The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Boys And Girls Should learn those subjects by which theyzcan earn a living. SPOTTON BUSI-‘ NESS COLLEGES are the largest trainers in Canada, and our graduates secure fir-s best positions. You can study at home, or partly at home and finish at the College I N DIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION ENTER ANY DAY WALKERTON BUSINESS COLLEGE GEO. SPOTI’ON - PRINCIPAL ‘A-_‘--_._g WWWҤWN ”~ *MWW George Whitmore Mrs. A. SULLIVAN Upper Town - Durham Bumps, Curbingtlilp g3, N r§§+§¢§§§ M¢§O§+¢¢§ \‘r O :94 ' >§¢§§§§§+§§§§§N§§§+¢ New Grocery Store Fresh Groceries 1 Always in Stock Butter and Eggs Taken in Exchange Get a. bottle of our Syrup Wr ite Pine and Tar. The fit» I: dose will relieve you. It newr fails to cure. 25¢ per bottze. LM. D. MCGRATH 1n Near the 6m. 8:. Bridge I wish to announce to the public that I am now settled in myinew quarters, T. Homn'n old I. the Gal-mun 8t. 8!!!“ fraxa. 8%. bridge, where I am prepared to cater to their wants inzan kinds of custom bhohmith- ing. All work gum- ANYONE ONE NEEDING New Pumps, Pump Re- pairs, Cement Curbing or Culvert Tile, see . . . . U H U LT Z or myself at the shOp New Quarters “Indeed! _May I ask why?” she‘d; manded. “Because you yield him a privilege you deny to me." “I was nor. aware you meant to call today. As it is, I am paying a strictly ceremonial visit. I wish I could speak Hindustani. Now, what would you say to Behari Lal in such a case?” “There!” she said, tugging at a re- fractory glove. “Did you hear it? It actually shrieked as it split. And this is the second pair. I shall never again believe a word Behari Lal says. Wait till I see him. I‘ll give him such a talking to.” “Then I have it In my heart to envy Behari Lal,” said her companion, glancing up at her from the carriage- way that ran by the side of the few steps leading down from the veranda. “I hardly know. When I buy gloves, I buy them of sufficient size. Of course you have small handsâ€"” “Thank you. Please don’t trouble to explain. And now, as you have been rude to me, I shall not take you to see Mrs. Meredith." “But that is a kindness.” “Then you shall come, and be miser- able.” But she was young enough and pretty enough to pay little heed to pose or background. In fact, so much of her smooth brow as could be seen under a broad-brimmed straw hat was wrinkled in a decided frown. Happily, ner bright brown eyes had a glint of humor in them, for Winifred’s wrath was an evanescent thing, a pallid sprite, rarely seen, and ever ready to be banished by a smile. “For your sake, Miss Mayne, I would face Medusa, let alone the ex- cellent wife of our Commissary-Gen. oral, but fate, in the shape of an un- commonly headstrong Arab, forbids. I have just secured a new charger, and he and I have to decide this evening whether I go where he wants togo,orhe goes wherelwanttogo. I wheedled him into 3011: compound One evening in the month of April, a slim, straight-backed girl stood in the veranda of a bungalow at Meerut. Her slended figure, garbed in White muslin, was framed in a creeper- covered arch. The fierce ardor of an Indian spring had already kissed into life a profusion of red flowers amid the mass of greenery, and, if Wini- fred Mayne had sought an effective setting for her own fair picture, she could not have found one better fit- ted to it's purpose. by sheer trickery. The reallyâ€" doti‘ The lie and the message flew through India with the inconceivable speed with which such ill tidings al- ways travels in that country. Ever north went the news that the British Raj was doomed. Hindu fakirs, aglow with religious zeal, Mussalman zealots, as eager for dominance in this world as for a houri-tenanted Paradise in the next, carried the fiery torch of rebellion far and wide. And so the flame spread, and was fanned to red fury, though the eyes of few Englishmen could see it, while native intelligence was aghast at the supineness of their over-lords. “Kill!” he murmured in his frenzy, as he rushed away to tell his com- rades the lie. that made the Indian