The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-12-25
CHAPTER VI.
rhe Home Of JUDGE aeaucaj

The Home OF Judge e~eaucaire.
The road we followed appeared to
be endless, and 50 rough that I soon
climbed down from my seat, an un-
planed board, uncomfortable enough
under any conditions, in the swaying,
humping cart, and stumbled blindly
along behind, tripping v e stumps in
the darkness, and w~renching my
snkles painfully in deep ruts.
It was considerably after ten
o'clock when we emerged upon an open
plateau, and a glimmer of stars over
head revealed to me afar off the silver
thread Of the great river. Pete
stopped the straining mule, a feat not
at all difficult Of accomplishment, the
animals sides rising and falling as he
wheezed for breath, and came back
. where I stood, staring about at the
dmly perceived objects in the fore
ground.
'Out dar am de Beaucaire place."
he announced, as soon as he could dis
tinguish my presence, waving his arm
10 indicate the direction. "An' I
reckon we bettah not ride no further,
fer IL Alick shud smell corn. he'd
nat'larly raise dis Who'll neighborhood
he's got a powerful voice, sah."
Equal to his appetite, no doubt"
"Yas,; sab; that's mostly whut Alick
am"
"HOw far away is the house?"
H ct fGn1u Tnnnk n hv,nIvo1 ryoyac Vo~
Q dat light out yonder; well OATS it,
an I reckon de ladies mus be up yet,
keepin' de lamp burnin'. Here's de
slave cabins long de edge OBJ de
woods, but dey's all dark. What's yer
q goin' fer ter do now, Massa Knox?'
I was conscious that my heart was
beating rapidly, and that my mind was
anything but clear. The problem 'front.'
ing. me did not appear so easily
solved. now that I vas fairly up
against 1t, and yet there seemed only
one natural method of procedure. I
must go at my unpleasant task bold
y, and in this case only the truth
would serve. / was an officer In the
United States army, and had In my
pocket papers to prove my identity.
These would vOuch for me as a gen.
teman, and yield me a measure Of au-
shortly. And this fact, nee estab-
hshed. ought to give me sufficient
standing in the eyes of those girls to
compel from them a respectful hear
ing. l would tell the story exactly US
1 knew It. ~concealing nothing, and add
ing no unnecessary word, outline my
plan Of action, and then leave them to
decide what fhey. thought best to do.
Strange, unbelievable as the situation
was, proof was not lacking. Della
could be compelled to acknowledge
that Rene was her child-she would
scarcely dare deny this truth in face
Of my positive knoWledge-and she, at
least, must know that Judge Beau
caire had never during his lifetime
given her her freedom This fact
could be established beyond question,
and then they must surely all compre-
bend the necessity Of Immediate flight
that there remained no other pos
sible ear Of escape from hopeless
slavery. Desperate as the chance APP
peared. it was the only one.
It daWned upon me now with more
intense force than ever before, the po-
sftion in which 4 stood, and I shrank
from the ordeal. A perfect stranger.
not even q chance acquaintance Of
those directly involved IN this tragedy.
I would hive to drag out from the
closet, where At had been hidden away
for PEARS, this old sBeaucaire skeleton,
ara rattle the dried bones Of dishonor
before the Mortified understanding AZ
these two Innocent unsusnecting girls,
The conviction came to HE TINT 4 had
best AZ thin alone TINT ths pfesencs