Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-12-24
The Trouble s
on the Toro1ito.
BY FRANCIS LYNnE.
Copyright lSgs, by Francis Lynde)
CHAPTER X.
AND WHAT CAME or IT.


AND WHAT CAME OF 1T.
In Difference to my illness, as we'll
as to the fact that I paid literally
for my footing in the Setter house
hold l was not required to rise at
lavbreal1 and breakfast with the
family; and l was rather later than
usual on the morning following the
night of bad dreams and worse reali-
ties. Mrs. Setter served me, as she
usually did. and Nan was not visible.
Knowing the girls excellent reason
for avoiding me, / thought little of
it at the time, being swallowed up in
anxious conjectures as to what use
she would make of the stolen letter
and newspaper clipping.
But as the day wore on and still
she did not appear, anxiety became
dread, indefinable and unreasoning,
but mighty in proportion to the por-
tentous possibilities. 1t was to little
purpose that l tried to argue myself
into calmer frame of mind; that I
wrought out the problem of chances
again and again in a vain endeavor
to prefigure what would come of it.
AT the worst, it appeared, she could
only betray me to Wykamp; or, jcal-
ousy should prove stronger than
love, hold her knowledge of the
shameful facts as sword over Wini-
fred's head; but, as the event was to
show forth, reckoned entirely with
out my host, as one is likely to reck-
on when the inscrutable secrets of
a woman's heart are involved.
The long day brought no explana-
ton of Mans absence. From my post
of observation on the porch I saw
Wyliamp ride past on his way to his
work; and made sure that he did not
repass until he returned late in the
evening at the tail of the struggling
procession of workmen. Winifred re-
turned from the schoolhouse at the
usual hour in the afternoon, and nv
anxious scrutiny of her face as she
came up the walk from the gate and
stopped for a word with the con-
valescent before going to her room
assured me that as yet the blow had
not fallen upon her. Still Nan did
not appear, and her prolonged abb
sence, and the stolid Indifference of
her father and mother to it, puzzled
me not little. l would have given
much to know what had happened
In the family councils in those early
hours of the morning when L had
slept the sleep of the unsuspecting.
l Pt- ifrht oil he Inf,, hi
had grown until it had become an
agony of apprehension. For two
| days Macpherson had intermitted his
evening visits to the farm at Valley
| Head; and after supper 1 watched
and waited in the hope that he would
come. 1t had been no part of my
plan to make him confidant in the
results of the Grantley investigation,
but under the changed conditions it
now seemed to be the wisest course;
and l was half daft at the thought
that the story might reach him
through another channel. So I kept
my post in the hammock until nine
o'clock, and then went to my room
to stay only till could be sure that
the family had gone to bed. When
the farmhouse was still and dark,
found my overcoat and crept down
stairs with my shoes in my hand.
The moon was well above the up
lifted eastern horizon when 1 put on
my shoes and propped myself in the
hammock to continue the pointless
vigil. There was not the vaguest
promise that anything could come of
it. At the most I could only make
sure that Nan did or did not come
home. And yet, if life itself had been
at stake, I could scarcely have gone
back to my room and to bed.
The night was as perfect as night
can be in region where both night
and day are beyond the imaginings
of the dwellers in lower attitudes.
| The hazeless air was tremulous with
the murmurings of natures silences.
1t seemed that l had never before
realized how white the moonlight
could be. nor how black the shadows.
The wind, what zephyr's- breath there
was of it, was up the valley: and
on it's wings came the scents of sun
cured grasses and the distance
softened notes of an accordion
| played by one Of the workmen in the
engineers camp. The very atmos-
phere was eloquent of peace, and the
restless urgency of the latter-day
struggle for existence seemed far
removed. After time the moon
rode higher, and the hammock un-
der the porch-roof swung in the
blacklist of the shadows. The night
air began to grow cooler, and but
toned my overcoat and filled and
lighted my pipe.
| It must have been nearly ten
o'clock when Nan returned. I heard
her step in the road and extinguished
my pipe. She came up the walk with
footsteps tagging, as one who fghta
with fatigue: and she let herself into
the house silently and without look
ing to right or left. One thing. and
one thing only, had / learned by be-
/ ing silent witness of her home
coming She had come from some
where down the valley; otherwise
the wind would not have brought
me the warning of her approach.
1t was fully half an hour later be-
fore I could make up my mind to go
to bed. There was less than nothing
to watch for now, and, despite the
overcoat, the chill of the night struck