The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1919-10-23


Beaucaire. the judges only son. No
one knows where he Is. dead or alive"
"De good Lordi An de OIL Jedge
never set her freeT"
The lawyer shook his head, words
evidently failing him.
"But are you absolutely certain Of
this?" broke In impatiently. slave
you searched the recordsr
mot only searched them. Knox. but
before he left for the north on this
last trip Beaucaire was In my Office,
and I practically forced him to ac-
knowledge the negligence. He even
authorized me to draw up the neces-
sary papers for him to sign on his re-
turn-for both Della and the girl.
They are In my desk now, unexecuted.
There Is no mistake-Rene is legally
a slave. together with her mother"
my Gcdw exclaimed. "Could any
one conceive a more horrible position!
Here Is young girl, educated, refined,
of more than ordinary attractiveness,
amid every comfort, and led TO be-
lieve herself the honored daughter of
| the house, awakening In an instant to
| the fact that she Is a slave, with ne
| gro blood in her veins-a mere chat
| tel, owned body and soul by gam
bier, won In a card game, and to be
| sold to the highest bidder. Haines,
! tell you Kirby knew all thls-he
| either suspected, or had discovered
through some source that Rene Beau
caire had never been set free. For
some reason he desired possession Of
both Beaucaire girls; they meant
more to him than either the money or
the property. This card game gave
him one; the other"
"Eloise, you mean? Did the fellow
| threaten herT'
| "Here is what he said sneeringly;
you can judge yourself what he meant:
She's worth fifty thousand dollars by
her mothers will, and intend to win
her If can, fair means or foul"
Haines did not speak for some mo-
ments, his eyes on my face. Then he
paced back and forth across the floor,
finally stopping before the fire.
"This is as near hell as anything /
ever knew" he said. land so far as
/ can see there Is no legal way out
Of 1t. We are utterly helpless to as
| sist."
1--WE are not" I answered holly, "if
we are men. There may be no legal
way in which we can beat this villain,
but there Is an illegal one, unless we
are already too late. and l propose
to use II. whether you Join me or not.
You are sure the girls are still at the
plantation house-that they know
nothing Of this condition."
IL have reason to believe so. Della
was buying provisions at the Landing
yesterday; l talked with her . mo-
ment."
And you said that Kirby and Car
yer were only In town for one night.
leaving The next morning on a keel
boat for st. Louis. My idea Is they
were not quite ready to take posses.
sion; that they have gone to st. Louis
to file the papers. and will come back
with officers prepared to execute
them. This means that we must work
fast to get out Of their way"
'"What do you propose doing?"
Let me ask a question first. Is II
true that ElOise Beaucaire Is heiress
to fifty thousand dollars through her
mothers estate?'
YES: invested most Of It."
"In what?'
New Orleans property principally
"Then 1t Is safe enough whatever
happens. The only thing we can dc
Is this: tell those girls and the mother
the whole truth-tell them at once, be-
fore Kirby can return. and then help
them to get out of this country. II
Is not necessary for Eloise to 60, un
less she desires to, but there Is nc
other safe course for Della and Rene
They must reach a northern state be.
fore Kirby can lay hands on them
Could Della pass for white womanT
'Not in the South; still she could
travel as Rene's maid. But / do not
believe 1t is possible for the two ia
escape in that way, Knox. Understand
I'd be willing to risk 1t If there were
any show. How can IL be done? On
the average at this time Of year there
isn't steamboat along here once O
month. If we did get them onto O
boat they would have to travel
straight south as far as the Ohio
Kirby wouldn't be more than a day
or two behind them, with friends or
every boat on the river. Illinois is nc
free state for fugitive slaves-they
might just as well be caught in Mis-
souri, as over there. There is not one
chance in a thousand that they make
It."
"And less than that II they remain
here for Kirby to get his hands on
1 retorted bitterly. snow look here
Haines. am going to carry out this
plan alone If you will not back me II
It. I am not talking about steam
, boats: they could travel by night, ant