mi. m AUTHOK OF ,E OF A THOUSAND CANDL. Dhe IE BROW J^KILDAR % MEREDITH NICHOLSON ; HHHHHHHHI THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ark* Vnraml** THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE By MEREDITH NICHOLSON THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy 12mo, Cloth $1.50 THE PORT OF MISSING MEN Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood 12mo, Cloth $1.50 ROSALIND AT RED GATE Illustrated by 12mo, Cloth ZELDA DAMERON Illustrated by 12mo, Cloth THE MAIN CHANCE Illustrated by 12mo, Cloth POEMS 12mo, Cloth Arthur I. Keller $1.50 John Cecil Clay $1.50 Harrison Fisher $1.50 Net, $1.25 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY INDIANAPOLIS The Little Brown Jug at Kildare By Meredith Nicholson Author of "The Port of Missing Men," Rosalind at Redgate," The House of a Thousand Candles," Etc. WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT 1908 THE BOBBS-MEHRILL COMPANY SEPTEMBER THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE 1694456 TO YOU AT THE GATE There was a daisy-meadow, that flowed brimming to the stone wall at the roadside, and on the wooded crest "beyond a lamp twinkled in a house round- which stole softly the unhurried, eddy'less dusk. You stood at the gate, your arms folded on the top bar, your face up lifted, watching the stars and the young moon of June. I was not so old but that I marked your gown of white, your dark head, your, eyes like the blue of mid-ocean sea-water in the shadow of marching billows. As my step sounded you turned toward me, startled, a little dis dainful, maybe; then you smiled gravely; but a certain dejection of attitude, a sweet wistfulness of lips and eyes, arrested and touched me; and I stole on guiltily, for who was I to intrude upon a picture so perfect, to which moon and stars were glad contributors? As I reached the crown of the road, where it dipped down to a brook that whispered your name, I paused and looked back, and you waved your hand as though dismissing me to the noisy world of men. In other Junes I have kept tryst with moon and stars beside your gate, where daisies flow still across the meadow, and insect voices blur the twilight peace; but I have never seen again your house of shadows among the trees, or found you dreaming there at the gate with up lifted face and wistful eyes. But from the ridge, where the road steals down into the hollow with its fireflies and murmuring water, I forever look back to the star- and moon-hung gate in the wall, and see your slim, girlish 'figure, and can swear that you wave yout hand. Katonah, June 80, 1908. H. N. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Two Gentlemen Say Good-By .... 1 II The Absence of Governor Osborne ... 34 III The Jug and Mr.Ardmore . . . . .50 IV Duty and the Jug 73 V Mr. Ardmore Officially Recognized ... 98 VI Mr. Griswold Forsakes the Academic Life . 126 VII An Affair at the State House . . . .143 VIII The Labors of Mr. Ardmore . " . . .166 IX The Land of the Little Brown Jug ... 187 X Professor Griswold Takes the Field . . .201 XI Two Ladies on a Balcony 218 XII The Embarrassments of the Duke of Ballywinkle 235 XIII Miss Dangerfield Takes a Prisoner . . . 257 XIV A Meeting of Old Friends 281 XV The Prisoner in the Corn-Crib . . . .308 XVI The Flight of Gillingwater 336 XVII On the Road to Turner's 349 XVIII The Battle of the Raccoon 362 XIX In the Red Bungalow . . . . . .375 XX Rosae Mundi 396 XXI Good-By to Jerry Dangerfield . . . .414 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE CHAPTER I TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY "If anything really interesting should happen to me I think I should drop dead," declared Ardmore as he stood talking to Griswold in the railway station at At lanta. "I entered upon this life under false pretenses, thinking that money would make the game easy, but here I am, twenty-seven years old, stalled at the end of a blind alley, with no light ahead ; and to be quite frank, old man, I don't believe you have the advantage of me. [Whaf s the matter with us, anyhow ?" mistake we make/' replied Griswold, "is in fail- 1 2 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE ing to seize opportunities when they offer. You and I have talked ourselves hoarse a thousand times planning schemes we never pull off. We are cursed with inde cision, that's the trouble with us. We never see the handwriting on the wall, or if we do, it's just a streak of hieroglyphics, and we don't know what it means until we read about it in the newspapers. But I thought you were satisfied with the thrills you got running as a re form candidate for alderman in New York last year. It was a large stage and the lime-light struck you pretty often. Didn't you get enough? No doubt they'd be glad to run you again." Ardmore glanced hastily about and laid his hand heavily on his friend's shoulder. "Don't mention it don't think of it ! No more poli tics in mine. The world may go hang if it waits for me to set it right. What I want is something different, a real adventure something with spice in it. I have bought everything money can buy, and now I'm looking for something that can't be tagged with a price." "There's your yacht and the open sea," suggested Griswold. "Sick of it ! Sick to death of it 1" "You're difficult, old man, and mighty hard to please. TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 3 Why don't you turn explorer and go in for the North Pole?" "Perfectly bully ! I've thought of it a lot, but I want to be sure I've cleaned up everything else first. It's always up there waiting on ice, so to speak but when it's done once there will be nothing left. I want to save that for the last call." "You said about the same thing when we talked of Thibet that first evening we met at the University Club, and now the Grand Lama sings in all the phonographs, and for a penny you can see him in a kineto- scope, eating his luncheon. I remember very well that night. We were facing each other at a writing-table, and you looked up timidly from your letter and asked me whether there were two g's in aggravate, and I an swered that it depended on the meaning one g for a mild case, two for a severe one and you laughed, and we began talking. Then we found out how lonesome we both were, and you asked me to dinner, and then took me to that big house of yours up there in Fifth Avenue and showed me the pictures in your art gallery, and we found out that we needed each other." "Yes, I had needed you all right!" And Ardmore sniffed dolefully, and complained of the smoke that was 4 THE LITTLE BEOWN" JUG AT KILDARE drifting in upon them from the train sheds. "I wish you wouldn't always be leaving me. You ought to give up your job and amuse me. You're the only chap I know who doesn't talk horse or automobile or yacht, or who doesn't want to spend whole evenings discussing champagne vintages; but you're too good a man. to be wasted on a college professorship. Better let me endow an institution that will make you president there might be something in that/' "It would make me too prominent, so that when we really make up our minds to go in for adventures I should be embarrassed by my high position. As a mere lecturer on The Libeling of Sunken Ships in a law school, I'm the most obscure person in the world. And for another thing, we couldn't risk the scandal of tainted money. It would be nasty to have your great-grandfather's whisky deals with the Mohawk Indians chanted in a college yell." The crowd surged past them to the Washington ex press, and a waiting porter picked up Griswold's bags. "Wish you wouldn't go. I have three hours to wait," said Ardmore, looking at his watch, "and the only At lanta man I know is out of town." "What did you say you were going to New Orleans TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 5 for?" demanded Griswold, taking out his ticket and moving toward the gate. "I thought you exhausted the Creole restaurants long ago." "The fact is" faltered Ardmore, coloring, "I'm look ing for some one." "Out with it out with it !" commanded his friend. "I'm looking for a girl I saw from a car window day before yesterday. I had started north, and my train stopped to let a south-bound train pass somewhere in North Carolina. The girl was on the south-bound sleeper, and her window was opposite mine. She put aside the magazine she was reading and looked me over rather coolly." "And you glanced carelessly in the opposite direction and pulled down your shade, of course, like the well-bred man you are " interrupted Griswold, holding fast to Ardmore's arm as they walked down the platform. "I did no such thing. I looked at her and she looked at me. And then my train started " "Well, trains have a way of starting. Does the ro mance end here?" "Then, just at the last moment, she winked at me !" "It was a cinder, Ardy. The use of soft coal on rail ways is one of the saddest facts of American transporta- 6 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG 'AT KILDAEE tion. I need hardly remind yon, Mr. Ardmore, that nice girls don't wink at strange young men. It isn't done I" "I would have you know, Professor, that this girl is a lady." 'Don't be so irritable, and let me summarize briefly on your own hypothesis: You stared at a strange girl and she winked at you, safe in the consciousness that she would never see you again. And now you are going to New Orleans to look for her. She will probably meet you at the station, with her bridesmaids and wedding cake all ready for you. And you think this will lead to an adventure you defer finding the North Pole for this for this ? Poor Ardy ! But did she toss her card from the window? Why New Orleans? Why not Min neapolis, or Bangor, Maine?" "I'm not an ass, Grissy. I caught the name of the sleeper you know they're all named, like yachts and tall buildings the name .of her car was the Alexandra. I asked our conductor where it was bound for, and he said it was the New Orleans car. So I took the first train back, ran into you here, and thaf s the whole story to date." "I admire your spirit. New Orleans is much pleas- anter than the polar ice, and a girl with a winking eye TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 7 isn't to be overlooked in this vale of tears. What did' this alleviating balm for tired eyes look like, if you re member anything besides the wicked wink ?" "She was bareheaded, and her hair was wonderfully light and fluffy, and it was parted in the middle and tied behind with a black ribbon in a great bow. She rested her cheek on her hand her elbow on the window-eill, you know and she smiled a little as the car moved off, and winked do you understand? Her eyes were blue, Grissy, big and blue and she was perfectly stunning." "There are winks and winks, Ardy," observed Gria- wold with a judicial air. "There is the wink inadver tent, to which no meaning can be attached. There u the wink deceptive, usually given behind the back of a third person, and a vulgar thing which we will not asso ciate with your girl of the Alexandra. And then, to be brief, there is the wink of mischief, which is observed occasionally in persons of exceptional bringing up. There are moments in the lives of all of us when we lose our grip on conventions on morality, even. The psy chology of this matter is very subtle. Here you are, a gentleman of austerely correct life ; here is a delightful girl, on whom you flash in an out-of-the-way corner of the world. And she, not wholly displeased by the frank 8 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE admiration in your eyes for you may as well concede that you stared at her " "Well, I suppose I did look at her," admitted Ard- more reluctantly. "Pardonably, no doubt, just as you would look at a portrait in a picture gallery, of course. This boarding- school miss, who had never before lapsed from absolute propriety, felt the conventional world crumble beneath her as the train started. She could no more have re sisted the temptation to wink than she could have re fused a caramel or an invitation to appear as best girl at a church wedding. Thus wireless communication is established between soul and soul for an instant only, and then you are cut off forever. Perhaps, in the next world, Ardy " Griswold and Ardmore had often idealized themselves as hopeless pursuers of the elusive, the unattainable, the impossible; or at least Ardmore had, and Griswold had entered into the spirit of this sort of thing for the joy it gave Ardmore. They had discussed frequently the call of soul to soul the quick glance passing between perfect strangers in crowded thoroughfares, and had fruitlessly speculated as to their proper course in the event the call seemed imperative. A glance of the eye is one thing, but TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 9 it is quite another to address a stranger and offer eternal friendship. The two had agreed that, while, soul-call or no soul-call, a gentleman must keep clear of steamer flirtations, and avoid even the most casual remarks to strange young women in any circumstances, a gentleman of breeding and character may nevertheless follow the world's long trails in search of a never-to-be-forgotten face. The fact is that Ardmore was exceedingly shy, and a considerable experience of fashionable society had not diminished this shortcoming. Griswold, on the other hand, had the Virginian's natural social instinct, but he suffered from a widely-diffused impression that much learning had made him either indifferent or extremely critical where women are concerned. Ardmore shrugged his shoulders and fumbled in his coat pockets as though searching for ideas. An austere composure marked his countenance at all times, and emphasized the real distinction of his clean-cut features. His way of tilting back his head and staring dreamily into vacancy had established for him a reputation for stupidity that was wholly undeserved. "Please limit the discussion to the present world, Professor." 10 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE When Ardmore was displeased with Griswold he called him Professor, in a withering tone that disposed of the academic life. "We shall limit it to New Orleans or the universe, as you like." "I'm disappointed in yon, Grissy. You don't take this matter in the proper spirit. I'm going to find that girl, I tell you." "I want you to find her, Ardy, and throw yourself at her feet. Be it far from me to deprive you of the joy of search. I thoroughly admire your resolute spirit. It smacks of the old heroic times. Nor can I conceal from you my consuming envy. If a girl should flatter me with a wink I should follow her thrice round the world. She should not elude me anywhere in the Copernican system. If it were not the nobler part for you to pursue alone, I should forsake my professorship and buckle on my armor and follow your standard With the winking eye For my battle-cry." And Griswold hummed the words, beating time with, his stick, much to Ardmore's annoyance. "In my ignorance," Griswold continued, "I recall but TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY "IT one allusion to the wink in immortal song. If my mem ory serves me, it is no less a soul than Browning who sings: 'All heaven, meanwhile, condensed Into one eye Which fears to lose the wonder, should it wink.' You seem worried, Ardy. Does the wink press so heav ily, or whafs the matter ?" "The fact is, I'm in trouble. My sister says I've got to marry." "Which sister?" "Mrs. Atchison. You know Nellie ? She's a nice girl and she's a good sister