Pittston Gazette

              ESTABLISHED IS50. ! VOL. XL111. NO. au. » Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1894. A Weekly Local and Family Journal. i"-f,?££?£SUK Torn turned away and leant his head on his hand in an attitude of dejection. Suddenly he faced round, looked at the girl as if she were aocusing him, and said—trying again to assume anger in order to cover his confusion: between the two men? Did you know the purpose for which Tom wanted this money when you gave it to him? If you would tell me it would make me able to speak with greater freedom." THE OUD MILU MYSTERY. me. Hut 1 am full of anxiety about this; It frightens me. There must be some conspiracy against Torn. He is so good-natured and open and trustful that anyone can impose upon hiin. I .vish he would come." "I cannot believe that he has not," was the reply. "It was all the money that was due, wasn't it, Tom?" asked Mary, pausing a moment, in doubt how to ask this. The question angered the man. NYE IN PADUCAH. self, but I kept Lent by boarding at the Phoenix hotel in Hopkinsville, Ky. I was a little startled, for I at once recognized the man. But her concern was not on account of money. She did not for a moment credit the possibility that Tom would do anything of the kind. Her only fear was about Savannah. Thus she surprised Gorringe by laughing at the idea that Tom had acted as suggested. "What you do mean? Do you mean what he sevmed to insinuate—that I'd been keeping something back? Of course, it was all the money. Didn't I tell you so last night? I should have thought you wonld be ready to believe me, at any rate." HE WRITES ABOUT THE FIRST HOTEL THAT WAS BUILT THERE. It was a cab driver who used to drive from the Fort Wayne depot. With a glad smile I seized his hand. After a time she rose and made some supper for the invalid, who spoke very little, but lay and watched her as she moved about the room. The old man turned to Savannah: "Yes; it's all very well to talk like that. 'If I had the money;' but what if I haven't the money? And I haven't." He looked at her half-deflantly and yet half-shamefacedly. "I know what lies were told about Torn having kept some of the money of the sick fund," said Mary, angrily. By Arthur W. Marchmont, B. A. "I thought so too." And Dow It Han Been Succeeded Later by One More Stylish— He Is Introduced Into "Did yon not at one time drive a cab between the depot and hotels?" I asked. "You thought so? Say whether yon know Tom to be as straight as 1 know him to be. Don't say yon thought. That means you don't think so now." "It is nonsense—sheer, silly nonsense," she said. "Tom would not rob a millionaire of a penny piece. It is nonsense. There is some blunder, or somebody els» has taken what you have missed. What does he say to such a ridiculous charge?" Padneah Society—Meeting an Old Friend. Author of "Miskb Hoadlky's Secret," "Madaunb Power," "By Whom "Will you read to me, child? You will soothe me." For a moment Mary could not reply. She glanced into his face, then into Savannah's, and then dropped her eyes lest he should read the doubts and fears which his words had raised. Doubts, not of his honesty—she had no doubt of that; but of something that was even more to her. She knew that only a few weeks before he had had some twenty or thirty pounds of savings, just as she herself had; for they had talked over all their little money matters like brother and sister. Now league, disquieting fears as to what he had done with it, connecting themselves indefinitely in her thoughts with her growing doubts of Savannah, troubled her. But none of this feeling showed itself in her reply. "I do, Tom; of aourse, I do. But I want to tell you what they say now; and I don't know how to begin." Some Mean Men. "Yes, from the Fort Wayne depot," he cried eagerly, licking his chops. "Well, I thought I knew you!" I exclaimed, reaching for my pocketbook and writing a line for him on a blank leaf. "Here is a receipt in full for that half dollar you chiseled out of me during the World's fair. It is not much, but it will help." Hand." "Isa," &c., &c. [Copyright, 1894, by Edgar W. Nye.] The girl went to the side of the bed and took up the book that was lying there—it was a copy of the "Pilgrim's Progress"—and as soon as Mary had finished her preparations began reading aloud from it. "That means that I don't—or rather that I can't—think so now." In Kentucky, Spring of *94. [Copyright, 18a.', by the Antbor.] "What do they say?" he asked, sharply. Paducah is the second largest dark tobacco market in the world. Louisville being the largest. But the fight is narrowing down to Clarkville, Tenn., and Paducah, for they are in the heart of the dark, heavy tobacco country. Most of this tobacco at present goes abroad after being stemmed here. Large stemmeriee here reduce the weed to its minimum Mary rose from her chair, her face flushed crimson and her eyes flashing with angry light. "I have not told him. I have spoken only to you." "They say that there is another amount of ten pounds due," said Mary, speaking slowly and hesitatingly, and scarcely raising her voice above a whisper."He's a man that knows his mind, whether he's better or worse in other things," answered her mother sharply, "and that's more than some other folks seem to do. If be gets a bite, he holds on. Look at his money, too." Without waiting for a reply the girl rose from the easy chair in which she had been sitting, and taking down her hat and jacket from behind the door began to put them on, her hands trembling and quivering with suppressed excitement. "This is no place for me, then," she said. "I will stay nowhere to hear Tom—my Tom, my husband that is to be—insulted like that." "I suppose that is what you think prudent and brave. To try and set me against him with charges which you dare not make to his face," she burst out; venting on him the anger which Bhe felt on account of the tale about Savannah "That is the act of a man, indeed," she added, very bitterly. Mary sat apart nearer the door, waiting and listening for Tom's coming. Presently, she crept gently from the room and went to the door of the cottage to wait there. This was about ten o'clock: she knew there was a train from Presburn about that time. After a little while she saw her lover's tall figure coming up the street. He was walking slowly, and his head was bent as though he was in deep thought. With these words I went on down town, happy in the thought that I had done a good act and glad also that I have a good memory for faces. "The liars!" burst from the man's lips. "Who has told you this?" "You are right to be angry. I admire you for it. I knew you would be, and that made me hesitate how to speak at first. I. know you may think 1 have some cowardly motive in saying what 1 have said, and what I have to say. But I can find no one else to say it; and yet y«u must know all; and you will help me, and help us all, if you do not make it so