Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 288, 13 November 1906 — Page 7

the iticnmonu Paiiadium, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 1906.

Page Seven.

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e Heart's

Highway

SYNOPSIS OF STORY. Chapter I Harry Wingfield, narator. of the story, is tutor to Mary Cavendish, a belle of the colony or Virginia In 1682, and accompanies her n a ride to church. .He discovers ler implication in a conspiracy tgainst the king. She has imported firms and ammunition to aid in the plot. II and III Wingfield's past life in JTCncIand. Although heir to large es tates and well educated, he is now It deported convict in Virginia. WingJfield is devoted to his pupil. IV and V Sir Humphrey Hyde, in ove with. Mary, Is with her in the Blot. which is laid for the purpose of J utting down the young tobacco Vlant8 and thus depriving the king f his revenue under the unjust navi gation act. "What matters it to poor Ciceij hether her own face be fair or not so long as it is dear to thee and so long Ins she can see thine!" she cried as pas sionately a a lad might have done, and p frowned, not with jealousy, but with a curious dislike to such affection from one maid to another, which I could never understand in myself. Had Cicely plyde had a lover she would have said Tnat rona speecu to mm instead or piary Cavendish, but lover she had none. But all at once the two maids nudged Jone another and turned their faces, all convulsed with merriment, and I ooked and saw that the poor little jlack lass had crept on hands and cnees to where the mirror flashed in jtbe grass and was looking at her face therein with such anxiety as might nove one at once to tears and laughter Jto see if the dew had washed her "white. . . But Mary Cavendish ceased all in a rninute her mirth and went up' to the )Jack cuud and took tne mirror rrom ler and said In the sweetest voice of ity I ever heard, "TIs not in one play dew nor two, nor perchance in the lews of many years, you can wash frour face white, but some time It will Iks" -v Then the black wench , burst into ears and begged in that thick, slugkisbly sweet tongue of hers to know if rver the May dew would wash her Ldack away,, and Mistress Mary an swered as seriously as if she were in i he pulpit on the Sabbath day that It JwouM some time most surely, and she hould see her face in the glass as fair s any. Then the two maids, Mary Cavenfllsh and Cicely Hyde, went into the touse, and left me, as I said before. o wonder at that spirit of youth which an all In a minute disregard care and hnxiety and risk of death for the play pf vanity. But, after all, which be stronger, wars and rumors of wars or ranity? And which be older, and which lathered the other? After the house door had shut behind I he maidens, I too went out, but not lo wash my grim man's face in May lew, but rather for a stroll in the mornng air and the clearing of my wits for reflection, for much I wondered what ourse I should take regarding my dfsovery of the night before. I went lown the road toward Jamestown and struck into the path to the wharf the ame that we had taken the day before, ut there were no masts of the Golden .lorn rising rtnong the trees with a arprise of straightness. She had kcighed anchor and sailed away over light, and possibly before. The more I reflected the more I un derstood that Mistress Mary Cavenlish, with her ready wit and supply of noney through her Inheritance from :er mother, might have concocted the cheme of bringing over ammunition from England to enable us to make a tand against the government, but the blot in the first of it could not have een hers alone. Assuredly Ralph rake was concerned in it, and Sir Iumphrcy Hyde, and no one knew iow many more. , The mam part for Sllstress Mary might well have been he furnishing of the powder and shot, or Ralph Drake was poor, and lived, t was said, by his good luck at cards. nd as for Sir Humphrey Hyde, his lother held the reins in those soft lands of hers, which would have been orely bruised had they been with rawn too roughly. I sat me down on a glittering ridge f rock near the river bank and watchd the blue run of the water and twistl the matter this and that way in uy mind, for I was sorely perplexed. Never did I feel as then the hamper f my position, for a man who was eld in such esteem as I by some and ontempt by others, and while having oice had no authority to maintain it; kas neither flesh nor fowl nor slave or master. Madam Cavendish treated me in all respects as the equal of herself and er family nay, more than that, she leferred to me in such fashion as I lad never seen in her toward any ne but -.Catherine treated me ever kith Iciuess of contempt, which I at hat time conceived to be but that ransference of blame from her own elf to a scapegoat of wrongdoing khlch is a resort of ignoble souls. fThey will have others not only suffer ror their own sin, but even treat them . . At wain toe scorn uue menisejves. And not one man was there in the olony, excepting perhaps Sir Hum phrey Hyde and Parson Downs and he brothers Nicholas and Richard Barr. whjrb last were not saueamish. and kvould have had me as boon comoanion Kt Barry Upper Branch, having been lrawn to me by a kindred boldness of pirit and some little passages which I bad had with the Indians, which be hot wortn repeating. I being in such a position In the colpny, and considering tne fact that Madam Cavendish and Catherine were btanch loyalists and would bare sent

