The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-06-02


Recalling how her blood had run
when Alan had told her that, Henry's
whiteness and the following suffusion
Of his face did not surprise her.
II told that fellow long & not to
start stirring these matters up about
Ben Corvet, and particularly I told
him that he was not to bring any Of 1t
to you. It's not-a thing that a man
like Ben covered up for twenty years
till 1t drove him crazy Is sure not to
be a thing for a girl to know. Let 1t
alone, l tell YOU"
She stood flushed and perpleXed.
gazing ut him. She never had seen him
under stronger emotion.
You misunderstood me once, Con-
ME" he appealed. you'll understand
me w ~
She had been thinking about that
injustice she had done him In her
thought-about his chivalry to his
partner and former b~enefactor, when
Uncle Benny was still keeping his
place among e Was Henry now
moved, In a way which she could not
understand, by some other obligation
to the man who long ago had aided
him? Had Henry hazarded more than
he had told her of the nature of the
thing hidden which, If she could guess
it, would justify what he said?
She had made Alan promise TO write
her, II he was not to return, regarding
what he learned and a letter came to
her on the fourth day from him In
ManitowOc. The post office employees
had no recollection, he said, of the
person who had mailed the package;
II simply had been dropped by some
n into the receptacle for mailing
packages of that sort. Alan, however,
was continuing Is inquiries.
She wrote to him In reply; in lack
OF anything more important 10 tell
him, she related some Of her activities
and inquired about his. After she had
written him thus twice, he replied, de-
scribing his life on the boats pleasant
ly and humorously; then, though she
Immediately replied, she did not hear
from him again.
A new idea had seized Constance.
Captain Caleb Stafford was named
among the lost, Of course; with him
had perished his son, a boy Of three.
That was all that was said, and all
that was to be learned of him, the
boy.
Alan had been three then. This was
wild, crazy speculation. The ship was
lost with all hands; only the Drum,
believed in by the superstitious and
the most ignorant, denied that. The
Drum said that one soul had been
saved. How could n child of three
have been saved when strong men, to
the last one, had persisted? And, If he
had been saved, he was Stafford's son.
Why should Uncle Benny have sent
him away and cared for him and then
sent for him and, himself disappear
ing, leave all he had to-Stafford's
son?
Or was he StaffOrd's son? Her
thought went back to the things which
had been sent-the things from a
mans pockets with a wedding ring
among them. She had believed that
Nv iii5 W Nh1 iliOliit > lilliC .
might it In reality only more involve
it? Why had il come back like this to
the man by whom, perhaps, 1t had been
given? Henry's words came again and
again to Constance. "It's a queer con-
Germ you've got for Ben. Leave IL
alone, | tell you'll" He knew then
something about Uncle Benny which
,nfpht nxA .AtuI -, rn-,A tor.iIJ~
thing which Henry did not know but
might guess? Constance went weak
within. Uncle Benny's wife had left
him, she remembered. Was it better,
after all, to leave 1t alone?"
A telegraph envelope addressed to
her father was on the table in the hall.
"A servant told her the message had
come an hour before, and that he had
telephoned 10 Mr.. Sherrills office, but
Mr.. Sheriff. was not in. There was no
reason for her thinking that the mes
sage might be from Alan except his
presence in her thoughts, but she went
ut once to the telephone and called
her father. He was In now, and he
directed her 70 open the message and
read Ii to him.
Have some one" she read aloud |:
she choked In her excitement at what
came next-"Have some one who
knew Mr.. COrvet well enough to recog-
nize him, even IL greatly changed,
meet Carferry Number % Manitowoc
Wednesday this week. Alan Conrad"
Her heart was beating fast. Are
you there" she said into the phone.
"Yes."
"Whom shall you send?"
There was an instant's silence. II
shall go myself" her father said.
She hung up the receiver. Had Alan
found Uncle Benny? He had found,
apparently, some one whose resem.
blance to the picture she had showed
him was marked enough to make him
believe that person might be Benjamin
COrvet or he had heard Of some one
who, from the account he had received,
4 hn ha,,nh ,af.b& L. W. 1919