143

XIV. THE RENT IN THE ARMOR 153

PART II

I. UNDER ONE FLAG 167

II. THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER 182

III. THE DAY'S WORK 191

IV. THE CROSSROADS OF THE WEST 199

V. THE APPEAL 208

VI. WHICH WAY? 218

VII. THE MOUNTAINS 230

VIII. TRAIL'S END 241

IX. THE SUMMONS 250

X. THE ABYSS 256

XI. THE BEE 272

XII. WHAT VOICE HAD CALLED? 280

XIII. THE NEWS 292

XIV. THE GUESTS OF A NATION 300

XV. MR. JEFFERSON'S ADVICE 308

XVI. THE QUALITY OF MERCY 316

XVII. THE FRIENDS 328

XVIII. THE WILDERNESS 336

XIX. DOWN TO THE SEA 351

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"'Him Ro'shones,' replied the girl" _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

"'Mistah Thomas Jeffahson!' was his sole announcement" 50

"'Oh, Theo, what have I done?'" 162

"Her face indeed!" 252

THE
MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE

CHAPTER I

MOTHER AND SON

A woman, tall, somewhat angular, dark of hair and eye, strong of
features--a woman now approaching middle age--sat looking out over the
long, tree-clad slopes that ran down from the gallery front of the
mansion house to the gate at the distant roadway. She had sat thus for
some moments, many moments, her gaze intently fixed, as though waiting
for something--something or someone that she did not now see, but
expected soon to see.

It was late afternoon of a day so beautiful that not even old
Albemarle, beauty spot of Virginia, ever produced one more
beautiful--not in the hundred years preceding that day, nor in the
century since then. For this was more than a hundred years a