Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-07-18
CHAPTER XVI.

In q week, Lucetta had said, she
might have been able, had he beer
willing or in a position to wait to give
him a more satisfactory answer. Why
I in week: That she shrank from leav.
ing her sister SO suddenly or that she
had sacrificed her life's happiness to any
childish idea Of decorum did not think
probable even. The spirit she had
shown, her immovable attitude under 3
temptation which had not only romance
to recommend it, but everything else
which could affect young and sensi.
tive woman, argued in my mind the ex.
istence of some uncompleted duty of SC
exacting and imperative nature that
she could not even consider the greatest
thing was out of her way. William S
rude question of the morning, "What
shall we do with the old girl till it is
all over?" required to me in support of
this theory, making me feel that l need
ed no more confirmation to be quite GER
tain that crisis was approaching in
this house which would tax my powers
to the utmost and call perhaps for the
use of the whistle which had received
from Mr.. Gryce, and which, following
his instructions, had tied carefully
about my neck. Yet how could l asso
ciate Lucetta with crime or dream of
the police in connection with the serene
to all that was false. vile or even com
mon? Easily, my readers, easily, with
that great, hulking William in my re-
membrance To shield him, to hide per-
haps his deformity of soul from the
world, even such gentle and gracious
women as these have been known to
enter into acts which to any unpreju-
diced eye and an unbiased conscience
would seem little short of fiendish
Love for an unworthy relative or rather
the sense of duty toward ones own has
driven many a clear minded woman to
her ruin, as the police annals, embodied
as they are for me i'll Mr.. Gryce, would
show.
That have not as yet put into definite
words the suspicion upon which l was
now prepared to work is quite apparent
to me. Up to this time it had been too
vague, or rather of so monstrous char
acter, that l had felt ready to consider
other possibilities, as, for instance, the
possible connection of old Mother Jane
with the unaccountable disappearance
which had taken pluce in this lane. But
now the very definite assurances had
been constantly receiving from the mo-
ment had set foot in this house that
extraordinary and out of
keeping with the ordinary appearances
of the household was going on in secret
in some one of the innumerable cham
bers of that long corridor corresponding
to my own, and which for very obvious
had as yet failed to find any
excuse for penetrating, was taking shape
in my mind, and no longer affected to
deny to myself that everything | had
thus far seen and heard went toward es-
the fact that these young wo-
men held in charge prisoner of some /
kind of whose presence there and per /
sonality they dreaded the discovery.
Now, who could this prisoner be?
Common sense supplied me with but
,ne answer-Silly Rufus, the boy who
within a few days had vanished from
among the good people of this seeming
y guileless community.
Once settled in this idea, applied
myself to a consideration of the means
1t my disposal for determining its truth.
The simplest and perhaps the most sure
Is we'll as the least satisfactory to one
If my nature would be to summon the
police and have the house thoroughly
but this involved, in case /
lad been deceived by appearances-as
vas possible even TO a woman Of my ex-