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The Brussels Post, 1926-7-28, Page 7.1 MileNiMUNIMMINAMig The RevLmp. (Copyright) by MARY ROBERTS RINEHART negBeditiffleareRfra6rZtglagt"' gtlatrtAlt'S (Note: I t Is necessary, for the sake of the narrative, to describe the boatrhouse. It is built up on Piles which raise it above tide level, • and the dory and canoe belonging to the house are etored in the lower portion- of it in winter. The old sloop, however, not in commission for several- years, was at this time an- chored to a buoy about a hundred yards out in the baY, and showed the buffetings of wind and tide. Across the salt marsh, from the foot of the lawn, extended a raised wooden run -way which led to the boathouse and thebeach. This walk also prolongs itself into a eort of ramshackle pier, from which a run- way extends to a wooden float. At the time of our visit examinetIon showed the float badly in need of re- pair, a number of the barrels which supported it having more or less gone to pieces. It was, as will be seen, during Halli(1ay's repair of this float tint he made that discovery which was later to see the commencement of my troubles.) All in all, Jane's scheme is prae- teal, although Edith is frankly dis- appointed. "I would have looked so sweet on that terrace!" she says, and makes a dreadful face at me. I have asked her to say nothing -to Jane about old Thomas's ravings, as she calis them. She has agreed but accuses me of extreme terror, and maintains that I am merely put- ting the responsibility on Jane. • "You know perfectly well," she says, "that you believe in ghosts. And if you rent that house old Bor- ace ought to come back and haunt you." - But she is secretly pleased. She sees herself in the cottage, in a bun- galow apron, presenting a picture of lovely but humble domesticity to young Halliday, and thus foreing his hand. For if I kno wanythinet of Ed- ith, she is going to marry hint. And if I know anything of Halliday, he is going to marry nobody he cannot support. It rimy be an interesting summer. Curious about that lamp on the desk, the night the poor o1(1 chap passed out. Cif course, he might have turned it out and risen to go upstairs when he felt the attack coming on. But wouldn't he have laid the pen down first? One would do that automatically. It's a pity the blotting pad has been destroyed. june 25th. The last, or almost the last, word Uncle Horace wrote the night or his death was "danger." But how much significance am 1 to attach to that? We speak of the danger of taking cold, of levity in the lecture room, of combining lob- ster and ice-cream. To poor old Horace there would have been dan- ger inover-exertion; in that sense of the woyd he was always in dan- ger. But_ it was not a word he was apt to use lightly, Yet what conceivable clanger could have threatened him?.,.. This morning, clearing my desk, preparatory to our exodus, T resorted to an old trick of mine. I tuned over my large desk blotter and pre- sented a feat and unblemished side to the world. It came to me then that thus probably since the invention of blotters had neatness been esta- blished with a minimum of e•ffort, ' end that it might have been resorted to by .Annie Cochran. -After luncheon I started to Twin Hollows with the back of the car pil- ed high with a varied assortment of bYeakable toilet articles, a lamp or two, and a *certain number of .dish- es. The Lodge was open, and Annie Cochran vigorously :cleaning it,. and having deposited my fragile load there, I wandered up to -the house. Themes was cutting the lawn, OMIN.,1,1111,X••• Letterheads Envelopes Billheads And all lcinds' of Business Stationery peinted at The Post Publishing House, We will do a job that will do credit to your bnsinese. Look over your stock of Office Stationery and if it requires replenishing call Iels by telephone 31. The Post Publishing Noose with a mare borrowed for the im- pose pulling the old horse mower, and the Oakville constable, Starr, who is also the local carpenter, was replacing old boards with DOW on the raised walk to the beach. What with the sunlight, the put -put of a two - ',yell' engine in a passing motor boat, • Pock of knock -abouts and sloops oised on the water like great but- eellies, and the human activities 'bout, the absurdity of abandoning he old house to some unappreciative W on me. "ii, erarn going to live in the Lodge," said Starr, spitting over the - - "Mrs. Porter feels the main house is too large for us." He eyed me Aharply. he said. "Pretty big houee. Well, I'm in a dollar on