(Continued from last week). 
Cowardice 
Court 
By 
GEOKGE BARR MCUTCHEON 
Copyright. 1906. Dodd Mead & Co. 
“No. they are not, poor fellows,” 
eried Penelope. “They have taken 
nothing but water.’ 
“By Jove! Deuced clever, that,” 
drawled the duke. “Eh?” to the New 
Yorker. 
“Deuced,” from the Knickerbocker. 
“Well, well! What’s it all about? 
demanded Bazelhurst. 
“Mr. Shaw, sir,” said James. 
“Good Lord! Couldnt you rescue 
him?’ in horror. 
“He rescued us, Sir,” 
Tompkins. 
“You mean’— 
“He throwed us in and then had to 
jump in and pull us out, sir. Beggin’ 
your pardon, sir, but dash him!’ 
“And you didn’t throw him in after 
all? By Jove! Extraordinary!” 
“Do you mean to tell us that he 
threw you great hulking creatures 
into the river? Single handed?” cried 
Lady Bazelhurst, aghast. 
“He did, Evelyn,” inserted Penelope. 
“I met them coming home, and poor 
Tompkins was out of his senses. I 
don’t know how it happened, but’— 
“It was this way, your ladyship,” 
put in James, the groom. ‘Tompkins 
and me could see him from the point 
there, sir, a-fishin’ below the log. So 
we says to each other ‘Come on,’ and 
up we went to waere he was a-fishin’. 
Tompkins, bein’ the game warden, says 
he to him ‘Hi, there!’ He was plainly 
on our pruperty, sir, a-fishin’ from a 
boat for bass, sir. ‘Hello, boys!’ says 
he back to us. ‘Get off our land,’ says 
Tompkins, ‘I am,’ says he; ‘it’s water 
out here where I am.’ Then’— 
“You’re wrong,” broke in Tompkins. 
“He said ‘it's wet out here where I 
am. 
“Youre right. It was. wet. Then 
Tompkins cailed him a vile name, your 
lordship—shall I repeat it, sir?” 
“No, no!” cried four feminine voices. 
“Yes, do,’”’ muttered the duke. 
“We didn’t wait after that, sir. He 
rowed to shore in a flash and landed 
on our land. ‘What do you mean by 
that? he said, madlike. ‘My orders is 
to put you off this property,’ says 
Tompkins, ‘or to throw you in the riv- 
er.’ ‘Who gave these orders?’ asked 
mumbled 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
mr. Shaw. *Lord SBazelhurst, sir, 
dash you’—beg pardon, sir; it slipped 
out. ‘And who the devil is Lord Bas 
zelthurst? said he. ‘Hurst,’ said 
Tompkins. ‘He owns this ground. 
Can’t you see the mottoes on the trees! 
No Trespassin’?) But Mr. Shaw said, 
“Well, why don’t you throw me in the 
river?’ He kinder smiled when he said 
it. ‘I will, says Tompkins and made 
a rush for him. I don’t just remember 
why I started in to help Tompkins, but 
I did. Somehow, sir, Mr. Shaw got”— 
‘Don’t call him Mr, Shaw. Just 
Shaw; he’s no gentleman,” exploded 
Lord Bazelhurst. 
“But he told us both to call him 
‘Mister,’ sir, as long as we lived. I 
kinder got in the habit of it, your lord- 
ship, up there. That is, that’s what he 
told us after he got through with us. 
Well, anyhow, he got the start of us, 
an’—there’s Tompkins’ eyes, sir, an’ 
look at my ear. Then he pitched us 
both in the river.” 
“Good Lord!’ gasped the duke. 
“Diable!” sputtered the count. 
“Splendid!’’ cried Penelope, her eyes 
sparkling. 
“Hang it all, Pen, don’t interrupt 
the count!” snorted Bazelhurst for 
want of something better to say and 
perhaps hoping that Deveaux might 
say in French what could not be ut- 
tered in English. ;' 
“Don’t say it in French, count,” said 
little Miss Folsom. “It deserves HEng- 
lish.” 
“Go on, James!” sternly, from Lady 
Bazelhurst. 
