The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1915-10-21

She Found Him Cold In Death.
doctors gate. The footprints We're OF
we'll shOd men of small and shapely
feet, it was reported. No passing rough
maraudc-S. no outlaw negro desper-
ADDE'S had part i'll the murder and rob-
berry in the doctor's study. nor had any
such struggled in deadly combat in his
garden. it was whispered. TIE matter
was mystery as we'll as murder, and
the morbid neighbors gathered in and
around the cottage Of the dead man
and whispered greedily.
Meanwhile the daZed and bleeding
Blair Stanley had strange home COM
ing in the night. His mother, that
proud, cold woman, worthy mate of
the grim judge who had perished
strangely in wild mountain pass
nearly a generation agone, loved her
son seemingly only through her cold
ambitions.
"You do not know when day may
come that you may be in position to
save the life Of the heir Of Stanley"
she had said often significantly. Blair
understood his mother well.
It was known by all the Stanleys
that the diamond from the sky had
vanished strangely the night Colonel
Stanley had expired alone in. his IL
brary, this preceding by few days
only the tragic death Of Judge Stanley
in the mountain pass, also, it was
thought, alone.
This was eighteen years ago, but the
Stanley feud was not dead with its
protagonists, those elder men Of that
elder day. 1t slumbered In the bosom
Of the younger generation. 1t smolder-
ed hidden, yet burning not the less, in
the bosom Of the judges taciturn wild
ow, Blair's mother. She had always
believed with a bitter suspicion that
encompassed all Of the long dead Colo
mel Stanley's friends that DR.. Lee had
taken the diamond from the sky in
the confusion attending the colonsfs
sudden demise.
DR.. Lee was a relative Of Judge
Stanleys widow, for all the better
families of Fairfax were Of kith and
kin. The judges widow believed the
doctor held the great diamond In his
secret custody if for nothing else than
to keep it from the hands Of the judges
family through any legal process they
might attempt during the minority Of
Arthur Stanley I'd.
Hence it was that when the nerve
shattered Blair, with ashen face and
bloody brow, confessed to his waiting
mother that he had seen the diamond
in DR.. Lees aged hands she was not
surprised. When he half incoherently
admitted to her that the old doctor had
died in the struggle for the diamond
she expressed no conjunction for the
doctors death or revulsion at the deed
Of her son that caused 1t.
But when he told her that Arthur
Stanley, the one life that stood be-
tween them and all their ambitious
desires. had been in the grasp Of Blair
did her mood Of austere interest change
to cold fury.
"You need not add your reproaches
to my own" painted her son. But it
was luck, the devils luck, that all at
Stanley hail possess. would have
killed him. 1t was in my mind, In my
heart
But he wrested the pistol from my
hand rs though from the hand Of
child, and he dragged me out Of the
yard. down the deserted village street
to the graveyard to kill lie and rob me
Of the diamond with the ease Of a
giant"
"Well," said his mother. I'VE must
hope for another, better chance. Mean
while if you are sure that your strug-
giles were not seen you had better lie
hidden until | can learn what suspi-
ciOns are aroused. If you gro missed /
will say ysG are gone to Richmond.
Even If Arthur Stanley hears no more
Of you he will think still that he has
slain you He will keep silent"
(To be continued).