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The Brussels Post, 1926-8-4, Page 7.e t 1 ,,"tee , ell egg.fe Them (Copyright) i . T ' e en; NiS7ia) Li• 41l� ed Lrn by MARY ROBERTS TS RINEHART Mir name, picice•rl it up in her -excite - meld :tad threw ie into the drawer. People don't always know what they do at such times. however, if you like, I'll have that stain te,tcd and see what it is." 1 tore off the corner, and left him carefully putting it into' 1111 envelope. IIe glanced up as I prepared to ge. "What's this I hear about your keeping out. demons by drawinf::0111:' sort of a cabalistie design around yourself?" he asked. "You'd better let mea in on it;_I ne0d a refuge now and then." Which proves that a roan tray shout the eternal virtues and be un hoard forever, but if he babble 11011- 8cu80 ht a wilderness, it will travel around the world. Nevertheless, I am the better for the talk with him. I have been too closely consorting with my woman- kind, probably; the most v!t•!le man can become effen) sized 1'n tint,. .And Larkin's attitude as to renting the house is an eminently sane one. • "Rent it without saying anything," he said, eland -ten to one whoever takes it will have a peaceable sum- mer. Iiut do as you suggest, tell the tenant the place, has the reputation of being haunted, and ghosts will he as thick as mosquitos from the start." He has asked for some photographs of the property and I have promised them for the day after to -morrow. We have settled down into our routine 'here very comfortably. Our, eggs and milk are brought each morning by a buxom farmer's daugh- ter, one Maggie Morrison, a sturdy red -checked girl who drives in a small truck, and backs and turns be- fore the Lodge rather than circle around the main house. "Surely," I said to her yesterday, ,`you aren't afraid of .the place in daylight?" "Not afraid," site said, "hut it gives me the shivers." And weaken- ed that somewhat by her statement that she never liked a place where there had been a death. Yet she handles callously the cold corpses Of her chickens, pulling up their rigid wings to show the tenderness- of the dead skin beneath, and bending their silled breast -bones to prove that they' have died young! With the lawns cut and the shrub- bery trimmed, the place grows in- creasingly lovely. At low tide the beach is covered with odds and ends from the mysterious life of the sea,. red and white starfish, sea urchins, and disintegrated jelly fish. Sca gulls pick up mussels, hover over a hat -topped rock, drop them onto its surface and then swoop clown upon the broken shell, with a warning cry to other gulls to keep away. So, clear was the water this after- noon that, rowing to the old sloop, I could see the barnacles encrusting it, and the long strings of kelp which' hang from it like matted hair. Edi- th, bare-armed and slim in the can- oe, paddled around it appraisingly. "Needs a shave and a hair cut," she decided. The boat house is ready for young Halliday. She has put in it a great deal of love and one or two of )ny most treasured personal possessions. "That isn't by any chance )ny smoking stand?" "But you aren't going to smoke much this summer, Father William," site says, and tucks a hand into my arm. "I heard you say so yourself." It has'a sitting room, bedroom and kitchenette, but no bath. "He can use the sea," says Edith, easily. "And take a cake of soap in with him." "And wash himself ashore," I sug- gest, and ant frowned down, probably as too old for such ribaldry, Jane is very serene. Now and then, as she sits on our small veran- dah with her tapestry, I see her raise her eyes and glance toward the other house, but she does not mention it, Letterheads Envelopes Billheads • And all kinds of Business Stationery printed at The Pbst Publishing House. We will do a job that will da credit to your business. Look over your stock of Office Stationery and if it requires replenishing call as by telephone ho ne 31. The Post Publishing House "J n;F;t nor do 1. f native that, like Maggie Morrison, she, does not go very Oar to it, but she appears to hayo adopt- ed an attitude of hliesez fairy. But She absolutely refused to take the pictures of the house Larkin ask- ed l'or. Not that, she puts it like that. The result of the collaboration, which followed early this afternoon is still in doubt. Jane intends to de- velop end print them Chir! evening. And so 0111' life goes on. We re- tire early; 1 generally slightly scent- ed from