MART E. WILKINS

r:y.an tneir tooacco to tne Dottom or trie salt sea had the king so ordained, and regarded all disaffection from the royal trill as a deadly gin against God and the church as well as the throne, and knowing the danger which Mary Cavendish ran, I was in a sore quandary. Could I have but gone to those men whom I conceived to be in the plot and talked with them on an equal footing I would hare given my right band. But I wondered, and with reason, what hearing they would accord me, and I wondered how to move in the matter at all without doing harm to Mistress Mary yet feared greatly that the nonmovement would harm her more. As I sat there I fell to marvelj iog anew ag j. had marveled many times before, at that yielding on the part of the strong which makes the power of those in authority possible, At the yielding of the weak we marvel not, but when one sees the bending of stanch, true men, with muscles of iron and hearts of oak, to commands which be manifestly against their own best interests, it is verily beyond understanding. , - I reasoned It out within myself that one cauae might lie In that distrust and suspicion of his neighbor as to his good will and identical interest with himself which is inborn with every man and in most cases strengthens with his growth. When a movement of rebellion against authority is on foot,, he eyes all askance and speaks in whispering corners of secrecy, not knowing when he strikes his first blow whether bis own brother's band will be with him against the common tyrant or against himself. Were it not for this lamentable quality of the human heart, which will prevent forever the perfect concerting ' of power to one end, such a giant might , be made of one people that it could hold all the world and all the nations 1 thereof at Its beck and call. But that cannot be, even in England, which had known and knows now and will know again that division of Interest and doubts, every man of his brother's heart, which weaken the arm against the common foe. But, reflecting in such wise, I came no nearer to the answer to my quandary as to my best course for the protection of Mary Cavendish. I sat there on that rock glittering like frostwork in the May sunlight and watched the river, and verily it seemed to me that the matter of the tobacco plot and Mary Cavendish's danger was of more moment than aught else in the century. "Master Wingfield, said a voice so gently and sweetly repellent and forbidding, even while it entreated, that it shivered the air with discord, and I looked around, and there stood Catherine Cavendish. She stood quite near the rock where I sat, but she kept her head turned slightly away as if she could not bear the sight of my face, though she was constrained to speak to me. But I, and I speak the truth, since I held It unworthy a man and a gentleman to feel aught of wrath or contempt when he waa sole sufferer by reason of any wrong done by a wom an, had nothing but that ever recurrent surprise and unbelief at the sight of her1 to reconcile what I knew, or thought I knew, with what she seemed. I rose and stepped from my rock to the green shore, and she moved a little back with a slight courtesy. "Good morning, Mistress Catherine," I said. "What know you of what my sister hath done, and the cargo that came yesterday on the Golden Horn?" she demanded with no preface and of a sudden. Her voice rang sharp as I remembered it when she first spoke to me by that white hedge of England, and w a a l xv. ' I could have sworn that the tide had verily borne us thither and she was again that sallow girl and I the blundering lout of a lad. "That I cannot answer you. madam," said I, and bowed and would have passed, but she stood before me. So satin smooth was her hair that even the fresh wind could not ruffle it, and : In such straight lines of tnaiaen moaesty hung her green gown always she wore green, and it became her well, and 'twas a color I always fancied Harry Wingfield lazing - the waiter that it but fluttered a little around her feet In the marsh grass, but her face looked out from a green gauze hood with an expression that belied all this steadfastness of primness and decorum. It was as if a play actress had changed her character and not her attire, which suited another part. Out came her slim arm, as If she would have caught me by the hand for the sake of compelling my answer. Then she drew it bfick and spoke with all the sharp vehemence of passion of a woman who oversteps the bounds of restraint which she has set herself and is a wilder thing than if she had been hitherto unfettered by her will. "I command you to tell me what I wish to know, Harry Wingfield," said the, and now her eyes fixed mine with no shrinking, but a broadside of scorn and imperiousness. "And I refuse to tell you, madam, said I. Then indeed she caught my arm with a little nervous hand like a cramp of wire. "Tou shall tell me. sir," she declared. "This much I know, already.