difficult for me to speak." "I heard it from Reuben Gorringe, to whom Murstone had been." We got talking about mean men the other evening as we foregathered in .the greenroom before the curtain rang up on our "opry." Hackett of Auburn, Me., was telling of a man there, who had name as his father, who was in the same busi- "What of his money? manager at the milL" He's only "So Gorringo is my enemy, is he?" exclaimed Tom, excitedly. "I thought I noticed something strange in his conduct to-day." Before she had finished her mother same in. "If I have deserved that taunt I am sorry. If I have not you should be sorry. Whether I have or not you shall judge for yourself. Look here at this book and these papers," and as he spoke he spread before her the papers which showed the missing sum. "Ah, maybe. But he's got a shed on his own account, and, I warrant me, he's got a tidy sized stocking and that .Jt's pretty full." "Very likely. But I don't want his money. I can earn enough to keep me, and I'd rather die a weaver lass and naught else than wed a man I couldn't "Bless the girl, what's the matter?" cried Mrs. Ash worth. "I'm going out. My Tom's in trouble, and I'm going to him. Some villains dare to say he's stolen some of their paltry money, and Pm going to see what it means. Pm going to him." "I don't think he is against you, Tom—" then she suddenly stopped, remembering the second and gTaver accusation—"at least not in that. He gave Murstone the money at once. He said that ho was sure you would wish it paid at once, and so he paid it." She gave a sigh of relief when she saw him, for she had begun to fear that hlB not coming might mean the worst. She went to meet him. When he saw her he-stopped and started. "Then you should have relied on me, Tom," she answered, and her facc as she spolte glowed with a smile that cheered and warmed the heart of the man. "That will soon be put right Vnn , must ho«r» Wn » troubled. ck*ar. to me at mioii a time. We must get rid of this bother ftrst, and then we'll see about who broke into your cash-box. Will you take this money to Murstone in t-hp morning—or at any rate tell him you have the amount, whatever it jnay be, that the books make out to be due?" ness in another town. He had to use a weekly market report and used to open the envelope by steaming it. Then, copying the report, he would put it back in the envelope, stick it together, strike out the old address excepting the name and forward it to his father, saving the sum of 2 cents each week, which was divided between the two at the end of each month. II is manner impressed the girl, and the fear that there was something really serious to be heard overcame "Why show these to me?" she cried. "I do not understand them." Xove." "You can't do that," said Savannah, quietly. "Yet they trace the amount to a certain point and then show that it disappeared. But the last person to whom it is traced is Tom Roylance. See here, again," and he took other papers. "Well, then, set to work and love Reuben Gorringe. If you weren't so precious obstinate, you'd have done it long since, instead of maundering on with that Tom Roylance; fiddling and faddling- about and doing naught else. I've no patience with you." Mrs. Ashworth looked from one to the other of the girls in wonder. The tears were in her voice as she put out her hands to take his, wanting to make him feel her sympathy. "Mary, you here?" even her anger. "The devil he did! And what right has he got to interfere in my affairs? To do a thing like that is just as much as to confess that the lie is true. I'll go and have this out with Murstone alone. The villain, to trump up such a dastardly tale against me!" "If there is anything that I ought to know. 1 will try to be patient while you tell me; but please do not again make such charges against him, or 1 may not be able to keep my temper." "Who says that?" replied Mary, laughing scornfully. "Who'll stop me? Where my Tom is there I'll go." "I heard there was some trouble, Tom. Savannah told me." ■"Why did she speak of It? She said she would not." "I don't want papers!" she cried, impatiently, pushing them away from before her and refusing to read them. "I don't understand them. If they stated in black and white that Tom had taken your fnoney, J would not believe them one minute against his word. Where is ha? Send for him, and when you are face Iq face t*l} him what yon have told me- He will have an explanation.""You can't go to him now where he is," said Savannah again. Then Mr. Smith told of a neighbor of his whose son died, and the grief stricken father went to town to dicker for a misfit coffin. He got one at half price that had been returned some years ago to the undertaker. It was rather short, but the old man took it, hoping that he could get his son into it before the body became too rigid. "I will try to give you the facts by themselves, and leave you to form your opinion; but I shall be obliged to ask you a question now and again. You say you knovy that the trustees of the sick fund believe the books tq be that, acting under this beljef, {.hey went to Torn last night and asked him to explain; that he did not give any explanation whioh they could understand; that he said he had the proper amount of money in the house; that when ho went to fetch it he returned with a broken cash box which was empty; that he said the money had been stolen, and that he took the money which the book showed to be the balance round to them this morning. You know that?" Mary made no reply to this. She had had more than one dispute with her mother on the same subject, and there had been high words between them occasionally."Why not?" said Mary, her face flushing. "Not to me?" She was hurt to think he should wish to have a trouble kept secret from her and known to another. "You are very good, Mary," said Tom. very gently. He got up excitedly from his chair, as if to go out. "Where is he, then?" asked Mrs. \shworth in the same breath. "Nay, way; it's but wfyat I'd look fop from you. I'm glad we've had fhe talk. I shall sleep tu-uighl uo»v. IJ14I I must go." But he changed his purpose as suddenly and began walking quickly up and down the room. "He's probably In gaol by this time," answered Savannah; and at the words Mary cried out, and would have fallen in her weakness if her mother had not caught her and half led. half carried her back to her chair. "I did not want to trouble you while you were ill, Mary," said Tom, reading her meaning in her question. "Why don't you do as I tell you, Mary, lass?" continued Mrs. Ashworth, -after a pause in which she had waited vainly for a reply. "I wonder what on earth it can all mean?" ho exclaimed, as if thinking aloud. "It seems aB if there was some conspiracy all about me to get me into disgrace. I don't understand It." Then ehe and Savannah left. jind Mary walked homo with a heavy heart for all her words. weight, and it then goes to the factories and consumers of the old