it." "A dollar?" "I bet you'd never live in it," he said, and there was a furtive gleam of amusement in his eye as ha mark- ed a board preparatory to flawing it. "It's my opinion, Starr," I said, "that you people around here have talked this -place into disrepute." "Maybe we have," he eaid, non- committally. ' "Mr.. Horace Porter lived time' for twenty years." "And died there," he reminded nue "Of chronic heart trouble." "So the doctor says." "But you don't think so?" "I know he had got a right forci- ble knock on the head, too." "I thought that came from his "Well, it may have," he said, and 'signified the ,,nd ef the conversation by falling to work with his saw. I waited, but he evidently felt he had said enough, and his further speech was guarded in the extreme. He didn't know whether Mr. Porter had been writing or not when it happen- ed. No, - he'd been the first to get there, and she had seen no paper. Asked if he had had any reason, any experience of his own, to make him wager we would not live in the house, Ile only shook his head. But as I started back he called .after me. "I don't know as there's any truth in it," he said. "But' they do say, on still nights, that lie's been heard coughing around the place. I ain't ever hew it myself." So Thomas thinks that Unale Hor- ace was frightened to death, and Starr intimates that he was murder- ed, and all this was seething in the minds of these country people a year ago, without it reaching me at all. There had been no inouest; simply, as I recall, Doctor Hayward notifying the Coroner by telephone Intl giving organic heart disease as the cause. I was, I admit, startled this morn- ing as I turned back to the maiu house. But. I knew the tendency- of small inbred communities to feedon themselves, for lack of outside nutri- ment, and by the time I had reached the terrace 1 was putting Starr's statement about a blow in the steno class with the cough heard at night. T stood looking out over the sweep of lawn, tied the words occurred to me of that other ancient Horace. 0011 - firmed city -dweller that ha was. "There was ever among the num- ber of my wishes, a portion of ground, not over large, in which was a garden and a fountain, with a eon - thin& stream close to my house, and a little woodland besides. The gods have done :move abundantly, ann'bet- ter for me, than this." So 1 felt that the gods had clone even better for me than I had thought, My little woodland, to 'my left as I faced the sea, covered thir- ty acres, extending beyond 'Robin- son's Point; true, I had no fountain, but I had al garden of sorts, And I bad a ship, which apparently the old Roman had novel, dreamed of. Tbe old sloop bobbed and swung in the, wash 'of 8 passing tug. I tented and went •into the house to find that Annie Coehran had tire - ed the blokeY and that the last word the poor old boy had written had been "danger." June 26111. Women are curious eyeatures. Thronghout the vvinter it is of vital importance to Jane that her tell CUPS are old Chelsea, and that the mirror over the hall table is pure early col- onial, even if it does raise my right - eye an inch or so. The Queen, Anne chairs in her bedroom, the .Admn sideboard in the dining room, appar- ently divide her atIcetion with me, end she has boon knowe to snake rensiderably more fuss oVer a se:retell on the Shetaton, cabinet than ovee a similar injury to myself. We ore settled to -night in the 1,edg'0, and Whatever Edith may say as to its romantic outside appettre' once, within it is frankly hideous. It THE BRUSSELS POST '+ all 0 cottage should not be, From he old parlor organ downstairs to eels that dip in the venr above, it • atroeloes,• Yet to -night jar:» 10 n oppy woman. Can it be that women require re1 from their p000es-0;1'0ns, as for in- •ianee I do from my -dinner clothes? ehat it gives them the same temss 'reedom to don, speaking figuratively parlor organ and the cheapest of other furnishings, as 11 does inc to '1UL 011 my ancient fishing garments? Or i• Jane simply relieved? 