Mutiny possible. “Slay and spare not! Let us avenge our wrongs so fully that no accursed Feringhi shall dare again to come hither across the Black Water!” Not a great matter, this squabble between a sepoy and a Lascar, yet it lit such a flame in India that rivers of blood must be shed ere it was quenched. The Brahmin’s mind reeled under the shock of the retort. It was true, then, what the agents of the :lethroned King of Oudh were saying in the bazaar. The Government were bent on the destruction of Brahminiâ€" cal supremacy. He and his caste-fel- lows would lose all that made life worth living. But they would exact a bitter price for their fall from high estate. “Contaminate!” grinned the Lascar, neither frightened nor angered. “By holy Ganga, it is your lips that are contaminated, not mine. Are not the Government greasing your cartridges with cow’s fat? And can you load your rifle without biting the forbidden thing? Learn more about your own caste, brother, before you talk so proudly to others.” “Do you know, swine-begotten, that your hog’s lips would contaminate my lotah?” asked he, putting the scorn of centuries into the words. The sepoy started as though a snake had stung him. Lascars, the sailor- men of India, were notoriously free- and-easy in their manners. Yet how came it that even a low-caste mon- grel of a Lasoar should offer such an overt insult to a Brahmln! were not heaven-born Brahmlns, would grovel before him in secret, though he must obey their slightest order on parade or in the field. To him approached a Lascar. “Brother,” said the newcomer “lend me your brass pot, so that I may drink, for I have walked far in the Copyright by McLeod a Allen CHAPTER I. The Meshes of the Net On p. day in January, 1857, a sepoy was sitting by a well in the canton- ment of Dum-Dum, near Calcutta. Though he wore the uniform of John Company, and his rank was the lowest in the native army, he carried on his forehead the caste-marks of the Brah- min. In a word, he was more than noble, being of sacred birth, and the Hindu officers of his regiment, ifthey THE RED YEAR A Story of the Indian Mutiny LOUIS TRACY But money and rank are artificial, the mere varnish of life, and the hot breath of reality can soon scorch them out of existence. Events were then shaping themselves in India that wer destined to sweep aside conven- tion for many a day. Had the young Englishman known it, five miles from Meerut his Arab’s hoofs threw pebbles over a swarthy moullah, lank and travel-stained who was hastening to- wards the Punjab on a dreadful er- rand. The man turned and cursed |him as he passed, and bowed with bit- ter venom that when the time of reck- oning came there would not bt a Fer- inghi left in all the land. Malcolm, ihowever, would have laughed had he heard. Affairs of state did not con- cern him. His only trouble was that {Winifred Mayne stood on a pinnacle 'tar removed from the beaten path of *a. cavalry subaltern. So, being in a irare fret and fume, he let the gray Arab gallop himself white, and, when the high-mettled Nejdi thought of eas- ing the pace somewhat he was urged onward with the slight but utterly un- precedented prick of a spur. “I like Mr. Malcolm,” she confided to herself with a little laugh, “but his manner with women is distinctly brusque! I wonder why!” The Grand Trunk Road ran to left and right. To the left it led to the bazaar, the cantonment, and the civil lines; to the right, after passing a few houses tenanted by Europeans, it en- tered the open country on a long stretch of over a thousand miles to Calcutta and the south. In 1857 no thoroughfare in the world equalled the Grand Trunk Road. Beginning at ; Peshawur, in the extreme north ofI India, it traversed the Punjab for six hundred miles as far as Aligarh. Here it broke into the Calcutta and Bombay branches, each nearly a thou- i straight, well made and tree-lined. throughout it supplied the two great arteries of Indian life. Malcolm had selected it as a training-ground that; evening because he meant to wearyi and subdue his too highly spirited charger. Whether