Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1919 — WHITE MAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHITE MAN

By George Agnew Chamberlain

Author of “Room.” “Through Steinod Glmo." "Joh* Bogarduo.” etc.

SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER L—Andro* Pellor, handsome daurhter of Lord Pellor, Impecunious aristocrat, is doomed to marry an illiterate but wealthy mtddle-a«d diamond minx owner. She disconsolately wanders f»om her hotel in South Africa and discovers an aviator about to fly from the beach. Impulsively, of course Imarlnln* that the trip will be merely a pleasant excursion, and a welcome relief from thoughts of her impending loveless marriage, she begs to be taken for a flight, although she does not know him. He somewhat unwillingly agrees, and they start. CHAPTER ll.—When she realises her unknown aviator is not going back Andrea in desperation tries to choke him with one of her stockings. He thwarts her and they sail on into the very heart of Africa. Landing in an immense craal, Andrea finds the natives all bow In worship to her mysterious companion. She is given a slave boy, "Bathtub," and the White Man sets about building a hut for her. CHAPTER 111. Andrea swallowed a lump in her throat. “I won’t-r-I will not cry," she said aloud. “I shall never cry again. I’m really having a g—good time. I’ve always been bored and I’m certainly not bored now, and only a fool would cry over that.” She settled down to her breakfast in earnest, forgot that she detested eggs fried, ate every scrap of the toast, most of the marmalade, and drank three cups of tea. Then she sat back and let her eyes amuse her. The kraal’s activity had centered about the newest and smartest of the huts. Around it many men were working, some digging trenches, others cutting an extra door in, its side. Presently still others began to arrive in a seemingly endless procession, bearing posts, stripped of thblr bark and cut to uniform length, and great bundles of withes and thatch grass. She watched them work with a wonder at what they were doing that grew vaguer and vaguer until she drowsed and finally dropped sound asleep in her chair. She awoke two hours later to find the white man standing before her, clean shaven, Clear eyed, smelling of soap and looking almost dapper in khaki helmet, shirt, breeches and puttees. "Well, Mr. White Man?” said Andrea.

He smiled a slow smile of relief as though he had been dreading her first words. “Will you now?” he fished. She arose, started to follow him and stopped with a gasp. “Why I” she exclaimed, her eyes fastened on, the hut that had been the scene of labor. It was transformed. Before it now stood a veranda with a thatched roof. Inclosing the veranda, the hut and a tiny garden at its back was a mighty stockade, each post of which was sharpened to a needle point. From the extra door ran a covered way as strongly built as the stockade and which connected the hut with its neighbor—that into which the white man had disappeared. “Will you come?” repeated the man. Andrea followed, him, only to stop again when she reached the veranda. It was carpeted with a long grass mat of vivid colors and on the mat stood chairs and a table. On the table was a hand sewing machine and from corner-to-corner post swung a hammock. She had to stoop very low to enter the hut itself, apd once within had to wait a long time for her sunfilled eyes to accustom themselves to the kindly gloom. The man grew tat patient and struck a match. By Its light Andrea saw a vision of comfort The room was circular and unceiled, so that one could look up and up into the very depths of its tapering peak. From that height dangled a wire and on its end hung a lantern. The man Ut it and showed her how it could be carried to any desired point on the cl rmmference of the room and hooked there. On one side stood a cot already made up; beside it a small camp chair. On the other side was a long hammock chair, and close to it stood a carved tabouret piled high with books. Over a small table hung a foolish little mirror. The walls were wainscoted with a woven mat of golden reeds The place smelled clean, was dean. Andrea had come into the room obsessed by a single idea, and that was to determine the why and wherefore of the covered passage leading to the next hut. She failed to discover its entrance un,til her companion drew her attention to a door, wainscoted like the walls bat crossed by a sturdy bar pivoted at one end, the other sinking Into a deep socket “It occurred to me,” said the man, “that perhaps you would be afraid at night unless you were sure of help. Listen,” He raised the bar, and as he did so the hidden ddor flew open and a gong sounded in the next hut. "The bar cannot be lifted from my side of course,” he added.

