_
ORT DAILY INDEPENDENT
m
—
P. H. VAN DYKE. Publisher.
NEWPORT, - - . ARKANSAS.
COhen
a JfCan
Copyright 1909, by tboBobbs-Merrlll Co.
7
SYNOPSIS.
James Wilson or Jimmy as he Is called
by his friends. Jimmy was rotund and
looked shorter than he really was. His
ambition in life was to be taken seriously,
but people steadily refused to do so, his
art is considered a huge Joke, except to
hlmtfelf, If he asked people to dinner ev
eryone expected a frolic. Jimmy marries
Bella Knowles; they live together a year
and are divorced. Jimmy’s friends ar
range to celebrate the first anniversary
of his divorce. Those who attend the
party are Miss Katherine McNair, who
•very one calls Kit, Mr. and Mrs. Dallas
Brown, the Misses Mercer, Maxwell Reed
and a Mr. Thomas Harbison, a South
//Waierlcan civil engineer. The party is in
Tull swing when Jimmy receives a tele
arvnm Mr, A unt Qollna xirltm tvill nr.
rive In four hours to visit lidin and his
Wife. Jimmy gots his fmvfls from Aunt
Selina and after her Kvarriea she doubles
his allowance. He neglects to tell her of
his divorce, as she is opposed to it. Jim
my takes Kit Into his confidence, he tries
tj» devise some way so that his aunt will
hot learn that he has no longer a wife.
He suggests that Kit play the hostess for
f one night, be Mrs. AVllson pro tern. Kit
refuses, but Is finely prevailed upon to
act the part. Aunt Selina arrives and the
deception works out as planned, as she
had never seen Jim's wife. Jim’s Jap
servant is taken ill, his face "is covered
With spots. Bella, Jimmy’s divorced wife,
enters the house and asks Kit who is be
ing taken away In the ambulance? Bella
Insists it Is Jim. Kit tells her Jim Is well
and Is In the house. Bella tells Kit it
wasn’t Jim she wanted to see, but Taka
hira, the Jap servant, as she wished to
aecure his services. Harbison steps out
on the porch and discovers a man tacking
a card on the door. Ho demands an ex
planation. The man points to the placard
and Harbison sees the word "Smallpox”
printed on it. The man tells him he Is
an officer of the board of health and
tails him the house is under quarantine
and that the guests will have to remain
In the house until after the quarantine Is
lifted. The guests suddenly realize their
predicament, the women shed tears, the
men consider it a good joke.
CHAPTER VI.
A Mighty Poor Joke.
Of course, one knows that there are
people who in a different grade of so
ciety would be shoplifters and pick
pockets. When they are restrained
by obligation or environment they be
come a little overkeen at bridge, or I
take the wrong sables, or stuff a gold
backed brush into a muff at a recep
tion. You remember the ivory dress- |
lng set that Theodora Rucknell had,
fastened with fine gold chains? And
the sensation it caused at the Buck
nell coti1 n when Mrs. Van Zire went
Bweepi to her carriage with two
feet of gold chain hanging from the
front of her wrap?
But Anne’s pearl collar was differ
ent. In the first place, instead of
three or four hundred people, the sus
picion had to be divided among ten.
And of those ten, at least eight of us
■were friends, and the other two had
been vouched for by the Brfewns and
Jimmy. It was a horrible mix-up. For
the necklace was gone—there couldn’t
He any doubt of that—and although,
as Dallas said, it couldn't get out of
the house, still, there were plenty of
places to hide the thing.
The worst of our trouble really
originated witn Max need, after an.
For it was Max who made the silly
wager over the telephone, with Dick
Bagley. He bet five hundred even
that one of us, at least, would break
quarantine within the next 24 hours,
and, of course, that settled it. Djck
told it around the club as a joke, and
a man who owns a newspaper heaVd
him and called up the paper. Then
the paper called up the health office,
after setting up a flaming scare-head,
“Will Money Free Them? Board of
Health versus Millionaire.”