world. Quite a quantity of it comes back in the shape of mixtures. We buy it because it is English, and many of our fastidious young men like it to smoke in their brier pipes. They enjoy it much more because it has the London brand on it, though it is pot really so good in my own estimation as it is right from Kentucky and before it has been flavored with various drugs, paints, oils and varnishes. FEEING THE WAITER. He was delayed, however, by muddy roads, and when he got home he found that it would be impossible to put his "I would far rather "know it at once," she answered. "It is only a cruel kindness to keep your troubles from me." Then she took bis arm, and clung to him and wondered and grieved that ha did not kiss her. If she had had u trouble, it would have been so sweet, she thought, to have been able to tel) him and to kiss him for the ready wealth of sympathy which would be given to her. Such sympathy fts her heart was bursting to pour forth- "If he comes here will you ask him whether he has Riven the money to Savannah Morbyn?" asked Gorring'e. "I don't want to talk about it now; I'm not well enough," said Mary. The more she thought of the interview—recallin1 Tom's manner, and what he had said, and piecing it together with his neglect of her during her week of illness—the more she was troubled and harassed Cyid restless. liut her mother did not mean to give op her efforts to induce Mary to take what she regarded a6 the proper course in regard to marriage. Moreover, she had turned against Savannah, and wv-hen Mary told her what Reuben Gorringe had said about the girl seeking toine other lodging Mrs. Ashworth was pleased. Iler weakness lasted only a minute, however, and then she sprang up and pried: "Murstone—is he a straight man?" asked the girl. "No," she answered, flushing. "I will not insult him by even hinting at such a thing. What is it to you what he does with his money?" "Yes, yes! he's straight enough. He's a disagreeable, sneering beast; but he's straight enough," was the angry reply. "I don't care where he is. Where my Tom is, there I mean to be," and with that she turned to leave the cot•ag«.An instinct seemedto warn her that the worst trouble lay underneath the surface, and that it was of a kind tvfyicb threatened to wreck all her happing. Of the particular trouble about the sick fund money she no longer felt much anxiety. That ppuld easily be replaced. What she feared was a trouble that no money could tvert. "It is nothing to me what he does with his," said Gorringe, hastily. It was the first slip he had made during the interview, but he was irritated at finding her so persistent in her belief in her lover's honesty. "Is he not too sharp to make a mistake?"CHAPTEB XIIL MABV'S SUSPICIONS. "I know that some one stole the money belonging to the sick fund which was in the cash box, and that Tom took the full amount for which vr-as accountable to them to-day." "po you knqw that ho gave up his books in order that no scandal iniffhtr be made?" He stopped suddenly, wheeled round and faced the girl at this. "Let us go in," he said, after a moment's pause, in which he had felt embarrassed.The American cut plug tobacco, when Sroperly cured and it has been octored, is the best and least injurious tobacco for smoking of which I know. "I'm glad of it, that I am. I'll tell Savannah this very night what he's said, and the sooner she packs the better. And there's no reason now why we should keep her. Where is she "Stay, Mary; you had better hear ah I have been told before you go." "Do you mean is what he says true?" he asked, irritably. She took fire at the words instantly. Mary turned back, as though she thought the suggestion good. "Yes; I should like to hear it. When did all this happen?" "Can you speak of this before your father and—and Savannah?" asked Mary. "You needn't imply by your sneers that he has taken yours for such a purpose. It is easy to snC ef at $n absent man," she said; but Reuben Gorringe had oonquered his irritation before she had finished. "Tom! Tom! Nq, dear, of course I don't," said MaTy. "What I mean is, is ha likely to say a thing which he does not believe he has ground for? If so, does it mean that the books have been touched so that he is led to think this of you?" Paducah has been conservative, as the south generally has since the war, and for that reason the panic of the past year has had less chance to nip inflated business than would have been the case. "I don't know. Maybe with Tom's father." pow?" "You must not stay 1q the night air, lass; you'll get Oh! yea; f can say anything before—them." Mary "Not long before I came here," answered Savannah. CHAPTER XIV. "1 know that he allowed himself to be browbeaten out of his books by some threats that they made about publicity," said Mary. "More likely with Tom himself," said Mrs. Ashworth, speaking at random in her irritation, and having no particular meaning for the words. "Did Tom send you to tell me?" FROII BAD TO WORSB. "Have I done wrong to take you into the secret, Mary?" he asked, somewhat sadly. "I would not have done so had I not thought that with your assistance some means could have been devised tq put things on another footing. My Wish was to try and do hint good for your sake: but if it only ang«rs you for me to tell you what has happened, then, indeed, I have blundered. But, at least, I have done nothing to deserve your sneers." "No. I came because I thought it would be better for you to hear it from me than from anyone else." guessed what he had meant to say, even before he added, as if to explain »way her thoughts: "Savannah knows everything already." In the morning Mary took her savings bank book to the mill. At breakfast time she saw Reuben Gorringe, and asked him to Jot her have ten pounds at onae, to be paid b'w'k as soon as the money could be got from the bank. Gorringe was only too glad for her to come to him—glad to let her feel the advantages of the possession of money. "How could they be touohed, as you call it, when no one could get to them except myself? That's what puzzles me." Very beautiful hard wood of all kinds is grown in the vicinity of Paducah, and every year here where these four big rivers come together vast quantities of useful and ornamental woods are prepared for the market. Three and a half millions of spindles and bobbins for the factories of England are turned out each year. "Hut do you not know that subsequent examination of the "books showed a further amount missing of ten pounds?" "So," u\wppimI Mary, emphatically; "and I don't believe it. If these men were fools enough to believe Tom would take money placed in his charge for such a purpose, they would be spiteful enough to try and make the books out to be wrong. Put If ten pounds is claimed, ten pounds can be paid." "Mother!" cried Mary. "Mary," answered the mother, imitating her tone. "Tom Roylance a thief and In prison," ejoculuted Mrs. Ashworth, lifting up her hands in