1(11 1'' that to -night with Lar - kin's adver•tisement for the other house before nee I feel not only in the position of a man rnitempting to sell a geld briek, but that I have a ee'ret, haukering for the gold shriek myself. "For. rent for the season, lorge eareleonedy furni,ihed house on bay 'hien Miles from Oakville. Beauti- ful location, Thirty-two aeres, land - (1118')l. Flower and kitchen gar- dens. Low rental." Yet I daresay we shall de well enough. After all, there comes a 'lino when ambition ceases to burn, or romance to stir, and tho highest ory of the human heart is for peace. Here, I feel, is peace. have brought with me those books which all the year I have pro- mised myself to read, so thet my small room overflowes with them; a spare note -book or two for this Jour- nal, to be filled probably with -the weights of fish and the readings of the barometer; Jane for solid af- fection, Edith for the joy of life, and Jock for companionship. But thr latter I am questioning' to- night. jock has deserted inc. He will not occupy the window seat of my room, although his comforter. is neatly spread upon it. When -I show- ed it to him he leaped up obediently, then glanced out the window toward the main house, emitted a long and melancholy howl, and with an air of firmness not to be gainsaid, retired under the bed in Jane' g room, which faces toward the highroad, Nor ',fluid I later coax him past the main house for a str611 upon the beach. He joined me there later, having reached it by some devious route of his own through the marsh, but with -- out enthusiasm. Later. There has been wild ex - pitmen!: here, and only now have we quieted down, It is clear that already Clara has heard some of the local talk. At eleven o'clock we heard wild smatnis from Cara's attic bedroom, and all three of us arrived there im varying stages of undress. Clara was ',Inside her door, which was Hos- ed, and was hysterically shrieking that there was a. blue light under her bed. I opened the door, entered the room, which was dark, and stooped down. There was a blue light there, luminous and spectral, and my very scalp prickled. I think, had it not been for the women outside, I would have howled like a dog. And the worst of it was that it had an eye, a large stating eye that gazed at me with all the concentrated malevol- ence in the world. Tt was a moment; before I could say in an unshaken voice: "Turn on the lights, somebody." There was a delay until the switch was found, aed for that moment the blue light stared at me and I at it. I heard Edith flop down onethe floor beside me and give a little yelp, and Clara snivelling outside and saying -she would never go into that room again. Never. Then Jane turned on the lights, and I saw under the bed the large phosphorescent head of a dead fish, brought by Jock from the beach and carefully cached there! June 27th, I have found Uncle Horace's let- ter, and in a manner so curious that there een be, it seems to me, but two interpretations of it, One is that, somehow, I have had all along a sub- conscious knowledge of its presence behind the drawer But I hesitate to accept that, I am orderly by in - tltinct, And when I went over the esk after his death, the merest in- dication of a paper caught behind .he -drawer Would have sent me alter 10 The other explanation is that I received a telepathic ;message. It came, as 1 fancy such messages must come, nbt -from outside but. tr0311 heard nothing; it welled up, above the incoherent and vague wanderings of EL mind not definitely in action, in a deer Cut and definite form, "Take out the bottom draw- er on the right." But if 1 am to accept telepathy, T am -to bonove that I am not alone in my knowledge of this letter, Yet considering the tone of it, the awful posSibiIity it indicates, Whotould have such -a knowledge. and yet keep 11 10 'himself/ Row dld 11 get behind the drawer? V the 'brownish smudge on the hr- ner turns out to be -blood, mud I think it is, then it was. placed in the draWer after As died: Annie Coch- ran and. Thomas both deny having „.. . . The "Daddy' OE nein all" says—. Waterman's Ink adds to the efficiency of Water - man's Fountain Pens and Waterman's Pen adds to the efficiency of Waterman's Ink. To perfectly function, foun- tain pen ink must be free front sediment, it must now freely and never clog. Water - man's Ink will do this. It's packed ht neat boxes, so that you may keep one bottle at the office and one at home. We recommend Waterman's Ink for use in any fountain pwa. J. Wendt Jeweler Wroxeter seen any paper about. The doctor, perhaps? But would he not have read it first? - It bad been crumpled into a ball and thrown into the drawer, and the subsequent opening of the drawer had pushed it back, out of sight. So much- is clear. But—after he fell! Suppose—and in the privacy of this Journal I may surely let my imagination wander—suppose, then 'hot some other hand picked 01 tbi• wiper, ignorant. of its contents, and in a hurried attempt to put the room in order, flung it into the drawer, Or tow-ard the waste basket beside it and it fell