to me, but she's running me too hard on this marrying business. She's going to bring a bunch of girls down to Ardsley in a few days, and she says she'll stay until I make a choice." Griswold whistled. "Then, as we say in literary circles, you're up against it No wonder you're beginning to take notice of the frolicsome boarding-school girl who winks at the world. I believe I'd rather take chances myself with that ami able sort than marry into your Newport transatlantic set." "Well, one thing's certain, Grissy. You've got to 12 THE LITTLE tfKOWN JUG AT K1LDARE come to Ardsley and help me out while those people are there. Nellie likes you; she thinks you're terribly in tellectual and all that, and if you'll throw in a word now and then, why " "Why, I may be able to protect you from the crafts and assaults of your sister. You seem to forget, Ardy, that I'm not one of your American leisure class. I'm always delighted to meet Mrs. Atchison, but I'm a per son of occupations. I have a consultation in Richmond to-morrow, then me for Charlottesville. We have ex aminations coming on, and, while I like to play with you, I've positively got to work/' "Not if I endow all the chairs in the university! You've not only got to come, but you're going to be there the day they arrive." Thomas Ardmore, of New York and Ardsley, struck his heavy stick he always carried a heavy stick smartly on the cement platform in the stress of his feel ing. He was much shorter than Griswold, to whom he was deeply attached for whom he had, indeed, the frank admiration of a small boy for a big brother. He sometimes wondered how fully Griswold entered into the projects of adventure which he, in his supreme idle ness, planned and proposed; but he himself had never TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 13 been quite ready to mount horse or shake out sail, and what Griswold had said about indecision rankled in his heart. He was sorry now that he had told of this new enterprise to which he had pledged himself, but he grew lenient toward Griswold's lack of sympathy as he re flected that the quest of a winking girl was rather be neath the dignity of a gentleman wedded not merely to the law, but to the austere teaching profession as well. In his heart he forgave Griswold, but he was all the more resolved to address himself stubbornly to his pursuit of the deity of the car Alexandra, for only by finding her could he establish himself in Griswold's eyes as a man of action, capable of carrying through a scheme requiring cleverness and tact. Ardmore was almost painfully rich, but the usual diversions of the wealthy did not appeal to him, and, having exhausted foreign travel, he spent much time on his estate in the North Carolina hills, where he could ride all day on his own land, and where he read pro digiously in a huge library that he had assembled with special reference to works on piracy, a subject that had attracted him from early youth. It was this hobby that had sealed his friendship with Griswold, who had relinquished the practice of law, after 14 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE a brilliant start in his native city of Richmond, to ac cept the associate professorship of admiralty in the law- department of the University of Virginia. Marine law had a particular fascination for Griswold from its essen tially romantic character. As a law student he had read all the decisions in admiralty that the libraries afforded, and, though faithfully serving the university, he still occasionally accepted retainers in admiralty cases of un usual importance. His lectures were constantly attend ed by students in other departments of the university for sheer pleasure in Griswold's racy and entertaining exposition of the laws touching the libeling of schooners and the recovery of jettisoned cargoes. Henry Maine Griswold was tall, slender and dark, and he hovered recklessly, as he might have put it, on the brink of thirty. He stroked his thin brown mustache habitually, as though to hide the smile that played about his hu morous mouth a smile that lay even more obscurely in his fine brown eyes. He did violence to the academic traditions by dressing with metropolitan care, gray being his prevailing note, though his scarfs ventured upon bold color schemes that interested his students almost as much as his lectures. The darkest fact of his life and one shared with none was his experiments in verse. TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 15 From his undergraduate days he had written occasion ally a little song, quite for his own pleasure in versify ing, and to a little sheaf of these things in manuscript he still added a few verses now and then. "Don't worry, Ardy," he was saying to his friend as "all aboard" was called, "and don't be reckless. When you get through looking for the winking eye, come up to Charlottesville and we'll plan The True Life of Captain Kidd that is some day going to make us fa mous." "I'll wire you later," replied Ardmore, clinging to his friend's hand a moment after the train began to move. Griswold leaned out of the vestibule to wave a last fare well to Ardmore, and something very kind and gentle and good to see shone in the lawyer's eyes. He went into the car smiling, for he called Ardmore his best friend, and he was amused by his last words, which were always Ardmore's last in their partings, and were followed usually by telegrams about the most prepos terous things, or suggestions for romantic adventures, or some new hypothesis touching Captain Kidd and his buried treasure. Ardmore never wrote letters; he al ways telegraphed, and he enjoyed filing long, mysterious and expensive messages with telegraph operators in ob- 16 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE scure places where a scrupulous ten words was the frugal limit. Griswold lighted a cigar and opened the afternoon Atlanta papers in the smoking compartment. His eye was caught at once by imperative head-lines. It is not too much to say that the eye of the continent was ar rested that evening by the amazing disclosure, now tardily reaching the public, that something unusual had occurred at the annual meeting of the Cotton Planters' Association at New Orleans on the previous day. Every copy-reader and editor, even 7 paragrapher on every news paper in the land had smiled and reached for a fresh pencil as a preliminary bulletin announced the passing of harsh words between the Governor of North Carolina and the Governor of South Carolina. It may as well be acknowledged here that just what really happened at the Cotton Planters' convention will never be known, for this particular meeting was held behind closed doors, and as the two governors were honored guests of the association, no member has ever breathed a word touch ing an incident that all most sincerely deplored. Indeed, no hint of it would ever have reached the public had it not been that both gentlemen hurriedly left the conven tion hall, refused to keep their appointments to speak at TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 17 the banquet that followed the business meetings, and were reported to have taken the first trains for their respective capitals. It was whispered by a few persons that the Governor of South Carolina had taken a fling at the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence ; it was rumored in other quarters that the Governor of North Carolina was the aggressor, he hav ing it was said declared that a people (meaning the freemen of the commonwealth of South Carolina) who were not intelligent enough to raise their own hay, and who, moreover, bought that article in Ohio, were not worth the ground necessary for their decent interment. It is not the purpose of this chronicle either to seek the truth of