amazement. They went in, and Mary was relieved to see he was brighter than she had thought. "You've no idea yet who can have stolen that money?" "Not a ghost of a thought. How could I have?" THE EX-CABMAN. "If you don't want to drive me outof the room you won't say such things as that," said Mary, quietly. "They pain me." "Silence, mother," cried Mary, angrily. "Tom is no thief, and those who have dared to put him in prison will have to pay for it. But now, Savannah, what is it these slanderers say against my Tom?" son in the mark down coffin, so he sharpened up his old bucksaw and actually sawed off bis son's feet to make him fit his bargain counter casket. She half hoped that matters were not so bad as she had feared. But the first words he spoke killed her hope. They were addressed to Savannah in answer to the searching, anxious look that she directed upon him with th e one-word question: "Well?" "You could not have taken it without thinking, could you?" The first hotel ever built in Paducah was built of logs, and guests washed their faces in the kitchen, using soft soap and wiping their features dry on a communistic towel. The odor of fried pork dwelt most of the time amid the rafters of the roof, and the man who asked for » finger bowl got shot. "All right, my lass, I won't say anything more." "Ten pounds, Mary? Of course I will. Is that enough? Here, take back your book," he said, without having attempted to open it. "There need be no talk of such a thing between you and me. What I have will always be half yours. You have but to ask;" and he smiled as he handed the book out to her, with a bank note for ten pounds. "What a woman's question to ask!" he said, a little in banter but more in anger. "Take thirteen pounds without thinking what I was doing! Do you think I've grown suddenly rich?" This is a historical fact. She was fond of the girl, and had no -wish to hurt her feelings. But she -was very anxious to see her married to Reuben Gorringe, and was thus very often a most injudicious advocate of the latter's cause. "I am sorry I was hasty," said Mary. "I can see you meant to do what was best. But what do you mean to do?" Artemus Ward used to tell of two brothers from his state who greeted each other in the street one day after a separation of two years and asked each other the news. "They say that a week or two back something in the accounts was noticed that puzzled them. They said nothing at the time, waiting to see what happened. Then they decided to make a sudden examination into the books, and to see whether the money was right. They came—at least, they went to the cottage—" "No, it is not well," he answered, playing on the word. "It is not so bad as it might be. But—," and he looked across to where his father lay. "It has been paid already," said Oorringe. "A question of this kind, and all that it may lead to, does not rest with me. It is solely for old Mr. Coode. He will settle what shall be done. What I thought to do was to get you to help in unraveling the cords that seem to bind Tom to a course of conduct that looks like ruin. He can't keep in with such a girl as Savannah without suffering. However, I have made a blunder, I suppose, and I ana sorry." "Have you wanted money particularly recently?" asked Mary, her heart beating a little anxiously as she grew nearer the questions she wanted to put. "What do you mean, Mary? Do you want to know what I've spent every day for the last twelve months?" "Who paid it?" "Waal, I don't know of nawthin in partickler," said George, "only I sold the old black hoss." She went now to the girl's aide and bent over her and kissed her. "I'm sorry I grieved you, my laaa," she said. "I did. I said I knew there must be a mistake, and that I thought Tom would wish the amount paid at once. I thought you would wish that to be done, Mary, when I saw what you had wanted the other ten pounds for." This hotel was erected in 1831 regardless of cost, the ground alone on which it stood costing over $12. As it began to put on more airs in 1832, the Indians were not allowed to eat at the first table unless they came from Virginia. "He is asleep," said Savannah, interpreting the look. "I wish you to see, please, Mr. Gorringe, that there Is money in the bank -more than enough to cover this; and f it can be done, I should like you to have security for the money. I am going to draw this sum out at once, and should like you to have tho order for it, if that is possible." "Nor ejaculated Henry. "Yiss," says George. "Who did ye sell him tew?" said Henry. "Waal, guess." Then Tom drew the two girls across the room, and in a low voio« told them the result of the journey to Presburn. They had not found the man whoa they had gone over to see. "Were you there?" asked Mary, quickly, noticing the slip the other made in the use of the words. "It's all right, mother," answered Alary, looking up, and smiling. "I know what you wish, but it can't be. I can't marry a man without caring for him. It goes against nature. Try not to wish it or speak of it again." "No, Tom;'of oourse I didn't want to ask Bach questions as that. I only ask if it is true that you have been wanting money recently. Have you?" And she looked again into his face. "But why did they bring that to you at all?" For breakfast, the menu was tea or eggs. Lunch consisted of bear meat and rhubarb pie. Fresh rhubarb was sent in each week by a Louisville pharmacist. "I never'd guess in the world," says Henry. "He wasn't wuth a cuss, was he?' "I was sitting with the old man, and had been reading to him," answered Savannah, flushing slightly as she spoke. "Well, they asked at once for the books and for the money, and went into the thing then and there. They were in the front room, and after a time Tom came back to where I was aitting with his father, and he looked very angry and agitated. Be went to As soon as Tom began to speak of the matter, Mary read in his eyes and voice and manner how real and terrible was the trouble, and how deeply he was suffering, and Bhe longed in her heart to have the task of comforting him. But Savannah's presence checked her. "They came to tell me abont it all. and—and the note had my own private mark on it, which Murstone knows; bq ho—he thought it would be better to— to show it mo." As he spoke he put the books and papers away in a drawer, locked it, put the key in his pocket and then got up as if the interview was at an end. "No." She went out of the kitchen then, and thus the discussion ended, as all the talk on that subject did, by each keeping her own opinion. "What a little business woman you are, to be sure," he said. "Hut I'll trust you tor that amount if you don't want more, without prying into the secrets of your banking account, ishild," and he smiled again. "Well, if I hadn't wanted to spend some I should have had money in the savings bank, I suppose, and then I shouldn't have had to borrow yours and give you the right to come questioning and