Io 
Se hs SE? 
Both Sides 
of 
The Shield 
By Major 
ARCHIBALD W. BUTT, 
One of the Heroes of the 
Titanic and President 
Taft's Military Aid. 
Cepyright, 1905, by J. B. Lippincett 
company. All rights reserved. 
SYNOPSIS 
Palmer, a Boston newspaper man, is 
Bent to Georgia to report social and indus- 
trial conditions in a series of letters to his 
paper. Colgnel Turpin, a _southerner, 
thinks Palmer is a lawyer and has come 
@ foreclose the Turpin plantation’s mort- 
guge. 3 
Palmer undeceives )\im, and the colonel, 
thinking that Palme is a kinsman, in- 
vites him to be his zuest at the Pines. 
Palmer meets Ellen and Bud Turpin and 
fs hospitably received. 
He becomes interested in Ellen and 
learns that the Turpin home fs in grave 
peril through lack of funds. He wants to 
confess that he is not really a kinsman, 
but faila to do so. 
Squire Hawkins, 
an elderly man, ig 
courting Ellen. A rf rty is Planned in 
honor of Palmer, wh writes his impres- 
Sions of the place for j¢ nanar. 
aren wears an old brocade gown at the 
party, and Palmer falls in love with her. 
Elien and her friends take him to the 
wishing stone. 
“You are my queen tonight,’ Palmer 
tells her, but she will not :permit him to 
avow his love. He fears she intends mar- 
rying the squire to save the old home. 
Ellen thinks Palmer has ridiculed her 
and her family in one of his newspaper 
articles and commands him to leave her 
and never return. 
[ [CONTINUED.] 
What evil genius le me to ehange 
my mind I do not !now. It might 
have been the fates of the wishing 
stone whom I had angered by partial- 
ly revealing the secret | had confided 
to them. But at the time I was pleased 
to think it was a coufidence I had no 
right to give her until | bad told her 
of my love. Then, too, if |, who was 
as jealous of the family bonor as Bud 
or even the colonel himself, saw no 
impropriety in making use of their 
heroic struggle with misfortunes, sure- 
ly there could be none, | thought. 
When | should have told her of my 
love, together we would talk over these 
hard times, and together we would read 
my description of them and laugh 
over it, or possibly cry, for it was al- 
ways the pathos of the life at the 
Pines which | saw and not the humor. 
When a woman loves she always un- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
not know then how sensitive these old 
families had become of criticism nor 
how deeply they felt their changed 
conditions. I had only seen their forti- 
tude and bravery. for they would have 
thought it beneath them to complain of 
their poverty to others. 
Unless I wrote some such letter, 
which would afford me a reasonable 
excuse for remaining another fortnight 
at the Pines, | would have to leave in 
a day or two at the longest,. for.the sug- 
gestion of the managing editor was 
nothing less than a politely worded or- 
der. 
Cajoling myself into this belief, 
I hesitated no longer. My mind once 
made up, I was seized with a fever to 
write such as I had not known since 
the first days of my career in journal- 
ism. 
Taking out my writing pad and 
throwing myself across the bed, I 
wrote with an enthusiasm I had sel- 
dom experienced, If one has not felt 
this feverish desire to write he or she 
cannot appreciate the feelings which 
prompted me to hold up every detail 
as I'saw it and to lend it color where 
eolor might be lacking. Loving Miss 
Ellen with a passion that absorbed me 
then, I described her as a holy priest 
might paint the Madonna whom he 
worshiped and with the ‘accuracy 
with which the artist might put upon 
the canvas the features of his wife and 
children. 
My blood ran more rapidly through 
my veins as I sketched Miss Ellen in 
bold relief and as faithfully described 
her honest father and manly brother. 
The names and the locality were con- 
cealed, but not more effectually than 
the artist might hide the name of the 
mother model who sat for the Ma- 
donna. One who had known the art- 
ist and his model would see in the 
wrap of the Madonna a shawl the wife 
had worn for a score of years in the 
humble neighborhood and in the in- 
fant Christ the idealized features of 
the model’s child. When «deseribing 
Miss BHllen and her family I felt in- 
spired and uplifted and left nothing 
out which I thought would enhance the 
letter as a picture. When I had finished 
it I read it over carefully, altering ‘not 
a line, even adding here and there a 
sentence which would lend one more 
bit of color to the whole. 
With this letter I sent a note to the 
editor telling him that I would re- 
main in the vicinity of Oglethorpe an- 
other fortnight unless he wrote me 
to the contrary. I said there was 
much more material about Oglethorpe 
which I thought could be used to ad- 
vantage. So highly did I think of 
what I had written that I felt reason- 
ably certain he would make no objec- 
tions to my plans, and in another two 
weeks I hoped to have secured Miss 
Bilen’s consent to become my wife. 
She seemed to know ‘by intuition 
what was in my heart and what I had 
derstands, I said to myself. but I did 
i 
a mind to do, for she avoided being 
alone with me, and whenever we 
would walk after that she would ask 
Bud to go with us. There was a gen- 
tle dignity about her during these last 
few days which kept me at a distance, 
and if I paid her a compliment she 
would show annoyance, and when our 
conversation would become personal 
fn its nature she would remember 
that. she had left something unattend- 
ed to or would find some excuse to 
leave me with a half finished sentence 
on my lips. 
I soon saw too plainly that she did 
not want me to speak to her of love, 
though she could not prevent my tell- 
ing her of it with my eyes and by the 
silent way I would watch her when 
she would work. Squire Hawkins 
came again one evening, but she did 
not walk with him, and once whep 
Bud got up to leave I saw her lay her 
hand ever so gently,on his sleeve, 
which was sufficient to have kept him 
fn his seat all night long had she wish- 
ed it. 
One morning she received a letter at 
the breakfast table, and after opening 
{t and glancing at the signature she 
slipped it in her belt, and when break- 
fast was over she went quietly out of 
the room, and I did not see her again 
that day. For several days, in fact, 
she avoided me altogether, and [ be- 
came wretched in the thought that I 
had been mistaken after all; that she 
cared nothing more for me than she 
did for any one else, even Squire Haw- 
kins. 
In fact, I was not so very sure about 
the squire. I heard that he was the 
richest planter in the county and had 
the proud distinction of owning the 
only plantation which was not encum- 
bered with a mortgage. He was an 
old friend of the family,.and Bud liked 
him, and Miss Ellen herself did not 
seem to ‘have anything against him. I 
might be a pauper for all she knew, 
and so I told myself, but on thinking 
{t over in my room at night I became 
convinced that Miss Ellen would never 
marry save where she loved, and that 
she did not love the squire I could 
have sworn. 
: CHAPTER VI. io ata 
The Scorn of Ellen. 
§ the days slipped by she be- 
came more like her former 
self, and one afternoon when 
it was raining she consented 
to play a game of billiards with me. 
Suddenly she stopped, and as I watch- 
ed her [ thought her face perceptibly 
paled. A moment later there was the 
sound of horse’s hoofs on the gravel, 
and we heard some one alight. 
“Come, Mr. Palmer; I am _ beating 
you,” she said, with an attempt at 
gayety which was but poorly assumed. 
“Tt is your shot, and you stand there 
dreaming.” 
Just then Pickaninny Sam came in 
to tell Miss Hllen that the squire was 