Then he led her out through the veranda into her private garden and pointed to a quite new and tiny hut. “Tour bath and washroom,” he said. “You must have no water in the hut you live in. not only because its floor Is of mud but principally on account of the mosquitoes.” “Live?” said Andrea. “My dear White Man, you are mad. Pm not going to live here, no matter how horribly I’m tempted by all this thoughtfulness of yours and—care.” He looked questioningly at her face. “Will you dine with me,” he ventured, “at half past five? It’s the best hour on account of daylight and only two meals a day. Will you? After that. we’ll talk it out” Andrea nodded and dismissed him with, “Till half after five, then.” Things had moved so fast through the day that she had had no time to mark more than their general course. Now she settled down to a deliberate survey. She went back in her mind to Aunty Gwen, to her brothers and to the public at large as represented by the colony dance. She imagined their consternation at her disappearance, visualized the efforts that even at this moment were being made to trace her and’ the full force of their Inevitable futility. The searchers would have nothing to go on. There was only one chance as far as she knew and that was a slim one. In the general excitement the native whom the white man had left behind might chatter his way Into sufficient prominence to get himself called as a witness. But she set small hope on such a solution, for the last few hours had taught her that the author of ail her troubles was more than White Man to those under him —he was master. Then her thoughts turned to the man she was to have married. Of course, and whatever happened from now on, that —deal—was off. She puckered her brow, puzzled that such a conclusion brought no great shock with it. Last of all, she thought of herself. What was the meaning of this day to Andrea Pellor, to that girl whom she had curiously watched, studied and dreamed over during very nearly a quarter of a century? Unconsciously she faced the problem from the standpoint Into which she had been bred alone —measured It by the cold rule of convention and society usage.

Tm done for,” said Aftdrea to herself. "Yesterday I was a pearl of great price in the marriage market, and now everything in the way of cash that offers will come from the music halls I Your last day, Pellor,” she added aloud, giving a deep significance to the use of the old family name alone. Her Ups curled and her eyes hardened rebelllously as she added a final murmur, “But it's been a hummer 1” “Scoff ready, Missis.” She jumped erect with ft startled cry. "Plenty hungry, eh?” said Bahtub with fils usual grin of pride at his powers of deduction. “Tell your master that I shall come Ift ten minutes," she said, watched him go and closed the door after him. Then she turned and hurried to the

little mirror on the wall. She flushed with anger as she looked at herself. The excitement coupled with the heat had made her forget her inappropriate garb. She rehung the looking glass and looked around for implements of toilet On the little table lay a comb and a single military brush, looking lonely without its mate. There were also a tin of powder, the common sprinkler variety that men use, a fresh bottle of dental lotion and a sealed box, proclaiming itself in loud type the container of the only perfect toothbrush. “Not so bad,” reflected Andrea, and went to work to make the best of what was already one of God’s choicest creations. But when she had finished the wonderful result only angered her. The incongruity of sitting down thus garbed to' an open-air camp dinner at half past five in the afternoon and face to face with a man in appropriate kbaki, outraged her very acctt-

rate judgment as to what was fitting. Suddenly she remembered her cloak. She rushed to the door and called to Bathtub. He came bn the run, received her orders and a moment later fetched the all-concealing garment, still warm from Its sun bath. Andrea put it on, her bare shoulders shrinking from its hot touch. Beneath the acacia gleamed the white table set for two. Near it sat the man, nursing patience with a cigarette as Is the way of the waiting male. He arose as Andrea drew near and threw his cigarette away. He was clothed In the full dress of the tropics—white mess jacket, black tie, white waistcoat, black trousers, silk hose and pumps. Clean shaven, hair well brushed, he had dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s of etiquette and stood for six feet of the best brand of unconscious gentleihan. Andrea, stopped several paces away and gazed at him. Her eyes filled suddenly with tears and her heart swelled in the quick answer of the generous to the thoughtful. She drew near and said in a voice that trembled slightly, "You are considerate In all —little things.” « She raised both hands to her throat, unhooked her cloak and let it slip from her shoulders. For an Instant his eyes were those of a man of her own world. They swept over her as though they took the measure of her loveliness for the first time. They traveled with a flashing gaze from her soft hair to her flushed cheeks, down over her bare neck and into the faery meshes of her filmy frock, and there they stopped with a jerk as though even In that moment he remembered that very short skirts and a truncated silk stocking might leave a serious gap in the all-too-frail defenses of modern modesty. Then he came back in one swift upward sweep and met her own gaze, squarely, steadily. She drew a deep breath. Something sustaining had come into the white man’s gray-blue eyes, something you could lean upon He was suddenly not of her old world. "I am afraid the soup Is a little cold,” he said' as he stepped around to draw her chair for her. The dinner was good beyond the cachet of mere gross appetite, and it was served with a rapidity and smoothness that would have done credit to the oldest of the Pellor butlers. "Your servants are well trained,” said Andrea. “Each has little to do,” said the mast. “He must do It well. That, Incidentally, is the secret of getting satisfactory work out of an African.” "Is It?” said Andrea absently. "I’ve always heard they were a shiftless lot and that a white man could do the work of ten niggers." (TO BE CONTINUED)

“Tell Your Master That I Shall Coms In Ten Minutes."