The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-01-08

tally. "In spite Of Mow's enthusiastic
! encomium, / was not very favorably
impressed by Yup Sing. His wall Of
reserve Is too high and too thick. II
Is neither scalable nor penetrable.
And yet he stands we'll, believe, in
the community"
| We sat In the music room, where a.
! fire Of drift wood wove a woof OF
: green and violet strands through the
red warp Of the blaze, for the weather
had turned chill. Evelyn wore a cling
Ing gown OF black panne velvet, with
purple orchids at her waist. It had a.
wonderfully mature effect for one so
young as she. but 1t vas not unbecom-
; ing. Indeed 1t effectively accentuated
tho deep raw gold tints Of her hair
and added to tho transparency of her
unwonted pallor. was marvelling
once again over her outwardly brave
up-bearing in spite of the constant
anxiety Of which pallid cheeks were
the only visible sign, when she said:
"I was sure we should hear from
Captain Macleod today.
'TIe has probably met with rough
weather" consoled. "It isn't child's
play rounding Point Judith at this sea.
son. you know"
Rough weather or not" she insist.
ed. "he must have reached Gloucester
by now. And II he found Peter John
son, or II he didn't, he was to tele-
phone. you remember"
Gloucester Is something of a
place" explained, adopting the ver-
nacular. 1T includes no less than
eight villages and five thousand men
are engaged there in the fishing indus
try. Macleod can't be expected to
learn in five minutes whether a man
named Peter Johnson is one Of the
FIVE thousand"
But the whole community wo",,
know II one OF their number had such
an experience as he Just passed
through" And for this argument I
had no answer ready.
fortunately, however, none was re-
; CURED OF me, for at that moment
steps were audible crossing tile hail,
and when our eyes turned downward
they encountered the dapper figure Of
LOUIS Cameron's French valet, halt
ing respectfully On the threshold
"Mademoiselle." he said, bowine
mais voici des lettres qui jai trouve"
AND We saw, then, that he carried q
tin despatch box.
Evelyn directed him to place 1t un-
on the table by which she sat II
seemed that she had not given over
the Idea that the letters for which we
mad searched so diligently on Sunday
were somewhere in the house and
nao directed Louis to bring to her
anything In the way Of writing that
ne could lay his hands upon.
he mad found the despatch box he
toid US, hidden away behind some sell
dom employed volumes in the library
anu thinking 1t might contain that Of
winch Miss Grayson was in quest. had
1oced the lock- to discover several
carefully-tied packets of letters.
wish / could give even a half ade.
Quate idea Of the way she thanked
Louis. 1t would add so much to g
, reailZlng sense of her sweetness with.
/ out detracting at all from the envis.
agement of her dignity. No one could
nave heard her bon garcon" and NOT
nave felt impelled to consecrate his
enoeavors henceforth and forevermore
10 her service. AS for Louis his re.
spectrui homage and fidelity were al.
most pagan. / verify believe he would
willingly have suffered martyrdom TO
serve her.
AS ne withdrew we fell avidly upon
the contents Of the box, yet with small
nope or finding what we sought: for
! the letters 1t contained were all. an.
parentiy. or distant date; letters, for
the most part OF a private, persona,
! nature. carefully assorted and ar
ranged In red-taped or elastic-banded
, bundles.
1t was no mere idle curiosity which
impelled us to read many of them.
we were In position which may best
De described as anomalous. Though
cameron was my dearest friend I
knew little Of his life prior to our
meeting, and Evelyn, his niece and
ward. was scarcely less uniformed
than myself In the letters Just
brought to light there might, we de-.
cided. be found some clue of meal.
culable service In the task now before
us. And so we united the tapes and
stripped off the bands and set our.
selves to careful painstaking examina.
ton.
Seldom have / engaged in labor so
deadly uninteresting at one moment
and so keenly engrossing at the next.
Ihere was correspondence here which
meant nothing to us whatever. and
there was correspondence which threw
search-light upon portions Of Cam.
eron's career. barring good deeds and
rOll1eS alike. without discrimination