It was almost three when the house
settled down—nobody nad any night
clothes, although Anally, through Dal
las, who gave them to Anne, who gave
them to the rest, we got some things
of Jimmy’s—and I was still dressed.
The house was perfectly quiet, and
after listening carefully, I went slow
ly down the stairs. There was a light
in the hall, and another back in the
dining room, and I got along without
any trouble. But the pantry, where
the stairs led down, was dark, and the
wretched swinging door would not
stay open.
I caught my skirt in the door as I
went through, and 1 had to stop to
loosen it. And In that awful minute
I heard some one breathing Just be
side me. 1 had stooped to my gown,
and 1 turned my head without
straightening—I couldn’t have raised
myself to an erect posture, for my
knees were giving way under me—
and just at my feet lay the still glow
ing end of a match!
I had to swallow twice before 1
could speak. Then I said sharply:
“Who’s there?”
The man was so close it is a
wonder I had not walked into him; hit
voice was right at my ear.
“I am sorry I startled yiou,'' he saic
quietly “1 was afraid ta speak sud
der ly. or^move, for fear !
**T—1 thought ywu were—It is very
late,” I managed to say, with dry
lipes. “Do you know where the elec
tric switch is?”
"Mrs. Wilson!” It was clear he had
not known me before. “Why, no;
don’t you?”
“I am all confused,” I muttered, and
beat a retreat into the dining room.
There, in the friendly light, we could
at least see each other, and I think
he was as much impressed by the fact
that I had not undressed as I was by
the fact that he had, partly. He wore
a hideous dressing gown of Jimmy's,
much too small, and his hair, parted
and plastered down in the early even
ing, stood up in a sort of brown brush
all over his head. He was trying to
flatten it with his hands.
“It must be three o'clock,” he said,
with polite surprise,” and the house
is like a barn. You ought not to be
winning around with your arms un
covered, Mrs. Wilson. Surely you
could have called some of us.”
“I didn't wish to disturb any one,”
I said, with distinct truth.
“I suppose you are like me,” he
said. “The novelty of the situation—
and everything. I got to thinking
things over, and then I realized the
studio was getting cold, so I thought I
would come down and take a look at
the furnace. I didn’t suppose any one
else would think of it. But I lost my
self In that pantry, stumbled against
a half-open drawer, and nearly went
down the dumb-waiter.” And, as if
in judgment on me, at that instant
came two rather terrific thumps from
somewhere below, and inarticulate
words, shouted rather than spoken. It
was uncanny, of course, coming as it
did through the register at our feet.
Mr. Harbison looked startled.
“Oh, by the wray,” I said as careless
ly as I could. “In the excitement. I
forgot to mention it. There is a police
man asleep in the furnace room. I—I
suppose we will have to keep him
now,” I finished as airily as possible.
“Oh, a policeman—in the cellar,” he
repeated, staring at me, and he moved
toward the pantry door.
“You needn’t go down,” I said fever
ishly, with visions of Bella Knowles
sitting on the kitchen table, surround
ed by soiled dishes and all the cheer
less aftermath of a dinner party.
“Please don’t go down.I—it’s one of
my rules—never to let a stranger go
down to the kitchen. I—I’m peculiar
—that way—and besides, it’s—it’s
mussy.”
Bang! Crash! through the register
pipe, and some language quite articu
late. Then silence.
“Look here, Mrs. Wilson,” he said
resolutely. “What do I care about
At That Instant Came Two Rather
Terrific Thumps.
the kitchen? I’m going down and
arrest that policeman for disturbing
the peace. He will have the pipes
down.”
“You must not go,” I said, with des
perate firmness. “He—he is probably
in a very dangerous state Just now.
We—I—locked him in."
The Harbison man grinned and then
became serious.
