Evening star., 1924-11-16

| He seated himself once more and
smiled gently at Mr.. Brickdale.
! You'll regret this said Brickdale
! rs soon S he could speak. and went
away hastily. He had never been so
/ affronted as by this old vagabond and
! his intolera ble tree.
| * y y X
LIE moved into his country cottage
4 in due time, and the tree worried
! him from the first. From the lower
! branches Larrabie's hens launched
! themselves intrepidly to scratch in
his new strawberry beds. A pair of
horned owls dwelt there, too. They
spared their landlords struggling
chicks. but carried off all Brickdale's
prize Wyandottes. AS time went on
his dislike of the tree became one OF
those strange. nervous obsessions
| which fret mans sense of proper
| tion to powder as beetle gnaws a
| timber to dust. He could not explain
TO himself why 1t bulked so large in
his mental as well as his material
skies. 1t ruled his horizons. In some
| obscure way it humiliated him. He
was through it made aware of some
vast still spirit at war with him and
| his. At every sunset its shadow.
stark as a cross, sprang clear across
| his golf course, and he cursed at the
darkening bunker because he wasn't
allowed to forget the thing even when
he had his back to 1t.
He was not a bad man, but he
would descend to anything under con-
tinuously applied nervous irritation.
There was doubt-a possibility
squatters' rights were not always
very sound.
| He went into the city in the green
car with mumbled order to the
chauffeur. The man caught the word
lawyers" but when he would have
stopped at the doors OF the Arm who
did most of Brickdales business his
master barked at him: What you
| stoppin' here for? I said West &
Roddy. Lake avenue" West Roddy
were but q dirty firm, and it was but
dirty job Brickdale was taking
them.
They worked underground, like
| moles, fattening on mistakes and
neglects and misconceptions. With
some shame Brickdale left them to 1t.
1t seemed he had very good case.
| Things were not going too well
with the estate. IT was very wet
Autumn, and the river crept inch by
inch up the level Of the herbaceous
borders, dribbled into the cellars and
Day followed day Of gray and driv-
| ing wet. Wet winds whipped the
| rotting leaves from Brickdale's ex-
otics. nipped his tender roses,
| spashed mud upon his plate-glass
windows. The impudence OF nature
surprised him. The pine was
| shadow. moaning day and night with
the voices of desolation. He hated II
with a personal hatred
Meanwhile the moles were busy.
One morning Brickdale looked up
from the papers On his great library
table and saw through the window
old Mason Larrabie coming up the
new gravel drive. clasping another
paper to the breast of his shabby
coat.
Brickdale's soul was not yet stifed
in him. He felt qualm. an impulse
to hide. But Larrabie was in the
room. as If he had been a leaf blown
in by the wind. He looked thin as q
leaf. The rain had sleeked the white
hair close to his head for he wore no
hat His blue eyes had the unseeing
da1e's table and laid upon 1t the paper
he had carried. 1t was a letter. 1t
was splashed with rain, as though
some one had wept over 1t.
! This" He hesitated. His voice
failed him. He looked very old.
This here" he began again, come
to me while ago. I dunno that ]
| rightly take 1t all in. But the meat
of it's this: I amt no legal claim to
bout half the land I'm livin' on. Is
| that so?'
"Oh. not half" said Brickdale
smoothly. Not so much as that. Mr..
Larrabie. About fifty feet on the
south side
so you know all about it?" re-
l . r.
was waking in his blue eyes. But
Brickdale met them hardly enough.
Il know about it. / had the records
examined and a fresh survey made. 1
warned you. Your land
| Larrabie swept the words aside
with slow gesture. which in some
way reminded Brickdale Of the move
ment OF the pine in the wind.
| There's a lot here" he said,
touching the letter, (which ain't got
clear yet-about boundaries and reg
istrations. and fences, and settlers
rights-it don't matter. Seems amt
done lot O things ia oushter have
done. But till you come there was no
one wanted my land. anyway. 1t Amt
worth much. Seems as II a strip Of it
belongs rightly to your property. Is
that so?"
| That's so. There's no doubt Of It.
But you're at liberty to fight me
through every court, in the land"
II amt no money to fight you. an
you know it. But 1t don't matter.
There's other things to fight you with
besides money. though you amt
learned it yet. Well, what 1 come to
ask you's this: My tree stands on
the flfty-foot strip you're grabbing.
| You know that?"
II know It," Brickdale was almost
good-humored. He thought the old
fellow was coming to terms. that Lar
rabie would save him from doing a
| thing he didn't like doing. You'd
have done better to take my offer in
the first place, hey?"
mo" said the old man steadily.
| "I'd have done worse. So you're
takin' my land just SOS you can lop
/. my tree down?"