The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1920-08-13
CHAPTER I.
The Iron -Gray-Woman.

young man stood on the after
deck OF small and very dingy house
boat filing fish spear. Riding at the
end OF storm -blackened rope strung
from cleat at the bow to tree on
shore, the bOnt rose and fell with the
pulse OF the river. lazy and languid
under the beat Of the hot afternoon
sun.
He wns so tall, with such n spread
Of shoulder, that he seemed out OF
place upon so small u deck. Wind
season and weather wear had worked
their will upon him. But there are
forces that grave deeper than wind
and weather. Youth can hold wind
and weather at bay. 1t Is powerless
against those other forces-those in
ner forces that grave the soul. Under
the chafe of them his face had become
the face of man who had looked
upon life and found II not to his lik-
ing. His eyes held the keen, quick
hardness that comes To eyes that see
only life's sterner side.
The Pcarlhuntcr. they called him.
the river men, not that he had found
his pearl, possibly because he had not
found II. Failure names men, as well
as success I'm the wilderness.
The space between the fore and
after decks OF the houseboat was Occu-
pied by n kind OF cabin. with cur
tained entrance fore and aft and
single small window on each side. The
man suddenly stopped filing the fish
spear and glanced with quick anxiety
toward this cabin. woman was
courhinp Uo crossed tho narrow deck
st 81 stride showed aside thc soiled and
rumplcd curtain and entered. A dark.
iron-cray woman sat bumped forward
I'm n rickcty old rocklncchair nv the
window on the shore side As If con-
sciuuS of his Inability to h"lp. poSSihly
collouScd hy Ion, Familiarity with sim
FLAIR scenes. ne stood looking down
upon her with no expression Of sym
pa,hv other than n vince of pity in
his ewes
She s,roirh,cuoJ uf,or = time. oud
lny back against tho bed quilt spread
I'm the chair. Spou, aud Guiyrrin. the
trembling she'll nf what had once been
very beautiful woman. The man
crossed IN. cabin dipr.I nm 4 tinrul
of water ont of a bucket hv the cook
stove and offered IL To her She
waved II away.
"N's So warm-and fat, II has
been long from the sprincv ="
without n word N. SET the c,Ip huck
on the bench. picked up the bucket,
passed out to the front deck. crossed
the narrow rangpank. and hurried
away up the slope toward the cliffs
that rose above the trees ~ few rods
back from the river shore.
The spot was known the length OF
the Wabash, for who has not heard OF
Fallen Rock, with the broad. thin wa
terfall pitching over the sharp-cdgcti
shelf between its two breasts ANA lap
ping the stonc-Strewn pool mt its base?
And the spring breaking out from un-
der the shale ledges Of the cliff near
the west end of the old cabin and
trickling its waters down little sui
phur- stained gutter into the pool-who
has not heard Of il? Not To have
drunk of Its wat was considered a
misfortune in the Flatw""dS, just rs
in ancient Greece il was considered
calamity To die without having seen
the statue OF Olympian Ieus.
Fallen Rock is the highest front of
naked stone along the Wabash. AT
the present day seven towns can he
seen from It's summit; in the late for
ties. two: Buckeye. n mile up the river
and the City twenty miles farther on.
When the man returned to the
houseboat the Iron Gray Woman still
lay back In the shaky rocking chair
Dipping the battered cup full of fresh
water, the man stepped 10 her de
"Your cool drink. mother"
The thin lids raised The ewes she
turned toward him must have been
wonderfully beautiful In her day
large and deep and ustrous. The
cough that wasted her breast seemed