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the VALIANTS of VIRGINIA SYNOPSIS. John 'Valiant, a rich society favorite, suddenly discovers that the Valiant cor poration, which his father founded and which was the principal source of his wealth, has failed. He voluntarily turns over his private fortune to the receiver for the corporation. His entire remaining possessions consist of an old motor car, a white bull dog and Damory court, a neg lected estate in Virginia. On the way to Damory court he meets Shirley Dand ridge. an uuburn-haired beauty, and de cides that he is going to like Virginia im mensely. Shirley's mother, Mrs. Dand rldge, and Major Biistow exchange rem iniscences during which It is revealed that the major. Valiant’s father, and a man named Sassoon were rivals for the hand of Mrs. Dandrldge In her youth. Sassoon and Valiant fought a duel on her account In which the former was killed. Valiant finds Damory court overgrown with weeds and creepers and decides to rehabilitate the place. Valiant Baves Shirley from the bite of a snake, which bites him. Knowing the deadllness of the bite, Shirley sucks the poison from the wound and saves his life. Valiant learns for the first time that his father left Vir ginia on account of a duel in which Doc tor Southall and Major Bristow acted a.*} his father’s gecPDds, Valiant and Shirley become good friends. Mrs. Dnndrldge faints when she meets Vallnnt for the first time. Valiant discovers that he has a fortune In old walnut trees. The yearly tournament, a survival of the jousting of feudal times, is held at Damory court. At the last moment Valiant takes the place of one of the knights, who is sick and enters the lists. CHAPTER XXlll.—Continued. The twelve horsemen were now sit ting their restive mounts in a group at one end of the lists. Two mounted monitors had stationed themselves on either side of the rope-barrier; a third stood behind the upright from whose arm was suspended the silver ring. The herald blew a blast, calling the title of the first of the knights. In stantly, with lance at rest, the latter galloped at full speed down the lists. There was a sharp musical clash, and as he dashed on, the ring flew the full length of Its tether and swung back, whirling swiftly. It had been a close thrust, for the Iron pike-point had smitten Its rim. A cheer went up, under cover of which the rider looped back outside the lists to his former position. In an upper tier of the stand a spec tator made a cup of his hands. ‘‘The Knight of the Golden Spur against the field.” he called. ‘‘What odds?” “Five to one. Bpotteswood.” a voice answered. “Ten dollars,” announced the first. “Good." And both made memoran dum on their cuffs: A second time the trumpet sounded, and the Knight of Castlewood flashed Ingloriously down the roped aisle—a miss. Again and again the clear note rang out and a mounted figure plunged by, and presently. In a burst of cheering, the herald proclaimed “The Knight of the Black Eagle—one!” and Chilly Busk, in old-rose doublet and inky plume cantered back with a silver ring upon his pike. No simple thing, approaching leis urely and afoot, to send that tapering point straight to the tiny mark. But at headlong gallop, astride a blooded horse straining to take the bit, a deed requiring « nice eye, a perfect seat and an unwavering arm and hand! Those knights who looped back with their pikes thus braceleted had spent long hours in practice and each rode as naturally as he breathed; yet more than once a horse shied in mid-course and at the too-eager thrust of the spur bolted through the ropes. Valiant made his first essay—and missed— *ith the blood singing in his ears, ring flew from his pike, catching him a swinging blow on the temple In Where Had John Valiant Learned That Trick of the Looee Wrlet and Inflexible Thruet. 