short? Suppose, in a word, that he was not alone when he died? Suppose that some other 'hand, again, turned out the desk light and the others, and somehow overlooked the dim red lamp in the next room, or left it to see the way to escape? I must not let my nerves run away with me. 1VItirder is an ugly word, and after all we have Hayward's ver- dict of death by heart failure. But a sufficient •shock, or a blow. might have brought that on. Fright, even, foe the poor: old chap was frightened when he wrote that letter. Tremb- ling but uncompromising. That was like him. "I realize fully the unpleasantness of my own situation; even, if you are consistent, its danger. But—" But what? But in spite of this I shall do as 1 have threatened, prob- ably. I am profoundly moved to -night. We did not love one another, but he was old and alone, and menaced by some monstrous wickedness. Just what that wickedness was no one can say, but I fully believe to -night that he died of it..... This morning I went with Edith to the main house, she to select some odds and ends for the boat -house, against Halliday's comitg, and I to clear out the library desk, to have it moved to the Lodge. Edith was in high spirits as I un- locked the front door and was grave- ly telling Thomas, who accompanied us, that we had seen a blue light under Clara's bed the night before. But he expressed no surprise. "Plenty of them, folks tell me," he said. "First thine I've heard of thorn lin the Lodge, though." "Oh!" said Edith slightly 'daunted. "So there aro lights, too," "Yes'in," he replied. "Annie Cochran, she had one here, used to hangaround the shower -bath off the gun mom. And there need to be plenty outside. Fellows setting trawl out in the bay 0000 to see them over the swamp." "Marsh gas," I suggested. "Maybe," he said, with his telstek or leave -it -attitude, and we went in- to the house. There Edith and Thomas left me, and I opened the shutters of the lib- rary and sat down at the desk. I could hear Edith insisting, on seeing the shower -bath off the gun room. Then thoh• voictik.died away, and 1 began to go through the desk once more. All impottant papers had been taken away ann. the •death, and the dettweys contained the usual riff -raft of sushi depositories, old keys, ancient cheek books, their stubs filled in Un- cia Horace's mot hand. Naturally, 1 was thinking of Moro or km, I was concentrator' on if this is env comfort to my spiritualistic friends. lie had, in. deed, fallen out of the very chair in which I sat, and had apparently cut his head badly en the artier el the desk. • All .this was, in My mind, as I, elesed the.last -drawer and eurveyed Ilef)0 g Too*, 01. th. dok: . WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, MX. I H1'I/110801 was subconsciously re- death, enistrueting the night of his death, year: when he had penned that 1,mM "(1811-.1 which now lay, clearly outlined el reverse, on the blotter. And that -viten I wandered into the dee, look- ! ing for a plftee to store what Lear calls the ibitritus piled up on the !,,k, I was still thinking nf 11. But ' 1 eaneot feel that my entrance into '11,, l'00111, or my idly ewitching on 'he red lamp which stood there, had lie slightest eonnection with the Ines- , -ewe which I at that Moment seemed ri.ceire: "Take out the bottom , irawer on the right." have heard people who native in this sort of thing emphasize the , peculiar insistence of the mess,e.:,;, and this Wa:4 true itt this eng.. I do not remit that there was any ques- tinn in my mind, either, as to which 1 bottom drawer on the right to re- I move, Put I must record here a iiiither curious -incident which my spiritualistic friends weal add to I the picture as proof positive pi' its other -earth origin. Edith came back. I could hear her in the library. "I've found Annie Cochrai=e light," she called, "A piece of phos- phorescent wood. No wonder thiA neighborhood's haunted!" Then she came into the doorway, with Thomas behind her, and seedenly stopped. • "Why!" she said. "What funny shadows!" "Shadows?" Then she laughed and ran her fin- gers across her eyes. "My error," she said. "When I came in 1 seemed to see a sort of cloud under the ceiling. It's gone now." Old Thomas stood by, quietly. "Lots of folks have seen them shadows," he said. "Some say they're red and some brown, I ain't ever seen them myself, so I can't say." He turned to go. "Maybe its phos - June 27th of the preceding "I am writing tide 10 great distress' of mind, and in what I feel is a righteous anger. It is incredible to me that you cannot me. the