the pace was fast ' or slow Nejdi would be compelled to gmeet many varieties of traffic, from ;artillery elephants and snarling cams iels down to the humble bullock-cart! 50f the ryot. Possibly, he would not‘ ,shy at such monstrosities after twenty ; {miles of lathering ride. I That was. a degradation not to be borne. The Calcutta Brahmin did not resent the Lascar’s taunt more keenly. With a swerve that almost unseated Malcolm, the Arab dashed in front of a bullock-cart, swept between the trees on the west side of the road. leaped a But a nice young woman can find joints in the armor of the sternestâ€" souled young man. Her attack is all the more deadly if it be unpremedi- tated, and Frank Malcolm had already reached the self-depreciatory stage wherein a comparatively impecunious subaltern asks himself the sad ques- tion whether it be possible for such a one to woo and wed a maid of high degree, or her Anglo-Indian equiva- lent, an heiress of much prospecetive wealth and present social importance. The mad pace set by the Arab when he heard the clatter of his feet on the hard road chimed in with the turbu- lent mood of his rider. Frank Mal- colm was a soldier by choice and in- stinct. When he joined the Indian army, and became a subaltern in a native cavalry regiment, he deter- mined to devote himself to his profes- sion. He gave his whole thought to it and to nothing else. His interests lay in his work. He regarded every- thing from the point of view of its influence on his military education, so it may be conceded instantly that the arrival in Meerut of an Oudh Commis- sioner’s pretty niece should not have affected the peace of mind of this bud- ding Napoleon. It left her ratfier fluâ€"shgagndoggath- less. “v â€"â€"vâ€"v v--°- ble young lady the Meerut district could produce that year, witnessed a display of cool, resourceful horseman- ship as the enraged Arab plunged and curvetted through the main gate. '1 i A. V'- “Ready for the fray, I see," mur- mured Malcolm with a smile. He wasted no time over preliminaries. Bidding the syce place his thumbs in the steel rings of the bridle, the young Englishman gathered the reins and a wisp of gray mane in his left hand. Seizing a favorable moment, when the struggling animal flinched from the touch of a low-lying branch on the off side, he vaulted into the saddle. Chunga the syce, held on until his master’s feet had found the stirrups. Then he was told to let go, and Miss Winnifred Mayne, niece of a Commis- sioner of Oudh, quite the most eligi- ki- __A , ‘ to be dozing but they woke into ac- tivity when the sahib approached. The Arab' pricked his ears, swished his long and arched tail viciously, and showed the whites of his eyes. A Bedouin of the desert, a true scion of the incomparable breed of Nejd, he was suspicious of civilization, and his new owner was a stranger, as yet. Lifting his hat, he walked towards a huge pipal tree in the compound. Beneath its far-flung branches a syce was sitting in front of a finely-pro- portioned and unusually big Arab horse. Both animal and man seemed “Yes, if IidOn’t 'send you a teie- gram from Aligarh. I may be brought there, you know, against my will.” “Oh, go away, you and your Arab. You are both horrid. You dine here to-ngorrow night, my uncle said?" “I don’t expect to be deposited in the dust, it that is what you mean,” he said. “But there is a fair chance that instead of carrying me back to Mee- l‘t,.'t my friend Nejdi will take me to Aligarh. You see he is an Arab of mettle. If I am too rough with him, it will break his spirit; if too gentle, he will break my neck. He needs the main de fer sous 1e gant de velours. Please forgive me! I really didn’t intend to mention gloves again.” “I hope youare not running any un- due risk,” said the girl, with a sudden note of anxiety in her voice that was sweetest music to Frank Malcolm’s ears. For an instant he had a mad impulse to ask if she cared, but he crushed it ruthlessly, and his banter- ing reply gave no hint of the tumult in his breast. Yet he feared to meet her eyes, and was glad of a saluting