The Winslow mail., 1922-11-17

that when he is with me, ] believe in
him. but the moment he is gone my
faith has gone with him. | have had
much experience with men, Mr.. Drace,
in the army and elsewhere, but my
wife's nephew is the most--I don't
. know how to define him. Let me
thank you for protecting him in the
presence of my wife, and I regret that
/ may have seemed in doubt. But
Drace, that fellow makes me angry
with myself. Confound him, he almost
convinces me at times that I have no
stability of character. And yet | am
fond of him. | am always glad to see
him come. And let me say that he IL
lustrates one truth very clearly-that
ability consists mostly in the fervor
with which we go at thing. ] sup
pose he has cost you considerable
"Oh, not very much. I am fond of
him too, and I believe he is going to
be of much help to me-"
"Well, I've lost five hundred this
morning, but / can stand 1t. | have or
dered the mules hitched up, and am
going to drive with you about the
plantation. I am going to show you a
government here in the delta
During the drive the old gentleman
was talkative, sometimes with the
school mans hesitating precision, but
more often as the free companion,
agreeable rather than discursive.
Drace evinced in everything keen in
terest but it was not real His heart
was not with him. 1t was in New Or
leans, in narrow street where boards
were nailed across a door.
From what he had been able to
gather from the General and by talk
ing in seeming idleness TO boatmen
and to men along the River Drace
confirmed the information snatched by
Shottle from 'the label on the French
mans wine case-namely, that old
Stepho had haunt somewhere in the
neighborhood. A shrewd old negro had
said that the outlaw lived in the
swamp. in a house built of periwinkle
shells. On the opposite shore. and
several miles below the Generals
home there lay great wood of cy
press and a thick tangle of salt cedar,
a sort of everglade, marsh with hun
dreds of knoll-islands here and there
rising among the bayous. Here was in
deed an outlaws paradise, for Drace
was told that not nearly all its lanes
and crooked byways of brown water
had been explored Herein he began
his search for old Stepho. day after
day penetrating farther and farther in
to this moss-hanging wild. He did not
confide in General Bethpage, for his
mission was sacred unto himself alone.
and by himself alone must it be ac-
complished.
At his feet in the canoe lay q rope.
one end of it a hangman's moose, and
he smiled at it, grim and firm of faith.
Sometimes his canoe would stall In the
carpet of scum But he forced bis
way through into a narrow and unoh-
structed channel. Now he padded
swiftly. In front ot him a great alli-
gator arose and sank. the canoe graz
ing his scaly back. With a shrek great
birds flew, Tapping low, their long legs
stretched out behind them. Drace was
armed with a revolver, but did not
wish to fire 1t. caution warning him.
When he ceased for a time to paddle,
how still everything was!
The adventurer liked to feel that no
one had ever been there before. But
now suddenly something caught his
eye. In the green tangle on low
bank he saw q pole with wires strung
to It, a sort of gate. The wires were
covered with vines, trained about them.
But for what purpose, here in this
brushy tangle? He caught hold of
weed and pulled the canoe up closer,
took hold of the pole and now he
ssund lower slat to which the wires