cross-questioning me as to what I spend. I dont like the questions, Mary, and I would rather you Jidn't ask them. If you want to be sure that your money is safe you need not feel at all afraid." Now a beautiful hotel run by Colonel Reed is one of the ornatoents of Paducah. Colonel Reed is a leading spirit in the city's onward march, having been mayor several times, with his portrait in an annual "write up" of the city. He not only made us happy, but introduced us in Paducah society without hesitation. "Balky and blind and 27 years old, wasn't he?" "Yiss," "He thought Tom miffht have stolen it from you to cover the amount stolen from the fund, I suppose?" said Mary, in clear, distinct, scornful tones. "I don't believe a word about any more money being short. I believe it's all a lie from first to last," she said, vigor ously. "Hut you know Tom bettei than to believe a word of it. You have had him about you here in this office. If any man knows that Tom's as straight as a die, you must know it." "Forgive me, forgive me; 1 have been bitterly unkind; but you cannot tell what all this is to me. Let me Bee you again, and try to do nothing till then. I cannot bear any more now;" and with that Mary hurried from the room. "How much did ye git for him?" "Hundred and fifty dollahs." "Waal, you must have picked up a suckah. Who did ye sell him tew?" "Well, sir, by George Harry, I sold him to mothah." The next two or three days were a time of great trouble to the girl. She recovered her strength quickly, though she was not able to go to the mill, and Indeed was compelled to stop in the house. But what perplexed and worried her most was the fact that Tom Roylance only came once to see her, and then only for a short time, during the whole of which he seemed ill at ease and quite unlike himself. "There's over forty pounds there, Mr. Gorringe," said Mary, with quiet firmness. "What Is It they say against you, Tom?" she asked. "I mean, what is the actual charge they make?" a drawer, unlocked it and took ont a cash box. This shows that the old spirit of chivalry is not dead in Kentucky, even though Colonel Breckinridge has retired after being betrayed, having left the honor of Kentucky in other hands. "That I have stolen the money of the fund, Mary. That I am a thief. You know I have to collect certain subscriptions, and they—well, it is M ur stone who is doing it—seem to have got hold of the idea that I have been making the accounts all wrong, and that I haven't accounted for some of the money." "Very well," he saicL "I know you are in earnest. You won't have me for a friend, I suppose, so I must be content to be your man of business. This will do it." He had been writing while he spoke. "There you are, Mary. Sign that and all will be legal." CHAPTER XV. WHAT TOM HAD TO SAT. I lectured once under the management of a man named Huinpstead in Indiana. He was too close to get tickets printed, so he wrote them—about 800 of them—in longhand and shorthand on same ticket, so that they could not be counterfeited. It took him three days. Then he advertised with a marking pot and brush on the fences and had it announced in the churches. "I heard him exclaim as he took It into his hands, and then he cried, suddenly:Mary left the mill feeling wretched and heart broken. In the gloomy defection which came over her, even the confidence she had felt in Tom's innocence in the matter of the money troubles was shaken, and more than once she asked herself whether any of the terrible accusations could possibly be true. It was an ungenerous thing, unkindly said; and it stabbed the girl to the heart. " 'My Godl I'm ruined! I've been robbed! My cash box has been broken C Cpen I had all the money of the sick fund in it, and every shilling Is gone! They'll think I've robbed them.' Any young woman who sought the overthrow of Colonel Reed would find him ever standing up for the right. Rather than go down forever with the silver tongued orator to a life of shame he would get out of the carriage and walk home through the mud. "Thank you," she said. "I will give it to you the moment it comes." Reuben Gorringe did not speak, and avoided the girl's look. The expres sicn of eager, harassed pain in her eyes was too distressing for him to endure when he reflected that he had to thrust the bayonet deeper into the wound than ever. "I did not mean anything of that sort," she said, gently and sorrowfully. "You are cruel." Savannah Morbyn left the Ashworths' cottage on the day after Reuben Gorringe had spoken about it. She went away with scarcely a word, simply telling Mary that she was going. and where she had found lodgings."At that moment one of the other men came to the door, and asked Tom if he would take the money into the next room so that they could count it and check it. "What a disgraceful shame!" she sried, angry and indignant at the mere accusation against him. "How much money is it that—" "You are very welcome; but of course you know that," he said. "Then why question me in such a way? If you didn't doubt me you wouldn't put such questions. I have had to spend the money, and there's an end of it. Surely I can spend it as I please." When 8 o'clock came, I started out for the opera house, but when within a block of the door I ran up against a procession of people which extended to the box office. I walked around the crowd tickled to death with the outlook for standing room only. He had acted very wisely in yielding to Mary's wish to give "security" for the money, and he had pleased her as much by his manner of doing the act as by the act itself. She went home and tried to assume something of her usually cheerful de meanor. Paducah has good schools, good newspapers, good streets and a good car service. Occasionally one sees a few Berkshire hogs strolling down the sfcreet, but they do not bite unless provoked, and human life is as safe in Paducah today as it is in the hands of the New York police. Then came dreadful newa. " 'Murstone'—it was Murstone, the over-looker, you know him, Mary— 'Murstone, I've been robbed.'said Tom. 