Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-04-27

her good name, has shown some little
Impotence at the restraint imposed
upon him, and this was an extra bur.
den, Miss Butterworth, but that and all
the others we have been forced to bear
(the generous girl did not speak of her
own special grief and loss) have all been
rendered useless by the unhappy chance
which has brought into our midst this
agent of the police. All, if only knew
whether this was the providence of God
rebuking us or just the malice Of man
seeking to rob us of our one best treasure,
"a mothers untarnished namel"
"Mr. Gryce acts from no malice
began, but saw they were not listen
ing.
"Are they done down below?" asked
Lucetta.
"Does the man you call Gryce seem
satisfied?" asked Loreen.
drew myself up physically and men,
tally. My second task was about to be-
gin.
Il do not understand those men,"
said l. "They seem to want to look far
ther than the sacred spot where we left
them. If they are going through form,
they are doing it very thoroughly"
THAT is their duty" said Loreen,
but Lucetta took it less calmly.
1T is an unhappy day for lis" cried
she. "Shame after shame, disgrace aft
er disgrace. wish we had all died in
our childhood. Loreen, must see Will
liam. He will be doing some foolish
thing, swearing Or
my DEAR" said l, "let me go to
William. He may not like me over
much, but l will at least prove a re
straint to him. You are too feeble. Sec
you ought to DO lying on the couch In
stead of trying to drag yourself out to
the stables.
And indeed at that moment Lucetta s
strength gave suddenly out, and she
sank into LOreen's arms insensible.
When she was restored, / hurried
away to the stables, still in pursuit of
the task which had not yet completed.
found William sitting doggedly ON q
stool in the open doorway, grunting out
short sentences to the two men who
lounged in his vicinity on either side.
He was angry, but not as angry as
had seen him times before. The men
were tOwnsfolk and listened eagerly to
his broken sentences One or two Of
these reached my ears
LET 'em go it, 1t won't be now or
today they'll settle this business. It's
the DEVILS work, and devils are sly.
Nv hn1ca haf
or any other house they'll be likely to
visit. The place would ransack- But
Lorecn would say was babbling. Good
ness knows fellows got to talk about
something when his fellow townsfolk
come to see him." And here his laugh
broke in harsh, cruel and insulting l
felt it did him no good and made haste
to show myself.
Immediately his whole appearance
changed. He was so astonished to see
mo there that for moment he was alb
solutely silent; then he broke out again
into another loud guffaw, but this time
in q different tone.
"Ah, ha, ;" he laughed, miss Butter
worth! Here, Saracen. Come, pay your
respects to the lady who likes you so
we'll. "
And Saracen came, but I did not for
sake my ground. 1 had seen what I
hoped to sec in one corner, and Sara
GEMS presence afforded me tho opportu-
nifty of indulging in one or two rather
curious performances.
Il am not afraid of the dog" said 1,
with marked loftiness, shrinking toward
the pail of water had already marked
with my eye. mot at all afraid, I
continued, catching up the pail and
putting it between US as the dog made q
wild dash in my direction. "These gen.
tlemen will not see me hurt" And
though they all laughed-they would
have been fools if they had not-and
the dog jumped the pail and jumped,
not pail, but a broom handle that was
lying amid all tho rest of the disorder
on the floor, they did not see that had
succeeded in doing what l wished,
which was to place that pail SO near to
William s feet that But wait a mo-
ment, everything in its own time. es-
capped the dog, and next moment had my
eye on him. He did not move after that,
which rather put stop to the laughter,
which seeing l drew very near to Will
liam, and with sly gesture to the two
men, which for some reason they SEEM
ed to understand, whispered in the rude
fellow ear:
They've found your mothers grave
under the flower parlor Your sisters
told me to teal you. But that is not all
They're trampling hither and yon
through all the secret places in the Gel
lar, turning up the earth with their
spades. l know they won't find any
thing, but we thought you ought to
know
Here l made a feint of being startled,
and ceased My second task was done
The third only remained. Fortunately
at that moment Mr.. Gryce and his fol-
lowers showed themselves in the gar
den. They had just come from the Gel
lar and played their part in the same
spirit l had mine. Though they were
too far for their words to be heard, the
air Of secrecy and the dubious looks
they cast toward the stable could not
but ovince even to Williams dull un-
derstanding that their investigations
had resulted in a doubt which left them
far from satisfied, but once this impress
sion made, they did not linger long to-
gcther. The man with the lantern moved
off, and Mr.. Gryce turned toward us,
changing his whole appearance as he
advanced till no one could look more
cheerful and good humored.
"Well, that is over" said he. Mere
form, Mr.. Knollys-mere form. We
have to go through these things at