11h rebound, but he ecarcely felt It. As he cantered back he heard the major’s bass pitting him against the field. And then, suddenly, stand and field all vanished. He saw only the long level rope-lined lane with Its twinkling rald-alr point. An exhilaration caught him at the feel of the splendid horse flesh beneath him —that sense of one ness with the creature he bestrode which the instinctive horseman knows. He lifted his lance and hefted It, seek- Mng Its absolute balance, feeling Its point as a fencer with his rapier. When again the blood-red sash streamed away the herald's cry, "Knight of the Crimson Pose —One!” sot the field hand-clapping. From the next Joust also. Valiant returned with the gage upon his lance. Two had gone to the Champion of Castlewood and two to scattering riders. When Valiant won his fourth the grand stand thundered with applause. HALLE ERMINE RIVES ILLUSTRATIONS by LAUREN STOUT The trumpet again pealed Its silvery proclamation. Judge Chalmers was on his feet. ‘‘Fifty to ten on the Crimson Rose,” he cried. This time, however, there were no takers. He called again, but none heard him; the last tilts were too absorbing. Where had John Valiant learned that trick of the loose wrist and in flexible thrust, but at the fencing club? Where that subconscious management of the rein, that nice gage of speed and distance, but on the polo field? The old sports stood him now in good stead. "Why, he has a seat like a centaur!" exclaimed the judge—praise indeed in a community where riding was a passion and horseflesh a fetish! “Oh, dear!” mourned Nancy Chal mers. “I’ve bet six pairs of gloves on Quint Carter. Never mind; if it has to be anybody else. I’d rather it were Mr. Valiant. It’s about time Damory Court got something after Rip-Van- Winkling it for thirty years. Besides, he’s giving us the dance, and I love him for that! Quint still has a chance, though. If he takes the next two, and Mr. Valiant misses—” Katharine looked at her with a lit tle smile. "He won’t miss,” she said. She had seen that look on his face before and read it aright. John Va liant had striven in many contests, not only of skill but of strength and dar ing, before crowded grand stands. But never In all his life had he so desired to pluck the prize. His grip was tense on the lance as the yellow doublet and olive plume of Castlewood shot away for a last time —and failed. An instant later the Knight of the Crim son Rose flashed down the lists with the last ring on his pike. And the tourney was won. In the shouting and hand-clapping Valiant took the rose from his hat band and bound it with a shred of his sash to his lance-point. As he rode slowly toward the massed stand, the whole field was so still that he could Jiear the hoofs of the file of knights behind him. The people were on their feet. The mounted herald blew his blast. “By the Majesties of St. Michael and St. George.” he proclaimed, “I declare the Knight of the Crimson Rose the victor of this our tourney, and do charge him now to choose his Queen of Beauty, that all may do her hom age!” Shirley saw the horse coming down the line, its rider bareheaded now. and her heart began to race wildly. Beyond wanting him to take part, she had not thought. She looked about her. suddenly dismayed. People were smiling at her and clapping their hands. From the other end of the stand she saw Nancy Chalmers throw ing her a kiss, and beside her a* tall pale girl in champagne-color staring through a Jeweled lorgnette. She was conscious all at once that the flanneied rider was very close • • • that his pike-point, with its big red blossom, was stretching up to her. With the rose in her hand she curt sied to him, while the blurred throng cheered itself hoarse, and the band struck up "You Great Big Beautiful Doll,” with extraordinary rapture, to the tune of which the noise finally sub sided to a battery of hilarious con gratulations which left her flushed and a little breathless. Nancy Chalmers and Betty Page had burst upon her like petticoated whirlwinds and pres ently, when the crowd had lessened, the judge came to introduce his visi i ,or - Mr. Fargo and his daughter are our attests at Gladden Hall,” he told her. They are old friends of Valiant’s, by the way; they knew him in New York.” "Katharine's lighting her Incense now, 1 guess,” observed Silas Fargo. "See there!" He pointed across the stand, where s«.ood a willowy tan fig ure, one hand beckoning to the con course below, where Valiant stoou, the center of a shifting group, round which the white bulldog, mad with recovered liberty, tore In eccentric circles. As they looked, she called softly. "John! John!" Shirley saw him ..tart and face about, then come quickly toward her, amazement and welcome In his eyes. As Shirley turned away a little later with the major, that whispering voice seemed to sound in her ears —“John! John!” There smote her suddenly the thought that when he had chosen her his Queen of Beauty, he had not seen the other —had not known she was there. A few moments before the day had been golden; she went home through a landscape that somehow seemed to have lost its brightest glow. CHAPTER XXIV. Katharine