Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1922-10-19
SYNOPSIS

CHAPTER 1.-The time is the late COS
or early '70s and the scene a steamboat
on the Mississippi river. All the types
Of the period are present and the float
ing palace Is distinguished by merrimenG
dancing and gallantry. There are the
Virgil Drace. q yong northern man. is
on his way south on q mission Of revenge.
He meets an eccentric character in the
person OF one Liberty .Shottle. who is
constantly tempting the goddess OF
chance. They form singular compact
CHAPTER u.-Drace gets his mind OF
his mission by entering into deck sports
In which he exhibits an unusual athletic
prowess. Liberty Shottle is again un-
lucky at cards and attempts a financial
ing an opportunity to use Shottle. con-
1des to him that his mission is to find
= certain ex-guerrilla, Stepho la Vttte,
who had murdered braces father; It Is
chum. to hang La vitte as high as
Hannah Drace has become enamored
of mysterious beauty aboard ths boat
CHAPTER III-The steamer reaches
New Orleans, at that zine in the some
what turbulent throes OF carpetbag gov
two tickets for the French ball, a great
society event, and proposes that Drace
accompany him to the affair. The young
men attend and Drace unexpectedly meets
the steamer. She Is accompanied by one
Boyce, whose proprietary interest indi-
Gates that he is her fiance. Through
stratagem Shottle learns that the name
her companion Of the evening is the man
who Is seeking to marry her.
CHAPTER Iv.--Drace passes an uneasy
night torn by the suspicion that Nadine
is the daughter of old Stepho la Vitte,
now an admitted outlaw. Now, more
10 ha IN find Enr-a
the girl lives and to find Stepho brace
and Shottle begin search of the city
In one of their nocturnal pilgrima ges
they come upon a mob intent upon hang
ing poor wretch from the limb of a
tree. 1t is a typical carpetbag execution
and aroused the resentment of an oppos-
ing mob of citizens. Drace takes a hand
In the fight which starts and is instru-
mental in preventing the execution. From
a window opposite the scene, he catches
q glimpse of one he is sure is Nadine.
CHAPTER V.-The escapade, the fight,
the interference with the execution get
Drace and Shottle into bad standing with
the authorities, but instead of punish
ment are given until the next day to
board a steamer bound north. Returning
to the house where he thought he had
abandoned. Through Colonel Josh, an
emissary employed at the suggestion of
Shottle, he gets faint clue in the dis
covery that certain Frenchman, wine
dealer, is reported to be an intimate of
Stepho la Vitte. There is only a short
time before the departure of the steamer
when Drace and Shottle go to call on
the Frenchman. The latter is too keen
to be inveigled into giving up any infor-
nation, but Shottle, spying around among
the casks and bottles, especially the ar
ticles made up for shipment, makes an
important discovery. So as not to arouse
the suspicious of the Frenchman, he
casually draws Drace away from the
place and onto the steamer. On board
he informs BRACE that one of the cases
was addressed to Stepho la Vitre at Far
NUNS Landing. Mississippi 1t is the next
stop below Bethpage's Landing and Col
onei Bethpage Is Liberty Shottles uncle.
CHAPTER vI-Drace and Shottle are
received with genuine hospitality by
Colonel Bethpage and find the planta-
ton and it's environs delightful After
transaction with the colonel, Shottle goes
away ostensibly on a business trip to
vicksburg but in reality to seek his
favorite form of amusement. Drace
makes the plantation his headquarters
and from pieces of Information gathered
from various sources, becomes convinced
that La .Vitte has haunt in a great
wood of cypress and a tangle of salt
cedar, a sort of everglades, a marsh with
hundreds of knoll islands rising here and
there among the bayous. A shrewd old
negro had told him that the outlaw lived
in a house built of periwinkle shells
Day after day brace takes canoe and
goes farther and farther into the moss
hanging wilds. At his feet lies a rope, one
end of it a hangman's moose.