Putnam patriot., 1912-02-16
quietly. Carrington's avn dropped at his side. Perhaps, after all, 1t was that.
CHAPTER VI.
setty Sets Out for Tennessee.


 with long nights when he perched be side his father on the cabin roof or their keel-boat and watched the stars or the blurred line of the shore where it lay against the sky, or the lights on other barges and rafts drifting as they were drifting, with their wheat and corn and whisky, to that com mon market at the rivers mouth.
 Bruce Darlington had seen the day of barge and raft reach it's zenith. had heard the first steam packets shrieking whistle. which sounded the death-knell of the ancient order. though the shifting of the trade was a slow matter and the glory of the old did not pass over to the new at once, but fingered still in mighty fleets Of rafts and keel-boats and in the Ho- merle carousals of some ten thousand of the half-horse, half-alligator breed that nightly gathered in New Orleans.
 After the reading of the warrant that morning, Charley Balaam had shown Darlington the road to the Forks, assuring him when they sep arated that with little care and decent use of his eyes 1t would be possible to fetch up there and not pass plumb through the settlement without knowing where he was,
 He was on his way to Fayetteville. where he intended to spend the night. and perhaps a day or two in looking around. when the meeting with Betty and Murrell occurred. The girls face remained with him. It was a face he would like to see again.
 He was still thinking of the girl when he ate his supper that night at Cleggett's Tavern. Later, in the bar. he engaged his host in Idle gossip. He had met a gentleman and a lady on the road that dayl he wondered, as he toyed with his glass, if it could have been the Ferrises? Mounted? Yes, mounted Then 1t was Ferris and his wife-or 1t might have been Captain Murrell and Miss Malroy. Miss Malroy did not live In that pars of the country; she was a friend of Mrs. Ferris, belonged in Kentucky or Tennessee, or somewhere out wonder at any rate she was bringing her visit to an end, for Ferris had in- structed him to reserve place for her in the north-bound stage on the morrow.
 Darlington suddenly remembered that he had thought of starting north in the morning himself.
 The stage left at six, and as Car rington climbed to his seat the next morning MT. Cleggett was advising the driver to look sharp when he came to the Barony road, as he was to pick up party there. It was Car rington who looked sharp, and almost at the spot where he had seen Miss Malroy the day before he saw her again, with Ferris and Judith and . pile of luggage bestowed by the way side. Betty did not observe him as the coach stopped, for she was in- tent on her farewells with her friends There were nasty words of advice from Ferris, prolonged goodb to Judith, tears-kisses-while a place was being made for her many boxes and trunks. Darlington gathered that she was going north to Washington; that her final destination was some point either on the Ohio or Missts- sippi, and that her name was Betty. Then the door slammed and the stage was in motion again.
 All through the morning they swung forward in the heat and dust and glare, and at midday rattled into the shaded main street of a sleepy village and drew up before the tavern where dinner was waiting them.
 Betty saw Darlington when she took her seat, and gave a scarcely perceptible start Of surprise. Then her face was flooded with rich col or. This was the man who saw her with Captain MurreIl yesterday There was a brief moment of irreso- lution and then she bowed coldly.
 It was four days to Richmond. Four days of hot, dusty travel, four nights of uncomfortable eross-road stations, where Betty suffered sIeepless nights and the unaccustomed bangs of early rising. She occasionally found her self wondering who Darlington was. She approved of the manner in which he conducted himself. She liked a man who could be unobtrusiye
 The next morning he found himself seated opposite her at breakfast. lie received another curt little nod, cool and distant, as he took his seat.
 You stop in Washington said Darlington.
 Betty shook her head. No, l am going on to Wheeling"
 You're fortunate in being so near. ly home," he observed. I'm going on to Memphis.
 Betty exclaimed: Why, I am go- ing to Memphis, tool"