Decides. Katharine left the field of Runny mede with John Valiant In the dun colored motor. She sat in the driver’s seut beside him, while the bulldog ca pered, ecstatically barking, from side to side of the rear cushions. Her father had decllnod the honor, remark ing that he considered a professional chaufTeur a sufficient risk of his valua ble life and that the Chalmers' grays were good enough for him —a decision which did not wholly displease Katha rine. The car was not the smart Pan hard in which she had so often spun down the avenue or along the shell roads of the north shore. It lacked those fin-de-siecle appurtenances w hich marked the ne plus ultra of its kind, as her observant eye recognized; but it ran staunch and true. The powerful hands that gripped the steering-wheel were brown with sun and wind, and the handsome face above It had a look of keenness and energy she had never surprised before. They passed many vehicles and there were few whose oc cupants did not greet him. In fact, as he presently remarked, it was a saving of energy to keep his hat off; and he tossed the Panama into the rear seat. On the rim of the village a group raised a cheer to which he nodded laughingly, and further on a little old lady on a timid vine-colored porch beside a church, waved a black- The Tournament Ball at Damory Court That Night Was More Than an Event. mitted hand to him with a sweet old time gesture. Katharine noted that he bowed to her with extra care. "That’s Miss Mattie Sue Mabry," he said, "the quaintest, dearest thing you ever saw. She taught my father his letters." Where the Red Road stretched level i before them, he threw the throttle open for a long rush through the thymy-scented air. The light, late 1 afternoon breeze drew by them, sweep- ‘ ing back Katharine's graceful sinuous veil and spraying them with odors of clover and sunny fruit. They passed orchard clumps bending with young apples, boundless aisles of green, young-tasseled corn and shadowy groves that smelled of fern and sassa fras. opening out into more sunlighted vistas overarched by the intense pene trable of the June sky. John Valiant had never seemed to her so wholly good to see, with his waving hair ruffling in their flight and the westering sun shining redly on his face. Midway of this spurt he looked at her to say; "Did you ever know a more beautiful countryside? See how the plnk-and-yellow of those grain fields fades into the purple of the hills. Very few painters have ever captured a tint like that. It’s like raspberries crushed in curdled milk." “I’ve quite lost my heart to it all.” she said, her voice jolting with the speed of their course. "It’s a perfect pastoral • • • so different from our terrific city pace. ’ • • • Of course it must \>e a trifle dull at times • • • seeing the same people al ways • • • and without the thea ter and the opera and the whirl about one—but • * • the kind of life one reads about • • • In the nov els of the South, you know • • • 1 suppose one doesn’t realize that it actually exists until one comes to a Southern place like this. And the negro servants! How odd It must bo to have a white-haired old darky In a brass-buttoned swallow-tail for a but ler! So picturesque! At Judge Chal iners’ I have a feeling all the time that I'm walking through a stage re hearsal.” The car slackened speed as It slid by a whitewashed cabin at whose en trance sat a dusky gray-bearded fig ure. Valiant pointed. "Do you see i him?” he asked. "I see a very ordinary old colored ! man Bitting on the door-step," Katha rine replied. ’That’s Mad Anthony, our local Mother Shipton. He’s a prophet and soothsayer. Uncle Jefferson—that’s my body-servant—insists that he fore told my coming to Damory Court. If we had more time you could have your fortune told.” ‘‘How thrilling!” she commented with half-humorous irony. He pointed to a great white house set in a grove of trees. "Thct is Beechwood,” he told her, "the Beverly homestead. Young Beverley was the Knight of the Sliver Cross. A fine old place, isn’t It? It was burned by the Indians during the French and Indian War. My great-great great-grandfath er —" He broke off. "But then, thoso old things won’t interest you.” "They interest you a great deal, don’t they?” she linked "Yes,” he admitted, "they do. You see. my ancestors are such new ac quaintances. I find them absorbing. You know when I lived In New York—” "Last month.” He laughed a little—-uot quite the THE OILPOr OBSERVER. laugh she had known in the past. "Yes, but I can hardly believe it; I seem to have been here half a lifetime. To think that a month ago I w*as a double-dyed New Yorker.” “It’B been a strange experience for you. When you come back to New Yprk—’ He looked at her, oddly she thought. "Why should I go back?” “Why.’ Because it’s your natural habitat. Ins t it?” "That’s the word," he said smiling. "It was my habitat. This is my home." She was silent a moment in sheer surprise She had thought of this Southern essay as a quickly passing incident, a colorful chapter whose page might any day be turned. But it was impossible to mistake his mean ing. Clearly, he w’as deeply infatuated with this Arcadian experience and had no thought at present but to continue it indefinitely. They were passing the entrance of a cherry-bordered lane, and without tak ing his hands from the gear, he nodded toward the low broad-eaved dwelling with its flowering arbors that showed in flashing glimpses of brown and red between the intervening trees. "The palace of the queen!” he said— " Rosewood, by name.” She looked in some curiosity. Clear ly, if not a refuge of genteel poverty, neither was it the abode of wealth; so, from her assured rampart of the Fargo millions, Katharine reflected complacently. The girl was a local favorite, of course—he had been tact ful as to that. It was fortunate. In a way. that he had not seen her. Katha rine. In the grand stand until after ward. Feeling toward her as she be lieved he did, with his absurd direct ness. he would have been iikely to drop the rose in her lap, never re flecting that, the tourney being a local function, the choice should not fall ui*- on an outlander. The slowing of the car brought her back to the present, and she looked up to see before them the great gate of Gladden Hall. She did not speak till they had quite stopped. Then, as her hand lay in his for farewell. “You are right in your de cision,” Ehe said softly. ‘This is .your place. You are a Valiant of Virginia, j I didn’t realize It before, but I am be ginning to see all It means to you.” Her voice held a lingering indefin- I able quality that was almost sadness. , and for that one slender instant, she | opened on him the unmasked batteries !of her glorious gray eyes. • • •••** • The tournament ball at Damory j Court that night was more than an j event. The old mansion was an irre sistible magnet. The floor of its yel low parlor was known to be of delecta -1 ble hugeness. Its gardens were a le gend. The whole place, moreover, was steeped In the very odor of old mys -1 tery and new romance. Small wonder [ that to this particular affair the elect ; —the major was the high custodian 1 of the rolls, his decisions being as the laws of the Medes and Persians—came gaily from the farthest county line, and the big houses of the neighbor hood were crammed with over night , guests. By half past nine o’clock the pha lanx of chaperons decreed by old cus ; tom had begun to arrive, and the great ! iror gate at the front of the drive — i erect and rustless now—saw' an impos i ing processional of carriages. These ! passed up a slope as radiant with the I fairy light of paper lanterns as a Japa- I nese thoroughfare in festival season. The colored bulbs swung moon-like ADDITION TO HIS EFFICIENCY Business Manager Would Do Well to Remember That His Personality Counts for Much. "He’s really very agreeable outside | of business hours." How often we hear | this remark about a certain type o' man ut the head of a large enterprise ’ lie is the niun whose office demeanor is characterized by the coldness of u snowball and the Indifference of a stone. In his desire to become efficient und make every one übout him the same he squeezes every bit of human feel ing out of his relations with his sub ordinates and becomes a part of a working system, ns dehumanized as his filing system or his adding ma j chine or the typewriter which his ; stenographer manipulates During of flee hours he Is u machine which dic tates letters, looks over reports and develops efficiency. But —“he’s really very agreeable outside of business hours.” This man needs to know that, his ability being efficient, he becomes more efficient as ho becomes more hu man, just as a machine Is more effi cient the more machine-like It be comes. He needs to learn that the man at the head of a big concern from tree and shrub, painting their rainbow lusters on grass and drive way. Under the high gray columns of the porch and into the wide door, framed In its small leaded