San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-05-14

n "
"Herr Gainsborough has his diamonds
with him"
We made late start the next morn
ing and did not reach the farmhouse be-
fore four o'clock. | had little oppor-
tunity of speaking to Kate on the way;
in fact, the presence of Slurk, who sat
on the box of the vehicle and once in
awhile threw glance at us over his
shoulder, irritated me to such degree
that more tender sentiments were tenn
porarily pushed into the background.
Kate herself, though she attempted to
appear cheerful, betrayed signs of in
ward anxiety and nervousness, while
Mr.. Birchmore conversed with volu-
bility and RESPONSIVENESS greater than
had ever remarked in him before.
The farmhouse stood quite alone on
an unfrequented by-road, in little angle
of the hills. 1t was not exactly a pictur-
esque building, with its four walls GOV
cred with rough plaster and pierced
with dozens Of small windows, and its
enormous red tiled roof, with those
quaint, narrow apertures, like half open
ed eyes, disclosing single pane of glass,
which do duty as dormers. 1t stood flush
with the road. as German houses are
fond of doing: but behind was large
inclosed farmyard, roughly paved with
round stones and well walled in. The
front door, though rather pretentiously
painted and ornamented with some re-
hgious versicle or other written upon
the Intel, was not used as a means of
entrance or exit.
1t was, as afterward discovered, not
only locked and bolted, but actually
screwed up on the inside, and the only
way of getting into the house was by "a
side door opening into the courtyard.
As the courtyard itself was provided
with "a heavy gate, you will see that the
farmhouse, close to the road though it
was, was by no means so easy of ingress
or egress as it appeared-supposing of
course, that it was the humor of the in
mates to declare state of siege. | men
ton these particulars merely by the way,
they are common to three houses out of
FIVE in this region. ....
8. The Birchrnores luggage had, it APP
peared, already been carried over from
the hotel; but man in rough peasants
costume, who announced himself as the
master of the house, now came out to
take charge of my trunk. was, or
fancied myself las you may have
noticed), quick judge of faces, and
this PEASANTS face failed to commend
itself to me. 1t was at once heavy and
gloomy, while a scar at one corner of
his mouth caused that feature to twist
itself into a perfunctory grimace, gro
tesquely at variance with his normal ex-
preston. In person he was much above
the common size, and to judge by the
ease with which he slung his heavy
trunk over his shoulder, he must have
been as strong as August der Starke
himself, whose brazen statue domineers
over the market place in Dresden.
Gluten morgen, Herr Rudolph" said
Slurk, hailing this giant affably. The
two seemed to be on some sort Of terms
OF comradeship, having perhaps struck
up an acquaintance during the previous
negotiations for lodgings. | must say
they looked to me to be a not i'll matched
pair.
We alighted and We're welcomed in
with surly courtesy by Herr Rudolph
Kate, confessing to headache, went a,
once to her room, whence she did not
again emerge; Slurk disappeared into
the kitchen regions with the landlord
Mr.. Birchmore presently went out for &
stroll before dinner, and |, finding my
self thrown temporarily on my owl
resources, decided to make a virtue O.
my loneliness by writing some letter.
which had been long owing. | accord
ingly CROPPED my way up the darksom
stone staircase and so along an eccentri
passage to my room.
| did not know then nor could evei
now accurately describe the arrange
ment of rooms in that farmhouse. Their
were at least three separate passages
not running at right angles to one an
other, but seeming to wander about il
regularly, now and then turning awB
-ss-a s.or.1ars dAsnandiIar or asnanfin