what passed between the two governors at New Orleans, or to discuss the points of history and agricul ture raised in the statements just indicated. As every one knows, the twentieth of May (or was it the thirty- first!), 1775, is solemnly observed in North Carolina as the day on which the patriots of Mecklenburg County severed the relations theretofore existing between them and his Majesty, King George the Third. Equally well known is the fact that in South Carolina it is an ar ticle of religious faith that on that twentieth day of May, 1775, the citizens of Mecklenburg County, North 18 THE LITTLE BEOWN JUG AT KILDABE Carolina, cheered the English flag and adopted resolu tions reaffirming their ancient allegiance to the British crown. This controversy and the inadequacy of the South Carolina hay crop must be passed on to the pamphleteers, with such other vexed questions as An drew Jackson's birthplace more debated than Homer's and not to be carelessly conceded to the strutting sons of Waxhaw. Griswold read of the New Orleans incident with a smile, while several fellow-passengers discussed it in a tone of banter. One of them, a gentleman from Missis sippi, presently produced a flask, which he offered to the others, remarking, "As the Governor of North Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina," which was, to be sure, pertinent to the hour and the discussion, and bristling with fresh significance. "They were both in Atlanta this morning," said the man with the flask, "and they would have been traveling together on this train if they hadn't met in the ticket office and nearly exploded with rage." The speaker was suddenly overcome with his own humor, and slapped his knee and laughed ; then they all laughed, including Griswold. "One ought to have taken the lower berth and one the TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 19 upper to make it perfect/' observed an Alabama man. "I wonder when they'll get home." "They'll probably both walk to be sure they don't take the same train," suggested a commercial traveler from Cincinnati, who had just come from New Orleans. "Their friends are doing their best to keep them apart. They both have a reputation for being quick on the trigger." "Bosh!" exclaimed Griswold. "I dare say ifs all a newspaper story. There's no knife-and-pistol nonsense in the South any more. They'll both go home and at tend to their business, and that will be the last of it. The people of North Carolina ought to be proud of Dangerfield; he's one of the best governors they ever had. And Osborne is a first-class man, too, one of the old Palmetto families." "I guess they're both all right," drawled the Missis- sippian, settling his big black hat more firmly on his head. "Dangerfield spoke in our town at the state fair last year, and he's one of the best talkers I ever heard." Therefore, as no one appeared to speak for the gov ernor of South Carolina, the drummer volunteered to vouch for his oratorical gifts, on the strength of an ad dress lately delivered by Governor Osborne in a lecture 20 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE course at Cincinnati. Being pressed by the Alissis- sippian, he admitted that he had not himself attended the lecture, but he had heard it warmly praised by com petent critics. The Mississippian had resented Griswold's rejection of the possibility of personal violence between the gov ernors, and wished to return to the subject. "It's not only themselves," he declared, "but each man has got the honor of his state to defend. Suppose, when they met in the railway office at Atlanta this morning, Dangerfield had drawed his gun. Do you suppose, gen tlemen, that if North Carolina had drawed South Caro lina wouldn't have followed suit ? I declare, young man, you don't know what you're talking about. If Bill Dangerfield won't fight, I don't know fightin' blood when I see it." "Well, sir," began the Alabama man, "my brother- in-law in Charleston went to college with Osborne, and many's the time I've heard him say that he was sorry for the man who woke up Charlie Osborne. Charlie I mean the governor, you understand is one of these fellows who never says much, but when you get him going he's terrible to witness. Bill Dangerfield may be Governor of North Car'line, and I reckon he is, but he TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 21 ain't Governor of South Caroline, not by a damned good deal." The discussion had begun to bore Griswold, and he went back to his own section, having it in mind to revise a lecture he was preparing on The Right of Search on the High Seas. It had grown dark, and the car was brilliantly lighted. There were not more than half a dozen other persons in his sleeper, and these were widely scattered. Having taken an inventory of his belongings to be sure they were all at hand, he became conscious of the presence of a young lady in the opposite section. In the seat behind her sat an old colored woman in snowy cap and apron, who was evidently the young lady's servant. Griswold was aware that this dusky duenna bristled and frowned and pursed her lips in the way of her picturesque kind as he glanced at her, as though his presence were an intrusion upon her mistress, who sat withdrawn to the extreme corner of her section, seeking its fullest seclusion, with her head against a pillow, and the tips of her suede shoes showing under her gray traveling skirt on the further half of the sec tion. She twirled idly in her fingers a half-opened white rosebud a fact unimportant in itself, but des tined to linger long in Griswold's memory. The pillow 22 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE afforded the happiest possible background for her brown head, her cheek bright with color, and a profile clear-cut, and just now an impression due, perhaps, to the slight quiver of her nostrils and the compression of her lips seemingly disdainful of the world. Griswold hung up his hat and opened his portfolio ; but the presence of the girl suggested Ardmore and his ridiculous quest of the alluring blue eye, and it was refreshing to recall Ard more and his ways. Here was one man, at least, in this twentieth century, at whose door the Time Spirit might thump and thunder in vain. The black woman rose and ministered to her mistress, muttering in kind monotone consolatory phrases from which "chile" and "honey" occasionally reached Grie- wold's ears. The old mammy produced from a bag several toilet bottles, a fresh handkerchief, a hand mirror and a brush, which she arranged in the empty Beat. The silver trinkets glowed brightly against the blue up holstery. "Thank you, Aunt Phoebe, I'm feeling much better. Just let me alone now, please." The girl put aside the white rose for a moment and breathed deeply of the vinaigrette, whose keen, pungent odor stole across the aisle to Griswold. She bent for- TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 23 ward, took up the hand mirror, and brushed the hair away from her forehead with half a dozen light strokes. She touched her handkerchief to the cologne flask, passed it across her eyes, and then took up the rose again and settled back with a little sigh of relief. In her new upright position her gaze rested upon Griswold's news papers, which he had flung down on the empty half of his section. One of them had fallen open and lay with its outer page staring with the bold grin of display type. TWO GOVEENORS AT WAR! WHAT DID THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA SAT TO THE GOVERNOR OP SOUTH CAROLINA? The color deepened in the girl's face; a slight frown gathered in her smooth forehead; then she called the colored woman and a brief colloquy followed between them. In a moment Griswold was addressed in a tone and manner at once condescending and