the cold cream of l':dith's ,,earl ,:'Illelse. Clara, too, ,'oee up early, probably looking uncles. her bed before retiring into. it. Ansi Jane sits to sews while I Innke my nightly entry inte, this Journal; she is, I think, both jealous and faintly suspicious Of it! At ten o'clock or so we '11 Jock out, and he. looks toward the main house and then turns out the: gates and into the highroad, where for a half hour or so he chases rabbits and possibly looks for a bear. At ten thirty he scratches at the door, and wen adnitt him and go up to bed. Be- hind the drain pipe! Later: 7 have just had a surprise amounting to shock. Jane finds she has forgotten the black japanned lan- tern with a red slide which she rises in the mysterious rites of developing' pictures, and suggests that we go to the other house and use the red lamp there. "But I can bring it here." "I am through being silly about the other house, William," she says with an air of resolution. "Anyhow, the pantry there is bet -tet, and you can sit in the kitchen. Bring a book or something." She has, poor Jane, very much the air of Helena Lear's kitten the clay Jock cornered it and it same out resolutely and looked him in the eye. In effect, Jane is going to meet her bugaboo and stare it down. June2fith, Jane is in bed to -day, and I ant not all I ]night be, although I manag- ed to get an indifferent print or two to Larkin this morning. It is well enough for cold-blooded and nerveless individuals to speak of fear as a survival of that time: when, in our savage state, we were sur- rounded by enemies, dangers. and a thousand portents in skies we could not comprehend, and to insist that when knowledge comes in at the door, fear and superstition fly out of the window. It is only in his heart that man is heroic; in the pit of his stomach he is always a Coward. Yet, stripped of its trim)nings,— tht empty, echoing house, its reputa- tion, and my own private thoughts about its possible tragedy, the inci- dent loses much of its terror; is cap- able, indeed, of a fuite normal expla- nation. That is, that Jane either saw some- one outside the pantry window, or was the victim of a subjective image of her own producing..... To put the affair in consecutive shape. At eleven o'clock I had moved the red lamp from the den in the other house to the pantry and there con- nected it. ,Falso lighted the kitchen, and established myself them: with "The Life and ,Clines of Cavour," a book which I considered safe and sufficiently unexciting under the air catmstances. Jane seemed to be going very well beyond the pantry door, and after a time I ceased the reasseVing whistle with which I had been affirming my continued presence' within call, Lind grew absorbed in my book. It must have. been 11.115 when she called out to. me sharply to know where a cold wind was cooling from, and although I felt no such air I closed the kitchen door. Tt was with- in a couple of Minutes of that, or therennouts,. that I suddenly heard her give a low moan, and the next Instant there: was the crash of a fall- ing body. When I opened the pantry door I found her in a dead faint, underneath the window. When she revived; .she maintained that she had seen Uncle Horace. Her statement runs about, as :fol- lows: She had not felt particuhtrly uneasy on entering tite house, "al- though I had expected to," site, ad- mits. Nor at the beginning of 0per- attiens in the pantry. The cold air, however, had had a peculiar quality n +, h n)rshe ]t "froze" iter, she 5 t> It Y , r r , felt rigid With it. ' And it continued after she heard ane close the kitchen door, This wind, she says, was not only so cold tiro, she lre called to the but she had an impression that it came .from somewhere near at hand, and she seemed to vee the curtains blowing out ail the window, The lower sash THE BRUS ELS POST WEDNEESDAY, AUGUST J, 1999, was down, as she could tell by the reflection of the red lamp in it, but she wont to the window to ser if the upper sash had been lowered, With the darknees outride, the glass had. become a sort of mirror, and she said her own figur. in it startled he}' for a moment. She stood staring at it, when she realized she Was not alone ilt the ('one.' Clearly relb "tori, behind and over her right du, Wats a face. It disappeared almost immediately, and I have my own private doubts aIboet her recognition of it its Uncle Horace, which I believe is peat facto. But I am obliged to admit that Jane„ ;lite something, either