“Why don’t you tell me the whole
thing?” he demanded. “You’ve been
in trouble all evening, and—you can
trust me, you know, because I am a
Rt-mnprpr* hpcnnnp thp mirmtp this
crazy quarantine is raised I am off to
the Argentine Republic,” (perhaps he
said Chili) "and because I don’t know
anything at all about you. You see, I
have to believe what you tell me,
having no personal knowledge of any
of you to go on. Now tell me—whom
have you hidden in the cellar, besides
the policeman?”
There was no use trying to deceive
him: He was looking straight into my
eyes. So 1 decided to make the best
of a bad thing. Anyhow, it was going
to require strength to get Bella
through the coal hole with one arm
and restrain the policeman with the
other.
"Come,” I said, making a sudden
resolution, and led the way down the
stairs.
He said nothing when he saw Bella,
for which I was grateful. She was sit
ting at the table, with her arms in
front of her, and her head buried tn
them. And then I saw she was asleep,
i Her hat and veil laid beside her, and
she had taken off her coat and draped
it around her. She had rummaged
out a cold pheasant and some salad,
and had evidently had a little supper.
Supper and a nap, while 1 worried my
self gray-headed about her!
' “She—she came in unexpectedly—
something about the butler," I explain
ed under my breath. “And—she
doesn’t want to stay. She is on bad
terms with—with some of the people
upstairs. You can see how impossible
the situation is.”
“I doubt if we can get her out,” he
said, as if the situation were quite
ordinary. “However, we can try. She
seems very comfortable. It's a pity to
rouse her.”
Here the prisoner in the furnace
^ broke out afres' . It sounded
(b he bad taken a lump ot coal
attacking the lock. Mr. Har
_I
bison followed the noise, and T could
•hear him arguing, not gently.
“Another sound,” he finished, “and
you won’t get out of here at all, un
less you crawl up the furnace pipe!”
When he came back, Bella was rous
ing. She lifted her head with her
eyes shut and then opened them one
at a time, blinked, and sat up. She
didn’t see him at first.
“You wretch!” she said ungrateful
ly, after she had yawned. “Do you
know what time it is? And that—”
Then she saw Mr. Harbison and sat
staring at him.
“This is Mr. Harbison,” I said to
her hastily. “He—he came with Anne
and Dal and —he is shut In, too.”
By that time Bella had seen how
handsome he was, and she took a
hair-pin out of her mouth, and arched
her eyebrows, which was always
Bella’s best pose.
“I am Miss Knowles,” she said
sweetly (of course, the court had
given her back her name), “and I
stopped in tonight, thinking the house
was empty, to see about a—a butler.
Unfortunately, the house was quaran
tined just at that time, and—here I
am. Surely there cannot be any harm
in helping me to get out?” (Pleading
tone.) "I have not been exposed to
any contagion, and in the exhausted
state of my health the confinement
would be positively dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes at him, and I
could «see she was making an impres
sion. Of course she was free. She
had a perfect right to marry again,
but I will say this: Bella is a lot bet
ter looking by electric light than she
is the next morning.
The upshot of it was that the gen
tleman who built bridges and looked
down on society from a lofty, lonely
pinnacle agreed to help one of the
most gleaming members of the afore
said society to outwit the law.
It took about 15 minutes to quiet
the policeman. Nobody ever knew
what Mr. Harbison did to him, but
for 24 hou!*s-*b« was quite tractable.
He changed after that, but that comes
later in the story. Anyhow, the Har
bison man went upstairs and came
down with a Bagdad curtain and a
cushion to match, and took them into
the furnace room, and came out and
locked the door behind him, and then
we were ready for Bella’s escape.
But there were four special officers
and three reporters watching the
house as a result of Max Reed’s idiocy.
Once, after trying all the other win
dows and finding them guarded, we
discovered a little bit of a hole in an
out-of-the-way corner that looked like
a ventilator and was covered with a
heavy wire screen. No prisoners ever
dug their way out of a dungeon with
more energy than that with which we
attacked that screen, hacking at it
with kitchen knives, whispering like
conspirators, being scratched with the
ragged edges of the wire, frozen with
the cold air one minute and boiling
with excitement the next. And when
the wire was cut, and Bella had rolled
her coat up and thrust it through, and
was standing on a chair ready to fol
low, something outside that had looked
like a barrel moved and said, "Oh, I
wouldn’t do that if I were you. It
would be certain to be undignified,
and probably it would be unpleasant—
later.”