Yesterday the Golden Horn came In and was unladen of powder and shot instead of the goods that my sister pretended to order, and the cases are stored at Laurel Creek. This much do I know, but not what is afoot nor for what Mary bad conference with Sir Humphrey Hyde and Ralph last nigh and you later on with Sir Humphrey. I demand of you that you tell me, Harry Wingfield." "That I cannot do, madam." said I. She gave me a look with those great black eyes of hers, and how it came to pass I never knew, but straight to the root of the whole she went as If my face had been an open book. Such quickness of. wit I had often heard ascribed to women, but never saw I aught like that, and I trow it seemed witchcraft. "'Tis something about the young tobacco plants," quoth she. "The king would not pass the measure to cease the planting, and the assembly of this spring broke up with no decision. Major Beverly, who is clerk of the assembly, hath turned against the government since Bacon died, and all the burgesses are with him, and GoAernor Culpeper sails for England soon, and what, is the lieutenant goveruor to hold the reins? There is a plot hatching to cut down the young tobacco plants." I could

but stare at her. "There is a plot to I cut down the young tobacco plants as soon as the arovernor hath sailed." she said, "and my sister Mary hath sent to Enir'and for arms", know'insr that the militia will arise and there will be j fighting." j I still stared at her, not knowing in : truth what to say. Then suddenly she caught at my hands with hers and cried out with that energy that I saw all at once the fire of life beneath that fair show of maiden peace and calm of hers: "Harry, narry Wingfield, if my grandmother, Madam Cavendish, knows this, my sister is undone; no pitj will she have. Straight to the ; governor will she go, though she hobble on crutches to Jamestown! She would starve ere she would move against the will of the king and his representative, and eo would I, but I will not have my little sister put to suffering and shame. God save her, Harry Wingfield, but she might be thrown into prison and worse I pray thee, save her, Harry! Whatever ill you have done, and however slighting. ly I have held you for it, I pray you do this good deed by way of amends, and I will put the memory of your misdeeds behind me." Even then my bewilderment at her mention of my misdeeds, when I verily considered that she, as well as I, knew more of her own, was strong, but I grasped her two little hands hard. then relinquished them and bowed and said, "Madam, I will save your sister at whatever cost." "And count it not?" said she. "No more than I have done before, madam," said I, and maybe with some Harry tells Catherine be will save Nary little bitterness, for sometimes a woman by persistent goading may almost raise herself to the fighting level of a man. "But how?" said she. "That I must study. "But I charge you to keep it from Madam Cavendish." "You need have no fear." "May God forgive me, but I told Madam Cavendish that the Golden Horn had not arrived," said she. "But what have they done with the rest of the cargo, pray?" I started. I had, I confess, not given that a thought, though It was but reasonable that there was more beside j those powder casks, if the revenue from the crops had been so small. But Catherine Cavendish needed but a moment for that problem. " 'Twill return," said she. "Captain Tabor hath but sailed off a little distance that te may return and make port, as if . for the first time since he left England, and so put them off the scent of the Sabbath unlading of those other wares." She looked down the burnished flow of the river as she spoke, and cried out that she could see a sail, but I, looking 'also, could not see anything save the shimmer of white and green spring boughs into which the river distance closed "Tls the Golden Horn," said Catherine. "i can see naugnt of white save the locust blooms," said I. "Locusts stand not against the wind in stiff sheets." said she. "'Tis the sail of the Golden Horn, but that matters not. Harry, Harry Wingfield, can you save my sister?" " "I know not whether I can, madam, but I will," said I. CHAPTER VII. ISTRESS CATHERINE and I returned together to Drake Hill, she bearing herself with a sharp and anxious concilia tion, and I with little to say in response and walking behind her, though she moved more and more slowly that I might gain her side. We were not yet in sight of Drake Hill, but the morning smoke from the slave cabins had begun to thrust itself athwart the honeyed sweetness of blossoms and the salt freshness of the tidal river, as the homely ways of life will ever do athwart the beauty and inspiration of it, maybe to the making of Its true harmony, when of a sudden we both stopped and listened. Mistress Catherine turned palely to me, and I dare say the thought of Indians was in her mind, though they had long been quiet; then her face relaxed and she smiled. "Tis the 1st day of May," said she. "And they are going to set up the maypole in Jarvis field." - This did they every May of late, because some of the governors and some of the people had kept to those prejudices against the May revelries which had existed before the Restoration and frowned, upon the maypole set up in the Jamestown green as if it had been, as the Roundheads used to claim, the veritable heathen asd BaaLj

