Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1902-04-29
The Hand of Ice
TRANSCRIBED BY FLORENCE WARDEN,
Author of Tho House the
by the Shore "A Prince Of Darkness,
TRANSCRIBED BY FLORENcE wARDEN.
Copyrighted, lSoa, b. Florence wardea.)

chairs. Sne W0ulQ accept Nettner,
but leaned. against the taHrail. and
said: sf
HAS Mr.. Mullion been as disagree
able to you, I wonder, as he was 8
little while ago to me, Mr.. Blair?"
laughed.
SWELL, I can't say he's been too
amiable, but you couldn't expect him
to be nicer to me than he was to you,
Miss Atkinson. Nobody Is"
Then it was that young Mullion
showed q view Of his character which
was utterly new to me. Laying one
hand lightly on my shoulder as he
prepared to go away, rhe said in q
grave and steady voice and with a
sincerity of kindness there was no
installing:
II don't see why people should
treat you otherwise than well. You're
an unpretending sort of fellow, but
you're as good-hearted one as I've
ever met"
Coming from him, this man whom
by turns mistrusted and respected,
these words struck me, by their SIM
pie earnestness as much as by the
fact that they were unexpected, SO
strongly that for the moment felt
almost sick with my own amazement.
When I recovered, Dick Mullion had
gone away, and Jennie Atkinson,
with tears in her eyes, was just be-
ginning to move away in an oppo-
site direction. AS she went she tried
to smile at me, and said gently: 81
believe he's right" as she passed me
on her way.
It may be imagined that all these
things happening to me, and filing
my mind with confused sense of
incongruity and mystery, were not
conducive to healthful repose. On
the following day felt seedier than
had done all through the voyage,
aud old DR.. Mullion came up to me
snxiously asking whether I had tried
hia medicine yet.
10 avoid being worried said yes,
and then again I got one of those
odd shocks Dick Mullion was always
giving me; for he shot across at me
q furtive look OF doubt which made
me redden to the eyebrows.
Decidedly that draught must be
analysed.
We were within few hours Of
landing, and all was excitement on
board. had announced the name Of
the hotel ! was going to, whereupon
old Atkinson said that he should go
there, too, and DR.. Mullion agreed to
put up at the same house. This was
on my account, knew. But with my
doubts about his nephew still strong
In my mind. I could not help feeling
that I would have been ready to dis
pense even with the society of my
CHEEKY and kind old friend for the
sake Of being free from the mysteri-
GUS influence OF his nephew.
When we had landed, and were
driving to the hotel, young Mullion
said something to me which sudden
~ revived my suspicious of him in
their strongest form.
"You didn't take my uncle's medi-
cine, of course?" he said to me, alb
ruptly, in low voice, when his
uncle's attention was withdrawn for
moment.
Rather rashly, perhaps, I answered
sharply enough:
mo, I'm going to have it ANA
lyzed."
He made no answer whatever. But
his dark face grew absolutely ivid
in hue and his eyes at once shone
with such desperate anxiety that I
was not In the least surprised to
hear from old Atkinson, when I met
him and his daughter at table d'hote
an hour later, that the doctor and
his nephew had changed their minds
and had left the hotel.
1T was the young un's doing" add
ed Mr.. Atkinson in some surprise.
I was not surprised, but was
both relieved and excited by the
news. Need say that that very
night found out competent chem
list, to whom I promised very hand
some fee If he would undertake with
out delay the analysis Of the sus-
pected bottle Of medicine.
I had to go for it on the following
afternoon. The old man met me
with look of surprise on his face.
IT don't know what. you may be
suffering from, sir" said he, as he
held up the bottle, part Of the con-
tents of which he had analysed for
me. "But you wouldn't have got
much benefit from q water-butt full
of this"
1 stared at him in much excite
ment.
"Poison, of course?" i said with
quivering lips.
"oh, dear no, sir. It's perfectly
harmless" said the chemist, as I
stared at him in stupefaction.
CHAPTER XII.
Again was nonplussed. Who was
It that had changed the medicine?
could not say whether young Null
lion had had any share in the trans
action at ali; he had certainly ex-
pressed his opinion that his uncle's
remedies were old-fashioned; but
from such an expression of opinion
to the substitution of draught of
his own connection for the old doc
tors would have been a very long
step indeed. and one wholly unjusti-
fable except on the supposition that
the medicine prescribed by the doc
tor had been not merely old-fash-
Toned, but positively harmful.