deferential. "If yo j please, suh, would yo' all low my mistus tf look at yo' newspapahs ?" "Certainly. Take them along." And Griswold, recalled from a passage in his lecture that dealt with contraband munitions of war, handed over the newspapers, and saw them pass into the hands 24 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE of his fellow-passenger. He had read the newspapers pretty thoroughly, and knew the distribution of their contents, so that he noted with surprise the girl's imme diate absorption in the telegrams from New Orleans relating to the difficulty between the two governors. As she read she lost, he thought, something of her splendid color, and at one point in her reading her face went white for a moment, and Griswold saw the paper wrinkle under the tightening grasp of her hands. The tidings from New Orleans had undoubtedly aroused her indignation, which expressed itself further in the rigid lines of her figure as she read, and in the gradual lifting of her head, as though with some new resolution. She seemed to lose account of her surroundings, and several times Griswold was quite sure that he heard her half exclaim, "Preposterous ! Infamous !" When she had finished the New Orleans telegrams she cast the offending newspapers from her, then, recall ing herself, summoned the black woman, and returned them to Griswold, the dusky agent expressing the elabo rate thanks of her race for his courtesy. The girl had utterly ignored Griswold, and she now pulled down the curtain at her elbow with a snap and turned her face away from him. TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 25 Professor Griswold's eyes wandered repeatedly from his manuscript to the car ceiling, then furtively to the uncompromisingly averted shoulder and head of the young lady, then back to his lecture notes, until he was weary of the process. He wished Ardmore were at hand, for his friend would find here a case that promised much better than the pursuit to which he had addressed him self. The girl in this instance was at least a self-respect ing lady, not given to flirtations with chance travelers, and the brown eyes, of which Griswold had caught one or two fleeting glimpses, were clearly not of the winking sort. The attendance of the black mammy distinguished the girl as a person of quality, whose travels were stamped with an austere propriety. Her silver toilet articles testified to an acquaintance with the comforts if not the luxuries of life. The alli gator-hide suit-case thrust under the seat bore the familiar label of a Swiss hotel where Griswold had once spent a week, and spoke of the girl's acquaintance with an ampler world. When Phoebe had brought it forth the initials "B. 0." in small black letters suggested Balti more and Ohio to Griswold's lazy speculations, where upon he reflected that while Baltimore was plausible, the black servant eliminated Ohio; and as every Vir- 26 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE ginian knows every other Virginian, he tried to identify her with Old Dominion family names beginning with 0, but without jesult. He finally concluded that, while her name might be Beatrice or Barbara, it could not be Bessie, and he decided that very likely the suit-case be longed to her brother Benjamin, in whom he felt no interest whatever. He went out to supper, secured the only remaining table for two, and was giving his order when the young lady appeared. She had donned her hat, and as she stood a moment in the entrance, surveying the line of tables, her distinction was undeniable. There were but two vacant places in the car, one facing Griswold, the other across the aisle at a larger table where three men were engaged in animated discussion. The girl viewed the prospect with evident disappointment as the waiter drew out the vacant chair at Griswold's table. She car ried herself bravely, but wore still a triste air that touched Griswold's sympathy. He rose, told the waiter that he would sit at the other table, and the girl mur mured her thanks with a forlorn little smile as she took his seat The appearance of Griswold aroused the Missiseippian to a renewal of the discussion of the New Orleans inci- TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 27 dent. He was in excellent humor, and had carried to the car a quart bottle, which he pushed toward Gris- wold : "As the Governor of North Carolina said to the Gov ernor of South Carolina n "No, thank you," and as he spoke Griswold's eyes fell upon the girl, and he saw annoyance written fleet- ingly on her face. "You needn't be afraid of that whisky. It's all right," the Mississippian protested. "I'm. confident of that; but some other time, thank you." "Well, sir," the Mississippian declared, "after you left us a while ago we got to talking about Dangerfield and his trouble with Osborne. There's something back of this rumpus. You see, if they lived in the same state you might account for a fierce rivalry between them. Both of 'em, for example, might have the senatorial bee in their bonnets ; but either one of 'em could make the senate any time he pleased. I guess they're the two biggest men in the South right now. They're too big to be touchy about any small matter; that's why I reckon there's something behind this little racket over there at New Orleans. No passing remark would send men off 28 THE LITTLE BKOWN JUG AT KILDAKE that way, so wild that they wouldn't travel on the same train together. Why, gentlemen " "Please pass the salt/' interposed Griswold. The Mississippian enjoyed the sound of his own voice, which boomed out above the noise of the train with broad effects of dialect that these types will not be asked to reproduce. Griswold's eyes had again met those of the girl opposite, and there was, he felt, a look of appeal in them. The discussion distressed her, just as the tele grams from New Orleans in the afternoon papers had distressed her, and Griswold began at once to entertain his table companions with his views on a number of national political issues, that were as vital to Arizona or Wyoming as to the Carolinas. He told stories to illustrate his points, and told them so well that his three companions forgot the estrangement of the belligerent governors. Griswold ran on in the low, musical voice that dis tinguishes the cultivated Virginian in any company any where in the world, and the noisy loquacity of the Mississippian went down before him. He was so intent on holding their attention that his dishes were taken from him almost untouched. The others lingered until his coffee was brought. He was so absorbed that he TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 29 failed to see the smile that occasionally passed over the girl's face as some fragment of one of his stories found its way to her. He had undertaken to deflect the talk from a channel which had, it seemed, some painful association for her, but he had done more in unwittingly diverting her own thoughts by his droll humor. He did not cease until she had left the car, whereupon he fol lowed his trio of auditors to the smoking compartment, and there suffered the Mississippian to hold uninter rupted sway. When he went back into the car at eleven o'clock lie found the girl and her maid still sitting in their sec tions, though most of the other berths, including his own, had been made up. The train was slowing down, and, wishing a breath of air before retiring, he went to the rear platform of the sleeper, which was the last car of the train. The porter had opened the door in the vestibule to allow the brakeman to run back with his torpedoes. The baggage car had developed a hot box, and, jumping out, Griswold saw lanterns flashing ahead where the trainmen labored with the sick wheel. The porter vanished, leaving Griswold