Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1922-12-07
CHAPTER vi-continued.

"Oh, not very much. / am fond OF
him too, and | believe he is going to
be of much help to me-"
swell, I've lost five hundred this
morning. but ! can stand II. | have or
dered the mules hitched up, and am
going to drive with you about the
plantation. | am going TO show you a
government here IN the delta"
During the drive the old gentleman
WIS laxative. sometimes with the
school mans hesitating precision, but
more often as the free companion,
agreeable rather than dlscursive.
brace evInced In everything a keen in
serest. but 1t was not real His heart
v'as not with him. 1t was In New Or
leans, In a 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 a 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 a great wood OF cy-
press and a thick tangle Of salt cedar.
q sort of ~everglade, a 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
conide In General Bethpage, for his
mission was sacred unto himself alone,
and by himself alone must II be ac-
complished.
At his feet In the canoe lay a rope,
one end of IL a hangman's moose. and
be smiled at II, grim and firm Of faith.
Sometimes his canoe would stall In the
carpet Of scum. But he forced his
way through into a narrow and unob-
structed channel. Now padded
swiftly. In front Of him a great ALL
gator arose and sank. the graz
ing his scaly back. With a shrek great
birds few, 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 wasi
The adventurer liked to feel that no
n had ever been there before. But
now suddenly something caught his
eye. In the green tangle on a low
baHk he saw a pole with wires strung
to IL, a sort of gate. The wires were
covered with vines, trained about them.
But for what purpose, here in this
brushy tanglef He caught hold of q
weed and pulled the cnnoe up closer,
took hold Of the pole and now he
found a lower slat TO which the wires
were also attached. Farther along he
discovered q sort of hinge attached TO
q u almost hidden BY briers.
sTll open this gate and see what lies
beyond he unused. drawing the canoe
back to the other end He pulled at
tire pole. and II yielded. The gate
~~.rsa and through tho xveaz5a that
appeared to have been bent by the
passing Of a boat, he saw a narrow
channel.
II was easy enough to shove through
he wssds and 10 enter tho new canal