'The box is empty, and every shilling has been taken away!' "That I have stolen?" he said, when the hesitated for a moment to find a word to use. "Why don't you speak, Mr. Gorringe' Why don't you answer?" "Savannah's been here asking for you," said her mother. "Seem's a good bit put out about something or other. I can't make her out; and I'm blest if I'm not glad she's gone. Can't like the lass, for all her soft ways and voiee and thai Kavannali had been to sit with Mary two evenings, and on the evening of the day before Mary intended to go back to work she came in a state of great excitement. "I know not how to answer, Mary," he replied, in a tone scarcely above a whisper. "Yes, of course you can, Tom. Of myself, and for my own knowledge, I should never have asked a question." "Tom! How can you even joke about such a thing?" she exclaimed. "I mean, how much do they say is missing?" She took the ten pounds, together with some which she had at home, and gave it to Tom, telling the latter to pay It at once to Murstone, or at all events to satisfy him that the amount ihown to be due was ready to be paid aver at any time; and when she had done this she felt lighter hearted than for some hours previously. The work hours passed rapidly in the pleasant anticipation of being with Tom, for the .atter had promised to see her directly after the mill closed in order to tell "ier all that passed. "What do you mean?" he cried out at this. "For your own knowledge? Who is there who has put you on to me to ask such questions?" After waiting till 9 o'clock and getting no word to begin I inquired of an usher what we were waiting ton He said thai early in the evening some one had rung "Murstone smiled a hard, disbelieving, mocking smile, which drew down the corners of his mouth, whilst his eyebrows went up, ?nd he shrugged his shoulders as he answered: "Do you mean that you don't know that Tom's straight?" she cried, at her heart a great fear. Coming out of Paducah we passed through a small town where we threw off a mailsack and caught another one without stopping. It was a small town, consisting of a set of scales and a Mugwump hog. There was also a little store containing two clay pipes and a stick of candy. Over this was the sign Ward Bros. & Son. "What's the asked Mary. matter, Savannah?" "The amount they speak of now I* about twelve or thirteen pounds; but —but that is not all." He stopped and sighed heavily. "I have told you that I would not let myself hold a doubt of him. You know how I have trusted him, how I have had him here in the office. If there is any change in him, I do not believe it is his fault. I know that in some things he has changed. I have heard it lie has spent money—more money than before. He has drawn out aU his money from the savings bank. He has been with—with those who will do him no good. But it is not kit! fault Nay, indeed, the blame is partly mine." "What did sha want?" lire gin aig-iieu nrorny. one iuq meant all she said for the best; but the more she said, the greater seemed to be the misunderstanding. "Have you heard any news?" asked the other. "Didn't say; except that Bhe wanted to speak to you. Seemed mighty curious to know whether you'd come from the mill yet" in a plugged quarter on Humpstead, and he was holding back the crowd till he could find who did it. "News? now should I hear news? I have not been out." "Has no one been to see you?" "No." " 'That's unfortunate,'in a tone that showed he didn't believe a word of what Toco said. 'But come, let us get back and tell the others of your mishap.'"What else is there?" asked Mary, laying her hand gently on his arm, while her heart bled at the sight of his troubled eyes. "I did not mean what you seem to think. I should never think of coming to question you for the benefit of other people. You know that. I mean that I have heard this said by other people; that they are maVing it the ground of cruel charges against you; and that I wanted to be able to deny them." He fed a horse on the straw he got from a crockery firm and that had been used for packing china and glassware until last October, when the woods were gay with happy nutters and the ripe corn gleamed like gold in the rustling Bheath of gray shuck— For a moment the mention of Savannah's visit drew away Mary's thoughts from the chief subjeet; but they soon went back to Tom and the course which she had better take. I have been trying for five weeks to figure out who this son is. Is he a son of the firm, or where does he come in? Mr. Smith, too, has worked at it of evenings, but he is still at a loss to know. Will the reader figure this out and write me care of No. 45 Park place, New York? The first one giving a correct answer will receive a promissory note that was taken from a good man last fall and liable to be paid most any time. "Have you seen Tom—Tom Roylance?" asked Savannah. "No. What of him?" "Nay. That's what I would ask you." " "Tom's eyes blazed with rage at the other's tone and manner, and I thought he was going to strike him. But he kept his temper, and followed Murstone out of the room, holding the empty cash box dangling from his hand as he walked. "They dare to suggest that the book* have been wrong for a long time, and that there is much more money than that altogether." About five o'clock, however, Reuben Sorringe came to her with a look of concern and seriousness on his face, ind.asked her to come as soon as possible to the office, as he wished to see Jier particularly. She made up her mind before she finished her tea, and she startled her mother by the abruptness with which she jumped up from the table and put on her hat She would go straight to Tom, tell him aU she had heard, or nearly all, and ask him what it meant. "Well, you can put the books into somebody's hands to-morrow, and show that's a lie," said Mary. When the frost was on the punkln And the (odder In the shock. Then he gave a gentle moan am? passed away. (The horse, I mean.) "Is anything wrong. Savannah? What is it? Tell me quick. Don't keep me in suspense. What is it?*- Mary spoke rapidly and eagerly. "I don't know what it is," answered the other girl, not meeting Mary's eyes, whioh were fixed upon her face. "But I have heard." "What do they say, and who are the other people?" he asked. "Reuben GorriDge has told—" " 'Poor fellow, I pitied him.' "Tom, you surely never let them do that! Why, that's like admitting that things are wrong." "They've taken them to-night." "What is it?" she asked, thing the matter?" "Is aDy- "Yours?" cried Mary, quickly "What do you mean?" "Confound Reuben Gorringe!" exclaimed Tom, almost passionately. "What do you want to go holding secret consultations with him about me for? Is he in league against me, and are you with him too?" Mr. Humpstead bought a pound of crackers once and allowed the bill to run till the grocer asked him for the price of them. Mr. H. said he would settle the bill as soon as he could have a settlement with his mother. It seems that his mother had used a part of the crackers, and he was waiting till she settled for her share. "They did not come in again for tome time, and his father lay back wondering what it meant. When Tom came he was alone. "It was my fault that the girl evei came hero. I did not know—4 could not know—what would happen"—he said this as if excusing himself. "1 only thought to bring a good hand here at the time of the strike; but 1 had never a thought of what might happen." "I can't tell you here; oome to the jfflce," answered Gorringe. "It is BeriDus."Tom was at home when she reached the cottage. He was sitting alone, looking bo dejected and miserable that the girl's heart went out to him with a great rush of sympathy and love. He looked up when she entered and gave her a smile of welcome—a sad, feeble smile enough, that flickered out quickly, and was followed by a