Indianapolis Times, Volume 35, Number 272, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 March 1923 — Page 8

8

Alice of Old Vincennes By Maurice Thompson COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY ALICE LEE THOMPSON

BEGIN HEBE ALICE. foster daughter of GASPAHU ROUSSILLON, was loved by FITZHUGH BEVERLEY. American Army officer, who. with CAPTAIN HELM' surrendered Vincennes to the English general. GOVERNOR HAMILTON, during the Revolutionary War. . Hamilton did not release Alice from her obligation to iind toe American flag which had been stolen after the had taken it down from the blockhouse. . Hamilton hears that BeVerley has escaped and killed some of his scouts. Twenty picked savages headed by LONG-HAIR are sent to briny Beverley back dead or alive. Alice has little hope that Beverley will escape. BOTH Helme and Father Beret tried to encourage and comfort her by representing the probabilities in the fairest light. “ICs like hunting for a needle in a haystack, going out to find a man in that wilderness,” said Helm with optimistic cheerfulness; ‘‘and, besides, Beverley is no easy dose for twenty red niggers to take. I’ve seen him tried at worse odda than that, and he got out with a whole skip, too. Don’t you fret about him, Miss Roussillon.” Little help came to her from attempts of this sort. She might brighten up for a while, but the dark dread, and the terrible gnawing at her heart, th*e sinking and despairing in her soul, could not fie cured. What added Immeasurably to her distress was the attention of Farnsworth, whose wound troubled him but a short time. lie seemed to have had a revelation and a change of spirit since the -unfortunate encounter and the subsequent nursing at Alice's hands. He was grave, earnest, kindly, evidently striving to play a gentle and honorable part. She would feel that he carried a load of regret, that he wanted to pay a full price in good for the evil that he had done; his sturdy English heart was righting Itself nobly, yet she but half understood him, until his actions and words began t betray his love, and then she ’ hated him unreasonably. Realizing this. Farnsworth bore himself more like a faithful dog than in the manner hitherto habitual to him. He simply shadowed Alice and would not be rebuffed. There can be nothing more painful to a finely sympathetic nature than j regret for having done a kindness. Alice experienced this to the fullest degree. She had nursed Farnsworth but a little while, yet it was a while of sweet influence Her tender woman nature felt the blessedness of doing good to her enemy lying helpless in her house and hurt by her own hand, j But now she hated the man. and with! all her soul she was sorry that she i had been kind to him; for out of her kindness he had drawn the spell of a love under which he lived anew life, and all for her. Yet deep down in her consciousness the pity and the pathos of the thing hovered gloomily and would not be driven out. The rain in mid-winter gave every prospect a sad, cold,'sodden gray appearance. ~ The ground was soaked, little rills ran in the narrow streets, the small streams became great rivers, the Wabash overflowed its banks and made a sea of al! the lowlands on either side. It was hard on the poor dwellers in the thatched and mostly floorless cabins, for the grass roofs gradually let the water through and puddles formed or. the ground inside. Fuel was distant and had to be hauled in the pouring rain; provisions were scarce and hunting almost impossible. Many people, especially children, were taken ill with colds and fever. Alice found some relief from her trouble in going from cabin to cabin and waiting upon the sufferers: but ever: here Farnsworth could not be got rid of; he followed her night and day. Never was a good soldier, for he was that from head to foot, more lovelorn and love-docile. The maiden had completely subdued the man. About this time, deep in a rainy and pitch-black night. Gaspard Roussillon came home. He tapped on the door again and again. Alice heard, but she hesitated to Speak or move. "Was she growing cowardly? Her heart beat like a drum. There was but one person in all the world that she could think of—lt was not M. Roussillon. Ah, no, she had nigh-well forgotten her gigantic foster father. ‘‘lt is I, ma cherie, it is Gaspard. my lovq, open the door,” came in a booming half-whisper from without. "Alice, Jean, it is your Papa. Roussilon, my dears. Let me in." Alice was at the door in a minute, unbarring it. M. Roussillon entered, armed to the teeth, the water dribbling Jrom his buckskin clothes. “Pouf!” he exclaimed, ‘‘my throat is like dust.” His thoughts were diving into the stores under the floor. “I am famished. Dear children, dear