We coaxed and pleaded and tried
to bribe, and that happened, as it
turned out, to be one of the worst
things that we had to endure. For the
whole conversation came out the next
afternoon in the paper, with the most
awful drawings, and the reporter said
it was the flashing of the jewels we
wore that first attracted his attention.
And that brings me back to the rob
bery.
For when we had crept back to the
kitchen, and Bella was fumbling for
her handkerchief to cry into and the
Harbison man was trying to apolo
gize for the language he had used to
the reporter, and I was on the verge
of a nervous chill—well, it was then
that Bella forgo* all about crying and
jumped and neia out ner arm.
“My diamond bracelet!” she screech
ed. “Look, I’ve lost It.”
Well, we went over every inch of
that basement, until I knew every
crack In the flooring, every spot on the
cement. And Bella was nasty, and said
that she had never seen that part or
the house in such condition, and that
if I had acted like a sane person and
put her out, when she had no busi
ness there at all, she would have had
her freedom and her bracelet, and
that If we were playing a Joke on her
(as if we felt like Joking!) we would
please give her the bracelet and let
her go and die in a corner; she felt
very queer.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Clever.
“This young man who wants to
marry you, Clara—what do you know
about him?”
“I’ll be frank with you, papa, 1
Know little or nothing. I met him at
tne seaside in June and from the very
first 1 felt that I could love him.”
"But you are taking great chances,
my dear. He may be an adventurer.
Isn’t there any special thing that com
mends him—in addition to his regard
lor you?”
“Yes, papa. He told me that he In
tended to model his business career
on your own ambitious rise and re
markable success.”
“Hum. Send him to my office
morrow, my dear.”
Too Calculating.
“Aren't you going to marry Miss
Pertie?”
“Not me; she’s too up-to-date for
me! ”
“How is she so up-to-date?”
“I telephoned her last week that )
would be up the following night to
propose, and she went and sold the
moving picture rights of my proposal
to the highest bidder.”
ARRANGE FOR RECIPROCITY WITH CANAD^^^^!
WASHINGTON—Most of the work of drawing up the arrangemen K
States and Canada has been done on behalf of Canada by William Patterson, minister of customs, H
Fielding, minister of finance, and on behalf of the United States by Charles M. Pepper and Chandler Hale. H
Canadian ministers spent some time in Washington in consultation with the president and other officials.
A Reminder ot Youth
PADDED SHOULDERS MUSTtfl
Tailors in Annual Convention at St^B
Louis Say Men’s Clothes Must |Bi
Give Slim Effects.
St. Louis, Mo.—The corset coat k^B
the fashionable spring and summtr^B
garment for men this year and tron-BH
ers are to fit so snugly shoe homi^B
will be necessary to get them on, it^B
least, so says the International Cis-Bpl
tom cutters.
Already, they declare, the shado*BB
of death is on the “foolish over-eiajBpg
gerated man.’’ In his stead wiBIgj
come the “under-exaggerated man'BJ
and men of football physique willirHu
pear so slim their wives and
hearts won’t know them.
It Is said that the old caricaturesd^E|
the dandy French counts give a gocBK
idea of just, how the tailors expect iBPH
make American men look. 1
The edict comes forth from parkB,.
B of the Planters’ hotel here, and
the United States and Canada ““*Bfi.
heed the voice from St. Louis. k’Bj*
here are gathered the custom cuW^^^C
of the two nations and they hakHjr
with them 175 garments tailored fl||
the styles they insist are to be. jgfy
Shoulders will be slight, the
full and the waist small, giving Bpgj
effect of a corset, they say. Sleffl^K
also will be narrow. Padding will«■ -
placed about the chest instead
the shoulders, as ol .vore.