jarvis field was a grerDT""trict, near

of trees, not far from us, and presentiy we met the merry company proceeding thither, first came a great rollicking posse of lads andHasses linked hand in hand, all crowned with flowers and bearing green and blossomy boughs over shoulder. And these were so Bwm wiiu iue "w.ug fcpirct sou joiKaJd Marion lity of the day that they must needs come in advance, even before the horses which dragged the maypole. Six of them there were, so bedecked with ribbons and green garlands that I marveled they could see the road and were not wild with fear. But they seemed to enter into the spirit of it all and stepped highly and daintily ! with proud arcbings of necks and tossings of green plumed heads, and be hind them the maypole rasped and bumped and grated, the trunk of a mighty oak yet bristling with green, like the stubble of a shaggy beard of virility. And after the maypole came surely the queerest company of morris dancers that ever the world saw, except those of which I have heard tell which danced in Herefordshire In the reign of King James, those being composed of ten men whose ages made up the sum of twelve hundred years. These, while not so ancient as that, were still of the oldest men to be come at who could move without crutches and whose estate was not of too much dignity for such sports. And Maid Marion was the oldest and smallest of them all, riding her hobby horse, dressed In a yellow petti coat and a crimson stomacher, with a great wig of yellow flax hanging down under her gilt crown, and a painted mask to hide her white beard. And after Maid. Marion came dancing, with stiff struts and gambols, old men as gayly attired as might be, with gar lands of peach blossoms on their gray heads, bearing gadsticks of peeled wil low boughs wound with cowslips and ringing bells and blowing horns with all their might. And after them troop ed young men and maids, all flinging their heels aloft and waving with green and flowers and shouting and singing till It seemed the whole colony was up and mad. Mistress Catherine and I stood well to one side to let them pass . by, but when the morris dancers reached us and caught sight of Catherine In her green robes standing among the green bushes, above which her fair face looked, half with dismay, half with a quick leap of sympathy with the merri ment for there was in this girl a strange spirit of misrule beneath all her quiet, and I verily believe that, had she but let loose the leash in which she held herself, she would have joined those dancing and singing lasses and been outdone by none there was a sudden halt; then, before I knew what was to happen, around her leap ed a laughing score of them, shouting that here was the true Maid Marion, and that old John Lubberkln could now resign his post. , Then off the hobby horse they tum bled him, and the lads and lasses gath ered around her, and the graybeards, standing aloof with some chagrin, would, I believe, In spite of me, since they outnumbered me vastly, have forced Catherine into that rude pa geant as Maid Marion. But while I was thrusting them aside, holding my self before her as firmly as I might, there came a quick clatter of hoofs, and Mistress Mary had dashed along side on Merry Roger. She scattered the merry revelers right and left, call ing out to her sister to go homeward, with a laugh. "Fie on thee. Cather ine;- sne cnea out. "ir thou art abroad on a May morning dressed like the queen of it, what blame can there be to these good folk for giving thee thy queendom?" Catherine did not move to go when the people drew away from her, but rather stood looking at them with that lurking fire in her eyes and a flush on her fair cheeks. Mistress Mary sat on her horse, curbing him with her little hand, and her golden curls floated around her like a cloud, for she had ridden forth without her hood on hearing the sound of the horns and bells, eager to see the show like any child, and the merrymakers stared at her, grinning with uncouth delight and never any resentment. There was that in Mary Cavendish's look when she chose to have it so that could, I verily believe, have swayed an army, so full of utter good will and loving kindness it was, and, more than that, of such confidence in theirs in return that it would have taken not only knaves, but knaves with no conceit of themselves, to have foresworn her good opinion of them. Suddenly there rose a great shout and such a volley of cheering and hallooing as can come only from English throats. A tall lad cast a great wreath over Mistress Mary's own head and cried out with a shout that here, here was Maid Marion. And scores of voices echoed his with "Maid Marion, Marion T And then, to my great astonishment and dismay, for a man is with no enemy so much at a loss as with a laughing one, since it wrongs his own bravery to meet smiles with blows, they gave forth that I was Robin Hood; that the convict tutor, Harry Wingfield, was Robin Hood! I felt myself white with wrath then and was for blindly wrestling with a great fellow who was among the fore most, shaking with mirth, an oak wreath over his red curls making him look like a satyr, when Mistress Mary rode between us. "Back. Master Wing field." said she. "I pray thee, stand back." Then she looked at the folk, all smiles and ready understanding of them, until they hurrahed again and rang their bells and blew their horns. and she looked like a blossom tossed on the wave of pandemonium. I had my hand on her bridle rein. ready to do my best should any rudeness be offered her, when suddenly she raised her hand and made a motion, and to my utter astonishment the brawliiur thrcc sava for some on tb i

