The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1894-08-15
LANBERTvILLE, n j. WEDNESDAY, To- 1894.

he did so Raymond saw Maggie Rod
den on the trail, her hair hanging
around her pale face, her hands stretched
pleadingly toward him and an express
sion Of mute agony upon her white face.
Refining up as quickly as possible,
Raymond turned to speak to her, but
she had vanished. He rode back and
called her name, but there was no an
swer. He dismounted and looked for
tracks at the spot where she must have
left the trail, but found none
Puzzled and annoyed, he mounted
and rode as rapidly as possible to the
Rodden cabin.
Hurriedly dismounting. Raymond
called Rodden out and asked if he knew
that his wife was wandering alone
through the snow away up the noun
tain TRAIL Rodden was too much I'M
nerved for moment to reply. Then
he managed to say that the express rid
er must have dreamed he saw her, as
she had gone home, gone back east
more than q month before. Raymond
stuck to his story, but at last he was
obliged to conclude that his imagina-
ton had played him a triols He
couldn't help wondering, though, what
had frightened the horse.
There was nothing to be done or said,
for if Mrs Rodden had gone home
month before certainly she could not
have been roaming around in the snow,
and as there was no other woman within
miles of the camp he must have been
mistaken. Rodden, though not at all
hospitable in manner, got supper and
allowed the express rider to stop for the
night.
After supper Raymond opened his
| saddlebags, saying:
well, as Maggie is not here to take
her package, and as it was intended for
you, anyway, suppose I'd better give
| it to you, and you can write her that
her Christmas present got here a little
ahead of time.
He tossed the package across to the
man, who stared at it as if petrified.
| He stretched out his hand slowly and
opened it with shaking fingers. The
package contained pair of thick, warm
| gloves, nothing more
"When did Maggie send for these?"
| he asked.
"The last time was here You came
near not getting them at all, for she
had no chance to tell me to buy them
| while / was here and had to run after
me to give the order. "
"Was that all she ran after you for?"
'sThat was all. y
Rodden settled back into his chair,
with groan, and hid his face in his
| hands.
Raymond sat silent for awhile, then,
| finding that the man did not intend to
speak, he concluded that the best thing
he could do was to go to bed. He was
soon sleeping and knew nothing more
until the morning light, shining through
the uncurtained window, awoke him.
He dressed hurriedly and went out
into the room where he had left his host.
| 1t was silent and deserted A glance
! into the side room showed that the bed
| was unoccupied, and Raymond went
| out to look after his horse as we'll as to
see if he could see any signs of his host
| The horse had been stabbed in a deserted
cabin, and Raymond pushed open the
door and then sprang back into the
open air. Swinging by halter from the
| rafters was Rodden's dead body.
Raymond cut the body down and laid
| it carefully in the bunk. He could do
| nothing for it, as the SNOW covered the
frozen earth, so that one man could not
hope to dig grave. Hastily saddling
his horse, he drove away, after search
| ing the cabin in the faint hope that he
| might find some note of explanation,
but in vain. Not line of writing, new
or old, could be found.
| Raymond stopped at the first settle
ment and gave notice of tho suicide at
the deserted camp, but the snow was
again falling, and no party could reach
the place for weeks, if before spring.
When he reached the city, he wrote a
letter to his parents asking them to
break the sad news to the widowed
Mrs. Rodden Weeks passed before he
received any answer, and then he was
| astounded to learn that Maggie had
never returned home--in fact, had
never even written since she left for
| California.
| BY this time spring had come, and he
| was about to make his first trip to the
| mountain. He reached the town where
| he had given notice of the suicide in
| time to learn what had been discovered
at the lonely cabin.
| A thorough search had been made
but nothing had been found to explain
the suicide. Hidden away in one of the
distant cabins they found Mrs. Rod
denis clothing, her ornaments, even her
workbasket, and, in fact, so far as they
could judge, every article that had be-
longed to her.
| Raymond told the men of the events
of that last night and his Interpretation
Of them, but he said nothing of his
meeting with the wronged woman in
the storm.
They argued that Rodden, jealous be-
cause his wife had gone down the trail
after Raymond, In his anger had killed
her. Filled with remorse when he
learned how causeless the deed had been,
he decided to die i'll the same way, as
il the world knew of his crime.
That was Creed Haymond's one ghost
story. Years passed before he could
speak at all of that meeting i'll storm
and darkness, but till the day of his
death he believed that the spirit of muir
dered Mrs. Rodden had appeared to him
| on the trail Louis Post Dispatch.
| ..u..., nrAirntrC