Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1917-03-23
Of
A Creole Girl
BY J. H. DONALDSON

- NE day good many years ago
John Dale, a Massachusetts
~ Yankee, went to Louisiana To
buy sugar for a northern firm
| While there he met creole girl.
Louise la Marche, who, not being
especially attractive and there being
few manageable men In that region,
laid siege to him with view to marry
| ing him. Dale did not reeiprocate.
Louise persisted, and when she found
| that nothing would move the hinty
hearted Yankee she appealed to her
brother, Antoine. telling him that Dale
had made love to her and then Tilted
| her.
Now. Antoine and his sister, who
was older than he, did not get on very
| well together and he wished that she
would handle her love affairs without
I troubling him in the matter. But when
a woman makes up her mind TO utilize
a man he may as well come down at
once. like Dayy Crockett's coon. An
! tome was weak enough to be cajoled
/ into taking mp his sisters cause, and
| she laid down for him u plan for do
| ing SO.
These Yankees" she said to him,
ARE not fighting men ut all. They are
| shopkeepers and pumpkin raisers. The
way 10 impress John Dale with the
| enormity of his treatment of me is to
| insult him. He will be obliged either
to challenge you TO fight him or do
| justice to me-
Antoine held out as long as possible
against this method of procedure and
at last yielded. He waited till he found
Dale on a street in the village where
| the La Marche family lived and, going
up to him. slapped him in the face.
| But the affair did not turn out as ex-
pected. The Yankee contented himself
/ with returning the slap.
That would have ended the matter
had not Louise been behind it. She
! told her brother that he must chal-
lenge Dale or he would be cut by all
| his acquaintance. Antoine. who was
not a fighter even if he was a south
erner, refused whereupon Louise per-
suaded several of her friends to treat
/ him sneeringly, and he at last yielded
/ thbNi ihltSS anu StDt the NHdlltHSe.
What was her surprise and conster..
nation to find that Dale accepted the
| challenge. but as the challenged party
named the conditions under which the
contest was TO take place. He chose
| pistol in a dark room.
1t is hard lines for man to be
obliged to risk his life in a cause in
which he takes no interest. Antoine
looked with horror on being shut up in
Il dark room with man who was
there to kill him.
Had Antoine not been propped up by
his sister, who by this time, consider
ing herself a woman scorned, desired
vengeance, he would have collapsed
under the appalling situation. But
Louise shamed him into standing up
TO his work. and he permitted the ar
engagements to be made for the meet
| ing.
There was vacant house in the
| place with two large rooms on each
side of hall on the second story. 1t
was agreed that the duel should take
place in one of these suits. Both
rooms possessed large open fireplaees.
In order that no light should permeate
them, the affair was appointed to come
off at 10 o'clock at night
Now, Dale had no more heart for the
affair than his opponent. Had the mat
ter concerned the woman alone who
was at the bottolA of it he would have
fled inglorionsly. But he could not
bring himself to flee from a male en-
envy. lie accepted the situation, re-
solved that he would not kill Antoine
if he could help it and if either should
die it would be himself.
At 10 o'clock the duelists were
| placed, one in the front room and one
in the rear room. AS soon as they
heard the doors closed and the bolts
shot they We're at liberty to fire
Dale trusted to his ears, which We're
very keen, to let him know where his
enemy was. and, hearing a sound as
of one walking ON tiptoe, he listened
to it and after awhile fancied that his
enemy was in the same room with him.
Dale at once slipped into the other
room. where he stood stock still for
some time, when he began to move
around the wall. feeling his way as he
went. Presently he struck the fire.
! place.
by this time some twenty minutes
had elapsed, with no prospect of an
ending of the affair. 1t had been ar
ranged that the seconds should not
come into the room until after hearing
one shot. II after five minutes they
did not hear second shot they should
enter. 1t occurred TO Dale that by fir
ing up the chimney he would not risk
killing his enemy and it would prepare
| the way for an end to the contest.
! Thrusting his arm into the fireplace.
he fired up the old fashioned large.
fiue of former times.
Something dropped.
Il am done for said voice that he
recognized as that OF La Marche.
Dale realized at once that the boy.
! In order. tn nrptpct himsplf had crawl