look of anxious, searching scrutiny which Mary could not fail to notice. He seemed as if he was almost afraid of what might be her object in ooming to him. We stopped at a very nice hotel yesterday called the Rudd House. On the bottom of the menu were these words: "Do not fee the waiter. We pay them enough to insure good service, and gueatfl will confer a favor by giving them nothing more, as it interferes with the service." "It was the only arrangement they'd consent to," he answered, as if feebly excusing his weakness. "Then what is It? Tell me. You have come to tell me: why don't vou do so at once? If he Is not 111, and nothing has happened to hurt him, It cannot be anything very serious. Is he leaving the mill, or has he quarjreled with Reuben Uorrlnge?" " 'I'm going out for a bit, father.' I could read In the troubled look io hU eyes that something very bad was the matter. She stopped all her looms almost as soon as he had left, and followed him. "But about the money," she said, after a pause. "JJitJ you give them that as well?" rro be oo*TBfC*Sf -■. D "You had better sit down, Mary," he said, very kindly and gently, but in a Banner calculated to add to her Alarm. "I have a good deal to say to you." " 'What is the matter?* I asked him, getting out of earshot of the old man. The Training of Children. "How could I do that?" he exclaimed, rather Irritably. "Didn't Savannah tell you that it had been stolen out of the cash-box?" "Whom do you mean?" asked Mary, her face pale. "Fanny, you should not beat youi doll with that heavy stick- You will make all the sawdust come out of it," said a Texas mother to her little girl, who had placed her doll on the ground and was belaboring it with a baseball bat Last year he slipped on a bad sidewalk and sprained his ankle and foot so badly that he conld not walk for some days and appeared then with his foot done np in a bedqnilt artistically fastened with tarred rope. These are facts. " "There's trouble and a strange mistake about the business of the sick fund money. These men think I've taken it and they Bay they must give me In charge. Of course, I can't Btop them if they like to do so. But we shall probably go over at once to Presburn and see the head man there and have the thing threshed out straight away. If I don't come back to-night, try and prevent my father from worrying too much, and make some excuse. But I may be locked up. I can't tell yet.' "Forgive me If I pain you. I refer to what everyone in Walkden Bridge knows—the relations of Tom with the girl Savannah." It wonld be a fine thing if all hotels wonld indorse this. In many places now a decent attendance is only obtained by tipping the waiter, and it is thoroughly un-American in every respect. May we not hope that some day every man who runs a hotel or other business will make such arrangements with his help that we need not while traveling here be all the time feeling for a quarter to give an underpaid employee? Bavannah bent her dark eyes on the others' face. At the look Mary seemed to feel a strange fear chill her heart, but she would not,Bhow,it, and smiled. "What is it about, Mr.  ihe asked. "Please don't keep me ia ruspense, but tell me what it is at Dnce." "Was it the fudd money that was stolen?" "Yes, of course it was," he answered, again speaking Irritably. "Don't you understand? You know I put the money always in that cashbox just as 1 collected It, and kept it there until I paid it over to Lee when he came from Presburn. When I went to get it this evening, to show that it tallied with the accounts, it was gone. That's the wholo thing in a nutshell." She had felt it coming, but the blow itruck her with cruel force. She sat lilent, first trying to calm herself, and lext trying to force herself to be uumr then to nersuadp herself that It vas all untrue. But she could not do it at once, for all the hard struggle that she made. She could not but feel the truth of what lay beneath what Reuben Gorringe had said, and she long«d and yet dreaded to hear more. "What I have to tell you will be a shock to you," said Savannah, deliberately. "Can you bear it?" "In the first place, tell me," he said, very seriously and concernedly, "whether you think you can trust me ps a friend." For the moment she could find nothing to say, and busied herself in taking off her hat and jacket, loitering so as to gain time. Then she went to him, and, moved by a sadden impulse, put her arms round him and kissed him. She was so rarely demonstrative in her affection that bo unusual an act on her part unsettled him somewhat, and his response to her caress was not a very warm one. "I don't care if all the sawdust does come out of her,"replied Fanny, resuming her whacks. "I don't want people to say that my children turned out bad because I humored them too much." —Texas Siftinars. As soon as he could get about he brought suit for the value of the foot on the grounds of negligence on the part of .the town authorities. The case nung fire, however, and was thrown out of court on the suggestion of the county surveyor. "I can bear it better than your mysterious silence. What Is it they say, and who are they?'" "Yes," answered the girl; "you may know that; otherwise I should not have come to you as I did this morn- Jng." "They say ' that Tom Boylanoe Is a thief," said Savannah, in the same deliberate and Impressive tone. Of course in this matter poor Mr. Pullman is not considered. He would pay his porters if able to do so, but with only a little over $2,000,000 a year net coming in he is worried to death to pay off his household help, to say nothing of porters dn the cars. Mr. Pullman for years has been struggling along, buying new pillowcases and nickel cuspidors for his cars, and though he has often hoped to be able to pay his poor employees enough so that the public in buying a bed would not have to buy a big buck chambermaid also he has never yet been able to do it. George, give us a service that is paid for, please, and then you can stand up and sing In church without shame. "Then will you tell me why you wanted that money?" Daughter—That Smith girl is perfectly silly whenever there's a man around. Of the Sill j Ones. "How can we make change, your honor," asked the surveyor one day, "incase of a verdict, for Humpstead, soul, body and bedquilt, is only worth the fraction of a cent? How can we make change and pay him for his foot?" Mary Ashwortb burst Into a laugh. "And with that he went out like ona dazed and half stupefied." The tone In which he spoke hurt the girl. It seemed aa If he resented her questions. "Then they are fools, whatever they are/' she said. "Tom a thief! The ideal why It's preposterous!" Then her indignation rose fast "But who are they who dare to take away his character? And what Is It they dare to say he has stolen?" The question surprised her, and she shrank from it almost as if it had been pn insult. "Savannah Morbyn is not a woman to be trusted," said the manager, after a pause. "I know that now. I fear that the money has been spent upon her. And how much has gone I cannot yet tell." Mother—Why? How do yon mean? "Did he send no message of any kind to me?" asked Mary, jealously. After a short time the stress of the girl's emotion lessened and she grew calmer. Then they began to talk. At nrsi it was aocrat suojecta iuuiD uuu uu connection with the object of her visit, but presently Tom told her of his visit to Murstone and what had passed. Daughter—Oh, she — excuse me, please; there's Charlie Rex. I must go and speak to him. He doesn't know I'm here.