outside the window and looking in, or the UM' (ion of her own excited fancy, As soon ;is I mild leave her I went outside, but I could find no one tltore, and this morning I find that my own footprints under the window have en- tirely obliterated anything els, that may have been there. Jane herself believes it wa- Uncle Horace, but I cannot find that she re- ceived anything more than an indis- tinct impression of a face. She rath- er startled me this morning, however, by asking tan if I had ever thought that Uncle Horace had not; died a natural death. "Why in the world should I think such a thing?" But pressed for an explanation she merely said she had heard that the spirits of those who have died violent deaths are more likel§ to appear than of others who have.passed peaceably away;' that the desire to acquaint the world with the circumstances of the tragedy is overwhelming! What seems much more likely is that site has caught from me, with that queer gift of hers, some inkling of my own anxiety. Larkin's report from the laboratory shows that the stain on the corner of the letter is blood. One lives and learns, Not only does the report say that it is blood, but that it is human blood. Moreover, that it is about a year old, and that it is the imprint of a human finger, but is too badly blurred for identification, as it was made while the blood was fresh. So does science come to the aid of the police to -day. Truly one lives and learns. Larkin watched me while I read the report. "You see?" I said. "It is human blood." 'q7.! "What else diel you expect it to be„ "Still, it shows something." . "Certainly it does," he agreed, easily. "It may even show at crime, for all I know. But where do you go from there? That finger -print is valueless. Say there was a crime. --- where's your criminaly You can't go through the world rounding up all the individuals society ought to be warned against." "No," I said, rather feebly. "No, I dare say not," He went with me to the door of his office, and put his hand on my shoulder. "Go on out to the country and forget about it," he advised. "You're looking rather shot, Porter. Draw your magic circle or whatever it is about yourecottage, and retire inside it! Whatever happened there last year, it's,too„late to do anything a- bout it now." ITe is right. I shall get out my fishing gear to -morrow and perhaps Eolith will spare me young Halliday now and then. He is,,, she said the other day in the inelegant vernacular of present day youth, "about as psy- chic as a door knob." Juno 30111. I have been brought to -day for the first time, into active contact with the feeling of the country people a- gainst my house, end especially the red lamp. It is an amazing situation. Thomas came to the doorway this morning while I was at breakfast, followed by Star), the constable, who remained somewhat uneasily behind him. It developed that half u dozen sheep, in a meadow beyond Robin- son's Point, were found the niglit be - foie! last with their throats cut. `file farmer who owned therm heard them milling about orad ran out, and ho declares he stew a dark figure dart, out of the field anri run into my woods et the head of 'llobieson's Point. It appears that the :farmer, whose mate is Nylie, abandoned the: pur- suit as seen tie he saw where the fugitive was headed, end went back to his dead sheep. They were neatly laid out in a row. "At what ' th110 was all this?" I asked, "How about a dog?" I asked. "They kill sheep, don't they? Catch them by the throat or something?" "They .Che don't stab them with t at knife. Not around Here, • anyhow," said Starr. The ostensible object of the visit was to ask if we had been disturbed that night, and for some raeson ur other I dtd not at once connect the situation with Jane's cuilotta expels. :once. "No," I said. "You'll probably P +- aadeit ct£ therm gesegean.'s Ink adds to iency of Water-, ountain Pens aterman's Pen the efficiency of an's Ink. tly function, foun- ink must be free from sediment, it must flow freely and never clog. Water - man's Ink will do this. It's packed in neat boxes, so that you ,1ney keep one bottle at the office and one at home. We recommend Waterman's Ink for use iib any fountain pen. IJ Jeweler Wroxeter find that Nylie has an enemy some. where, some hand he hate discharged perhaps." Starr took himself away very soon after that, but before he left he ex- changed a glance with Thomas; anti I had a feeling that' something lay behind this