“Well, neither of us can swim, your 
ladyship, an’ we’d ’a’ drowned if Mr.— 
if Shaw hadn’t jumped in himself an’ 
pulled us out. As it was, sir, Tomp- 
kins was unconscious. We rolled him 
on a log, sir, an’ got a keg of water 
out of him. Then Mr.—er—Shaw told 
us to go ’ome and get in bed, sir.” 
“He sent a message to you, sir,” add- 
ed Tompkins, shivering mightily. 
“Well, I’ll have one for him, never 
fear,’ said his lordship, glancing about 
bravely. ‘I_won’t permit any man to 
assault my servants and brutally mal- 
treat them. No, sir; he shall hear from 
me or my attorney.” 
“He told us to tell you, sir, that if he 
ever caught anybody from this place 
on his land he’d serve him worse than 
he did us,’”’ said Tompkins. 
“He says, ‘I don’t want no Bazel- 
hursts on my place,’” added Jameg in 
finality. 
“Go to bed, both of you!” roared his 
lordship. 
“Very good, sir,” in unison. 
“They can get to bed without your 
help, I dare say, Pen,’ added his lord- 
ship caustically as she started away 
with them. Penelope blushed, and one 
party went to luncheon, while the oth- 
er went to bed. 
“T should like to see this terrible 
Mr. Shaw,” observed Penelope at ta- 
ble. ‘“He’s a sort of Jack the Giant 
Killer, I fancy.” 
“Fe is the sort one has to meet in 
America,” lamented her ladysnip. 
“Oh, I say now,” expostulated the 
New York voung man wrvlv 
“I don’t mean in good society,” she 
corrected, with unconscious irony. 
“Oh,” said he, very much relieved. 
“He’s a demmed cad,” said his lord- 
ship conclusively. 
“Because he chucked your men inte 
the river?’ asked Penelope sweetly. 
“She’s dooced pretty, eh?” whispered 
the duke to Mrs. De Peyton without 
taking his eyes from his young coun- 
trywoman’s face. 
“Who?’? asked Mrs. De Peyton. 
Then he relinquished his gaze and 
turned his monocle blankly upon the 
American beside him. 
“JT shall send him a warning that 
he’ll have to respect, cad or no cad,” 
said Bazelhurst, absently spreading 
butter upon his fingers instead of the 
roll. 
“Send him a warning?’ asked his 
queenly wife. “Aren’t you going to 
see him personally? You can’t trust 
the servants it seems.” 
“My dear, I can’t afford to lose my 
temper and engage in a row with that 
bounder, and there’s no end of trouble 
I might get into”— 
“J shall see him myself if you 
won’t.” said her ladyship firmly. There 
was frigid silence at ihe table for a 
full minute, relieved only when his 
lordship’s monocle dropped into the 
glass of water he was trying to con- 
vey to his lips. He thought best to 
treat the subject lightly, so he laugh- 
ed in his most jovial way. 
“You’d better take a mackintosh 
with you, my dear,” he said. “Re 
member what he told Tompkins and 
James.” 
“He will not throw me into the riv- 
er. It might be different if you went. 
Therefore I think”— 
“Throw me in, would he?’ and Ba- 
gelhurst laughed loudly. “I’m no 
groom, my dear. You forget that it 
is possible for Mr. Shaw to be soused.” 
“He was good enough to souse him- 
self this morning,’ volunteered Pene- 
lope. “I rather like him.” 
“By Jove, Cecil! You’re not afraid 
to meet him, are you?’ asked the 
duke, with tantalizing coolness. “You 
know, if you are I’ll go over and talk 
to the fellow.” 
“Afraid? Now, hang it all, Barmin- 
ster, that’s rather a shabby thing to 
suggest. You forget India.” 
“’m trying to. Demmed miserable 
time I had out there. But this fellow 
fights. That’s more than the beastly 
natives did when we were out there. 
Marching isn’t fighting, you know.” 
“Confound it! You forget the 
time’”’—- 
“Mon Dieu! Are we to compare ze 
Hindu harem wiz ze American feest 
slugger?” cried the count, with a wry 
face. 
“What's that?’ demanded two noble- 
men in one voice. The count apolo- 
gized for his Dnglish. 
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