Alma record., 1914-03-19


the right numbers"
Then he lifted his fretted frame and
smote his grimy hands together. Con
found It'll" he said with short laugh.
Here / am. bankrupt, with all this
outfit-clear to the very finger-bowls-
handed to me on a silver tray, and I'm
mad as scat because | can't open the
first locked thing l find!"
He ran upstairs and donned rough
corduroy jacket and high leather leg
gings. Were going to climb the hill
today, Chum," he announced, land no
more moccasins need apply"
In the lower hall, however, he sud-
denly stopped stock-still. THE slip of
paper that was in the china dog!" he
exclaimed. What a chump am not
to have thought of it," He found 1t
in its pigeonhole and. kneeling down
before the safe, tried the numbers
carefully, first right. then left: IL
2S-94-0. The heavy door opened.
Il was right" he exulted. TITS the
plate" He drew it out, piece by piece.
Each was bagged in dark-red Canton
flannel. He broke the tape of one bag
and exposed a great silver pitcher,
tarnished purple-blue like a ravens
wing-then a tea-service. Each piece,
large and small, was marked with the
greyhound rampant and the motto.
And to think" he said. that my
great-great-grandfat buried you
with his own hands under the stables
when Tarleton's raiders swept the val
ley before the surrender at Yorktown!
Only wait till Aunt Daphne gets you
polished up, and on the sideboard!
You're the one thing the place has
needed"
=
With the dog for comrade he ira
yersed the garden and plunged across
the valley below, humming as he went.
The place was painless and over
grown with paw.paw bushes and sassa-
fras Great trees stood so thickly
in places as to make a twilight and the
SUMMER spots were masses of pink
laurel. poi5on-ivy, flaming purple rho
dodendron and wine-red tendrils Of in
terbraided briers. This was the for
est land of whose possibilities he had
thought IN the heart of the woods he
came upon a great limb that had been
wrenched OF by storm. The broken
wood was OF a deep rich brown, shading
to black. lie broke Of his song. snap
ped a twig and smelled it. It's sharp
acrid odor was unmistakable. He sud
denly remembered the walnut tree at
Rosewood and what Shirley had said:
Il know a girl who had two in her
yard, and she went to Europe on
them"
He looked about him; as far as he
could see the trees reared, hardy and
perfect, untouched for a generation.
He selected one OF medium size and
pulling a creeper. measured its cir
cumference and gaging this measure
with his eye, made penciled calcula-
ton 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 a mossed boulder,
breathless. his eyes sparkling. He had
thought himself almost beggar, and
here in his hand was small fortune!
Talk about engagement rings!" he
muttered why, a dozen of these
ought to buy a whole tiara!"
At length he rose and climbed on,
presently turning at right-angle to
bisect the strip to its boundary before
ne paused to rest. I'm no timber
cruiser" he said to himself as he
wiped his brow, but | calculate there
are all of three hundred trees big
enough to cut. Why, suppose they are
worth on an average only a hundred
apiece. That would make-Good
lordl" he muttered, "and I've been
incoming about poverty"
The growth was smaller and sparser
now and before long he came. on the
hills very crest, to the edge of a
ragged clearing II held a squalid set
tlement, perhaps a score of dirt-daubed
cabins little better than novels, some
of them mere mud-walled lean-tos,
with sod roofs and window-panes Of
fiour-sacking. Fences and outhouses
there was none. Uttered paths ram
bled aimlessly hither and thither from
chip-strewn yards to starved patches
of corn, under-cultivated and blighted.
Over the whole place hung an inde-
scribable atmosphere of disconsolate
filth, of unredeemed squalor and vile
ness.
With one hand on the dogs collar,
hushing him to silence, Valiant, un-
seen, looked at the wretched place
with a shiver. He had glimpsed many
wretched purlieus in the slums OF
great cities, but this, in the open sum
light, with the clean woods about 1t
and the sweet clear blue above, stood
out with an unrelieved boldness and
contrast that was doubly sinister and
forbidding. He knew instantly that
the tawdry corner was the community