Pictures and the Picturegoer (October 1915 - March 1916)

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PICTURES AI'<D THE PICTUREGOER 50 :: KNDIXG Oct. i 6, i She wn lady, and 1 n tlemau," he continued mumbling. " Vi'\v look 1 1 lv « a gentleman now," r< torted "Rags"' viciously. " No argument; eel awaj borne," and pulling him on his felt, she sent him staggering through 1 he saloi ni door and out into t he road with a well-directed shove. Bags "followed him fi »r t he pur] his tea, for her violence 1 owards him was, in her opinion, "all for his own good.' * ' # # # Paul Ferguson had not exaggerated when he said thai "Rag's." mother had been a lady, and he a gentleman. But that was in the dim and distant pa6t. Twenty years previously he was a young cashier with a good salary and assured position in the employ of John Hardest}', the President of the local hank. Eehad wooed and won Alice MeCloud, llardesty's ward, and for several months the happiness of the pair had been Elysian. Hardesty had secretly loved with htm. 1 .1 month he hud wandered about theconnfry. He b to drink heavily. The man had character, and continue I to fall lo and lower, dragging his rcife down with him a^ a nal ural sequen :e, A:: health h >gan to fail, an 1 n hen her little daughter was born the moth stitution collapsed, and after the birth of t he child the mother died. Ferguson fortified him --If durin s period with plenty of liquor, and it with a drunken and hilarious sui-prise that he encountered the racanl _ his baby-daughter. ■• What ai j >ing to call u ? " he hie ioughed at the nurse. ''We are going to christen ir ' Glorj .' " replied the incensed nurse, looking scornfully at the drunken father. "How about your duty to the child ? Where are its clothes ? " Ferguson laughed " Call that thin? ' Glory,'" he • said. " 1 guess you ha 1 "Rags'' (on the coach) is the guiding spirit of the Western tow: his ward, but he was a much older man and less showy in appearance than Ferguson, and when the employer saw that his ward's happiness was bound up with Ferguson he suppressed his own feelings and allowed the course of love to run smoothly. It was his one and only romance, and he had buried it deep in his own heart. But Ferguson was one of those individuals who seemed destined to seize their own pleasures at the expense of those around. For some considerable time he had systematically robbed his employer, and when the extent of the frauds was discovered Hardesty was aghast. His first impulse was to hand Ferguson over to the police, but the pleading and tearful face of his ward Aliee restrained him. He called Ferguson before him, and printed io the door. "I give you twentyfour hours to leave the (own. If you are not gone bv then .1 shall inform the police." he said. Ferguson had gone, taking his wife better call it ' Rags,' for it'll never have anything else to wear." That was seventeen years ago. and the father's prophecy fulfilled itself. Poor little " Glory "became " Rags." and no one had ever seen her dressed in anything except rags. * W * # The child had grown up entirely untutored, and with no friends for whom she cared except her goat, a doe-, and a cat that fought with both. Until recently she had taken no interest in any one except her pets and her father. But the recent arrival of a young mm named Keith Duncan, who with a partner was engaged on some engineering works in the village, had changed her outlook. Keith had saved her on one occasion from her father's brutality. Seeing a man attacking a girl, Keith had promptly knocked him down : hut i istead of receiving thanks, the girl turned on him with the angry remark. " Yew leave my father alone. 1 don't allow any one to touch him. except me." K~-.li : 1 with a grim :th § pretty and that she \ charm i; had never been spoiled bj with ;: " refined " world. H- Icrrng if there were possibi anything better in '" I ! . outlook. " An extraordinary girl." he murmured; and. what an awful life! and what a freak she looks in trousers! Thei for a lady-missionary fa When later Keith calh hut on some pretext it had i'in the desire to £ ■ of " R ■_ whograndilo piently invited him to h tea, and. of coarse, K>ith smilin. a pted. The little tea-party i spoiled by the arrival of Ferjj who, on seeing the visitor, remembered the handling he had got, and remarked surlily. " You keep away from my daughter. You're u>t wan* Keith, chagrined, accepted the invitation and went out despite *' B protests. But the girl revenged herself in a drastic manner. With a de\t■'. aim she flung a cup of tea at her father; and Ferguson, becoming really alarmed for his own safety, tied our of & the daughter called after him, " Don't yew interfere with my i gain." Ferguson turned iu the direction the haunt where some of the rough characters in the town plotted their schemes of plunder. The man was hard up for money for drink, and he thought of a quick way of getting it. He k\. that Keith Duncan would be driving to the bank that evening to draw sufficient money to pay the star on the engineering work. It was his intention to call in the aid of the shady "work?-; shys." and when he parted from them they had planned a neat hold-up of Duncan in a lonely lane on his return journey from the bank. The men met by arrangement under the shadow of bushes and discussed their plans. Although they took every precaution, they overlooked one eavesdropper, and that \vas"Rags." She had tracked her father with the intention of bringing him home again should he get drunk, and was surprised to find where her quarry led betin this instance. "It's more serious than drink tonight." muttered the girl, as she i noiselessly to her feet from her hiding place. " I guess I'd better stop this." ••Rags" informed the sheriff, but the plans of the robbers bad developed in the meantime. The sheriff and his posse arrived just in time to rescue Keith from the hands of the robbers, and the encounter developed into a gun duel in which shots Hew in every direction. When the right was over, half a dozen men lay on the road, and amongst them were Ferguson and Duncan. The latter was slightly wounded, but it was ea>-y to see from the fading light in Ferguson's eyes that his course had been checked for ever, lie himself realised it. and compunction at the lonely fate of his daughter tortured his mind for the first time. He called her to him. and the girl, notwithstanding his worthlessness as a parent, became distracted at her approaching bereavement. "Yew ain't going to die, dad!" she