alone. The train had stopped at the edge of a small town, whose scattered nouses lay darkly against the hills beyond. The plat- 30 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE form lamps of a station shone a quarter of a mile ahead. The feverish steel yielded reluctantly to treatment, and Griswold went forward and watched the men at work for a few minutes, then returned to the end of the train. He swung himself into the vestibule and leaned upon the guard rail, gazing down the track toward the brake- man's lantern. Then he grew impatient at the con tinued delay and dropped down again, pacing back and forth in the road-bed behind the becalmed train. The night was overcast, with hints of rain in the air, and a little way from the rear lights it was pitch dark. Gris wold felt sure that the train would not leave without the brakeman, and he was further reassured by the lanterns of the trainmen beside the baggage car. Suddenly, as he reached the car and turned to retrace his steps, a man sprang up, seemingly from nowhere, and accosted him, "I reckon yVre the gov'nor, ain't y'u ?" "Yes, certainly, my man. What can I do for you?" replied Griswold instantly. "I reckoned it was y'u when y'u fust come out on the platform. I'm app'inted to tell y'u, Gov'nor, that if y'u have Bill Appleweight arrested in South Car'- lina, yVll get something one of these days y'u won't TWO GENTLEMEN SAY GOOD-BY 31 like. And if y'u try to find me yVll get it quicker. Good night, Gov'nor." "Good night !" stammered Griswold. The least irony had crept into the word governor as the man uttered it and slipped away into the darkness. The shadows swallowed him up; the frogs in the ditch beside the track chanted dolorously ; then the locomotive whistled for the brakeman, whose lantern was already bobbing toward the train. As Griswold swung himself into the vestibule the girl who had borrowed his newspapers turned away hur riedly and walked swiftly before him to her section. The porter, who was gathering her things together, said, as she paused in the aisle by her seat : fact is that his Grace owes me four dollars. I gave it to him in two bills I remember the incident perfectly two crisp new bills I had just got at the bank. His Grace borrowed the money to pay a cabman it was the very day before he married my sister. Now let me ask you this : Can an American citizen allow a duke to owe him four dollars ? The villain never referred to the mat ter again, and from that day to this I have made it a rule never to lend money to a duke." The reporter stated a moment, then laughed. He abandoned the idea of getting material for a sensational article and scented the possibilities of a character sketch of the whimsical young millionaire. "How about that story that your brother, Samuel Ardmore, is going to marry the chorus girl he ran over in his automobile ?" "I hope it's true; I devoutly do. I'm very fond or music myself, and, strange to say, nobody in our family is musical. I think a chorus girl would be a real addi tion to our family. It would bring up the family dig nity you can see that." "The wires brought a story this afternoon that your cousin, Wingate Siddall he is your cousin, isn't he ?"' "I'm afraid so. What's Biddy's latest?" 56 THE LITTLE BROWN" JUG AT KILDARE "Why, if s reported that he's going to cross the At lantic in a balloon. Can you tell us anything about that from the inside?" "Well, the ocean is only four miles deep; I'd take more interest in Cousin Siddy's ballooning if you could make it a couple of miles more to the dead men's chests. And now, much as I'd like to prolong this conversation, I've got to eat or I'll miss my train." "If you don't mind saying where you are going, Mr. Ardmore ?" "I'd tell you in a minute, only I haven't fully decided yet; but I shall probably take the Sambo Flyer at 9 :13, if you don't make me lose it." "You have large interests in Arkansas, I believe, Mr. Ardmore ?" "Yes; important interests. I'm searching for the original fiddle of the Arkansaw Traveler. When I find it I'm going to give it to the British Museum. And now you really must excuse me." Ardmore looked the reporter over carefully as they shook hands. He was an attractive young fellow, alert and good humored, and Ardmore liked him, as, in his shy way, he really liked almost every one who seemed to be a human being. THE JUG AND MR. ARDMORE 57 'Til tell you what I'll do with you. If you'll forget this rot we've been talking and come up to Ardsley as soon as I get home, I'll see if I can't keep you amused for a couple of weeks. I don't offer that as a bribe; my family affairs are of interest to nobody but hostlers and kitchen maids. Wire me at Ardsley when you're ready, throw away your lead-pencil, then come on and I'll show you the finest collection of books on Captain Kidd in the known world. What did you say your name is? Collins, Frank Collins? I never forget anything, so don't disappoint me." "Thafs mighty nice of you, but I don't have much time for vacations," replied the reporter, who was, how ever, clearly pleased. "If the office won't give you a couple of weeks, wire me and I'll buy the paper." The young man laughed outright. "I'll remember; I really believe you mean for me to come." "Of course I do. It's all settled ; make it next week. Good-by !" Ardmore ate his dinner oblivious of the fact that peo ple at the neighboring tables turned to look at him. He overheard his name mentioned, and a woman just behind 58 THE LITTLE BEOWN JUG AT KILDAEB him let it be known to her companions and any one else who cared to hear that he was the brother-in-law of the Duke of Ballywinkle. Another voice in the neighbor hood kindly remarked that Ardmore was the only de cent member of the family, and that he was not the one whose wife had just left him, nor yet the one who was going to marry the chorus girl whose father kept a delicatessen shop in Hoboken. It is very sad to be un able to dine without having family skeletons joggle one's elbow, and Ardmore was annoyed. The head waiter hung officiously near; the man who served him was distressingly eager; and then the voice behind him rose insistently : " worth millions and yet he can't find anybody to eat with him." This was almost true and a shadow passed across Ardmore's face and his eyes grew grave as he humbly reflected that he was indeed a pitiable object. He waved away his plate and called for coffee, and at that moment a middle-aged man appeared at the door, scanned the room for a moment and then threaded his way among the tables to Ardmore. "I heard you were here and thought I'd look you up, How are you, Ardy ?" THE JUG AND MR. ARDMOEE 5$ "Very well, thank you, Mr. Billings. Have you dined ? Sorry; which way are you heading?" The new-comer had the bearing of a gentleman used to consideration. He was, indeed, the secretary of the Bronx Loan and Trust Company, whose business was chiefly the administration of the Ardmore estate, and Ardmore knew him very well. He was afraid that Billings had traced him to Atlanta for one of those business discussions which always vexed and perplexed him so grievously, and the thought of this further de pressed his spirits. But the secretary at once eased his mind. "I'm looking for a man, and I'm not good at the busi ness. I've lost him and I don't understand it, I don't understand it," and the secretary seemed to be half- musing to himself as he sat down and rested his arms on the table. "You might give me the job. I'm following a slight clue myself just at present." The secretary, who had no great opinion of Ardmore's mental capacity, stared at the young man vacantly. Then it occurred to him that possibly Ardmore might be of service. "Have you been at Ardsley recently?" he asked. 