Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1896-12-16
CHAPTER XVIII.

/
The elderly man, shabbily dressed ant
wearing blue spectacles. who followed
Timmons when he went to keep his ap
/ pointment with Oscar Leigh was Ton
| Stamer. He suspected that Leigh va.
/, not honest and that he might, as he hat
| warned Timmons, even murder the latter
He had followed for the latter's protec
| ton. and had sat in the public house
| shadowing the place opposite, and waiting
for Timmons to come out after his inter
view with the hunchback.
The next night earlier he returned itc
The same place. He saw with satisfaction
that Oscar Leigh was sitting at the tor
! window opposite, working away with q
file on something held in a little wise
fixed on his clockmaker's bench.
Oscar Leigh. at his bench In the top
loom OF Forbes bakery, overlooking the
street, was filing vigorously a bar of brass
held In a little wise attached to the bench.
He was unconscious that any one was
watching him. He was unconscious that
the file was in his hand, and that the part
of the bar on which he was working grad
ually grew fatter and fatter beneath the
fretting rancor of the file. He was at
work from habit, and thinking from habit
Oscar Leigh was thinking of gold
Miracle Gold.
Stamer had resumed his blue specta.
eles. He was furtively watching out Of
the corners Of his eyes behind the blue
glasses the man at the window above.
tie, too, was thinking Of metal, but not
Of the regal, the imperial yellow monarch
Of the Plutonian realms, but of a livid
dull, deadly, poisonous metal-lead, MUIR
derous lead.
The gold-covered dust fell from the
dwarf's file like a thin, down-driven squirt
Of auriferous vapor.
Miracle Gold" he thought, Miracle
Gold. All gold is Miracle Gold when one
tests it by that only great regeant, the
world. The world. the world. In my
Miracle Gold there would be found an
alloy of copper and silver. Yes, a sad
and poisonous alloy. Copper is blood
red, and silver is virgin white, and gold
Is yellow, a color between the two, and
infinitely more precious than they, the
most precious of all metals is gold.
Miracle Gold! Miracle Gold does not
need making at my hands. 1t is made
by the hands of others for all who will
stretch forth their hands and take 1t. 1t
is ready made In the palm of every hand
that touches yours in friendship. 1t is
The light Of every kindly eye. 1t is on the
lips of love for lovers. One touch of
God'r alchemy could make it even in the
breast of q hunchback If it might seem
sweet to one of Gods angels to find it
therer'
Stamer took in all that eyes could see
in the gable of Forbes bakery. Then he
passed slowly on. 1t might almost he
fancied from his tedious steps that he
had hurt his back or his legs in his fall,
but he did not limp or wriggle OF drag
his legs.
Near the public house were two Door
two-story houses, let in tenements These
houses Stamer observed. They were, he
saw, double-roofed, with a gutter in the
middle, and from the gutter descended a
water pipe into the ground.
When there was nothing more to be
loted in the outside of the gables. Stamer
,ulled his hat over his eyes and struck
nut briskly across the street. As he fin.
shed his inspection he thought:
$50 he'll wind up his clock tonight be-
weeh IL AMI half-past, will he? 1t will
axe him the longest half-hour he ever
'oent in all his life. There's plenty of
ne % get the tools ready, end for lit
lie practice, too"
Meanwhile, Oscar Leigh was busy with
1 bottle of sweet oil, and roll of muslin.
He oiled the muslin. and having stretched
and nailed it in position, raised the lower
sash of the window about two feet from
The sill. The muslin was double, and the
Two sheets were kept half an inch apart
by two rods, so that any dust getting
through the outer fold might be caught
py the inner one. Having settled this
screen to his satisfaction he left the room
and descended once more.
"My clock" he thought, will be enough
for fame. 1 will not meddle with this
MIRACLE Gold. I am committed to moth
ng, end anything Timmons may say will
De only slander, even if he did dare to
speak"
He reached the street. and wandered on
limlessly.
"Heyw cried a mans voice in alarm.
He looked up.
The chest Of q horse was within Q
,ard's bRsadth sf his aAsuher. The