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IF Miss Gurdon’s appearance at Geof
frey’s office was a surprise to him and
| a cause for embarrassment to her it
was more like a thunderbolt from a
clear sky to Hunter when without a word of
warning after his own conference with the
prisoner, Col. Garland carried her back to the
corridor of the jail where as a “trusty” be
cause of his good behavior, the erstwhile
preacher paced back and forth impatiently,
awaiting his trial with little hope of freedom
until he had paid the full price of his sin.
Col. Garland on the way out had given Miss
Gurdon what information was necessary as to
her hack and best way to reach Mrs. Arm
strong’s, consequently all personal obligation
was finished an dwith the air of a Chesterfield
he bade her a very dignified adieu.
Hunter’s face crimsoned then paled to a
deathly pallor as he leaned against the door
of one of the cells in utter astonishment and
fairly gasped out the question:
“In heaven’s name Miss Gurdon where did
you come from and why do you come here to
gloat over me in my misery,” and then with a
swift change to fear he added, “Is your broth
er here too?”
Miss Gurdon had been too shocked at Hun
ter’s unkempt and emaciated appearance to do
more than stare in open eyed wonder, had
he given her an opportunity to speak and
now that he was waiting with evident anxiety
for her answer more to the last question she
knew than the first; grasping one of the iron
bars to the same door on which he leaned, for
support, because she felt a stiffling dizziness
coming over her. Miss Gurdon said, with em
barrassment that was really painful, “No!
No! Br — Mr. Hunter my brother is not here,
I —er came alone,” and then realizing all in a
moment how far she was from the Ozarks
and that he might think her presence there
very strange, her confusion increased and she
fairly stammered out the answers to the other
two questions as hurriedly as possible, telling
him that she had stood those mountaineers,
* ‘just as long as she could,” and was on her
way back to dear old England.
“And I-er-want you to know Br —er —Mr.
Hunter” she fairly blurted out, “I didn’t come
to ‘gloat over your misery,’ I learned where
you were through Mr. Garland, Mr. Geoffrey
Garland I mean, and in asking about you he
suggested that his father would bring me
over if I eared to come, and I—er —thought I
might help in some way.”
She hesitated, and then added, “I suppose
Mr. Garland has told you how terribly things
have turned out in the mountains?”
“Nothing more than that Tom and Miss Isa
bel were married,” said Hunter, “he seemed
not to care to talk about any of them nor to
believe anything I told him and I was too sick
and out of heart to do anything after he told
me he couldn’t help me.”
Well that’s strange, I can’t quits understand
him, said Miss Gurdon to be so good to one
and so unkind to another, who is in trou
ble.”
And then, she remembered Geoffrey had said,
•“The one I have an utter contempt for while
I sympathize with the impulsive creature of
(Continued.)
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF JULY 23, 1914
A GIRL OF THE OZARKS
By ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY SUMMERS
passion.” “Sin is sin,” she thought to her
self, and I see no difference in yielding to one
weakness more than another. To plot and
plan to kill, whether under the influence of
jealousy or whatever the motive, must be, is
obliged to be, worse in the sight of God than
to deceive without the awful purpose of tak
ii. g a life, being in the heart and if it was
right for Lucy and Geoffrey to try to help
Charles, then of course it was right for her
to help Mr. Hunter and she was going to and
she had no time to waste, she reasoned.
Miss Gurdon had been gazing dreamily at
the floor as these thoughts ran through her
mind and Hunter remembering her hobby for
tracts, fully expected to see her reach in to
her large traveling pocket for them and telling
him of the “wrath to come” leave him more
miserable than before He was therefore very
much surprised when she turned and with an
interest and effort at tenderness that was for
eign to the Miss Gurdon he had known, she
said, “Mr. Hunter, Mr. Garland said you had a
‘hard luck story’ that he wouldn’t listen to;
would you mind to tell me about it and how it
is that after you preached so strongly of the
‘wrath of God and his just judgment,’ you
should with your eyes wide open go into so
much sinful deception?”
There was no harshness in her voice when
she asked this, but anxious wonder and some
thing in her manner made him feel that she
really meant to befriend him and going over to
a chair he sat down, a deep sigh giving expres
sion both to his weakness and to his despon
dency.