—Detroit Free Press. "No. lie said no more than I have told you," answered Savannah. "But If It was only twelve or thlrteen pounds—you have more than that In the savings bank, Tom; and you can give them that, can't vou? Surely they cannot punish you because some one has stolen the money from you. That, at the worst, would be your loss, not theirs. Bad enough, of course; but not nearly so bad as—as vthe other." This seemed to disconcert him more than the former questions. He turned away his head, and Mary fancied she detected a quick glance flashed between Savannah and him. "No: I cannot tell you that. I had sudden need of the money." The case was then abandoned. "Then I'll go down to his cottage and see whether he has come back yet Are you coming?" "Was It for Tom Roylance?" ho asked, with equal suddenness, looking keenly at her. Let me say in justice to Mr. Humpstead that one report regarding him is false and wicked. I do not wish to see him wronged by an unthinking public or sensational press. He did not as reported use his mother's coffin lid to slide down hill on last winter. "Do you mean that more of the aich fund money has gone?" asked Mary, in a dull, misery-tuned voice. Scarcity of Silver. "Money," answered Savannah. "The money of the sick fund of which he Is secretary, and his accusers are the trustees. The money is missing." The two girls left the house together, and on the way to Tom's home Mary plied her companion with questions. When they reached the cottage Tom was not there. He had not been back. "I said I could not tell you, Mr. Oorringe. If I had known it was to «sk me this question that you wanted me, I should not have come here now. Nay, I should not have come to you as I did this morning;" and she rose to go- Guest (facetiously)—There are two spoons in my teacup. What is that a sign of? "Did you notice any ohange in his manner?" she asked. "Worse than that—much worse, I fear. When those men came to me today and told me what you know, I felt that, though I trusted Tom Roylance, I could not do otherwise than look into the books here. I have done so today.""His manner is always beastly disagreeable; and to-day I could have struck him for his sneers find insults. In fact, I had plenty of difficulty to keep my hands off him-" Hostess' Little Son—That's a sign that somebody else hasn't got any spoon.—Good News. "Shame on them!" cried Mary, fuming with indignant anger. "It's a cock and buU story at the best Where is he?" There wasn't snow enough last winter for that purpose where he lived anyway, and his mother is still living. "I'll wait" said Mary, quietly, and she took off her hat and jacket and sat down. Worn Stilt, Savannah did not notice the question."Don't go. J wished to see whether you would, as you said, trust me. I see you do not. I know that you wanted the money for Tom- Here Is the note that I gave you. It was brought to me by Murstone, who had it from Tom within an hour or two of your being here." "Did he give you the books back?" He—Who is that dowdy looking girl over by the piano? "The one in green is my cousin." "No, no; the fright in pink, I mean." "Oh, she is my twin sister."—Chicago Inter Ocean. A week ago I stood at the corner of the Qrand Pacific hotel, Chicago, scrutinizing the Board of Trade building, whioh is, according to the architects, peeling off in places and falling on a pardoned anarchist once in awhile. Then a voice was seen approaching from a distance, It said; "Oh, sir, could you, for the love of heaven, give me a quarter? I am starving, It has been over six weeks since food has passed my lips." I looked np suddenly to see how a man looked after that kind of treatment. I never went that Ions without food my-. "You've no call to wait, Savannah," said Mary, somewhat ungraciously, after a time. "Well?" "No. On the contrary he point blank refused, and said something about having them overhauled for the whole time I have been secretary. He asked me whether I was sure that the balance whioh the book showed to be due was all that was really due. 1 answered, hotly enough, no doubt, that I would have no more to do with the whole business, and flung the money on the table, and left him- We should have come to blows if I'd stopped," said Tom, growing excited. _ _ "They say the books have been examined and are found to be wrongs and that there is a considerable sum of money which ought to be in hand, and that they can't get it He hasn't It" "You don't understand it, Mary." His voice was a trifle more unsteady than It had been before. "I told them that the money was la the house and In the oath-box." lie looked at the girl pityingly and sadly. "Why are you angry with me, Mary?" asked Savannah, In her softest voice. "Tom asked me to stay with his father until his return. If he does return to-night That is why I am here. But you and I must not quarrel at a time like this." "Tell mo what you believe to be the worst," she said, clasping her hands together tightly and knitting her brows. His Elastic Step, "I notioe," safll the editor to the novelist, "that in every chapter you refer to the hero as having an 'elastio step.' Why do you do this?" "Silence, Savannah!" cried Mary, with sudden, fierce energy. "I'll hear no more against him from anybody. It's all a pack of lies from beginning to end, and I won't have it even 6poken of before me. Where la ha?" u you nave tne money to give them, how can it be serious? Money is money, and twelve pounds taken out of the savings bank is the same to them as twelve pounds taken out of a cashbox. Surely that's all they want" The girl made no answer, but sat down again in her chair. She knew there was more to come. Full of it. She—Is Mr. Muddibrane thoughtful man? "I cannot say how much has gone, but I have found one amount, and a considerable one. And I know that there are others." a very "Why did Murstone bring you that note?" she asked. He—Oh, decidedly. He is always thinking of things he might have said in previous conversations.—Boston Transcriut. "Why—er—you see, he's one of these cautious men who never go outdoors withont wearing overshoes."—Washington Star,  Mary turned to her companion and «aid readily: "Will you tell me whether you have heard anything about mosey matters "And you believe that Tom has taken it?" she asked. _ _  "I was wrong. Savannah. Forgive i there was an awkward silence,