The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-06
LLOYD OSBOURNE


 fact, it's more of life and death thing to me now than ever before"
 Daggancourt shook his head.
 tI was willing to go my last dollar" he said "I could have worked for you with both hands and starved and stinted-nG>-eor the money iA it, Marse' Broughton-but because you are you; because 1t is the coIored mans in stinct-his curse-to love and serve master Say no more, sir. I shall not trouble you again. I am like the Psa1mist who put his trust in princes, and verify was he disappointed.
 Matt was conscience stricken; he had leaned on Victor; he had found com fort and a sense of safety in the old fellows rugged affection. It was hard to see it go, and 1t appeared doubly valuable, now that it was lost. Matt telegraphed to Snood & Hargreaves:
 Please give immediate effect to my let ter and remit money. for ring by express. Telegraph reply. saying when may ex- pect to receive it.
 When this was accomplished he en- countered the concluding disaster of that whole disastrous morning. His telephoned request to speak to Miss Marshall was received by a maid, who said that her mistress was i'll and could not come down. Nor could a message be carried to her because she was asleep. One might be left, how ever Did the gentleman wish to leave one?
 Matt, wretchedly perturbed, could think of nothing else than that Miss Marshall was to be informed that he had rung her up. "Broughton, not Button = B-r-o-u-g-h-t-o- - and please tell her I shall call this afternoon in the hope of seeing her and perhaps take her for drive if the weather clears and she is well enough"
 At he was at Fair Oaks in worse downpour than ever, only to find him. self rebuffed. Half soaked, he stood on the threshold and was told that Miss Marshall could see no one and that the doctor had given her some sleeping stuff. The general, too, had intrenched himself against callers. Matt climbed into his buggy and drove off, sick with despair.
 Splashfng along the muddy road, he wondered at himself for refusing that $5O,O00 With the money they had of fered him Chris, for was not this what it amounted to? With $5O,O00 in his pocket he might go up to that big house and take her bodily away, mar ry her, have her for his very own?
 Ninety-nine men out of a hundred would have taken the money-wouId have jumped at it. Fifty thousand dolIarsI It might be years before he would be worth a quarter as much. And here he was throwing it out of the window like a quixotic fool 1t was not in him to beray John Mort. It was simply that he was incapable of it He almost wished that he was not. It was not principle nor religion nor anything-but a fact. He himself was quite helpless. Volition lay altogether beyond him. It was something he could not do, that was all.
 At home there was telegram await ing him. It read:
 Matthew Broughton,f Care Mrs. Sattane,
 Manaswan. Conn:
 Experts pronounce ruby hawed and worth $500 only Firm faces substantial loss advance already. made If accrued interest be not promptly paid shall dis pose of ring at end of statutory period. Telegraph instructions. .
 SNOOD & HARGREAVES.
 It was a blow to make any man stagger; defenseless, his first instinct was to hide in his room. Matt locked the door and with desperation read the telegram again. Good God, all he had then was the money in his pocket!
 Were 1t not for Chris he would have been less unnamed. The sea is a hard master. but it will always feed and clothe a man who has made it his trade He couldn't starve-it wasn't that. But it meant losing Chris-aban- donfng all thought and dreams of her as his wife.
 How did he know that he wasn't be- ing cheated? There was no flaw in the ruby. Everything John Mort had was of the best, of the finest. 'Ex- perts pronounce ruby fawedr' The chap would have paid him $6,5OO then and there for the ring. He was an expert himself, that bald man. He hadn't 1illydallied or anything, but had been eagerness itself to- clinch, the bargain. It was inconceivable that he had been mistaken. He was a thief, that was what he was, a low, con temptible thief, who had discovered how to get the ring for a/thousand- the thousand originally advanced.
 He ragged up and down the room in fmpotent wrath. People knocked and spoke through the keyhole, but he dis regarded them. One, alone, could have been of the least so1ace to him, and she was lying in that great, grim house beyond those miles of dripping woods.
 But she would know soon enough $1-, e,oov days and fhov IWOI1I6