panes glowed with the merry light within, poured a stream of loveliness: in car riage-wraps of light tints, collared and edged with fur or eider, or wide sleeved mandarin coats falling back from dazzling throats and arms, hair swathed with chiffon against the night dews, and gallantly cavaliered by mas culine black and white. These from their tiring-fooms over flowed presently, garbed like dreams, to make obeisance to the dowagers and then to drift through flower-lined corridors, the foam on recurrent waves of discovery. Behind the rose-bower in the hall, which shielded a dozen colored musicians—violins, cello, gui tars and mandolins —came premonitory chirps and shivers, w-hlch presently wove into the low and dreamy melody of “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia.” Promptly as the clock* in the hall chimed ten, the music merged into a march. Doors on opposite sides of the upper hall swung wide and down the broad staircase came, with slow step, a stately procession: two heralds in fawn-colored doublets with scroll and trumpets wound with flowers, behind them the Queen of Beauty, her finger tips resting lightly in the hand of the Knight of the Crimson Rose, and these followed by as brave a concourse of lords and ladies as ever graced castle hall in the gallant days "when knight hood was in flower.” Shirley’s gown was of pure white: her arms were swathed in tulle, crossed with straps of seed-pearl, over which hung long semi-flowing sleeves of satin, and from her shoulders rose a stiff pointed medieval collar of Vene tian lace, against whose pale traceries her bronze hair glowed with rosy lights. The elge of the square-cut cor sage was powdered with the pearls and against their sheen her breast and neck had the soft creamy ivory of magnolia buds. Her straight plain train of satin, knotted with fresh white rose-buds (Nancy Chalmers had la bored for a frantic half-hour in the dressing-room for this effect) was held by the seven-year-old Byloe twins, beribboned knickerbockers, duly impressed with the grandeur of their privilege and grimly intent on acquit ting themselves with glory. Shirley's face was still touched with the surprise that had swept it as Valiant had stepped to her side. She had looked to see him in the conven tional panoply a sober-sided masculine mode decrees. What she had beheld was a figure that might have stepped out of an Elizabethan picture-frame. He was in deep purple slashed with gold. A cloak of thin crimson velvet narrowly edged with ermine hung i from his shoulders, lined w’ith tissue [ like cloth-of-gold. From the rolling brim of his hat swept a curling purple plume. He wore a slender dress-sword, and an order set with brilliants spar kled on his breast. The costume had been one he had worn at a fancy ball of the winter be fore. It had been made from a paint ing at Windsor of one of the dukes of Buckingham, and it made a perfect foil for Shirley’s white. The eleven knights of the tourney, each with his chosen lady, if less splendid, were tricked out in sufficient ly gorgeous attire. Many an ancient brocade had been awakened for the nonce from its lavender bed. and ruffs and gold-braid were at no premium. (TO BE CONTINUED.) must have personality if he is to hold his business together, and that per sonality is a good thing to keep on top. The man who subordinates his per sonality to his position is the man who lets his position run him and who is a jobholder before he is a man. A pitia ble stute, 1 indeed, for anybody to find himself in. Being a man with a per-, sonality as well as an executive with a high degree of efficiency is an ideal which every business man might well hold before himself, Inside of business hours or otherwise.—Milwaukee Jour nal. Japanese Theater. To a foreigner, stage management In Japan would appear somewhat ec centric. When an actor Is killed dur ing the play a man in black rushes on the stage and holds a large clock be fore the supposed corpse, who soon rises und runs off the stage. The scenes are never shifted, but the whole stage revolves on wheels, while between the ucts the children among the audience rush behind the curtain and play until the drum beats for another act. The performance be gins at 10 a. m., and the uudieuce pro vision themselves for 24 hours, curling up on mats and smoking the whola time W ESTERN MINING NEWS IN BRIEF Western Newspaper Union Nows Service. -\**w \ ork .M«*tnl Market**. Bar Silver $0.56 *4 Lead $3.85 (a 3.9* Spelter $5.05® 5 15 CRIPPLE