60 THE LITTLE BEOWN JUG AT KILDAEE x "Left there only a few days ago." "You haven't seen your governor lately, have you ?" "My governor?" Ardmore stared blankly. "Why, Mr. Billings, don't you remember that father's dead ?" "I don't mean your father, Ardy," replied Billings with the exaggerated care of one who deals with ex treme stupidity. "I mean the governor of North Caro lina one of the American states. Ardsley is still in North Carolina, isn't it?" "Oh, yes ; of course. But bless your soul, I don't know the governor. Why should one ?" "I don't know why, Ardy; but people sometimes do know governors and find it useful." "I'm not in politics any more, Mr. Billings. What's this person's name?" "Dangerfield. Don't you ever read the newspapers?" demanded the secretary, striving to control his inner rage. He was in trouble and Ardmore's opaqueness taxed his patience. And yet Tommy Ardmore had given him less trouble than any other member of the Ardmore family. The others galloped gaily through their in comes; Tommy was rapidly augmenting his inheritance from sheer neglect or inability to scatter his dividends. "No; I quit reading newspapers after the noble THE JUG AND MR. ARDMORE 61 Duke of Ballywinkle didn't break the bank at Monte Carlo that last time. I often wish, Mr. Billings, that the Mohawks had scalped my great-grandfather before they bought his whisky. That would have saved me the per sonal humiliation of being brother-in-law to a duke." "You mustn't be so thin-skinned. You pay the pen alty of belonging to one of the wealthiest families in America," and Billings' tone was paternal. "So I've heard, but I'm not so terribly proud of it. What about this governor?" "Thafs what troubles me what of the governor?" Billings dropped his voice so that no one but Ardmore could hear. "He's missing disappeared." "That's the first interesting thing I ever heard of a governor doing," said Ardmore. "Tell me more." "He's had a row with the governor of South Carolina at New Orleans. I was to have met him here on an im portant matter of business this afternoon, but he's cleared out and nobody knows what's become of him. His daughter, even, who was in New Orleans with him, doesn't know where he is." "When was she in New Orleans with him?" asked Ardmore, looking at his watch. "She who?" asked Billings, annoyed. 2 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARB "Why, the daughter!" "I don't know anything about the daughter, but if I could find her father I'd give him a piece of my mind," and the secretary's face flushed angrily. "Well, I suppose she isn't the one I'm looking for, anyhow," said Ardmore resignedly. "I should hope not/' blurted Billings, who had not really taken in what Ardmore said, but who assumed that it must necessarily be something idiotic. "She had fluffy hair," persisted Ardmore to this seri ous-minded gentleman whose life was devoted to the multiplication of the Ardmore millions. Ardmore's tone was that of a child who persists in babbling inanities to a distracted parent. "Better let girls alone, Tommy. Mrs. Atchison told me you were going to marry Daisy Waters, and I should heartily approve the match." "Did Nellie tell you that? I wonder if she's told Daisy yet? You'll have to excuse me now, for I'm taking the Sambo Flyer. I'd like to find your governor for you ; .and if you'll tell me when he was seen last " "Right here, just before noon to-day, and a couple of hours before I reached town. His daughter either doesn't know where he went or she won't tell." THE JUG AND MR. ARDMORE 63 "Ah ! the daughter ! She remains behind to guard hia retreat." "The daughter is still here. She's a peppery little piece/' and Billings looked guardedly around the room. "That's she, alone over there in the corner the girl with the white feather in her hat who's just signing her check. There she's getting up !" Ardmore gazed across the room intently, then sud denly a slight smile played about his lips. To gain the door the girl must pass by his table, and he scrutinized her closely as she drew near and passed. She was a little girl, and her light fluffy hair swept out from under a small blue hat in a shell-like curve, and the short skirt of her tailor-made gown robbed her, it seemed, of years to which the calendar might entitle her. "She gave me the steadiest eye I ever looked into when I asked her where her father had gone," remarked Billings grimly as the girl passed. "She said she thought he'd gone fishing for whales." "So she's Miss Dangerfield, is she?" asked Ardmore indifferently ; and he rose, leaving on the plate, by a sud den impulse of good feeling toward the world, exactly double the generous tip he had intended giving. Billings was glad to be rid of Ardmore and they parted in the 64 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDARE hotel lobby without waste of words. The secretary of the Bronx Loan and Trust Company announced his inten tion of remaining another day in Atlanta in the hope of finding Governor Dangerfield, and he was so ab sorbed in his own affairs that he did not heed, if indeed he heard, Ardmore's promise to keep an eye out for the lost governor. Like most other people the secretary of the Bronx Loan and Trust Company did not understand Ardmore, but Thomas Ardmore, having long ago found himself ill-judged by the careless world, lived by stand ards of his own, and these would have meant nothing whatever to Billings. Ardmore's effects had been brought down and were already piled on a carriage at the door. In his pocket was his passage to New Orleans and a state-room ticket. At the cashier's desk Miss Dangerfield paid her bill, just ahead of him. "If any telegrams come for my father please forward them to Raleigh," said the girl. The manager came out personally to show her to her carriage, and having shut the door upon her, he wished Ardmore, who stood dis creetly by, a safe journey. "Off for New Orleans, are you, Mr. Ardmore?" asked the manager courteously. THE JUG AND MR. ARDMORE 65 "No," said Ardmore, "I'm going to Raleigh to look at the tall buildings," whereat the manager returned to his duties, gravely shaking his head. At the station Ardmore caught sight of Miss Danger- field, attended by two porters, hurrying toward the Tar Heel Express. He bought a ticket to Raleigh, and se cured the last available berth from the conductor on the platform at the moment of departure. Ardmore did not like to be hurried, and this sudden change of plans had been almost too much for him, but he was consoled by the reflection that after all these years of waiting for just such an adventure he had proved himself equal to an emergency that required quick thought and swift action. He had not only found the girl with the playful eye, but he had learned her identity without, as it were, turning over his hand. Not even Griswold, who was the greatest man he knew Griswold with his acute legal mind and ability to carry through contests of wit with lawyers of highest reputei not even Griswold, Ardmore flattered himself, could have managed better. The state-room door stood open, and from his seat at the farther end of the car Ardmore caught a fleeting glimpee of Mise Dangerfield as she threw off her jacket 66 THE LITTLE BKOWN JUG AT KILDARB * and hat; then she summoned the porter, gave him her tickets, bade him a smiling good night and the door closed upon her. The broad grin on the porter's face a grin of delight as though he had spoken with some ex alted deity filled Ardmore with bitterest envy. He went back to smoke and plan his future move ments. For the first time in his life he faced to-morrow with eager anticipations, resolved that nothing should thwart his high resolves, though these, to be sure, were somewhat hazy. Then, from a feeling of great satisfac tion, his spirit reacted and he regretted that he had been deprived