outskirts, which quieted presently. Decame still. Then Mistress Mary's voice

arose clear and sweet, with a childish ' note of Innocence in it; "Good people," said she, "fain would ' I be your Maid Marion, and fain would I be your queen of May if you would I hold w ith me this kingdom of Virginia against tyrants ana oppressors. . ,j s I ouestlon ir a dozen tuere arraspea her meaning, but. after a second's gaping stare, such a shout went up that it seemed to make the marshes quiver. I know not what mad scheme was in the maid's head, but I verily believe that throng would have follow ed her wbereever she led. and the tobacco plants might have been that morning cut bad she so willed. But I pulled hard at her bridle, and I forgot my customary manner with her, so full of terror for her I was. "For God's sake, child, have done," I said, and she looked at me, and there came a strange expression, which I had never seen before, into her blue eyes, half of yielding as to some strength which she feared, and half of that high enthusiasm of youth and noble sentiment which threatened to swamp her in its mighty flow as it had done her hero Bacon before her. I know not if I could have held her. f it all passed in a second the while those wild huzzas continued, and the crowd pressed closer, all crowned and crested with green, like a tidal wave of spring, but another argument came to me, and that moved her. 'Tis not yourself alone, but your sister and Madam Cavendish to suffer with you," I said. Then she gave a quick glance at Catherine, who was raising her white face and trying to get near enough to speak to her, for her sister's speech had made her frantic with alarm, and hesitated. Then she laughed and the earnest look faded from her face and she called out with that way of hers which nobody and nothing could withstand. "Nay," she said, "wait till I be older and have as much wisdom in my head as hath the Maid Marion whom you have chosen. The one who hath seen so many Mays can best know how to queen it over them." So saying, she snatched the wreath with which they had crowned her from her head and cast it with such a sweep of grace as never I saw over the bead of flax headed and masked Maid Marion, and reined her horse back, and the crowd, with worshipful eyes of admiration of her and her sweetness and wit and beauty, gave way, and was off down the road toward Jarvis field, with loud clamor of bells and horns and wild dancing and wavings of their gadsticks and green branches. Mistress Mary rode before us at. a gallop, and presently we were all at the breakfast table in the great hall at Drake Hill, with foaming tankards of metheglin and dishes of honey and salmon and game in plenty. For, whatever the scarcity of the king's gold, there was not much lack of food in this rich country. Madam Cavendish was down that morning, sifting at table with her stick