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little ones! They are glad to see papa! Where is your mama?” He had Alice in his arms and Jean clung to his legs. Madame Roussilon, to V>e sure of no mistake, lighted a lamp with a brand that smoldered on the hearth and held it up, then, satisfied as to her husband's identity, set it on a shelf and flung herself into the affectionate group with clumsy abandon, making a great noise. “Oh, my dear Gaspard!” she cried as she lunged forward. “Gaspard, Gaspard!" Her voice fairly lifted the roof; her great weight, hurled with such force, overturned everybody, and all of them tumbled in a heap, the rotund and solid dame sitting on top. “Ouf! not so impetuous, my dear,” puffed M .Roussillon, freeing himself; from her unpleasant pressure and scrambling to his feet. “Really you must have fared well in my absence. Madame, you are much heavier.” He laughed and lifted her up as if she had been a child, kissing her resonantly. His gun had fallen with a great clatter. He took it from the floor and examined it to see if it had been injured. then set it in a corner. “I am afraid we have been making too much noise.” said Alice, speaking very low. "There is a patrol guard every night now. If they should hear you—” “Sh-h!” whispered M. Roussillon, “we will be very still. Alice, Is there something to eat and a drop of wine handy? I have come many miles; 1 am tired, hungry, thirsty,—zifT” Alice brought some cold roast venison, a loaf, and a bottle of claret. These she set before him on a little table.

“Ah, this is comfort,” he said, after he had gulped a full cup. “Have you all been well?” Then he began to tell where he had been, what he had seen, and the many things he had done. A Frenchman must babble while he aets and drinks. A little wine makes him eloquent. He talks with his hands, shoulders, eyes. Madame Roussillon, Alice and Jean, wrapped In furs, huddled around him to hear. He was very entertaining, and they forgot the patrol until a noise startled them. It was the low of a cow. They laughed and the master of the house softened his voice. M. Rouslsllon had been the guest of a great Indian chieftain, who was called the “Gate of the Wabash,” because he controlled the river. The chief ivas an old acquaintance artd treated him well. "But I wanted to see you all,” Gaspard said. “I was afraid something might have happened to you. Po I came hack Just to peep in. I can't stay, of course; Hamilton would kill me as if I were a wolf. I can remain but an hour and then slip out of town again liefore daylight conies. The rain and darkness are rnv friends.” He had seen Simon Kenton, who said he had been in the neighborhood of Vincennes acting as a scout and spy for Clark. Presently and quit* casually he added: "And I saw Lieutenant Beverley too. I suppose you know that he h.-> escaped from Hamilton, and —" Her a big mouthful of venison interfered Alice leaned toaw-rd him white ntul breathless, her heart standing still Then the door, which had been let* unbared, was flung open and, along with a great rush of wind and rain, the patrol guard, five in number, sprang in. M. Roussillon reached his gun with one hand, with the other swung a tremendous blow as he leaped against the Intruders. Madame Roussillon blew out the light. No cave In the depth of earth was ever darker than that room. The patrolmen could not see one another or know what to do: but M. Roussillon laid about him with the strength of a giant. His blow-, sounded as if they smashed hones Men fell heavily thumping on the floor where he rushed along. Someone fired a pistol and by Its flash they all saw him; hut Instantly the darkness closed again, and before they could get their bearings lie was out and gone, his great hulking form making its way easily over familiar ground where his would-be captors could have proceeded but slowly, eifn with a light to guide them. There was furious cursing among the pairolmen as they tumbled about in the room, the unhurt ones trampling their prostrate companions and striking wildly at each other In their blindness and confusion. At last one of them bethought him to open a dark lantern with which the night guards were furnished. Its flame was fluttering and gave forth a pale red light that danced weirdly on the floors and walls. Alice had snatched down one of her rapiers when the guards first entered. They now saw her facing them with her slender blade leveled, her back to the wall, her eves shining danger otisly. Madame Roussillon had fled Into the adjoining room. Jean had also disappeared. The officer, a subaltern, in charge of the guard, seeing Alice, and not quickly able to make out that it was a woman thus defying him, crossed swords with her. There was small space for action: moreover the officer being not In the least a swordsman, played awkward and quick as a flash his point was down. The rapier entered Just below his throat with a dull chucking stab. vHe leaped backward, fueling at the same time a pair of arms clasp his legs. It was Jean, and the lieutenant, thus unexpectedly tangled, fell to the floor, breaking but not extinguishing the guard’s lantern as he went down. The little remaining oil spread and flamed -tip brilliantly, as If eager for conflagration, sputtering along the uneven boards. “Kill that devil!" cried the lieutenant, in a strangling voice, while trying to -regain his feet. “Shoot! Bayonet!” In his pain, rage and haste, he in advertently set his hand in the midst of the blazing oil. whicl4 clung to the flesh with a seething grip. “Hell!” he screamed, “fire, fire!” Two or three bayonets were leveled upon Alice. Someone kicked Jean clean across the room, and he lay there curled up In his hairy nlght%vrap looking like an enormous porcupine. At this point anew performer came upon the stage, a dark-robed thing, so active that its outlines changed ehi--ively, giving It no recognizable features. It might have been the devil terrible unknown

