Mexico weekly ledger., 1922-12-14

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him.
'TOby. what have you for supperT'
The old fellow closed one eye.
"'NEhat have l got2' he says, All,
that's it. An I'll tell you. I've got
hoe-cake and roasted doves"
"No, you don't mean It'll"
"Hoe-cake and roasted doves, I said"
"Good, by Gideon's Band. Fetch us,
Tobias. And mark you, along with 1t
all bring about a trowel full Of that
wild plum jelly.
The doves and the strips of bacon
and the hOe-cake and the jelly came
On, and arising the General saluted
the repast.
"Talk about quail! Quail, sir, is In
sipId, white, dry and tasteless com
pared with the dark richness Of the
dove. And look at this bread, made Of
mealed pearl. You never tasted any
bacon like that. my son, fed on acorns
showered down from Olympus. .
The sweet Of the night"
They had finished the meal and were
sitting back, smoking, slipping wine,
when Drace noticed a sudden change
in the Generals c~ountenancc, a tight
ening, a grimness; and turning about,
he saw standing against the wall a
strange igure-a man not tall, but
broad Of shoulder, his body sloping
lithely down to feet expressively Of
sinewy restlessness. His mass Of hair
was like tangled fax straw, dark and
yet gray. Like the bristles of a wild
boar, his short mustache stuck out and
his heavy eyebrows looked like great
hairy caterpillars crawling across his
lower forehead. In his dress there was
q wild touch, q barbaric aspect. Slowly
he came forward.
"This is General Bethpage, heh?"
"That is my name, yes. What do
you want with mef"
"Whut 1 want; heb? I come to pol
ogize to think them mule be mine"
"Well, go on away. l don't want any
apology from you"
"No? You put pistol Mt me. That
was in Louisiana. This is Mississip'.
AMI tell you here you haf turn car
petbagger."
"What! If General Andrew jack
son should arise out of his grave ana
tell me that, do you know what I
would say to himY
"You would beg hees pardon rs you
will mine, heh?"
81 would say to him as l now say to
you: You are an infamous liar"
BRACE sprang between them and
seized the maj by the wrist; n dirl;
fell from his hand.
"Stand back, General" cried Drace.
'"There is not going to be a fight here.
Stand back, TObe"
The dark-faced man looked BRACE In
the eye.
Monsieur was YER strong. Butt
see him some other day"
Turning, the fellow made off.
snow, who the devil was that?"
asked Drace.
'9That, my dear Drace," replied the
General, twas the fellow you asked
about the other day-Stepho la Vitte."
To Drace this encounter with Stepho
La vitte, the father Of the girl he
loved-and the outlaw upon whom he
had sworn to wreak vengeance-was
disturbing indeed. The General, how
ever, was not at all upset by the fact
that he had been barely saved from
Stepho's knife, and when a short time
later they boarded the Bumblebee on
their return, he gripped Major Pewitt's
hand and said:
"AIajor, Mr.. BRACE and I have in our
precious possession three quarts of old
Tobe's wild grape"
"Ha-which is as much as to say
that you have three quarts stewed out
of tho heart of Venus. I'll find Haw-
kins and the four Of us win gather in
thn Tav9s and-and hatter the stars,
by @ad! But lobe lled-said he didn't
have any of the old stock left"
'Asl q liars wine is sweet, my dear
Major. Come, Virgil, my boy, put all
hrro1ing out of your mind. Brooding
Is for The poet when the nag is tired,
and not for us. Well have a night Of
1t. and then we'll return to respectable
servitude and slow moral decay. My
dear Major, lead on. We follow"
The remainder of the trip back to
BcthpGge ives a matter Of moral free
dom at the gaming table for the Cen
eral. For Drace it was occupied with
the hot struggle between thoughts of
his grim mission against Stepho, and
his longing for Nadine. For the time
being however, the beautiful girl who
had rescued him from the burning hut
triumphed, She had promised to see
him once more on Thursday. He
would keep the tryst.
Presently the Bumblebee made Beth.
page Landing, And the Generals hos
pitality was at once so warm and so
gracious that Drace felt no hesitancy
In remaining for the time being under
his roof until shottie's return. at
least, That night after dinner when
his wife, Tycie, had left, the old gen
tlefnan liz a cigar and for a long time
sat smoking IN silence; and Drace was
Silent, TOO, looking through the lattice
at the moon, loves Slow timepiece
stopped and ~stagnant in the sky.
'Yirgilg"
"Yes, General
"TTaye you d pistol, sirT"
HNo; / had one, but I lost It."
'EyeIl, provide yourself with anoth-
er. In saving me from a deadly assault
you have mortally offended old La
wife. He il I'M no wise afraid. INF