Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1910 — CAMEO KIRBY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CAMEO KIRBY

By Booth Tarkington AND Harry Leon Wilson

Adapted From the Play of the Same Name by W. B. M. Ferguson Copyright 1509. by'be Ainsice Nlgeziaa Com pen >

CHAPTER XII. »«y yfr |CT. Marse Gene, honey,” ImI rx I plored the old negro, “yo’ sho'ly is gwine to make”— '‘Some attempt to es-

cape?” smiled Kirby. ‘‘Not any. Croup. For one thing I don’t wish to, and for another I think it would be wasted effort. The moon is very unaccommodating,” he added cheerfully, peering out into the darkness, "but still it seems to me that there are shadows out there not formed by trees. At least they appear somewhat ffgftated. I shouldn’t wonder." he finished in the same pleasant conversational tone, “if Mr. Buuce has realized by this time that he would have been considerably more comfortable had he remained - here. The night air doesn't appear \ overhealthful.” “To’ mean. Marse Gene, dat de house am surrounded wif men,” quavered Croup, seeking to peer over the other’s shoulder. “So I should imagine,” agreed Kirby. “It's time our interesting friends on horseback should be here. Aren't they drawing rein out there?” !)- “Oh, Lawdl Oh. Lawd!” gasped Croup, abandoning himself to despair. “Bey’s gwine to have yo’ life, Marse Gene”—' - “S-h-h!” warned Kirby.. "Here come the ladies. No more agony, if you please. I assure you your sympathies are entirely wasted. The good die young, you know.” And he turned, with a pleasant smile, as Mme. Davezac and Miss Pleydell entered. Both appeared thoroughly frightened, although endeavoring to cloak it under a mask of well bred composure, and Kirby, purposely ignoring their condition, launched himself upon a soothing current of small talk which was remarkable for its lack of relevance. /.I, ■JSSSiA.-tfr - - “Jast discoursing with Croup on the befiuties of the night," he prevaricated cheerfully. “You see, I have been quite deserted. My secretary, feeling the heat, stepped into the garden for a breath of air, while Miss Randall evidently had duties elsewhere. Shall _we cojijinue our game? Or perhaps Miss Adele will sing foF us again.” “I—l am a little frightened. Colonel Moreau,” interrupted Mme. Davezac, her emotion mastering all repressive measures", while she glanced apprehensively at the window. “There are strange shadows moving in the garden. We saw them from the parlor.” “Ah, undoubtedly my secretary,” replied Kirby, “a most active being for one of his excessive displacement. I assure you be is entirely capable of creating more than one legitimate shadow”— “It was more than one man,” interrupted Ann Pleydell in a frightened voice of conviction. “Please do not jest with us, Colonel Moreau. We are convinced that some men are watching this house both front and rear.” fin that case.” said Kirby, instantly serious, “I beg of you, ladies, to retire to your rooms and permit tue to investigate this matter. There is no cause for alarm’’— A shrill, frightened scream cut him short, and the next moment I’oulette came flying into the room, moaning T and wringing her hands. “Oh-h-h!" she cried, shrinking away from the window. “Men all round de house. Dey have guu muskets. Dey hide in de bush. Oh-h-h”’ Instinctively Kirby placed a haud in his breast pocket and strode toward the balcony. AS he gained the window a hand suddenly pulled him back, and he turned to confront Adele. “You think they have tracked you,” she whispered, biting the quiver from her lips. “They shan't take you! They shan’t!” passionately, vehemently. “Stand back f:om the window,” he commanded quietly, throwing an arm before her. "Ladies,” he added, turning to the others, who, with Poulette, had defensively bulwarked themselves behind the card table, "there is no cause for alarm. It is possibly only a posse of our neighbors hunting a runaway nigger.” “Quite so. sir/’ agreed a drawling voice. And, turning, Kirby discerned Judge Pleydell standing in the doorway, complacently and resolutely blocking the one avenue of -escape. Kirby felt quite assured that at last some one of his late friends had discovered the true identity of “Colonel Moreau.” “I have found out who these trespassers are.” continued the judge, significantly eying the masquerader, “and, ladies. It is my earnest request that you retire to your rooms.” “Retire?” furiously stormed Adele, her eyes snapping. “I tell you I’ll have them whipped off the placer "You can’t do it; he's right,” cut in Kirby, nodding toward the judge. A heavy step in full retreat now sounded on the balcony, and as Mme. Davezac gave birth to a frightened considerably overheated and embarrassed, . . V, . - ■ - - - \ • • ... T -Siler-

