Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-23
THE VALIANTS OF VIRGINIA
nv HALLIE ERMlNIE RIVE
convriebt by Bobbs Merrill co.

| what he had not noticed beforehand
! IT covered something that had been
| let into the plaster. He swung II
aside and made an exclamation
He was looking at a square, un, !,
compromising wall-safe, with rouilu !
] figured disk of white metal on lts ~,
face. He knelt before 1t ana tIlea
| its knob. After moment II turneu
aasily Rut the resolute steel door
would not open. though he tried every
| combination that came into his m iln.
| mo use" he said disgustediy., Oio
/ must have the right numbers.
Then he lifted his fretted frame ana
emote his grimy hands together.
"Confound it, he said with shore
laugh. Here am, a bankrupt, Win
all this outfit-clear to the very M
| r-bowls-handed to me on a slive.
| tray, and I'm mad as scat pe 49,,
/ | can't open the first locked tnihs
| l find!'
He ran upstairs and donned a
rough corduroy Jacket and hlgn
leather leggings. We're gong 10
climb the hill today, Chum," he an
nounced, land no more moccasins
need apply" ia
I In the lower hail. however, he SUD
| denly stopped stock-still. Inc SID ~,
| of paper that was in the CHINA cog
he exclaimed. What chump l am
not to have thought of it,? lie lounu
| II in its pigeonhole and, kneenng down
before the safe. tried the numbers
carefully. first right. then left: Il
9e-94-O. The heavy door opened;
"I was right" he exulted. It's
the plate" He drew it out, piece by
piece. Each was bagged in dark-reG
! canton flannel. He broke the tape OF
me bag and exposed great silver
pitcher furnished purple-blue ike a
ravens wing-then tea-serVlce.
Each piece, large and small, was
marked with the greyhound raInpa !,
and the motto. And TO thinh, 10
said that my great-grea.-eIan an y,
| father buried you with his own hanos
nnder the stables when Tarleton s
raiders swept the valley before the
surrender of Yorktown, Only walt
| ill Aunt Daphne gets you pollsnso
nm and on the sideboard! You're the
one thing the place has needed.
with the dog for camrade ne traV-
ersed the garden and plunged across
tho valley below. humming as ne
went one of the songs with Whlcn
Uncle jefferson was won't to fegale
his labors:
MY gran 'mothah lived on yonoah Il
green,
Tummy-eye, tummy-oh, tummy-
umpy -tumpy-tee.
Fines oil lady evan yo' see!"
The ridiculous refrain rang out
| through the bewildering vistas OF the
wooded slope as he swung on. up the
| hill. through the underbrush.
The place was painless and over
grown with pawpaw bushes ana sas-
safras. Great trees stood SO thlckly
in places as to make twilight and
| the SUMMER spots were masses OF PINK
! laurel, polson-ivy, flaming purple
rhododendrdn and wine-red tendrils of
! interbraided briars. This was the
forest land of whose possibilities he
| had thought. In the heart of the
woods he came upon a great limb that
had been wrenched off by storm. The
broken wood was of a deep rich
brown, shading to black. He broke
off his song, snapped twig and
smeled it. It's sharp acrid idor was
unmistakable. He suddenly remem :
bered the walnut tree at Rosewood
and what Shirley had said: Il know
girl who had two in her yard, and
she went to Europe on them"
|
could see the trees reared, hardy and
perfect untouched for a gener-
alton. He selected one efamediun
size and pulling creeper
measured it's circumference and
gaging this measure with his eye,
made a penciled calculation on the
| back of an envelope. Great Scott
he said jubilantly to the dog; "that
would cut enough to wainscot the
Damory Court library and build
twenty sideboards!"
He sat down on messed boulder,
breathless, his eyes sparkling. He had
thought himself almost beggar. and
here In his hand was small fortunei
| Talk about engagement ringsi" he
muttered "Why. dozen of these
ought to buy whole tiara!"
Far below him he could see the
square tower of the old parish church
of st. Andrew. The day before he
had gone there to service, slipping
into pew at the rear. There had
been flowers in silver vases on either
side of the reading desk, and dim
] hues from the stained-glass windows
had touched the gray head of the
rector above the brass lectern and the
crooked oak beams of the roof, and
he had caught himself all at once
lHinhlnB t1dI out lot us QrOOplnS mai
Shirley's head might have outshone
that of the saint through whose
bright mantle the colors came. After
the service the rector had showed
him the vestry and the church books
with their many records of Valiants
before him, and he had sat for a mo-
ment in the Valiant pew fancying heI
standing ther sometime beside him
with her trim gloved hand by his on
the prayer book.
! At. length he rose and climbed on
presently turning at right angle tc
bisect the strip to its boundary be-
fore he paused to rest. I'm no tim
ber-cruiser. he said to himself as he
wiped his brow, but I calculate there
are three hundred trees big enough tC
cut. Why. suppose they are worth
on an average only hundred apiece
That would make-Good Lord" he
muttered, 'and i've been incoming
about povertyi'
The growth was smaller and
} sparser now, and before long he came
on the hills very crest, to the edge
! of a ragged clearing. 1t held a
squalid settlement perhaps a score OF
dirt daubed cabins, little better thar
novels, some of them mere mud