beside her, her bead topped with a great tower of snowy cap, her old face now ivory yellow but with a wonderful precision of feature, for she had been a great beauty In her day, so alert and alive with the ready comprehension of her black eyes, under slightly scowling brows, that naught escaped her that was within her reach of vision. Somewhat dull was she of hearing, but that sharpness of eye did much to atone for it. She looked up when we entered with such keenness that for a second my thought was that she knew all. k "What were the sounds of merrymaking down the road?" said she. "'Twas the morris dancers and the maypole. 'Tis the 1st of May, as you know, madam," said Mary in her sweet voice, made clear and loud to reach her grandmother's ear. Then up she went to kiss her, and the old woman eyed her with pride, which she was fain to conceal by chiding. "You will ruin your complexion if you go out in such a wind without your mask," she said, and looked at the maiden's roses and lilies with that rapture of admiration occasioned half by memory of her own charms which had faded and half by understanding of Madam Cavendish the value of them In coin of love, which one woman can waken only in another. For Catherine, Madam Cavendish had no glance of admiration nor word, though she had tended her faithfully all the day before and half the night, rubbing her with an effusion of herbs and oil for her rheumatic pains. Yet for her Madam Cavendish had no love and treated hr with a stately tolera tion and no more. Mary understood no cause for it and often looked, as she did then, with a distressful wonder at her grandmother when she seemed to hold her sister so slightingly. "Here Is Catherine, grandmother," said she.- "and she has had a narrow escape from being pressed as Maid Marion by the morris dancers." Mad am Cavendish made a slight motion and looked not at Catherine, but turn ed to me with that face of anxious kindness which she wore for me alone. Saw you aught of the Golden Horn this morning. Master Wingfield?" asked she; and I replied truthfully enough that I had not. Than, to my dismay, she turned to Mary and inquired what were the goods which she had ordered from England, and, to my greater dismay. the maid, with such a light of daring and mischief in her blue eyes as 1 never saw, rattled off, the while Cath erine and I stared aghast at her, such a list of women's folderols as I never heard, and most of them quite beyond my masculine comprehension. Madam Cavendish nodded approvInrlr when ahe had done. " 'Tis a

wise cnoiee,- said see. "ana as soou as the ship comes ia have the goods brought here and unpacked, that I may see them." ' With that she rose stiffly, and. beckoning Catherine, who looked as if she could scarcely stand herself, much less serve as prop for another, went out, tapping her stick heavily on one side, on the other lean-

