Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1907 — THE CONQUEST of CANAAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE CONQUEST of CANAAN

By BOOTH TARKINGTON Author of “Cherry," “Monsieur Beaueaire," Etc.

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. Chapter I—Eugene Bantry, a Canaan (Ind.,) young man, who ha* been east to college, return* home and astounda the native* by the ■orgeousneM of bi* raiment. Hi* *tepbrother, Joe Loudin. Is characterized by the aged male gossip* who daily assemble at the National House for argument a* the good for nothing associate of doubtful character*. II Eugene'* appearance tia* a pronounced effect upon Mamie Pike, whose father. Judge Pike, 1* the wealthiest and moat prominent citizen of Canaan. Joe worships Mamie from afar. Eugene interfere* in a snow tight between Joe and hl* hoideniah and very poor Rirl friend, Ariel Taber, who i* worsted. Aril hotly resent* the interference and slaps Eugene, who vend* her home. Ill—Arie), unbecomingly attired, attend* Mamie Pike's ball. IV—Joe. concealed behind some plants on the Pike veranda, watches hungrily for a glimpse Of Minnie. Ariel i* Ignored by most of the guest*. Ariel discover* Joe, aut shortly afterward, learning that her uncle, Jona* Tabor. ha* died suddenly, leaves. The Daily Tocsin oi the next day tells of Joe's discovery on the Pike veranda and of hie pursuit and escape therefrom. It al»o refer* to wounds in the head of himself and of Norbert Flitcroft, who detected him. Joe retires to the “Beach.” a low resort kept by hl* friend, . Mike Sheeban. who dresses his wound. VI Joe leave* Mike's place. He visit* Ariel Tabor, who, by the death of her Uncle Jonas, has become rich. She wishes Joe to accompany her and her grandfather to Paris. * Joe refuses and leaves Canaan td avoid arrest for “the trouble st Judge Pike’s. Vll—Joe is heard from two years later aa a ticket seller for a aide show. Eugene Bantry also meets him seven years later in a low retort Jn New York, but wiaely refrains from advertising it. VIII—Joe returns to Canaan a full-fledged lawyer. Even his fsther ignores alm. and be is refused accommodations at the National house. IX—Joe is welcomed at the “Be’ch,” •nd "Happy Fear,” one of Joe's admirers, seriously assualta Nashville Cory, a detractor. At the end of Happy's term in prison he visits Joe, who now has a law office on' the square, with a living room adjoining. Joe has a large practice, principally among the lower classes, and is frequently attacked by the Tocsin. Joe begins, in hi* lonliness, to yield to the seductions pf the bottle. Bantry's engagment to Mamie Pike is announced. Bantry is now Maociate editor of the Tocsin, owned by Judge Pike X—Joe awakens after a “bad night” with the words, “Remember, across the Main street bridge at noon,” ringing In his goes there and is presently joined by the most beautifully dressed girl he has ever aeen. Xl—She turns out to be Ariel Tabor, arrived in Canaan the night before from her long sojourn in Paris. She has seen Joe as she alighted from the train and, realizing his condition, had escorted him home after exacting from him a promise to meet her the next day (Sunday) across the Main street bridge at noon. Joe learns that Ariel is stopTfingat Judge Pike's home, the judge having entire charge of her money, etc. XII— Eugene Bantry, although engaged to Mamie, 1s much smitten With Arter* charms. Judge Pike tries his usual blustering tactics with Ariel, but subsides When she tells him that she shall ask him to turn over the care of her estate to Joe Louden. Xlll—Ariel holds a sort of Informal reception at Judge Pike'sand learns that the “tough element” is talking of running Joe for mayor. CHAPTER XIV. W 8 upon a world canopied with ' ’ Btoral, hung with mourning f > purple and hubited In black, A Ik did Mr. Flitcroft turn bis morning face at 8 o'clock antemeridian Monday aa be bled himself to bis daily duty at the Washington National bank. Yet more than the merely funereal gloomed out from the hillocky area of bis countenance. Was there not, 4* faith, a glow, a Vesuvian shimmer, beneath Hie murk of that darkling eye? Was here one, think you, to turn tbe other cheek? Little has he learned of Norbert Flitcroft who conceives that this fiery spirit was easily to be quenched! Look upon the Jowl of him and let him who dares maintain that people— even the very Pikes them•elves—were to grind beneath their brougham wheels a prostrate Norbert and ride on scatheless! In tills his own metaphor is nearly touched: “I guess not. They don’t run over me. Martin Pike better look out how bo tries it!” So Mother Nature at her kindly tasks, good Norbert, uses for her unguent our own perfect inconsistency, and often when we are stabbed deep in the breast she distracts us by thin scratches In other parts, that in tbe itch of these we may forget tlie greater hurt till it be healed. Thus, the remembrance of last night, when you undlsgulsediy ran from tbe wrath of a Pike, with a pretty girl looking on (to say nothing of the acrid Arp, who will fling the legend on a thousand winds), might well agonize you now,' as, in less hasty moments and at a safe distance, you brood upon the piteous figure you cut. w On the contrary, behold! You see no blood crimsoning tbe edges qf the horrid gash in your panoply of self esteem; you but smart and scratch the scratches, forgetting your wound in the hot itch for vengeance. It is an itch which will

