Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-23

Corvin's would naturally have been fore
closed, and since no trace of a deed of
mortgage, or anything else referring to af-
fairs with Corvin was discovered among his
apes, and, finally, since the last time he
was seen alive was the evening he left
home. after telling Nancy that he was go
ing down to have chat with Corvin-why,
people We're free to form their own opinions
and they did SO. But If their opinions had
any sinister sigaificance-if, for example.
they leant toward connecting the vanished
mans fate with the fact that Corvn was
thereby relieved of the necessity of losing
mos Of his worldly poSsessions-nothing
ever came of them. because nothing ever
transpired to indicate that Corvin knew OF
or had hand in the taking off of his cred
itor. On the contrary. he was quite active
N searching for him. But Matthew had
gone out of sight like 4 soap bubble leaving
rot trace behind him.
Hitherto you VIII have observed that there
has been a good deal of chronology and
genealogy. But there is no need of pune
tuaAJ remembering them. They were in
trcduced merely to provide a background
and an atmosphere for the events of the
story itself. Stories of mystery, such as
this is. need backgrounds and atmospheres
IN order to produce their full effect. Little
except mystery will be found in what is to
follow, and ii you are able to sound the
depths of it before the evolution of events
brings it TO Eight, all l say is that you
are cleverer than the present chroncler
was at the time, or than any of the neigh
bors. Meanwhile you will appreciate Mr..
HomerS artistic purpose in enveoping his
sketch in that dreamy, mysterious Indian
summer haze. Is there not something
ghostly in that wreath of mist stealing
along the middle distance, behind the big
butternut tree?
l should have mentioned another reason
for the local suspicious of Mr.. Corvin. We
have seen that Matthew was wealthy
man; his money was invested chiefly in
real estate and railroads. But it became
known that, shortly before his disappear
ance, he had been calling in these invest
Tents, and turning them into hard cash,
with the. design of putting the money in
certain western enterprises that paid q
higher interest. He must, then, have had a
greet many thousand dollars actually in
his hands. for there no trace of his
having deposited any of it in the local
banks. What had become of it? Like HIM
self, 1t had dissolved, every dollar of it,
into thin air. 1t was gone, but, on the
other hand. Mr.. Corvin soon after began to
show symptoms of decided solvency His
luck took turn: he was looking up in the
world, at last. Instead of FORGETTING his
estate to the B:llops, he presently found
himself in a position to add some of the
BiliopS acres to his own. Nancy, being so
unexpectedly reduced in circumstances and
having no more head for business than a
men, was thankful to exchange parcels of
her land for little cash. The neighbors
shook their heads: but what could they doo
or say, even, above their breaths? Corvin
was a lawyer. and hard one; he would
Wnom ne could trace an insinua ton against
his perfec. integrity. They might think
what they liked. but he was much more apt
to put them in gaol for libel than they
We're to get him hanged for murder They
had not even a corpus deficit
what they did venture to say was that
Corvin meant bit by bit to possess him
self of the entire Billop estate house and
ALL and turn poor Nancy out to shift for
herself. For 1t was remembered that at
the time Nancy had been betrothed to
brent. Corvin had himself been paying at
ter TONS to her. and that he had taken the
rebuff very Ill. OF course, his marriage
with Miser Billop's sister would have been
the making of him. He had married an
was of temper to cherish grudges, and
rev that he had his chance, he meant to
satisfy it.
Thus do the guilty triumph in this world,
and there is no help for it, In this case,
though, one hope was still INDUCED by a
few of the more innocent and creduous of
the community. 1t was recalled that dur
lrg the Efetlme of Matthew. the Rilop
rouse was believed to be haunted Mat
thew's spirit. instead of adding to the
supernatural crew, however, had apparent
~ taken the existent ghosts away with it;
at all events the manifestations had come
to stop with his disappearance. But it
was plaus:bly argued that a house which
has OF &C been haunted is likely to be
haunted again: indulgence in spirits clngs
to a house just as 1t does to a man. Now
(argued thase philosophers, although Mat
thew's imma terial part might very well
forebear to disturb the peace of his good
sister, who had Fever done anybody any
harm, but who was mortally afraid of dis
embodied intelligencies. yet the saturnine
old miSer, foreseeiEg the future might by
only biding his time and saving up his en-
orgies, harry the man who had shed his
blood, so soon as the latter should ven ture
to set foot in his ancient domiciie. Yes, he
would haunt Lawyer Corvin as never law
yer had been haunted before, and it would
go hard but the whole secret of the muir
der-if murder there had been-wouId be
revealed, the lost money recovered and
Nancy reinstated once more in her own
Certainly that would be poet;cal Justice,
and things as strange are said to have hap
pened. We shall see what did happen
shortly.
CTo be continued in Tuesdays Starr