“Yes, indeed, it is a ‘hard-luck story,’ and
I am afraid longer than you will care to lis
ten to,” he added dejectedyl.
“No, Mr. Hunter,” some how the “Brother”
didn’t fit here inside these criminal filled walls,
and she dropped it unconsciously to his great
relief, “I came here to hear the story for I
can’t believe you are quite so bad as some of
them seem to think.”
Hunter lifted his eyes quickly with a grate
ful expression that meant more than words,
as he said, “Well, I don’t know perhaps you
will think I am a great deal meaner than ‘they’
even do when I tell you that I am not and
never have been a preacher and
“Why Mr. Hunter surely—
Why what can you mean?” exclaimed Miss
Gurdon incredulously.
“Why you know I have heard you preach
time and again—you —are you taking leave
of your senses?”
“No, not at all Miss Gurdon and it seems
to me I have suffered enough in these almost
three months to pay for every sin that could
be crowded in the whole of a long life.”
“I meant what I said, I was not a preacher,”
he added emphatically.
/‘Then for heaven’s sake why were you mas
querading so? What were you doing in
those heathenish mountains? What on
earth—”
“There I know what you are going to say,
but listen till I am through said Hunter, “and
just as rapidly as I can I will tell you who
and what I am for my work now is done for,
in that line”—Miss Gurdon was listening in
speechless amazement, her attitude becoming
more tense every moment.
“I was not such an impostor after all, Miss
Gurdon, as I saw it, for I did not believe in
any of it; I was an avowed Unitarian and argu
ed that it made no difference, I could do no one
any harm by preaching to them. I learned
my sermons well, none of them guessed they
were some one else’s, and it was quite amus
ing to see those rough mountaineers wince un
der the promise of hell-fire and the judgment,
that I often threw in extra, as a reward for
their illictit distilling, and they little dreamed
who it was that was giving the government so
much information.”
Miss Gurdon sprang to her feet in utter as
tonishment, “You don’t mean that you—”
“Yes, I was a revenue officer going out
from Little Rock, that’s exactly what 1 was.”
“Why I thought you came from New Or
leans, Mr. Hunter, I am dumbfounded. What
on earth else am I going to learn?” cried Miss
Gurdon excitedly. “And you pretending to
be a preacher! It’s a wonder the Lord didn’t
strike you down in your tracks,” she said
deeply moved. “Why I couldn’t have slept
in the house if I had even thought of such a
thing.”
A bit of a twinkle came into his eyes “and I
expect there were others that couldn’t have
slept if they had suspected,” he added signifi
cantly.
And she knew Hunter had known about her
brother all the time.
Her face flushed, “then why didn’t you re
port him,” she asked as though his name had
been spoken. “Frankly, Miss Gurdon, for the
sake of you ladies on whom I was dependent
for what relief I got front the strain of my
double life—and then I came to think I might
er-win—but there that doesn’t effect the rest
of the story, let me hurry on—
“ When I found Mr. Gurdon was going to
investigate the lie about my money—you see
I speak plainly, which was in the beginning a
part of my disguise; my reason for staying
where there was no salary, and later a part of
the plan through which I hoped to win Miss
Isabel, I knew I had to leave —
“I had gathered all the information I wanted
so I hurried as fast as possible toward my
mother’s humble home in the suburbs of Lit
tle Rock, only to drop down exhausted and
desperately sick at her door.
(Continued on page 11.)
GENEROUS WORDS FROM THE OZARKS.
Your paper is such a delight to my wife and
mvself that we feel that we can not afford
to do without it. It fills a unique place, sup
plied by no other paper I know of. Your
inspirational articles concerning men, cities,
and movements are a joy forever. Your un
daunted and unconquerable faith in the final
triumph of the right over the wrong is a mighty
tonic to the Southland. You are an embodi
ment of the doctrine of the “perseverance of
the saints.” For nearly twenty years have
had my eyes upon you and have rejoiced in
vour every good work. Go on in the battle,
and may the Lord himself go with you.
Yours in His service,
L. 0. VERMILLION.
Mountain View, Ark.
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