morning visit.' It was not long before Thomas brought it out. It appears that Nylie ran after the figure to the edge of the wood, and there stood hesitating. The woods, T gather, share in the ill.reput,, of the (louse. And as he stood there, at - though everyone knew, the house was empty, he distinctly saw the evil glow of the red lamp from. it! I dare say Jane' is right, and my sense of humor is perverted, but -I could not resist the opportunity of baiting Thomas. In which I realize now I made a tactical error. "Really?" I said. "Nylie was cer- tain of that, was he?" "Saw it as plain as I see you," said Thomas. "I know you don't believe me—" "But I do believe you. What a- bout the red lamp?" "IfVell," he said, "it's pretty well known about these parts that that lamp ain't healthy. Some say one thing and some another, but most folks is agreed on that." "Still, I don't see how it could kill sheep, do you?" And even now, I do not distinctly see the connection. I imagine the local belief is that the lamp exerts some malign influence, possibly eyen that it liberates some sinister spirit. Not, I imagine, that this is eyer put into words. The nearest they come to that is the statement that the lamp is not "healthy," and that "George" has conte back. At least that is all I can make out of that strange mixture of hysteela, superstitious fears and local mishaps to which Thomas gave birth in the next ten minutes or so. It began with Annie. Cochran in the house aftoresthe lamp came, and gradually extended into the countryside; 00058 had mysteriously and prematurely calved; a meterorite had dropped into a field nearby; a fisherman's boat had been found empty in the hay on a quiet clay and its owner nev- er seen again; blight, pestilence and death had visited the community, equalled only in its history by the last few months of Mrs. Riggs' occu- pancy of the house. And the tradi- tion was that Mrs. Riggs had used a red lamp to call her particular spirit. "George' was his name," said Thomas, "and by and largo he gave us a lot of trouble." "Let me get this, Thomas," I said. "You mean that you think this 'George' has come back?" "I'm not saying that," lie said, with his usual caution. "But there's some talk of it." "And killed those sheep?" "I'm not saying that either. But there's not a man, woman of child around these parts would have gone into those woods night before last, heading for the big house," I felt that I had gone far enough, and I proceeded to explain the light- ing of the lamp that night. But, al- though I saw that he believed nae readily enough, it did not for a mom- ent alter Itis attitude toward the red lamp. "And, fact,"1. con- cluded, on- ` Al 1 as a matter of r ' u 1 1 think Mrs. Porter actually tl ted, t tit NI e y saw the man Nylie chased, looking' in through the pantry window." "That'll have been 'George' all right," said Thomas, and creaked heavily out of the room— To , To leaven the gloom of the morn- ing, llalliday arrived to -day, in bois- i terotis high spirits, broken With 'a ;ori of husky' eauo!ioel when by saw hi, quarter - "It's so dermal rood of you ell." he eai!1, and altlnougil the word" to Jane, the look was for Edith. We all c corte'e1 hint down, Thomas e:u•rying his kir bars, 1 his ',V,1' oat, Jorlc the n ee p:ee r, and Warne) himself staggering und„r a box of l'a'ne, ries nu which he agar' uta:, in.. tends to ;: ihsirt. He has d', ;i„it, 1, refiesed Jan -'e offer to take his In tis at our table, the world i1, i e5e1 0°111 ,a earl opener," he mid, boastfully. "And when heron and beam be;_in to pall on me I'll come up for a hand- out." We stood around, Edith with en- tire :,hamlessnr.rs, while he unpoeksd and settled them. She herself insist. ed on arranging the top of tity chest of drawers, and 1 saw her titer", handling his hairbrushes car'e,skn;!y. Peer little Edith, so frankly in love, so ready to believe that love is e n- ouelt, and that such things as the 111:1 always taken for grclnted, food and shelter, will aat0matir.ally follow 111 train. Afterwards we had tea on the nag. raw verandah over the water, and Halliday examined the old sleep with a professional eye. "Pretty well out of condition, I'm afraid." "Any hoot's a good bunt, sir," he said with his quick smile. "Y'.)a shall be the skipper, and I'll be the ni!d- shipmite, the ho'sun tight and the crew of the—what's its nam;,, any- how?" There followed a prolonged dis,'us• sion between Edith and the new crew as to a name for