she was considered
very well off, almost rich. After a very
few years Of grass widowhood, she mar
ried again, without much scruple OF
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
building in the place-the local bank
the church, the presbytery, the postof-
fice-was burned to the ground; every
thing was devastated for miles around
And thousands persisted, OF course"
Il remember"
Mrs. de Mountford and her sor
Philip were amongst the very few who
escaped. Their cottage was burned tC
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
lettering above her head, in order &c
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 ines that he
was a native or at best a half caste
was one Of the many who persisted. But
Mrs. de Mountford and Philip managed
10 reach h coast unhurt and to put
out to sea In an open boat. They were
picked up by a fishing smack from Ma
Tie Galante and landed there. 1t is a
small island-French settlement, OF
course-off Guadeloupe. They had lit
Tie or no money, and how they lived
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?"
Last year, / suppose"
And" h said, meditating on all
mat she a heard. lit was in st. Vim
cent that he first realized who he was
or might be?"
Well. in a British colony 1t was
bound to happen. Whether somebody
ne merely sucked the information in
from nowhere in particular, l can't say;
certain 1t is that he did soon discover
mat the name he bore was one of the
pest known in England, and that his
idther must, as a matter of fact, have
been own brother to the earl of Rad
clyfe. So he wrote to Uncle Rad"
Louisa was silent. She was absorbed
IN thought and for the moment Luke
mad come to the end OF what he had
10 say-or. rather, Of what he meant
10 say just now. That there was more
70 come. Louisa well knew. Common
pace women have a way 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 end
OF his narrative-that beneath his out
ward f1ippancy 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 OF
Louisa's usual everyday life. Whilst
she sat listening to the exotic tale
Oh secret and incongruous marriage
and Of those earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions which had seemed SO re-
mote when she had read about them
nine years ago in the newspapers, she
almost thought that she must be
dreaming; that she would wake uI
presently in her bed at the Langham
MOTEL where h was staying with aunt
and that she would then dress and
nave her breakfast and go out to meet
Luke n tell him all about the idiotiC
Iream she had had about an unknown
neir to the earldom of Radclyffe. who
vas a negro-or almost so-and was
porn In a country where there werf
and earthquakes. .'
HOW far removed from her at this
moment did aunt seem, and father,
and the twins! Surely they could not