Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-06-01
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II feel it is a man but cannot see


What does she say?"
The girls eyes started from her.
"0h, there are the soldiers coming.
The air is cold They have not taken
down the iron railing. Ny God-that
is the train. hear it-they will all be
killed" Then with a wild shrek, she
threw up her arms and with a shudder
put her hands upon her ears and be-
came to all appearances lifeless. But
little foam oozed from the corner OF
her mouth.
Hendricks was puzzled and lnnoyed.
There was an uncanny air TO the
girls utterances that affected him in a
manner peculiar to himself. He may
be said to have resented the intima-
tion of prescience. He, as a rule,
avoided and disliked mysteries He
did not like to acknowledge to himself
that something was going on above
ground that was suspicious and that
Mrs. Hendricks had him at disad-
vantage. He turned the matter over
in his mind and viewed it from every
conceivable point There seemed only
one way out of the growing uncer-
tainty and it was to take a body of
men, surround the house and make
the officers prisoners.
Just as he had about settled to this
conclusion Mrs. Hendricks summoned
him to the telephone.
81 want to warn you," she said, ''if
any voice but mine comes through this
instrument not to answer it. They
are all away on the grounds at this
moment and l can talk to you | can
not tell If they suspect that these
wires that apparently go out on the
poles, lead in another direction, but
they are liable to use them at some
moment. They have already made re-
marks about the chimney and the
mails and have ominously kept silence
about Miss Endicott's disappearance
But I guessed the truth when they
found the horses hoof marks ind
brought in the flask which smelled of
the captains Medford rum. If you
precipitate matters now, you may
wreck your st. Mary's scheme. II Cal
icot knows something about your past
how much ] cannot learn. He may
know something of your future plans
believe ne is the only man who has
put together the threads of your career
In a personal encounter he may get
away. If you entrap him, there will be
an armed force quartered on us. The
best plan is to keep him here in lux
urious ease by every blandishmentI can
offer until the St. Mary's affair is over
He win prefer this place to the Bayou
house, if indeed he suspects that place
He is shrewd man but susceptible
one. Leave him in my hands"
Hendricks was not led by this com
munication into a moments inadver-
tence. He could not tell if it were an
honest conviction or part of some
scheme of the woman's. He did not
dare tell her his own conclusions and
thus put her on her guard. He gave
her no intimation of his fast maturing
plan. He merely asked questions. The
further Acknowledgements to the fol-
lowing effect:
''Calicot is no ordinary man. | fear
him because / cannot read him. / have
a growing belief that he has industri-
ously put together your whole career
made his own theory-kept it to him
self and is staying here to corroborate
it before putting the machinery of law
in operation, or making his plan pub
lie. He has shown an unmistakable
admiration for me- He processes to
have never met woman whose intel
lectual gifts SO impressed him. But
cannot tell how far this is his suscepti-
bility or his game. Yesterday he said
my gifts would be of inestimable value
to the social system If arrayed on the
side of the normal forces of society. |
tried all my art to get him to say how
far he thought they were arrayed
against the conventional order, but
could not get him to divulge anything.
At another time he said: You are in
constant communication with Mr.. Hem
bricks But he changed the subject
adroitly when tried to find out how
he knew it. This will show you that
il he stays here it is only q question OF
time when he discovers our means of
intercourse and how necessary 1t is
that should sparingly use it. You
know me too well to think for mo-
ment that I am superstitious or vision
ary, but this cool, plausible, mysterious
man somehow stands in my instructive
feelings for the slow, inevitable, dis
passionate, solidarity of man that we
have raised our hands against. | have
exhausted all my woman's ingenuity
in trying to discover the weak spot in
his nature. He has, so far, baffied me.
/ cannot tell If he has a weak spot or
is only the cleverest man / ever met in
hiding it. 1t would be a supreme tri-
umph to outwit such a representative
agent intellectually. 1t cannot be done
in your way. You must handle events.
Leave me to deal with motives. In
any case, trust me-"
The result of this was just what we
might expect in a man of Hendricks
unplastic will and aggressive nature.
He was not convinced. He did not
like the womans weak admission of
something august and invincible in
the social order. He saw nothing in
the statements and arguments that
might not be put forward as part of a
subtitle scheme to gain time and to
keep him helplessly out of the way till
her own security was attained He
did not however confer with his asso-
ciates, but went TO the Office and
plunged into deep consultation with
the general and Fenning upon the
topography of the country around St
Mary's. They had county and town
ship maps with every road and house
marked upon them and they were en-
crossed in the details of n military
campaign. But that morning the
doctor had said that there were six of
the men who had demanded to be let
out for a few hours. They had
pledged themselves to keep away from
the roads and merely go into the bush
to hunt squirrels and would be back ut
night The doctor advised their re-
lease for a time and as they were men
in whom the general had every con-
fdence, the permission was given with
a warning.
These six men went Immediately
north, hung about the grounds of the
Laran house, encountered the two
deputies who were in the woods and
killed them. They then returned at
night feeling assured that they had re-
moved the obstacles to their liberty.
Hendricks heard of il first from Mrs.
Hendricks.
''The two deputies" she said, have
been killed at the edge of the blue
grass opening on the Smoky Hill
stretch. They were killed by your men
yesterday afternoon. Calicot sent their
bodies on to Clinton in n wagon, and