neration still survived. No one could do anything in a quarter of an
hour. Nearly all tasks were done by Negroes who had forgotten how to
work, or by white people who had never learned. But the colonel had
already seen the reviving effect of a little money, directed by a
little energy. And so he planned to build a new and larger cotton mill
where the old had stood; to shake up this lethargic community; to put
its people to work, and to teach them habits of industry, efficiency
and thrift. This, he imagined, would be pleasant occupation for his
vacation, as well as a true missionary enterprise--a contribution to
human progress. Such a cotton mill would require only an
inconsiderable portion of his capital, the body of which would be left
intact for investment elsewhere; it would not interfere at all with
his freedom of movement; for, once built, equipped and put in
operation under a competent manager, it would no more require his
personal oversight than had the New England bagging mills which his
firm had conducted for so many years.

From impulse to action was, for the colonel's temperament, an easy
step, and he had scarcely moved into his house, before he quietly set
about investigating the title to the old mill site. It had been
forfeited many years before, he found, to the State, for non-payment
of taxes. There having been no demand for the property at any time
since, it had never been sold, but held as a sort of lapsed asset,
subject to sale, but open also, so long as it remained unsold, to
redemption upon the payment of back taxes and certain fees. The amount
of these was ascertained; it was considerably less than the fair value
of the property, which was therefore redeemable at a profit.

The owners, however, were widely scattered, for the mill had belonged
to a joint-stock company composed of a dozen or more members. Colonel
French was pleasantly surprised, upon looking up certain musty public
records in the court house, to find that he himself was the owner, by
inheritance, of several shares of stock which had been overlooked in
the sale of his father's property. Retaining the services of Judge
Bullard, the leading member of the Clarendon bar, he set out quietly
to secure options upon the other shares. This involved an extensive
correspondence, which occupied several weeks. For it was necessary
first to find, and then to deal with the scattered representatives of
the former owners.

_Thirteen_

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