The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1894-08-31

occupied part of a dreadfully Uttered
niue peninsula formed by curve of
,le stream. More than one of it's walls
liad 1allen, but ] had particularly no.
'ced frequently in passing, and had
Nonuered at one wall which lay as fat
as the walls OF Jericho it seemed from
'le iubllc side of the stream TO cohcre
us completely rs when it had been
Standing, except at its outer edges
Wnefe the bricks Were broken and dis
located. This ! suspected was the
wall; ana | was resolved to visit it to
see whether | could make sure my sus-
plcion was correct
10 get to the mill | had to pass round
TO the head Of the peninsula Il won
dered whether Steinhardt had taken
that route on his journey with his hor-
rlble burden, or whether he had boldly
lofued the stream opposite one of the
side gates To the grounds Of his works..
I ms led me between two old rafting
lnllls OF some sort, past piles of lumber
broken wagons and frag gments of old
machinery ruSting oway~-past some
nourlshing pigstieS, constructed of old
boards and old sacks. | had to pick
my way very carefully. for ii was beset
with gullies and holes worn out by
rain torrents, and with entrenchments
Of cinders and "clinkers" At length
| came out upon an open space round
the mill. | approached the wall with
! shuddering but fascinated sense. In
the middle Of it. toward the edge which
! had been the top, was a holted iron
1 plate, answering exactly to the require
mcnts of Frahlein Haas vision.
My eye was ut once attracted to q
! part of the wall. near its base, which
was altogether unlike the rest Most Of
! the wall was as bare of anything like
vegetation as a mill wall commonly is,
! but this p9rt was covered with 4 fine,
/ yclloWiSh- green fungus on the bricks,
and grass in the mortar of the inter
stices. This. | was satisfied. was the
spot Under these bricks had lain, for
eighteen months, the mutilatel remains
Of the unfortunate LacroiX probably at
no great depth; hence the eagerncss of
Steinhardt 10 cover them With so wide
spreading a tomb-slab as this fallen
wall. and hence, also. probably. this
traitorous growth of green, As /
looked. ! wondered how much Stein
hardt would give now to be able to
move his Titanic tombstone and re-
move his dead, The wall was too se-
cure covering! 1t was the grand mis-
take of a strong resolute and original
criminal-the enormous blunder Of the
bold. uncompromising villain, entirely
confident in his security against every
risk of discovery.
| hurriedly Withdrew " TO consider my
course Of action l began to find that
was in an awkward dilemma My
promise 10 FraTlein Haas forbade Il
IA. = aC 1,nt vat
how could my promise to Louise. that
her fathers remains should be proper
ly nterred-hoW could that be fultillyl
without the discovery becoming public?
There was another point which gave
me pause: Suppose this rude grave.
broken into. and its contents identified
as the remains of Mr.. Lacroix, how
could | show that Steinhardt had bur-
led them? How, then, could | bring the
crime home SO as to move him as |
desired?
/ resolved to go to Freeman and talk
the difficulty over with him. | had
seen little Of my friend since bis return
from London. he had been much from
home on some business Of his denomi-
nation He did not even know yet of
the successful result of our inquiry
upon old Jaques.
l found him in his study, in which
he was always most at ease. In ac-
cordance with his request / posted"
him up to date in my doings and
discoveries-fr the finding of the
French papers in Jaqucs's cottage,
through the royela tons at Basel, to
the discovery | had made few min
utes before. He was most impressed
with my acaarnt If tho wi cin af Iyrn,,
lein Haas. He was something of mys-
tic, of the pseudo scientific kind we'll
known III these latter days. and he
would turn his attention to no other
point till he had found an explanation /
of the Frauleins experiences His ex-
planation at least satisfied himself, and I
it certainly was very plausible. He
described the phenomena as magnetic |
clairvoyance Here. said he, were /
two people who had at one time been
deeply interested in each other, one Of /
whom uhe more sympathetic subject) I
still thought much OF the other; the I
one was highly nervous the other was
strong Willed. The strong willed per-
son was in an extraordinary difficulty,
in which he had to put resolute strain /
upon all his resources Of mind and body
and memory. In his casting about in
his excited mood for aid to remove
his difficulty, he might well have
thought. If she were here,-she who
has been Of all beings the most de-
voted to me! Or, if l were only with
her, rid Of this horrible businossr'
This strong wishing this reaching out
Of spirit for her, would sink to mere
nothing when the dimculty OF the time
was once settled, and the bond OF at
traction would sink loose and lifeless,
till it was drawn tense again, and
thrilled again with vigor when his need
Of her returned upon him with a new
IF nlllfI, ,chiS