Coats will be single-breasted, bdBH
rounded at the bottom. The ^
way” in many respects will rese“^^H|
the frock coat now in style.
Tale of Tailless Hens. JX
Winsted, Conn.—“Talking
bens.” said a Watertown mantW*^
er day. "you ought to see Jacob
mo’s tailless flock of 00 biddies
said he cut the tails off just
but others who claim to know h jBK
Jacob and one of his neighbo
dispute over the ownership
tain hen and, to prevent an> m° *«§§
troversy, Jacob waited until ...jBH
had gone to bed and then w ™jjgi
of shears made each one P '■j8|
tinguishable from his
birds.”
-?c
Hunter Sees Panther Like He
%
Used to Hunt.
Animals Are Not Extinct in State of
Pennsylvania as Generally Sup
posed—May Wave Escaped
From Menagerie or Circus.
Wnterville, Pa.—William Button,
who lives on the mountain about two
miles north, and who when a young
man had more than one exicting ad
venture with panthers, declares that
the belief that panthers are extinct
in Pennsylvania is a mistake. He
says he saw a panther in open day
light one forenoon during a trip he
made through the wilds of the country
north of his place on an inspection of
his bear traps.
Button is seventy-one years of age,
and has lived in the Pine creek region
ever since he was a boy of seven,
when his people came in over the old
Coudersport pike and “squatted” on a
piece of land along that thoroughfare
and followed the business of trapping
and hunting and tilling a small piece
of ground in the neighborhood of what
is now HaiievlUe.
Young William was schooled in the
wilds and at eleven years of age wras
a tine shot with a smooth-bore rifle,
and a year later he killed a big pan
ther that had followed him and his
mother while they were returning at
night from Lock Haven. This ani
mal, but a few weeks before, had at
tacked and almost killed a peddler
that had passed along the road.
WlJ:h his acquaintance concerning
panthers and their ways, the old
man’s declaration that the panther has
again appeared in the Pennsylvania
wilds gives rise to a most interesting
question, for the state authorities
the original Pennsylvania family, but
rather is of the belief that this one
must have come from some circus or
menagerie.
WILL TRY TENT-GROWN LEAF
Connecticut Valley Tobacco Raisers
Revive Enthusiasm for It—Re
calls Experience.
Springfield, Mass.—The revival of
the tent-grown tobacco proposition on
a large scale in the Connecticut valley
recalls the disastrous experience of
farmers and others seven or eight
years ago. The present assertion of
promoters of shade-grown tobacco en
terprises is that, profiting by the past,
experts have succeeded in producing
a strain of wrapper leaf that defies
competition, that this tobacco is bet
ter and cheaper than Sumatra tobac
co, that it passes readily for a high
grade of Havana leaf and is in great
demand for wrapping clear Havana
cigars.
The prediction that upward of three
thousand acres of tobacco will be
raised under cloth in the Connecticut
valley this year probably insures a
crop of sufficient size to determine in
a single season whether the tent
grown tobacco advocates actually
have overcome the defects which
characterized the crops of 1902 and
1903.
In the last few years the attention
of the shade, grown contingent has
been concentrated on Cuban tobacco.
The Connecticut Tobacco Corporation,
of East Granby, has raised 150 acres
of the Cuban tobacco under cloth and
the leaves have proved A1 wrapper
stock. One or two smaller companies
have also raised satisfactory crops.
That important interests believe
Cuban tobacco is adaptable to the
Connecticut valley is evidenced by the
entrance of the American Sumatra
Tobacco company, and a dozen smal
ler syndicates have completed ar
rangements to raise crops of from 50
to 150 acres.
announced as much as fifteen years
ago that there were no more panthers
In Pennsylvania. Mr. Button was in
specting his bear traps the other day,
and had gone into a deep ravine in
crossing from one ridge to another,
when his attention was attracted to
the partially devoured carcass of a
deer. The blood and torn flesh of the
animal showed him that the work
had been done that very day. He ex
amined the carcass to determine the
I character of the animal that had killed
It, when he heard a peculiar, cat-like
growl that seemed to come from the
thick of a big hemlock close by, and
looking up into the houghs of the tree
he saw the form of a big tawny crea
ture that lay crouched on one of the
limbs at a point near the trunk. It
was far too big for a catamount, and
tor the moment the old hunter thought
It was a mountain lynx, which animal
is still found at rare Intervals.