the sloop, which was compromised by their announc- ing that it was to be called "The Cheese." "Why? It has no holes in it," 1 protested. "Because it's to have a skipper in it." said Edith g"a"in -ie, !;•. After the women left we sat on the shall verandah which surrounds the boat -house on three sides, anri smoked. He told me his circumstanc- es; he has exactly enough money to finish his course which will take an- other year. At the end of that time he"is to have a junior partnership in a law firm in Boston. "But you know what that means, at first," he said. "A sort o1' sub- I!]nutcd clerical job. It will be a longtime before I'm independent." Berens he' could urates, was what he meant. And :train I thought of my ondowmant fund for lovers. There are so many funds for pre- erviag human. life, and so few to mike it worth the preserving. But I must talk to 1$ciith. It is no 115'' 1111115131' the boy ni,i," unhappy than i or breaking down the 1,':':51,! '!.' clearly putting on himself. "I lost two years in the war," he said. "That threw me back, you see." "I dare say it was not lassie" "No," he agreed. "I suppose a ;pari must gain something by a thing like that, if he survives." From that to rile stories about the matin haus..:, and to Thoma,' r:'eital this morning, wall not a long step, i,nr from that to the history of the house itself and to Mrs. Rios''. "(Curious," he said, "how these peo- ple rise, prosper, and then are found £radulent, without discrediting the next ce•neration of their kind. Even- tually they are all caught between bases, and it begins all over again." But the reef lamp interested him. "Some night, sir," he sul,:rested, "you and I might go up there and try rubbing the thing; see if we can evoke the 'genii. About 8.30 to -night I took Jock and walked to Nylie's. farm where the sheen had been killed. I found the field, and wandered idly in. To my surprise, a man with a shot -gun rose from a fence corner and con- fronted me, and Jock's hair rose as he prepared- to spring. "What do you want here?" he de- manded, suspiciously. "Go easy with that gun," I said. "Myenamo's Porter, and I'm out for a stroll. That's all." Ile apologized gruffly, while I held Tnek by the collar, and even e,n•te- scended to point, out where the dead sheep had been found, but ther'c was certainly no cordiality in Itis man- ner, and even a trace of hostility. July 1st. More sheep were killed last night. The Livingstones have lost a dozen of their blooded stock, and several far mers have suffered. In each case the method is the same; the sheep are neatly stabbed in the jugular vein and then as neat• ly laid out in a row. We are buying no mutton from the local butcher, 1 assured Thomas that I had not lighted the red lamp again,. but he • olid not smile. lie is quite capable of • believing, I dare say, that 1 have cutnmoned a demon I cannot control, (To Be Continued), BUSINESS CARDS 'ir'HE Industrial Mortgage and fd Ravings Company, of Sarnia Ontario, are 'mowed to advance money on Mortgagee on good lands. Pertiea desiring money on Non mortgagee W111 ',lenge apply 10 Japers 3(swa,,, SearOrtll, r)at., W 11u will fur niell rate, and other particulars. The Industrial Morlga10 and Savings Company AGENT FOR Fire, Automobile and Wind Ins, COMPANIES For Brussels and vicinity Phone 647 JAMES M' FADZEAN Agent Hawick Mutual Fire Insurance Company Also Hartford Windstorm and Tornado Insurance Phone 92 Box 1 Turnberry :ttreet, Brussels ARD. SUTHERLAND & SON LIMITED D. M. SCOTT !1~175msJ'r'D SiT,"tr avid 111'1 PRICES MODERATE For reforenaes consult any parson wi1o36 00185 I here olfaiated at, Phone 2126 T. T. M' RAE M. 6..M. O. P.. ,*S. O. 11. re Li., Vii'ng, of lir neaela. Physician, Surgeon, Accoucheur Orae at residence, opposite 111ely ille Ohurah, William 31(081. Iln..t`i. 7::u.1 BARRISTER, SOLICITOR, CONVEYANCER, NOTARY PUBLIC LECKIE BLOCK - oBRUSSELS DR, WARDLAW Honor graduate of the Ontario Veterinary Caltege. Day and night calls. Office opposite lrloer Idlll, )9thel. res?"-eirrs0-je-la 10, Cal iA 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 al] you want to know about the services or articles 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 want. Figure out how touch valuable time advertising saves you if you use it properly. Think how much needless walk- ing and talking it=saves you and your neighbors. Yes, Advertising has a Big Value to You—Don't Fail to Read It ! 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