j ing on her granddaughter's shoulder. CHAPTER VIII. LOOKED at Mistres Mary and she at me. We had withdrawn to the deepness of a window, while the black slaves moved in and out, bearing the breakfast dishes, as reasonably unheeded by us as the cupbearers in a picture of a Roman banquet in the time of the Caesars which I saw once. Mistress Mary was pale with dismay, and yet her mouth twitched with laughter at the notion of displaying, before the horrified eyes of Madam Cavendish, those grim adornments which had arrived In the Golden Horn. "La," said she, "when they come a-trundling in a powder cask, and I courtesy and say, 'Madam, here is my furbelowed and gold flowered sacque, I wonder what will come to pass?" Then she laughed. "Madam." said I. "why did you give that list?" She laughed again, and her eyes flashed with the very light of mischief. "I grant 'twas a fib," said she. "But I was taken unawares, and. la, how could I recite to her the true list of ray rare finery which came to port yesterday? to I gave the list of goods for which my Lady Culpeper sent to England for the replenishing of her wardrobe and her daughter's, and which is daily expected by ship. I had it from Cicely Hyde, who had it from Cate Culpeper. The ship is due now and may be even now in port, and 1 so worded what I said that 'twas not, after all, a fib except the hearer chose to make It so. I said, 'Such goods as these are due, madam. " Then she gave the list anew, like a parrot, while Catherine, who had returned, stood staring at her, whire with terror, though Mary did not see her until she had finished. Then when she turned and caught her keenly anxious eyes she started. "You here, Catherine?" said she. Then, knowing not how much her sister knew already, she tried to cover her confusion like a child denying its raid on the jam pots while Its lips and fingers are still sticky with the stolen sweet. "What think you of my list, sweetheart?" cried, she merrily. "A pair of the silk stockings and two of the breastknots and a mask and a flowered apron shall you have." Then out of the room she whisked abruptly, laugh ing from excess of nervous confusion and not being able to keep up the farce longer. Then Catherine turned to me. "She has undone herself, for Madam Caven dish will see those goods when the Golden Horn comes in or ferret the mystery vo its farthest hole of hiding said she. Then she wrung her hands and cried out sharply, "Harry Wing field, what is to be done?" "Madam Cavendish would surely never betray her own flesh and blood," said I, though doubtfully, when I re flected upon her hardness to Catherine herself, for Madam Judith Cavendish was not one for whom love could change the color of the clear light of justice, and she would see forever her own as they were. "There is to her no such word as be tray except in the service of the king, said Catherine. Tnen she added in a whisper, "Know you the story of her youngest son, my uncle, Ralph Caven dish, who went over to Cromwell?" I nodded. I knew it well and had heard it from a lad b.ow Ralph Cavendish's own mother bad turned t him from the door one night with the king's troops in the neighborhood, though It was afterward argued that she did not know of that, and he bad been taken before morning and afterward execut ed, and she had never said a word nor shed a tear that any one saw. "When the Golden Horn comes in she will demand to see the goods," Cather ine repeated. "Then the Golden Horn must not come in," said I. - Catherine looked at me with that flash of ready wit in her eyes which was like to the flash of fire from gun powder meeting tinder. Then she cried out: "Quick, then, quick, I pray thee. Harry Wingfield, to the wharf! For if ever I saw sail I saw that, and the tide will have turned 'm. Quick, quick T She waited not for any headgear, but forth into the May sunlight she rushed, and I with her, and shouted at the top of my lungs to the slaves for my horse. then went myself, having no mind to wait, and hustled the poor beast from his feed bin and was on his back and at a hard gallop to the wharf, with Mistress Catherine following as fast as she was able. Now and then when I turned I saw her slim green shape ad vancing, looking for all the world to my fancy like some nymph who had been changed into a river reed and had gotten life again. When I reached the wharf, with my horse all afoam, there was indeed the Golden Horn down the river, coming in. The tide and wind had been against her or she would have reached shore ere now. Then along the bank I urged my horse, and In some parts, where there was no footing and the tangle of woods too close, into the stream we plunged and swam, then up bank again. and so on with a mighty splatter of mire and water and rain of green leaves and blossoms from the low hang of branches through which we tore way. till we came abreast of the Golden Horn, x Then I hallooed, first making sure that there was no one lurking near to overhear, and waved my handkerchief, keeping my horse standing to his fetlocks in the current, until over the water came an answering halloo from the Golden Horn and I could plainly see Captain Calvin Tabor on the quarter deck. The ship was not far distant and I could have swam to her, and would have, though the tide was strong, had there been no other way. "Halloo," shouted Captain Tabor, and two more men came running to the side, then more stilL till it was overhung by a whole row of red English faces. "Halloo r shouted I. "What d'ye lack? What's afoot? Halloo!" "Send a boatiT I houted back.

