Then the wrath, the sense of personal injury, which had been simmering in him ever since he saw her sitting beside Stoddard in the young mill owner's car, broke forth.

" "You mean the girl in the corridor," said Stoddard with that directness which his friends were apt to find disconcerting.

" The late Major Stoddard of the United States' artillery, who took possession of Louisiana for the U.S. government, under the cession of 1804, published a book entitled "Sketches of Louisiana," in which, speaking of the planters of Lower Louisiana, he says, "Few of them allow any clothing to their slaves.

"But I'll thank you not to name Mr. Stoddard to me again.

"If I could ever get a chance of private speech with him, mebbe I'd" There came a sound of light hoofs down the road, and Stoddard on Roan Sultan, riding bareheaded, came toward them under the trees.

However, I'll pitch into STODDARD for swearing, which his 'Unprincipled Neighbor' does to an unnecessary extent, and I'll say that JIM WALLACK is too old and gouty to play the 'Merchant Prince,' and doesn't quite forget that he used to play in the Bowery.

It should have been significant to any one who knew the mountain people, that information concerning Gray Stoddard within a week of his disappearance, was noticeably lacking.

I was with Stoddard against the door, where the sheriff’s men were slowly gaining upon us.

" "She is," agreed Stoddard without enthusiasm.

Heavily before her mind's eye went the picture of Gray Stoddard among his own people, in his own worldwhere she could never come.

Shade Buckheath had spoken of Gray Stoddard as the boss of the bosses down at Cottonville.

But now she marked mercilessly the light, yet subdued, movements, the deference expressed when one of these people addressed another; and Gray Stoddard at the upper end of the room was easily the most marked figure in it.

“There’s the sheriff,” called Stoddard behind me.

[Illustration: Portrait of Elizabeth Stoddard from a Daguerreotype.