Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-10-04
CHAPTER XII.
A POWER OF HE'LL o'ERCLOUDs THY UN
DERSTANDINC ~

"A POWER OF HE'LL O'ERCLOUDS THY UN-
DERsTANDING."
AS an old campaigner Col. Stukely found
no difficulty in awaking at any hour of the
morning at which he wished to rise. He
needed to victimize no servant who must
rise still earlier to call him-nor did he re-
quire to have his courage stimulated by
cup of hot tea. He went to his bedroom
directly the detective had retired to the
servants quarters, and he told himself as
he lay down to rest that he would be astir
at 43O O'Clock next morning; not with any
idea of cub-hunting, but with the serious
intention of getting an interview with Mrs.
Jaker before detective or search warrant
could reach her cottage Before bidding
Miss Darnel goodnight he had contrived
to ascertain from that lady the exact stu
alton of the cottage. 1t lay within mile
of the park gates, in particularly lonely
district, given over to agriculture Half a
dozen small farms had been rolled into
one, and the homesteads belonging to them
had been pulled down or turned into labor
ers' cottages. The Takers domicile was
situated at the end of long lane, Just
where the uttermost limit of cultivated
land met the edge of a wild stretch of
common.
Having told himself that he should be
astir at 4:30, the colonel woke a few min
utes before the hour. He had scarcely
sounded his repeater when the eight-dav
clock in the corridor chimed in with its
four musical notes and then it's four sonor-
Gus strokes upon the big bell. The colonel
was up and in his bath within five min
utes. Not man he to yawn and loiter
and think twice about leaving his pillow
when there was business to be done.
1t was pitch dark as yet-it would hardly
be light by the time he should arrive at
Mrs. Jaker's cottage, but he calculated
that person of her condition would be an
early riser. and he felt no conjunction
about waking her up should she prove a
slug-a-bed He was bent upon seeing her
before the detective arrived with his
search warrant; so that in the event of her
husband having obtained his plumber from
Victor de Camillac the woman's mouth
might be sealed as TO the existence and
whereabouts of that obnoxious French
man.
any friend Penwern ignores those foot
marks on the flower-beds now that he has
started on another track" the colonel
thought as he walked briskly along the
avenue under the cold October sky. mot
very logical. That narrow sole and pointed
heel could never have belonged to the
boot of rustic poacher, and yet those
foot-marks have to be accounted for some
how, and am not at all clear that Grace's
admirer is safe out of the business
Before going downstairs the colonel had
tapped softly at his friends door and had
questioned the night nurse Her reply
was more favorable than usual. The pa
tent had spent quieter night, the fever
violent. All this was hopeful
There were patches of gray in the east
ern sky by the time the colonel came to
the end of the long, muddy lane and en-
tered Mrs. Jaker's neglected garden.
Albeit the sky was gray in the east, and
faint admlxture of silvery light glorified
the undulating lines of hill and woodland
Mrs. Jaker had not yet left her pillow
when the colonel knocked with his stout
oak stick at the cottage door, She put her
head out of An upstair window presently