The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-08-25
CHAPTER ~.
THE KILLING OF THE HORSES.

Many theories were set anoat concern
Ing this dreadful crime. and the law
searched high and low for the man with
the strange eyes. but without success. No
one remembered to have seen him. Many
people came to Windsor and Slough dur
Ing the season IL was hardly possible
that an ordinary man, for such he would
have appeared to the casual observer.
would have been noticed. BE that as IL
may. no trace OF him was discovered,
and as he did not come forward OF his
own Tree VIII 1 soon abandoned all hops
OF hearing OF him
:. What also added a deeper mystery 20
the crime was the fact that nothing had
been stolen from the house though my
mothers cash box, which contained her
5ewelry and some 2l0 or 3i5 in gold.
stood on a. chair by the dressing table,
sassns sSa hs ses sak Sf tns
forehead was thing TO which the police
attached no importance. To them IL had
no msaning, and they consequently as:
missed IL with scant ceremony. II had
been discovered that tho marks had been
produced by the application OF a powerful
acid. but they had no doubt that II the
been done 70 % %mysafy the n inVestisasopss sas ssns'
And 30 in time the sensation lost IT'S
Soee Soa s1 ps9R'e Segsa tp forgs The
matter IN hand. and recollect we'll that
they advanced some ingenious but Ut
.erly erroneous theories concerning the
uncle and were still convinced that the
man with the strange eyes was at the
bottom or the mystery and that he could
for s ths TWO shs weps St sse
this oonviction 'they made MAJ pisf lisiie IA Of It
their dead unless W Il was as0 spesiaiiy % design % 4
ed to throw the authorities off the scent
Ny fathers warming letter could not pos
sioly relate to the crime. HIS reference
Save II SS sSere had f beea nn WAS man % or any y
ouS ss no pssr ssye sa % %So they S dTssS wsS
and TO what extent their hatred was like
ly TO carry them? As for the story OF
the gate post and the sign-well, ] was
to imagine things Tho mere fact OF. the
;dissppearance of the sign showed how
now went to live with my uncle and
many and many a time we discussed the
pros and cons OF the case. trying TO build
up some satisfactory clew TO work upon:
starting place. the man with the strange
IT believe" said my uncle. III we could
soon solve the mystery. Your father has
led a strange ufe Davie. and l should
not be surprised 70 hear that he had
OF the far East That man with the
strange eyes, whose nationality neither
you nor your poor mother could guess,
must have been either a Jap or a Chi
nese and from what have read OF those
oasterns and their societies / know them
70 be cruel and caiious to a degree,
careful for W II it Ia Is as " believe w we have
a terrible enemy TO grapple with"
And so for weeks at time he never
let me out OF his sight ! slept In a room
next 20 his. in the partition OF which he
49, 49, tn1
himself to the locking OF the house, go
ing the rounds every night after dark
with n revolver IN his hand. l know he
inwardly prayed for a meeting with the
man with the strange eyes, but that gen.
tleman never put In an appearance. And
yet, though he said nothing. / knew that
he also feared the coming. and with that
end In view he took me out I'm the fields
every day and gave me pistol practice
until ! became quite an adept He was
q capital shot himself, and he taught me
TO use the rife as well as the gun. 1T
may be useful one day" he used TO say,
and knew what was passing In his
mind.
And so In this way the next six months
passed. and the winter had come, with
Its short days and It's long. cold nights.
BY this time the great Windsor mys-
terry" as Il had been called. had become
a thing OF the past, and my youth en-
abled me TO regard IL with equanimity.
No further word had come from my fa-
ther. Had he been living IN any civilized
city or town he could hardly have failed
to read OF his wife's murder. But moth
ing came from him, and sometimes we
suspected that tho same power that had
struck down my mother had wrought It's
vengeance on him. Be that as IL may.
he was TO all intents and purposes dead.
My uncle now regarded me as his child.
and had he been my father l could not
have loved him more.
The grief through which he had lately
passed had steadied him considerably
The face was still kind. though robbed Of
much Of It's ruddiness, but the reckless,
devil may care expression had entirely
vanished. The man had responsibilities
now n he had never known them before,
and he scarcely took tho pains to hide
the fact Then he had long Ats OF men
tai abstraction which he shook of with a
great effort We rode and drove incess-
antiy, and noticed that he always peered
into the eyes OF every stranger we passed.
Sometimes no took me TO town for a
week. and together we haunted all the
most popular resorts OF the metropolis.
We tramped the great thoroughfares
from, the Marble arch TO the bank. from
AZ. Pauls 10 Hyde Park corner. And all
for what? He never said. but ! knew Il
waa for the man with the strange eyes.
Time after time he used 90 say TO me.
"Dovie. are you quite sure you would
know him aeain7" And then I would go
through n minute description OF the man
"a he appeared 90 me In the garden that
day, and so often had repeated the
story that he knew IL as well as and "
I omitted any particular he would say.
'You forgot 10 mention the black tic with
Che white SPOTS" or His boots were
rather SQUARE al the toes"
But nothing ever came of our wander
,-ea though we had many false alarms.
for IN London. where one secs so many
difYerent faces. II would have been
strange had we not encountered few
Men OF foreign ap-
ncerance In particular we marked ms our
quarry. especially those who have the
brand OF the east or the far east. But
though nj the sight OF man l have
.oretirnes felt my heart leap 20 my