He had a rifle with him, but before
he determined to shoot, being anxious
to learn the character of the beast, the
thing raised quickly and jumped to
the ground at the other side of the
tree. A shot sent in its direction
failed of its mark and with that the
animal had gained effective cover in
the thicket. At that moment the beast
gave vent to a cry of anger that was
unmistakably, Mr. Button says, the
cry of the panther as he heard it
hundreds of times in the early years
of his manhood as a hunter and trap
per. Button watched for the animal
to come into the open beyond the
thicket, where the ground rose; but
it was smart enough to avoid this,
and as It doubtless was gorged with
Its feast of deer the animal probably
took to a convenient tree and retired
for rest. Button examined the ground
where nhe beast must have leaped
down, and found in the soft earth
tracks that further convinced him that
the animal was a panther.
The ,old hunter, however, is not of
the opinion that the panther is' one ol
A , __
Runs Down a Deer
Norwegian Overtakes Scared Fugitive
Animal and Saves It From
Savage Dogs.
Montville, N. J.—Residents of Un
dercliff road, which skirts the foot of
Hock mountain, saw one of the most
exciting races ever run in that sec
tion. The participants were Larz
Koppang, Norwegian ski runner; a
pack of dogs and a pet deer belonging
to Harold Rutgers, by whom Koppang
is employed. The deer got out of its
inclosure by breaking the fence, and
a search was made for it by Rutgeis
l and his employees. The barking o
! dogs caused the men to look out on
! the Big Piece, a flat meadow land
i about a mile wide and five miles in
i length. There they saw the deer, pur
! sued by a score of dogs.
1 Koppang ran to his employer’s home
for his skis and soon took up the
chase. The deer and the dogs had at
least a mile start of the Norwegian,
I and were headed due north on the flve
: mile stretch. The snow had a good
crust, and Koppang glided along at a
j fast rate. It was not long before the
I entire neighborhood had turned ou
I fo Witness the race. The deer held
j its own with the dogs, and it was
! seen that Koppang was fast gaining
on the pursuers and pursued. It was
a question of whether the Norwegian
could overtake the deer before it S°
to the end of the meadow. If «.am
■ not it would be hard for him to keep
up the chase, as he iviould have a
to climb fences. I h
The dogs began to dire, and one
one he passed them.
deer near the end of ec»®j
He slipped a rope ar0“n^ |||
led it to its master’s borne.
Tho deer, usually
wild by the dogs, and the W
much trouble in leading^ K
TO SELL SPORTING ES«
City of Glasgow pl“JsF| hing
Ideal Hunting and F H
sort—Ganie^l3 va JH
This City Is g°in0®S
Glasgow.— This ) te It Wg
its Highland spoU 8 t of Af®§
island off thfe sports®*®!
Game is varied. grouse, 4B
collect a mixed US nlgeoE. Ml
cock. wM «** , kj»..
cock and hares, tn°
acreage ot i-110 JHH
let ip $750. not
Most of the la^Jr (be gurpbrgi
the Plow- Lf6t T ; dty
enue was $4,5. U ,it $70«g
fixed the upsei f nils*11 j^BB
some capital!- - ^ find tbe
frame of >* ' l!H)de. »*U I
ot Shium t..< );uld aBd OB
miles from tho m ,v /
track of steam- MOL
Fear W «•***£ ' J|
London.-On 11 ^,. ht
Karlsbad • nuiss,0®/lHH[
perial Austria’ ^
fused to l11'1 iiaan^y.-JBEi
dumped fro'