of the joy of prolonged search. If he could only have followed her until, at the last moment, when about to give up forever and accept the frugal con solations of memory, he met her somewhere face to face! These reflections led him to wonder whether he might not have been mistaken about the wink after all. Griswold, with his wider knowledge of the world, had scouted the idea. Very likely if one of those blue eyes had actually winked at him it had been out of mere play fulness, and he would never in the world refer to it when they met. Billings had applied the term peppery to her, and he felt that he should always hate Billings for this ; Billings was only a financial automaton anyhow, who THE JUG AND MR. ARDMORE 67 bought at the lowest and sold at the highest, and bored eno very often with strangely-worded papers which one was never expected to understand. He did not know why Billings was so anxious to find Miss Dangerfield's father, but as between a man of Billings' purely commer cial instincts and the governor of a great state like North Carolina Ardmore resolved to stand by the Dangerfields to the end of the chapter. He was proud to remember his estate at Ardsley, which was in Governor Danger- field's jurisdiction, and had been visited by the game warden, the state forester, and various other members of the governor's official household, though Ardmore could not remember their names. He had never in his life visited Raleigh, but far down some dim vista of memory he saw Sir Walter covering a mud-puddle with his cloak for Queen Elizabeth. It was a picture of this moving incident in an old history that rose before him, aa he tried vainly to recall just how it was that Sir Walter had lost his head. He wondered whether Miss Dangerfield's name was Elizabeth, though he hoped not, as the name suggested a town in New Jersey where his motor had once broken down on a rainy evening when he was carrying Griswold to Princeton to deliver a lec ture. 68 THE LITTLE BROWN JUG AT KILDAEB Ardmore smoked many pipes and did not turn. in. until after midnight. The car was hot and stuffy and he slept badly. At some hour of the morning, being again awake and restless, he fished his dressing-gown and slippers out of his bag and went out on the rear platform. His was the last car, and he found a camp- stool and crouched down upon it in a corner of the vesti bule and stared out into the dark. The hum and click of the rails soothed him and he yielded himself to pleas ant reveries. Griswold was well on his way back to Virginia, he remembered "dear old Grissy!" he mur mured ; but he resolved to tell Griswold nothing of the prosperous course of his quest. Griswold would never, he knew, countenance so grave a performance as the following of a strange girl to her home ; but this would be something for later justification. Ardmore was half-dozing when the train stopped so abruptly that he was pitched from the camp-stool into a corner of the entry. He got himself together and leaned out into the cool moist air. The porter came out and stared, for a gentleman in a blue silk wrapper who sat up all night in a vestibule was new to his experience. "What place is this, porter?" THE JUG AND ME. ARDMORE 69 "Kildare, sah. This place is wha' we go from South CPlina into N'oth C'lina. Ain't yo' be'th comfor'ble, sat?" "Perfectly; thank you/' Kildare was a familiar name, and the station, that lay at the outskirts of the town, and a long grim bar racks-like building that he identified as a cotton mill, recalled the fact that he was not far from his own ample acres which lay off somewhere to westward. He had oc casionally taken this route from the north in going to Ardsley, riding or driving from Kildare about ten miles to his house. In this way he was enabled to go or come without appearing at all in the little village of Ards ley. The porter left him. He felt ready for sleep now, and resolved to go back to bed as soon as the train started. Just then a dark shadow appeared in the track and a man's voice asked cautiously : "Air y'u the conductor ?" The questioner saw that he was not, before Ardmore could reply, and hesitated a moment. "The porter's in the car; you can get aboard up for ward/' Ardmore suggested. "Be GoVnor Danger-field on this train?" asked the 70 THE LITTLE BEOWN JUG AT KILDARE man, whom Ardmore now aw dimlj outlined in the track below. "Certainly, my friend. The governor's asleep, but I'm his private secretary. What can I do for you ?" "Well, hyeh's somethin' fer 'im it's confidential. Sure, air ye, th' gov'nor's in they ?" The man a tall bearded countryman in a slouch hat, handed up to Ardmore a jug a plain, brown, old-fash ioned American gallon jug. "It's a present fer Gov'nor Dangerfield. He'll un derstand," and the man vanished as mysteriously as hf had appeared, leaving Ardmore holding the jug by its handle, and feeling a little dazed by the transaction. The train lingered, and Ardmore was speculating as to which one of the Carolina commonwealths was be neath him, when another figure appeared below in the track that of a bareheaded, tousled boy this time. He stared up at Ardmore sleepily, having apparently been roused on the arrival of the train. "Air y'u the gov'nor ?" he piped. "Yes, my lad; in what way can I serve you?" and Ardmore put down his jug and leaned over the guard rail. It was just as easy to be the governor as the gov ernor's private secretary, and his vanity was touched by "Well, hyeh's somethin' fer Gov'nor Dangerfield." Page 70. 7'be Little Brown Jug at Kildare, THE JUG 'AND MR. ARDMORE 71 the readiness with which the boy accepted him in his new role. His costume, vaguely discernible in the vestibule light, evidently struck the lad as being some amazing robe of state affected by governors. The youngster was lifting something, and he now held up to Ardmore a jug, as like the other as one pea resem bles another. "Pa ain't home and ma says hyeh's yer jug o' butter milk." "Thank you, my lad. While I regret missing your worthy father, yet I beg to present my compliments to your kind and thoughtful mother." He had transferred his money to his dressing-gown pocket on leaving his berth, and he now tossed a silver dollar to the boy, who caught it with a yell of delight and scampered off into the night Ardmore had dropped the jugs carelessly into the vestibule, and he was surveying them critically when the train started. The wheels were beginning to grind reluctantly when a cry down the track arrested his at tention. A man was flying after the train, shouting at the top of his lungs. He ran, caught hold of the rail and howled : "The gov'nor ain't on they ! Gimme back my jug." 72 THE LITTLE BEOWN JUG 'AT KILDABE "Indian-giver !" yelled Ardmore. He stooped down, picked up the first jug that came to hand, and dropped it into the man's outstretched arms. The porter, having heard voices, rushed out upon Ardmore, who held the remaining jug to the light, scru tinizing it carefully. "Please put this away for me, porter. If s a little gift from an old army friend." Then Mr. Ardmore returned to his berth, fully pleased with his adventures, and slept until the porter gave warning of Ealeigh. CHAPTER IV DUTY AND THE JUG Mr. Thomas Ardmore, one trunk, two bags, and a lit tle brown jug reached the Guilford House, Raleigh, at eight o'clock in the morning. Ardmore had never felt better in his life, he assured himself, as he chose a room with care and intimated to the landlord his intention of remaining a week. But for the ill luck of having his baggage marked he should have registered himself falsely on the books of the inn; but feeling that this was not quite respectable he assured the landlord, in. re sponse to the usual question, that he was not Ardmore of New York and Ardsley but an entirely different person.