CREEK OUTPUT $1,190,917 Portland Mill Established New Rec ords by Treating 19,600 Tons. • Cripple Creek. —The output of the mines of the Cripple Creek district for the month of May, as reported by the smelter and mill authorities totalled 86,397 tons, with the gross bullion val ue of $1,190,917.92. A slight increase Is shown in tonnage, but due to the low-grade ore treated at the local mill ing plants, the value shows a slight decrease. The average value of all ores treated was $13.78 per ton. The mill of the Portland Gold Min ing Company, on Battle mountain, es tablished a new record, treating 19,600 tons of low-grade mine ore, with the average value of $2.57 per ton as profit. This is an increase of 2,000 tons over the previous high record. Dividends were paid during May by the Golden Cycle Mining Company of $45,000, the sixth monthly distribution of a like amount this year, and the Elkton Consolidated Mining and Mill ing Company, a quarterly dividend of $50,000. The figures given out follow: Ton- Av’g Gross Plants— nage. Value. Value. Smelters 4.160 $55.00 $228,800.00 Golden Cycle ..31.300 20.00 626.600.00 Portland 0,800 22.00 215,600.00 Portland (CCD) 19.600 2.57 40.372.00 Stratton’s Ind. .1 1.752 2.96 33,685.92 Colburn-Ajax . . 4.000 7.75 31.000.00 Gaylord-Dante. 1.500 4.00 6.000.00 Wild Horse ... 1.200 2.80 3.360.00 Kav.-Jo. D 1.900 1.30 2.470 00 Free Coin. (Est.) 625 3.00 1.875.00 Isabella 550 2.10 1.155.00 Totals 86.387 $1,190,917.92 Colorado. In Ouray district it was reported that a strike of eighteen inches of ore, running about $550 to the ton, was en countered on the Wewissa. A new tunnel is being driven on the Bonack property, adjoining the We wissa at Ouray by DuPrau, Roberts and Bartew, and is in approximately 700 feet. A strike is reported made at a depth o? 500 feet on the Vindicator No. 2, at Victor, by Lessees Potts and company, who have a vein about three feet wide that carries values of S3O per ton. With the Black Bear. Humboldt and Revenue groups in the line of transfer to large syndicates, the outlook for greater production in the Ouray-Tel luride section is decidedly promising. F. W. McCarthy and Frank Curtis, struck a small vein of very rich ore on the Trout, in Box Canon park, prac tically within the city of Ouray. Aver age assays of the ore run somewhat over SBOO to the ton. President Burris of Cripple Creek’s E! Paso group in a recent report tells the shareholders that the "proven ore in the Nicholls shaft territory and the certainty of the continuation of these ore bodies as they dip northward to wards the Nicholls shaft, in all re spects indicates to our satisfaction the ore possibilities of the deeper El Paso workings. Wyoming. The National Radium Mines Com pany has filed incorporation papers. The Standard Oil Company made Its first shipment of motor spirits from its Casper refinery. A powerful flow of natural gas has been brought in by the Montana-Wyo ming Oil Company at the Neville farm near Byron. The Basin-Grevbull field is gradual ly readjusting itself to conditions fol lowing the shock which came with the news of the withdrawal of oil lands. New Mexico. * * The Phelps-Dodge people will soon have a thousand men employed on their property at Tyrone. A reported new rich gold strike conu s from the head of Rain creek, in the Mogollon mining district that Is liekly to draw u large number of peo ple. The Eastern New Mexico Oil Com ! puny has been organized at Melros© to develop supposed oil bearing lands south of that place. It is believed the greasy juice In paying quantities will be found at 1,500 feet. The Chino Copper Company output 18,087.128 pounds of the metal for the first quarter of this year as against 13.970,438 pounds for the first quarter of 1913. The company at present em ploys fifteen hundred men. A number of abandoned mines in Grant county are now in the hands of systematic miner* who are taking out fortunes in gold, silver and copper from properties that had produced millions In the past but had censed operating owing to extravagant man agement. Arizona. The Green-Cananea company r» ports for April an output of 2,044,000 pounds of copper against 3.510,000 pounds for March. Net profit of the Shannon Copper Company for the quarter ending March 31. wns $16,675 as against sl(n,- C3S the previous quarter. It is announced that a concentrator of 200 tons dally capacity Is to be built at the Three R mine, In the Putagonla district. It is estimated that enough water can be developed at the mine.