sepoy who swaggered jauntily past the open gate. nlte issue will be settled forthwith on the Grand Trunk Road." THE DURH A 3H ' 22RONICLE 1 Leading the Arab, w,ho with the fatalism of his race, was quiet as a jsheep now that he had found a mas- ?ter, the young officer took the direc- ition pointed out by the lady. Round~ ?ing an angle of the wall, he came to a ,causeway spanned by a small bridge, Iwhich was guarded by the machicoâ€" ilated towers of a strong gate. A pon- ‘ derous door, studded with great bosses fof iron fashioned to represent ele- phants ’ heads, swung openâ€"half re- gluctantly it seemedâ€"and he was ad- imitted to a spacious inner court- ,yard. He was given little time for obser- vation. A distinguished-looking man, evidently vested with authority, bus- tled forward and addressed him, civilly enough. Servants came with water and towels, and cleaned his garments sufficiently to make him presentable, while other men groomed his horse. He was wet through, of course, but that was not a serious matter with the thermometer at seventy degrees in the shade, and, de- spite thef ordinarlilce or the Prophet, a glass 0 exce ent red w handed to him. he was But he saw no more of the Prin- cess. He thought she would ha I dare to receive him openly, and r111; . “The number of armed retainers gathered there was unexpectedly large. He was well acquainted with the Meerut district, yet he had no notion that such a fortress existed within an hour’s fast ride of the sta- tion. The King of Delhi had a large hunting-lodge somewhere in the 10- cality, but he had never seen the place. If this were it, why should it be crammed with soldiers? Above all, why should they eye him with such ill-concealed displeasure? Duty had brought him once to Delhiâ€"it was barely forty miles from Meerutâ€"and the relations between the feeble old King, Bahadur Shah, and the British authorities were then most friendly, while the hangers-on. at the Court mixed freely with the Europeans. His quick intelligence caught at the belief that these men resented his presence because he was brought among them by the command of the lady. He knew now that he must have seen and spoken to one of the royal princesses. None other would dare to show her- self unveiled to a stranger and a white man at that. The manifest an- noyance of her household was thus easily accounted for, but he marveled at the strength oi her body-guard, She turned, and gave an order to one of the attendants. With another encouraging smile to Malcolm, she disappeared. “’Tis well said,” she vowed, smil- ing with all the rare effect of full red 'lips and white even teeth. “Neverthe less, this is no time for compliments. You need our help, and it shall be given willingly. Make for the gate, I pray you.” “Princess,” he said, “the radiance of your presence is as the full moon suddenly illuminingc the path of a weary traveler, who finds himself on the edge of a morass.” A flash of surprise and pleasure lit up the fine eyes of the haughty beauty perched up there on the pal- ace wall. By that time, Malcolm had regained his wits. A verse of a poem by Hafiz occurred to him. “Perhaps you do not speak my lan- guage,” she said in Urdu the tongue most frequently heard in Upper In- dia. “If you will go round to the gateâ€"that wayâ€"~” and she waved a graceful hand to the leftâ€"“my ser- vants will render you some assis- tance." To his exceeding wonder, his eyes met those of a young Mohammedan woman, richly garbed, and of remarkable appearance. She was un- veiled, an amazing fact in itself, and her creamy skin, arched eyebrows, regular features, and raven-black hair proclaimed her aristocratic lineage. She was leaning forward in an em- brasure of the battlemented wall. Behind her, two attendants, oval- faced, brown-skinned women of the people, peered shyly at the English- man. When he glanced their way, they hurriedly adjusted their silk saris, or shawls, so as to hide their faces. Their mistress used no such bashful subterfuge. She leaned some- what farther through the narrow em- brasure, revealing by the action