last (for In such matters your temper shall be steadfast), and let the great Goliath In the mean time beware of you! You ran last night. You ran—of course you ran. Why not? You ran to tight another day! A bank clerk sometimes has opportunities. The stricken fat one could not understand bow it came about thlit he had blurted out the damning confession that he had visited Beaver Beach. When he tried to solve the puzzle, his mind refused the strain, became foggy and the terrors of his position acute. Was he, like Joe Louden, to’ endure the ban of Canaan and, like him, stand excommunicate beyond the pale because of Martin Pike's displeasure? For Norbert saw with perfect clearness today what the judge had done for Joe. Now that he stood tn danger of • fate Identical this came home to him. How many others, he wondered, would do as Mamie had done and write notes such as be had received by the hand of Sam Warden late last night? Dear Sir—this from Mamie, who, in the Canaanitish way, had been wont to addreaa him as "Norby’-My father wishes roe to state that after your remark yesterday afternoon on the steps, which was overheard by my mother, who happened to be standing in the hall behind you, Sand your behavior to himself later on ■ . ■

he considers it impossible to allow you to call any more or to apeak to any member of hi* household. Your* respectfully, MAMIE PIKE. Erasures and restorations bore witness to a considerable doubt in Mamie’s mind concerning "Yours respectfully,” but she had finally let it stand, evident ly convinced that the plain signature, without preface, savored of an intimacy denied by the context. “ ’Dear sir!’ ” repeated Norbert between set teeth. •* ‘lmpossible to allow you to call any more!’ ” These and other terms of his dismissal recurred to him during the morning, and ever ami a nos he looked up from his desk, his Ups moving to the tune of those horrid phrases, and stared out at the street. Basilisk glaring this, with no Christian softness in it, not even when It fell upon his own grandfather, sitting among the sages within easy eye shot from the big window at Norbert’s elbow. However, Colonel Flltcroft was not disturbed by the gaze of his descendant, being, in fact, quite unaware of it. The aged men were having a busy morning. The conclave was not what it had been. (See Arp and all his works.) There had come as the years went by a few recruits, but faces were missing. The two Tabors had gone, and Uncle Joe Davey could no longer lay claim to the patrlarcbship. He had laid it down, with a half sigh, and gone his way. Eskew himself was now - the oldest of the conscript fathers, the colonel and Squire Buckalew pressing him closely, with Peter Bradbury no great time behind. Today they did not plant their feet upon the brass rail inside the hotel windows, but courted the genial weather outdoors and, as their summer custom was, tilted back their chairs in the shade of the western wall of the building. - “And who could of dreamed,” Mr. Bradbury was saying, with a side glance of expectancy at Eskew, “that Jonas Tabor would ever turn out to have a niece like that!”

Mr. Arp ceased to fan himself with his wide straw bat and said grimly: “I don’t see as Jonas has ‘turned out’—not in particular! If he’s turned at all lately I reckon it’s in his grave, and I’ll bet he has if he had any way of hearln’ how much she must of spent for clothes!” “I believe,” Squire Buckalew began, “that young folks’ memories are short.” “They’re lucky!” interjected Eskew. “The shorter your memory the less meanness you know.” “I meant young folks don’t remember as well as older people do,” continued the squire. “I don’t see what’s so remarkable in her cornin’ back and walkin’ up street with Joe Louden. She used to go kitin’ round with him all the time before she left here. And yet everybody talks as if they never heard of sech a thing.” “It seems to me.” said Colonel Flltcroft hesitatingly, “that she 41d right. I know it sounds kind of a queer thing to say t and I stirred up a good deal of opposition at home yesterday evening by sort of mentioning something of the kind. Nobody seemed to agree with me except Norbert, and he didn’t say much, but”— He was interrupted by an uncontrollable cackle which Issued from the mouth of Mr. Arp. The colonel turned upon him. with a frown, Inquiring the cause of bls mirth. “It put me in mind,” Mr. Arp began promptly, “of something that happened last night." “What was It?”

