Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1920-05-14
CHAPTER x.

"tciy IOHOWlnB the incident III zen
nington's woods, had showed her tha
under more propltiOus circumstances
she might have fallen in love with tina,
tempestuous young man In sheer rec
ognition Of the many lovable and man
~ qualities she had discerneo in him
AS an offset to the credit side OF
Bryce's account with her however
there appeared certain debts in the
consideration Of which Shirley always
lost her temper and was Immediately
quite certain she loathed the unfor.
tunate man.
He had been an honored and (for
au5ht Shirley knew to the contrary
welcome guest In the Pennington home
one night, and the following day had
assaulted his host, committed great
bodily injuries upon the latter's EN-.
ployees for little or no reason save the
satisfaction Of an abominable temper,
made threats of further violence, de-
clared his unfalterlng enmity to her
nearest and bestowed relative, and In
the next breath had had the insolence
to prate Of his respect and admiration
for her.
However, all of these grave crimes
and misdemeanors were really insig.
nificant compared with his browning
offense. What had Infatuated Shirley
was the fact that she had been at some
pains to inform Bryce Cardigan that
she loathed him--whereat he had
looked her over coolly, grinned little.
and declined to believe her! Then.
seemingly as If fate had decreed that
her futllity should be impressed upon
her still further, Bryce Cardigan had
been granted an opportunity to save,
I'm strikingly calm, heroic and pain
full manner, her and her uncle from
certain and horrible death, thus plac-
Ing upon Shirley an obligation that
was as Irritating to acknowledge as 1t
was futile to attempt to reciprocate.
That was where the shoe plnched
Before that day was over she had
been forced to do one of two things
acknowledge in no uncertain terms her
indebtedness to him, or remain silent
and to be convicted Of having been. In
plain language, rotter SO she had
telephoned him and purposely left
ajar the door to their former friendly
relations.
Monstrous! He had seen the open
door and deliberately slammed II in
her face. Luckily for them both she
had heard, all unsupported by him as
he slowly hung the receiver on the
hook, the solloquy wherein he gave
her pointed hint Of the distress with
which he abdicated-which knowledge
was all that deferred her from despis-
ing him with the fervor Of woman
scorned.
The fascination which a lighted
candle holds for a moth is too well
known to require further calculation
here. In yielding one day to a desire
to visit the Valley Of the Giants, Shlr-
ley told herself that she was going
there TO gather wild blackberries. She
had been thinking of certain black
berry pie, which thought naturally in
duced reflection on Bryce Cardigan
and reminded Shirley of her first visit
to the Giants under the escort of boy
In knickerbockers.
Her meeting with MORA McTavish
that day, and the subsequent friend
ship formed with the woOds-boss
renewed all her apprehen-
slons. On the assumption that Shir-
ley and Bryce were practically
strangers to each other IAN assump-
tion which Shirley. for obvious rea-
sons. did not attempt to dissipate),
MORA did not hesitate to mention
Bryce very frequently. To her he was
the one human being In the world
utterly worth while, and 1t is nat
ural for women to discuss, fire.
quently and at great length, the
subject nearest their hearts. Mora
described Bryce In minute detail and
related to her eager auditor little I'M
conscious daily acts of kindness,
thoughtfulness or humor performed by
Bryce-hls devotion to his father, his
ideallstic attitude toward the Cardi-
gan employees, his ability, his indus
try. And presently, little by little,
Shirley's resentment against him
faded, and In her heart was born
great usefulness bred of the hope thai
some day she would meet Bryce Cardi-
gan on the street and that he would
pause, lift his hat, smile at her his /
compelling smile and forthwith pro-
coed to bully her into being friendly
and forgiving-browbeat her into ad-
hitting her change of heart and glory
ing in 1t.
To this remarkable state Of mind
had Shirley Sumner attained at the
time John Cardigan, leading his last
little trump In vain hope that 1t
would enable him to take the odd trick
In the huge game he had played for
Atty years, decided to sell his Valley
of the Giants.
Shirley, as explained in a preceding
chapter, had been present the night
John Cardigan, desperate and brought
to bay at last. had telephoned Penning-
ton at the latters home, accepting Pen
last offer for the Valley of
the Giants. The cruel triumph In the
CoIonel's handsome face as he CURLY
old Cardigan had been too APP
parent for the girl to mistake; she
realized now that crisis had come In
the affairs of the Cardlgans, and across
her vision there flashed again the
vision of Bryce Cardigan's homecom-
Ing-of tall old man with his trem-
~. ofa.,.nI arntIpd HE hny |