and beamed rather foolishly upon assembled company. ; f “Ybu changed your mind about taking that stroll, did . you, Larkin?” greeted Kirby pleasantly. “Well, I didn’t stroll fur,” acknowledged the other, fastening an innocent eye upon the ceiling. “There was some men out there, strangers to me—j so fur: Yet -they kind o* seemed to show some interest in me when I rah Into ’em. Told me it wasn’t healthy to take too long a walk in the night air. And when I went round the house the other way there was some more o', them says the same thing similar. So I reckoned .1 might as well come back to the house.” “If you "will permit me.” said Kirby, facing the company and raising his voice, “I will receive Judge Pleydell's friends on the porch yonder. No, Bunce,” he added sharply as the other approached, "I don’t want you. It’s a lone hand, partner.” “You shan't do it,” implored Adele. catching his arm. “Oh, don’t you see It would be as if I had betrayed you? Anatole,” she broke off sharply, a note of agonized relief in her voice as the young creole apjteared In the doorway and gently shouldered his way past the judge—“ Anatole. you've told me a hundred times you'd die to do me a service. Now I give you the chance. I want those men driven off my property.” M. Veaudry’s face whitened and m< as he became the cynosure of all eyes, Kirby’s excepted. “It is a service th.;t I do you, mademoiselle,” he said at length, with quiet dignity. “Those are my men out there. ! I told them to surround the house, and this gentleman knows what for,” bowing gravely to Kirby. “No, he doesn't, but I do!” cried Adele; laughing hysterically. “So this is how you win a woman, Anatole? You will answer to my brother for an attack on a guest of this house,” she finished, her anger once more mastering all other emotions. “Mademoiselle, it is by your brother’s orders that I act—and I think it is that he is himself here now," replied M. Yeaudry. Even while Adele laughed scornfully a confused babel,of cries was beard from the garden, supplemented by hoarse oaths and the sound of running feet. Another moment and Tom Randall had burst into the room. Covered with dust and jyveat, white, haggard, half insane with excitement, a frey t 9 the most consuming passion, he was the \epitome of violence, balked revenge and undying hatred as, throwing off Adele's restraining arm, he launched himself straight at Kirby. Aaron Randall,- grave and collected, next entered and methodically placed upon an adjacent chair the green portmanteau belonging to the late lamented Colonel Moreau. Kirby quietly awaited young Randall’s onslaught and, »s the maddeuefl boy threw himselF him, pinioned his arms and, despue all opposition, forced him backward Juto a chair. “Let me'lo! Get out of the way, you people!” screamed Tom. like an infuriated child, as Adele and Aaron laid restraining bauds upon him. “We’ve run you to earth, Mr. 'Volf,” he added, glaring at Kirby, while he strove to release himself, almost sobbing with impotent fury. “Wolf, am I?” echoed Kirby, stepping hack. “Then I’ll show you some fangs.” “Tom! Tom!” implored Adele. “What’s the matter? Why do you act this way? You don’t know what you’re doing.” “Don’t I?” he snarled, writhing from her grasp and again confronting Kirby. “It’s you who are the fool. There’s the man we want for the murder of Colonel Moreau!” She started back aghast, staring from her brother to Kirby and back again in helpless, doubting astonish-

ment. While Judge Pleydell coughed dryly and his daughter sheltered herself behind the ample bulwarks of Muje. Davezac. who, now that the source of her fears had been identified, had regained her serene composure and was staring curiously at Kirby. “It was Colouel Moreau he killed?” whispered Adele in a strangely quiet and emotionless voice. “Shot down like a deg. Moreau was unarmed,” growled young Randall, with brutal brevity. “Indeed!” murmured Kirby, evincing sudden interest. “How do yon know?” “Because no weapon was found with the body.” “Who told you that?” “Xobody.” “Then how do you know?” “I found Moreau’s body, and I am the chief witness against you,” snapped the boy, spitting out the words with distilled venom. Aaron Randall’s expression changed, and with sudden agitation he grasped M. Veaudry's arm. To both men some idea of the boy's despicable action had occurred.