wieked- /less of the muse you have prepo.sed. "In all ''arnestnese I appeal to you to consider the enormity of the idea. Your failure to comprehend my own attitude to it, however, utekes me be- lieve that yen mny be tempted to go on with it. In that ease I shall feel it my duty, not 01117 to go to the pol- ice, but to warn socisty in veneral, "I realize fully the unpleasantness of my own situation; even, if you are consistent, its danger. But—" The letter had not been finished. June 214011. I slept very little hist night, and this morning made an exeuse to ge up to town with the letter, Larkin !lad .telephoned trie that las ha:I an inquiry on the house through Cam- eron, and this gave me a pretext. Jane at first wished to go with me, but Edith coaxed her into helping with the rooms over the boot -house and I finally got away. Larkin is impressed with the let, tee, but does not necessarily see its connection with Uncle Horace's death. "After all," he said, "you've got your medical man's statement that he died of heart failure. Suppose he was 'scared to death? That isn't a erime in law.- And you've got to re- member the old gentleman war pret- ty 1110011 of a pepper 'pot. He attack- ed me Mmost as violently as that once for: my politics!" "He didn't threaten you with the police did he?" "No; he recommended a sanitar- ium, ?think. You haven't any idea who it's meant for, you say?" T. T. M'RAE ese= ! "That woudn't imply danger to himself." "Any fellow with a bee in his bon- net is dangeroue," he said, and gave me back the letter. "Of coulee," he went on, "you've inede a nive point about the stain 0* the eorner. It it's blood, it'e hardly likely he got up .again and put it where you found it. But I think you'll find the eervant there, whet'sf (To Be eiontinued). BUSINESS CARDS industrial 1111ortgage and Savings Oompany, of Sarnia not.rio, ao, propono o, advance money on Mortgages en 'foci! lands. Parties desiring, money ou farm mortgages will please apply to James marl, se afurth, Ont.. who win see nish rates and ether particulars. The industrial Ildertage and Savings Company kautaxr AGENT FOR fire, Automobile an Wind Ins. .COMPANIES For Brussels and vicinity Phone 647 JAMES M' FADZEAN Agent Howick Mutual Fire Insurance Company 01.0 Hartford Windstorm and Tornado Insurance Phone 42 Box 1 Turnberry Street, Brussels JO, SUTHERLAND & SON LIMITED INSVEaXeir GrAltP18, etarincitio D. M. scorr .Eareoiracco aportairacie PRICES MODERATE roraraevrefo( yiguomatltb. 5n7 perintov.hogi2s6ales "Not the sliehtest, haft' t -,hornq,ence i" snid, and wr,t,t owt,• any friends, intimates, so far ae 1 with a sort of hideous silent mirth know. The Livingstones' very dee- shaking him. ent people, with a big place about Behind the drawer I found the let- ter. (Note: I made no copy of the let- ter in the original Journal, so I give it h • ete.) Unfinished letter of Mr. Horace Porter, addressed to someone un- known, and dated the day of his six miles from him, his doctor, and myself—that's about all." " 'Enormity of the idea,' " he read again., "Of course that might be a new poison gas, or this thing the M. B., M. O. P.. S 0. 32. 0. Id., Village of Si useela Physician, Surgeon, Accoucheur Office at residence, opposite Church, street. W. X. Siaresaz BARR IsTER, SOLICITOR, CONVEYANCER, NOTARY PUBLIC LECKE BLOCK *BRUSSELS press is always scaring up, the death OR. WAROLAW ray. Some fellow with a bee in his Eimer graduate of the Ontario Veterinarv College. DaT and night calls. Office 012Posde bonnet, you may be sure." sqoerMulathal. nT(St.r-I' • a• '"eeleseeen:i tfT')V, as alue Modern methods and appliances have set a new standard for a day's work, Time is one big factor. This is true in the factory, on the farm, in the home or what not. Time is money to -day. And anything that mul- tiplies the value of an hour is increasingly valuable. Advertising is an annihilator of time. It pro- vides a short cut between a manufacturer or mer- chant and you. It makes it possible to tell in a few minutes all yOu want to know about the services or arCcles you need. A quick glance through THE BRUSSELS POST en- ables you to sift the things that interest you, and in a min- ute you can know just where and when to go for what you waut. Figure out how much valuable time advertising miles you if you tiPe it properly. Think how much needless want- ing and talking itisaves you and your neighbors, Yes, Advertising has a Big Value to You—Don't Fail to Read It! THE BRUSSELS POST MY.Mh<e".., • "?.'%, _LtsiA:Onlms. .74ati8pi132 .41iiirsteltese • s Tariff