her bejewelled and exquisitely molded Before he could see the speaker, so smothered was he in dripping moss and weeds, Malcolm knew that some lady of rank had watched his adven- ture. She used the pure Persian of the court, and her diction was refined. Luckily, he had studied Persian as well as its Indian off-shoot, Hindu- stani, and he understood the words. He pressed back his dank hair, squeezed the water and slime off his face, and looked up. The two were coated with green slime. Being obviously unhurt, they probably had a forlornly comic aa- pect. At any rate, a woman's musical laugh came from the lofty wall which bounded the moat on the further side, and a woman’s clear voice said: “A bold leap, sahib! Did you mean to scale the fort on horseback? And why not have chosen a spot where the water was cleaner?" The splash, for more than the duck- ing, frightened the horse. Malcolm, in that instant of prior warning which the possessor of steady nerves learns tod use so well, disengaged his feet from the stirrups. He was thrown clear, and, when he came to the sur- face, he saw that the Arab and him- self were floundering in a moat. Not the pleasantest of bathing-places any- where, in India such a sheet of al- most stagnant water has excessive peculiarities. Among other items, it breeds fever and harbors snakes, so Malcolm tloundered rather than swam to the bank, where he had the negative satisfaction of catching Nejdi’s bridle when that disconcerted steed scrambled out after him. oroad ditch, and crashed Into a new of millet. Another ditch. another field, breast high with tall castor-oil piants, a frantic race through a grove of mangoesâ€"when Malcolm had to lie flat on Nejdi’s neck to avoid being swept off by the low branchesâ€"and horse and man dived headlong into deep water. We have a. full line of home-made Taffy. We have a very nice thing for the skatersâ€"3.11 kinds of hot drinks, Tomato Bouillon, Fluid Beef, hot coffee and cocoa. Don’fi go home cold When you can get a. good hot drink like this on your way. GO TO “MOOOOWOOOOMM WWW The Big ShoeStore 24 pr. Lediee’ Foxed Felts 1 49 * 60 pair Misses’ Kid Bluch- 1 00 ° . er, 0 regular $2.00, for .. . .. ..... pat. tip, reg. $1.50.f0r. . 20 pair Lsdies’ Felts, reg. {24 pair Men’s All Felt,with $2.00, for..... ............. 1'49 rubber over. reg. $3.25, for 2'59 60 pair Lsdies’ Felt House 12 pair Men’s Goodyear Slippers. res. $1.25. for.... '99 Welt,fe1t1ined,fe1csolea,s4 2-50 20 pair Misses’ All Felt 1 2 9 Ladies’ Rubbers .................. 650 Shoes, reg. $2.00. for. .. ' Men’s Over-rubbers ............... 89c Also a. large number of Box Calf and Kid Shoes for ladies, men and children at greatly reduced prices Don’t fail to come in and see our stock before going elsewhere. N ow is the time to save your dollars. REPAIRING neatly and quickly attended to. Come to The Big Stock-taking Sale And Get Your Share of The Bargains We have a large stock of Felt Shoes, all sizes, in men’s, women’s and childrens’, and we are cutting the prices so low that it will be a surprise to the Whole town and vicinity. 24 pr. Ladiea’ Faxed Felts regular $2.00, for .......... 20 pair Ladies’ Felts, reg. $2.00, for..... ............. 60 pair Ladies’ Felt House Slippers, reg. $1.25, for. . .. 20 pair Misses’ All Felt Shoes, reg. $2.00, for ...... Sale Starts Saturday, January zlst And Will Last For Three Weeks The following are a few of the many lines that we will mark away down. Stock taking Sale g FRESH OYSTERSE Lunches served at all hours Ere THOS. MCGRATH TERMS: CASH OR EGGS BURNETT 8: COOPER Feb. 9. FOR The VICTIMS 0 “OTHER AND MUSKOKA Feb. 9. 19 Mat A story from t: fa- Consumptivé with oer two chi pent in that, ins‘ Anvone sending 1 any ascemam ( mention :3 prohm dons strictzycnnndl cent. free. ("dent m , AA ‘Alpnn ’l Judgmély" 1112!! won of any "1 a, $3.75 8 ye- The words 01 She writes : “1 him to CXflUfiM We was any“ he aid that ti A little rest, h‘ I have a little 5 the doctor 833" up with me it. 1 as shoe it more chi the Editions nines.“ duptain odngb pl ted y in Re Institution. TH No' I too