Kirby waited coolly, surveying his accuser, while be carefully* chose his next words. “So* you are .the man I had to find,” he said measuredly, with a sardonic, contemptuous smile. “Did you throw that pistol away, or did you keep It ?” “That’s your (defense, is it?”, cried j Tom, laughing tfihlly. “I’ll show you how much water that’ll hold! You want to accuse me of taking it—accuse me of taking that poor dead man’s pistol? You’ll find that accusation is going to fasten the rope just a little tighter around your neck. Moreau left his pistol in that portmanteau this morniug while at my aunt’s house, and If I speak the truth it’s there yet.” He pointed dramatically to the green leather article his cousin still guarded, and, Aaron making no move to open it. but remaining preoccupied and silent. Judge I’leydell stepped briskly forward and performed the service, holding significantly aloft the Derrin- i ger which had a!:: st ended Kirby’s life. “Ha! That looks as if I took it, doesn't it?" cried Tom. turning in savage triumph upon his fancied enemy. “The only pistol I carried in my life was my father’s. There it is,” producing from his pocket the silver. mount- I ed single shot weapon. “You ought to know that pistol.” he finished menacingly. “If you don’t, these people here know it.” ! “You seem to have made your case,” admitted Kirby,- with cool brevity and indifference. “I believe I’d prefer to go out.” He glanced at Adele, but she had turned away with bowed itead. looking utterly crushed. After a moment’s limitation he turned to go, when M. Yeaudry sprang forward and barred \ his way. ' '■ : “Keep out of this, Anatole!” warned young Randall. “You’ve done your share.” “Yes, I have done my share, but I have not forgotten my honor,” replied the young creole, pale with but ill repressed excitement, “I would kill him, but not by lies. It was a fair meeting. Colonel Moreau was armed this morning. He .carried that very pistol you show us here.” pointing to the weapon that Judge Pleydell still held. “The proof is there,” he finished simply. “Your cousin, he told me.” “You fool!” cried young Randall, completely outraged at this unexpected action, widely he considered base treachery. “What do you mean? j Aaron," he added violently, thruiug to his„CoUsin, ‘tell him that’s a lie.” < i - But Tom Randall’s second witness j proved as disappointing, and his hasty, | despicable and Veil executed method of vengeance fell to pieces before his enraged eyes. He, who had not thought twice of fastening a murder upon his enemy, had never for a moment doubted that, the necessity arising, this important witness, this blood relation 1 who shared his hatred, would readily swear away the life of their mutual enemy. He had acted without principle. He had reckoned w ithout his cousin’s inherent love for common decency and justice. Aaron Randall positively refused to corroborate the falsehood. “No. sir,” he said sternly. “We have a bettej- way,” Tom, abandoning himself to rage and chagrin, turned upon M. Yeaudry and j Aaron. “You sneaks!” he cried. “You go back on me now when 1 had this man where I could pay him ■ what I owed him. There are twenty men around this house who would stamp his life out like a rattlesnake. Give me that pistol.” “Give him the pistol. Give him forty!” added Kirby hotly as Judge Pleydell hesitated. “I’ll teach you to skulk behind trees and rob a dead man, to swear a murder on me,” he added passionately, turning upon his accuser. “I am clear of your lies. I am within the law now. and you are outside it. Take your pistol, call in your friends to help you. and I’ll make”— “No! No!” erred Adele piteously. He turned, mastering by an effort his bitter passion. “And,” he finished courteously, with a formal bow, “I will make- them welcome. It shall never be said of me that I was iuhospitable in my own house.” Oblivious to the others, his declaration had been twined at Adele. and, despite the suave courtesy with which it was delivered, she was acutely conscious of a certain bitter undercurrent of irony in the words, re-enforced by the sardonic challenge of his eyes. *‘Your own house,” she echoed slowly: “Did you say that” — ( “It is mine tonight.” She stared at him, wide eyed and tremulous with sudden fear and horror. as if the phantasmagoria of some hideous dream, a being whom she had swiftly learned to cherish, had in a ; breath turned into a venomous reptile, its wicked head drawn back to strike. “There is only one man in the world | who could make that claim,” she whis- j pered. choking over each word while 1 she still start'd with horrified fascina- | tion—“only one man in the world who could make that claim!” « » “Don’t you see who the scoundrel is?” cried Tom. with brutal contempt. Kirby bowed gravely to Adele Randall. * “Cameo Kirby—at your service, madam. I told you the bad prince always stayed too long,” he added sadly, bitterly. \ (To be Continued.) Souvenir envelopes of Rensselaer on sale at The Democrat office at 10 cents per package of 25. By the single hundred, with return card printed in the corner, 75c. A proportionate reduction in larger lots. v An armload of old papers for a nickel -at The Democrat office.

“WE'VE RUN YOU TO EARTH, MR. WOLF.”