Eskew’s mouth was open to tell, but he remembered just in time that the grandfather of Norbert was not the audience properly to be selected for this recital, choked a half born word, coughed loudly, realizing that he must withhold the story of the felling of MartinyPike until the colonel had taken his departure, and replied; : “Nothin’ to speak of. Go on with your argument." “I’ve finished,” said the colonel. “I only wanted to say that it seems to me a good ifctlon for a young lady like that to come back here and stick to her old friend and playmate." “Stick to him!” echoed %Ir. Arp. "She walked up Main street with him yesterday. Do you call that stickiu’ to him? She’s been away a good while; she’s forgotten what Canaan is. You wait till she sees for herself Jest what his standing in this com”— “I agree with Eskew for ortce,” interrupted Peter Bradbury. “I agree because”— “Then you better wait," cried Eskew, allowing him to proceed no further, “till you hear what you’re agree-

!»’ to! I say you take a young lady like that—pretty and rich and all cultured up, and it stands to reason that she won’t”— “No; it don’t!” exclaimed Bucka : ~w Impatiently. “Nothing of tho sort! I tell you”— 4 ' - Eskew rose to bis feet and pounded tbe pavement with his stick. "It stands to reason that she won’t stick to a man no other decent woman will speak to, a feller that’s been the mark for every stone throwed in the town' ever since be was a boy, an outcast with a reputattoif as black as a

preacher's shoes on Sunday! I don’t care if he's her oldest friend on earth, she won’t stick to him! She walked with him yesterday, butyou can mark my words, his goose is cooked!” The Old man’s voice rose shrill and high, “ft ain’t in human nature far her to do it! You hear what I say —you’ll never see her with Joe Louden again In this livin’ world, and she as good as told me so herself last night You can take your oath she’s quit him already! Don't”— ’> Eskew paused abruptly, his eyes widening behind bis spectacles. His jaw fell. His stick, raised to hammer the pavement, remained suspended in the air. A sudden color rushed over his face, and be dropped speechless in his chair. The others after staring at him in momentary alarm followed the direction of his gaze. Just across Main street and in plain view wns the entrance to the stairway which led to Joe’s office. Ariel Tabor, all in cool gray, carrying a big bunch of white roses tn her white gloved hands, had just crossed the sidewalk from a carriage and was ascending tbe dark stairway. A moment later she came down again empty handed, got into the carriage and away. “She missed him," said Squire Buckalew. “I saw him go out half an hour ago. But,” he added and, exercising a self restraint close upon the saintly, did not even glance toward the heap which was Mr. Arp, “I notice she left her flowers!”

Ariel was not the only one who climbed the dingy stairs that day and read the penciled script upon Joe’s door: “Will not return until evening. J. Louden." Many others came, all exceedingly unlike the first visitor. Some were quick and watchful, dodging into the narrow entrance furtively; some smiled contemptuously as long as they were in view of the street, drooping wanly as they reached the stairs; some were brazen and amused, and some were thin and troubled. Not all of them read the message, for not al) could read, but all looked curiously through the half opened door at the many roses which lifted their heads delicately from a water pitcher on Joe's desk to scent that dusty place with their cool breath. Most of these clients after a grunt of disappointment turned and went away, though there were a few, either unable to read the message or so pressed by anxiety that they disregarded it, who entered the room and sat down to wait for the absentee. There were plenty of chairs in the office now, bookcases also and a big steel safe. But when evening came and the final gray of twilight had vanished from the window panes all had gone except one, a woman who sat patiently, her eyes upon the floor and her hands folded in her lap, until the footsteps of the last of the others to depart had ceased to sound upon the pavement below. Then with a wordless exclamation she sprang to her feet, pulled the window shade carefully down to the sill and

when she had done that struck a match on the heel of her shoe—a soiled white canvas shoe, not a small one—and applied the flame to a gas Jet The yellow light flared up, and she began to pace the room haggardly. The courthouse bell rang 9, and as the tremors following the last stroke pulsed themselves into silence she heard a footfall on the stairs and immediately relapsed into a chair, folding her hands again in her lap, her expression composing itself to passivity, for the step was very much lighter than Joe's. A lady beautifully dressed in white dimity appeared in the dcorway. She hesitated at the threshold, not, apparently, because of any timidity (her expression being too thoughtfully assured for that), but almost Immediately she came in and seated herself hear the desk, acknowledging the -other’s presence by a slight inclination of the head. Ito be continued.)

A lady beautifully dressed in white dimity appeared in the doorway.