DOINGH OF THE DUFFS—

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TUFA I DAYS IS GONE FOREVER—

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wild aniirml clad/somewhat to resemble a man, so far as the startled guards could make out. It clawed right and left, hurled one of them against the wall, dashed another through the door into lime. Roussillon's room, where the good woman was walling at. the top of her voice, and felled a third with a stroke like that of a bear's paw. Consternation was at high tide when Farnsworth, who always slept with an ear open, reached Roussillon place

OUT OUR WAY —By WILLIAMS

THE OLD HOME TOWN—By STANLEY

and quickly quieted things. He was troubled beyond expression when he found out the true -state of the affair. for there was nothing that he could do but arrest Alice and take her to Hamilton. It made his heart sink. He would have thought little of ordering a file of soldiers to shoot a 4nan under the same conditions; but to subject' her again to the Governor’s stern cruelty—how could he ro it? This line there would be no hope for her.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Alice stood before him flushed, disheveled, defiant, sword In hand beautiful and terrible as an angel. The black figure, man or devil, had disappeared as strangely as it had come. The sub lieutenant was having his su i wound bandaged. Men were raging and cursing u/uier their breath, tubbing their bruised heads and limbs. “Alice—Mademoiselle Roussillon, I am so sorry for* this,” said Captain Farnsworth. “It is painful, terrible —”

All Out of Buttons

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Sustain This on Your Slide-Trombone

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He could not go on, but stood before her unmanned. In the reebla light his face was wan and his hurt shoulder, still in bandages, drooped perceptibly. “1 surrender to you,” she presently said In French, extending the hilt of her rapier to him. “I had to defend myself when attacked by your lieutenant there. If an officer finds it necessary to set upon a girl with his sword, may not the girl guard her life is she can?”

FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—By BLOSSER

OUR BOARDING HOUSE—By AHERN

She was short of breath, so that her voice palpitated with a touching plangency that shook the man’s heart. Farnsworth accopted the sword; he could do nothing less. His duty admitted of no doubtful consideration; yet he hesitated, feeling around In his mind for a phrase with which to evade the Inevitable. “It will be safer for you at the fort, Mademoiselle; let me take you there.’’ (To Be Continued.) j*

SATURDAY, MARCH 24 1923

—By ALbLmAN

-By AL POSEN

Mouth Organ as Clew PORTSMOUTH, England, March 24.—Police are depending on a mouth organ to solve the murder of Mary Pelham, 26, flower-seller. Police believe the instrument was given to her by a sailor who afterward slew her in her apartment. German birthrate is increasing, while French birthrate la filing