The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-09-30
CHAPTER XxxV.
The Song of the nightingale,

-A'otS INC dark turnpike John Val.
liant rode with his chin sunk on his
breast. He was wrctchodly glad OF
the darkness, for it covered a thou.
sand familiar sights he had grown to
love. Yet through the dark came
drifting sounds that caught at him
with ciutching hands--tho bay of a
mound from some far.off kennel, the
Whlrrlng note OF frogs, the impatient
hish whinny of Il horse across pasture
Dars-and his 'nostrils widened to the
wild braided fragrance Of tho fields
over which the mist was spinning its
fairy carded wool.
Inc preparations for his going had
been quickly made. He was leaving
behind him all but single portman.
teau. Uncle Jefferson had already
taken this-wth Chum-to the sta.
ton. The old man had now gone sor.
rowfully afoot to the blockhouse, a
hall'mile up the track, to bespeak the
stopping Of the express He would 20
back on the horse his master was
riding.
The lonely little depot nanked a
siding beside dismal stretch Of vel.
low clay-bank gouged by rains. It's
windows were dark and II |, weather.
beaten plank platform was illuminated
by single lantern that hung on a
nan beside the locked door, it's sickly
flamc showing bruise-likc through
smoky strcakngs Of lamp black. At
one side, in the shadow, was his bag,
and beside it the tethercd bulldog
sole spot OF white against the mclan.
choly forlornness lying with one
splinted leg, like a swaddled ramrod.
sticking straight out before him.
In the saddle, Valiant struck his
hand hard against his knee. Surely
it was dream! 1t could not be that
he was leaving Virginia, leaving Dam.
ory court, leaving her! But he knew
that 1t was not a dream.
Far away, rounding Powhattan
Mountain, he heard the long-drawn
hoot OF the coming train ninging it's
sky-warning in a host of scampcring
echoes. Among them mixed another
sound of a horse, galloping fast and
hard
His own fidgeted, flung up wide nos.
tri!s and ncighcd shrilly. Who was
coming along that runnelled highway
at such an hour in such breakncck
fashion?
The train was nearer now; he could
hear its low rumbling hum, rising
TO roar, and the click and spring of
tn" rails. But though he lifted a foot
from the Stirrup, he did not dismount.
Something in the whirlwind speed of
coming caught and held him motion.
IISC u MI
that all the world beside did not OK.
Isl; there were only the sweeping
rush OF the nearing tran--impersona
unhuman--hc, sitting his horse i'm the
gloom, and that unknown rider whose
anguish OF speed outstrippcd the
steam, rdingrto whom?
The road skirtcd the track as It
ncarcd the station, and all at once n
white glare from the opened Gre-box
flung itself blindngly across the dark.
illuminating like fare OF summer
lightning the patch of highway and
the rider Valiant, staring, had an in
stant's vision of a streaming cloak, Of
a girls face, set in a tawny swirl Of
lOoscncd hair. With a cry that was
lost in the shricl Of escaping steam,
he dragged his plunging horse around
and the white blaze swept him also, as
the rider pulled down at his side.
"Yon!" he cried. He leaned and
caught the slim hands gripped on the
bride, shaking now. '"You!"
The dazzling brightness had gone
by, and the air was full Of the groan.
ing OF the brakes as the long line Of
darkened sleepers shuddered to It's
enforced stop. "Johni"-- H, heard
the sweet wild cry pierce through the
)umble of noises, and something in It
set hia blood running molten through
hia veins 1t hold an apony of relia3