Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-03-26
CHAPTER xI.-contlnued.


Wonders will never cease!" said
the young mar easily, struggling.
well, our quarry is here somewhere.
From the way the dogs act / should
say he's bolted into the house. With
your permission I'll take one of them
In and see." He stopped and snapped
q leash on a dog-collar.
I'm really very sorry said Valiant,
but I'm living in it at present"
The edge of a smile lifted the care
fully trained mustachR over the
others white teeth. 1t had the per-
fectly courteous air of saying, "Of
course, if you say so. But"
Valiant turned, with a gesture that
included all. IF you care to dismount
and rest" he said, Il shall be honored,
though I'm afraid / can't offer you
such hospitality as l should wish"
The judge raised his broad soft hat.
Thank you, sir" he said, with a soft
accent that delightfully."- disdained the
letter r." But we mustn't intrude
any further. AS you know, of course,
the place has been u~ninhabited for
any number of years, and WI had no
idea it was to acquire a tenant. You
will overlook our riding through,
hope. I'm afraid the neighborhood
has got used to considering this a sort
of no-man's land. It's a pleasure to
know that the Court is to be re-
claimed, sir. Come along, Chilly" he
added. Our fox has a burrow under
the house, l reckon-hang the cunning
little devil"
He waved his hat at the porch and
turned his horse down the path, side
by side with the golden chestnut.
After them trooped the others, horses
walking YEARLY, riders talking in low
voices, the girls turning often to send
swift bird-like glances behind them
to where the straight masculine figure
still stood with the yellow sunshine on
his face. They did not leap the wall
this time, but fled decorously through
the swinging gate to the Red Road.
Then, as they passed from view be-
hind the hedges, John Valiant heard
the younger voices break out together
like the sound of a bomb thrown into
a poultry-yard.
John Valiant stood watching till the
last rider was out Of sight. There
was a warm flush Of color in his face.
At length he turned with a ghost
of a sigh, opened the hall door wide
and stalking a hundred yards away,
sat down on the shady grass and be-
gan to whistle, with his eyes on the
door.
Presently he was rewarded. On a
sudden, around the edge of the sill
peered a sharp, suspicious little muz-
zIe. Then, like a flash of tawny light,
the fox broke sanctuary and shot for
the thicket.
= y
The brown ivied house in the vii
Iage was big and square and faced the
sleepy street. A one-storied wing con-
tanned a small door with a Doctors
brass plate on the clapboarding be-
side II. Doctor Southall was one of
Mrs. Merryweather Mason's paying
GuGSLb-lOI ouG HOulu nave ubGmGQ
the word boarder a gratuitous insult,
no less to them than to her. Another
was the major, who for a decade had
occupied the big old-fashioned cor
ner-room on the second floor, com
panioned by a monstrous gray cat and
waited on by an ancient negro named
Jereboam, who had been a slave of
his fathers.
The doctor was a sallow t~aciturn
man with a saturnine face, eyebrows
like frosted thistles, a mouth as ii
made with one quick knife-slash and
a head nearly bald, set on a neck that
would not have disqualified a year
ling OK.
On this particular morning neither
the major nor the doctor was in evi
dence, the former having gone out
early, and the latter being at the mo
ment in his Office, as the brassy buzz
of a telephone from time to time an
nounced. Two of the green wicker