Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-11-11
in stupor and forgetru1uess,

"In-the-name-of - all-that's-
easonable-what-doe s-this-mean?"
gasped DR.. Gardner when he sat up in
bed on the following morning and look.
ed with establishment round the apart
ment. Upon the carpeted floor lay
portmanteau, ripped open and cut in
fantastic curves, the leather hanging
from it in strips. In a moment he had
bounded from bed and was kneeling up
on the floor, gazing in bewilderment at
the wreck of his property. Then he
hastily stepped across the room to ex..
anime the lock Of his door. Both it and
the window bar were intact. Surely he
was dreaming, he thought, as he sat
upon the edge Of the bed to collect his
faculties. And then his eyes rested up
on the pillow.
mercy on me! What has happened
to this?' he exclaimed.
Also slashed and cut as if by the
knife Of a frenzied maniac. The whole
thing was inexplicable.
Yonder the door of a press cupboard
showed lines of whitewood through the
paint. 1t had been repeatedly stabbed.
Even the soap had not escaped. There
it lay upon the washstand in a heap OF
thin shavings. What absurd fit could
have induced any one to commit such
senseless acts as these? Had the room
been entered while he slept? To believe
that and explain the locked door and
barred window was impossible. Some
body must have experienced gloating
sort Of pleasure in cutting the portman-
teau. That was evident from the way
in which it was done. It was not sim
| pie act Of destruction. The curved in
cisions showed how carefully and DELHI
erately it had been carved, as if the
knife had dwelt with lingering joy
over each sweep Of its blade.
For some minutes he sat upon the
bed staring in perplexity and bewilder-
ment at the evidences of madness before
him, and then there passed fleeting ex-
preston across his eyes, and his face
was suffused with deathly pallor.
A light was thrown across his under
standing, for he instantly started to his
feet, and the next moment his nervous
fingers were busily playing over the
lock of an oaken case whose contents
became subjected to an intent and eager
scrutiny. A long black handled operat-
ing knife appeared to engage his chief
attention, for he several times felt its
edge, breathed upon it, held it up to
the light of day and contrasted its ap-
pearance with that of others in the box.
Two hours afterward DR.. Gardner
stepped out Of his room, lingering for a
short space at the door to reassure him
self that every trace of disorder had
been concealed, and in due time entered
the breakfast room, where DR.. Camp
bell and his daughter already sat.
ooh, Ned, Pm very sorry that your
room was so unprepared!" was the re.
mark with which he was greeted by the
young lady as she rose to receive him.
"Why need you be sorry at all, May
I was quite as comfortable as always
am, thanks to YOU
$50 I have told her, broke in the
old gentleman without raising his eyes
from the letter which he held in his
hand, "but like every other dear little
housewife she is never satisfied unless
her department rolls on with the un
swerving regularity of the solar system
The maids forgot to give you a pillow
or something OF that sort, and May ha.
done little else but worry over the omis
sion since she came to breakfast. feal
she worries herself about other folk
far more than she does about her ole
father" he said, with a sly look at hi
daughter.
well, assn Mo- ~ - die