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"New s, news! Keep wnere ye te. ik not land. Send a boat!" "Is it the convict tutor, Wingfield?" shouted the captain. I called back yes and repeated my demand that he send a boat. Then I suiw a great running hither and thither, and presently a boat

Harry hallooing Golden Horn to the touched the water from the side of tha Golden Horn with a curious lappiug dip, and I was off my horse and tied him fast to a tree on the bank with Vxse rein that he might crop his fill of the sweet spring herbage, and when the boat touched bank was in her and t.pecilily aboard ship. Captain Tabor was leaning over the bulwarks, ami his ruddy face was pale and his look of devil-may-care gayety somewhattulMlued. When I gained the deck forward he came and grasped me by the arm and led me into his own cabin, having first shouted forth to his mate an order to drop anchor and keep the phip in midstream. "Now, in the name of all the fiends, what Is afoot?" he cried out, though with a cautious cock of his eyes toward the deck, for English sailors are not black slaves when it comes to discussing matters of weight. "There is a plot afoot agaiust his majesty King Charles, and you but yesterday, that being also a day on which It is unlawful to unload a ship, discharged a portion of your cargo toward its furtherance and abetting," said I. "When I trust a woman's tongue again may I swing from my own yardarms!" he cried out. "What brought that fair faced devil into it, anyway? Be there not men enough in this colony?" "An you keep not a civil tongue In your bead v.-hen you speak of Mistress Mary Cavendish you will find of a surety that f there be one man in this colony, sir," said I. He laughed in that mocking fashion of his, which incensed me still further. Then he spoke civilly enough and said that he meant no disrespect to one of the fairest ladies whom he had ever had the good fortune to see, but that it was so well. known as to be no more slight in mentioning than the paint and powder wherewith a womaii enhance her beauty that a woman's tongue could not be trusted like a man's, and that it were a pity that money, which were much better spent by her for pretty follies, should be put to 6uch grim uses, and where were Harry telling Kis .4ory to Ca pterin Taaar the gallants of Virginia that they suffered It. but did not rather empty their own purses? I explained, being somewhat mollified and also somewhat of his way of thinking, that men there were, but there was little gold since the navigation act. And I informed Captain Tabor how Mistress Mary Cavendish, having an estate not so heavily charged with expenses as some, and being her own mistress with regard to the disposal of its revenues, had the means which the men lacked. "But what was the news which brought you thither, sir?" demanded Captain Tabor. "You know of the plot" I begun, but ha broke in upon me fiercely. "May the fiends take me, but what know I of a plot?" he cried. "Can I not bring over gowns and kerchiefs and silken ribbons for a pretty maid without a plot? How knew you that? There . is the woman's tongue again. But can I not bring over goods even of such sort? Might I not with good reason suppose them to be for the defense of the cause ol his most gracious majesty. King Charles, against the savages or any malcontents in his colonies? What plot, Klrrah?" "The plot for the cutting down of the young tobacco plants. Captain Tabor," said I. His eyes blazed at me, while his face was pale and grim. "How many know of the goods I discharged from the Golden Horn yesterday?" he asked. "Three men, and I know not how many more, and two women," said I. "Two women T he groaned out. "Pestilence on these tide waters which hold a ship like a trap! Two women T "But the concern is lest a third woman know," said I. "If three women know, then heaven save us all, for their triple tongues will carry as far as the last trump!" cried Captain Tabor. Perturbed as be was, he never lost that air of reckless daring which compelled me to a sort of liking for him. "Out with the rest of it, sir." he said. Then I told my story, to which be listened, scowling, yet with that ready laugh at his mouth. "Tis a scu trick to serve a woman, both for sake and the rest of us, to let her dle.with such matters. he said.Xand so I told mat cousin or ners, paster Drake, who came with her toZTve the order ere I sailed for En giant CTo Be Continu Artificial gas, the fuel. 10-tJ

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