Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-03-08
LOVE FINDS A WAY,
l..0..0 q - ..0e4o e.4.o - - -
Continued from Page o.


Continued from Page 9.)
He was tired, harassed, unhappy:
but, whatever befell the shadows that
sometimes crowded thick and fast
about his own resolute head should not
infold her. To make Olivia happy was
the law Of his life, the handspring Of
his every action, his one earthly de-
sire.
The care taker and his wife had
closed their cottage for the mig and
We're preparing to retire when his
knock startled them. He heard them
draw the bolt with reluctant caution to
answer his summons.
"What! Not abed thus early, 81.
mon?"
mot just abed, sir, but since the
masters been gone Jess and me are
jus as willin as not to lock up early
and shut things out. 1t be awful lone
some and gloomsome here now. Mr..
Matthews, and unless things brighten
up when Mr.. Tom gets through schools
In I doubt if Jess and me can hold on
at this gait"
And then Mr.. Matthews told Simon
how he was going to break the gloom
spell by garden party on his daugh-
ter's birthday, and Simon espoused his
cause gladly. Broxton Hall used to be
happy and gay house.
Anything to bring back the old
gladsomeness, sir"
Mr.. Matthews gave his orders about
opening the house, clipping the cedars,
etc. When he turned away, he heard
the old man promptly bolt the door
again, and as the wooden shutters
were of solid boards the little cottage
Immediately offered but dark, square
bulk for observation. He returned as
he had come. Making the circuit Of the
house from rear to front, by the side
en- which Colonel Broxton's study was
located, involuntarily he glanced up
ward at the closed shutters, then start
ed and stood still, wondering. A faint
light, SO faint that it might have been
a phosphorescent glimmer, shene
through the Stats of the dark green
shutters.
!, Whatever else his shortcomings,
physical cowardice was not among
them. Some one was in the Broxton
house and in the colonel's study. To
go back for Simon would be useless.
He would not come. He must depend
upon his own address and his own
nerve.
Stealing noiselessly to the front Of
the house. the lawyer mounted the low
front steps and tried the front door
handle softly. 1t was locked. With q
strong grip he next seized one of the
shutters of the long French windows
that opened from the parlor to the We
randa floor. It yielded readily. So did
the sash. He slipped his shoes from his
feet and sped with swift noiselessness
across the hall. The study was at the
rear of the house. 1t connected with
the room in the parlor suit by the doors
glazed with dead ground glass.
Through the dim glass of these doors
the pale phosphorescent CLEAN came
steadily. He would catch the thief red
handed. His hands were planted firm
ly on the silver doorknobs. He sent the
sliding doors gliding noiselessly in
Then he staggered and held fast by the
Intel to keep himself from falling.
Bending over the dead mans study
table was a tall, shadowy form in
white. The sound of scattering loose
paper fell on his ears with ghostly
rustic. He saw a restless hand three
times distinctly. In a signing whisper
he heard the words, Lost, lost, lost!''
all this in second of time. The night
wind swept through the open front
window. The pale light was suddenly
extinguished. The house lay in utter
darkness. A faint, slow movement,
like the rustic Of garments, came near
er to the terror palsied man, passed by
him, died away entirely.
How long he staid there he never
could have told, nor how he ever CROP
ed his way back to the spot where he
had left his shoes and from there to his
horse.
Once in the saddle, with the cold
night air tanning his cheeks, his cour-
age. came back and with it a flood Of
self contempt.
bah! Am in my dotage? he cried
angrily. Tomorrow / will investigate
this ghostly trickery and run the trick.
ster to earth"
But he slept very little that night,
nor did he run that ghostly ''trickster''
to earth on the morrow nor the next
day nor any day thereafter.
fTo be continued.)
+ Z r
A Reauttful sxatem.