The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1902-12-04

buried treasure. and. consequently. he
had no interest in Il.
He sat gazing at the paper, and his
eye caught some characters in the
corner below the lines, and he made
them out TO be the figures 1918. II
that was the date, and II seemed like
ly, then The child had been buried for
~ years.
The boast of the guilty man had
probably been fulfilled; he must be
either dead now or an old mana very
old man, for il seemed impossible that
a young man could have done this
deed.
Purcell sat still, bent over the pa
per, and he did not heed the opening
of the outer door and the entrance of
some one.
II was Ralph Caryl. who had been
smoking on the beach, and. seeing
light, had made bold TO enter
lie looked rather astonished at sight
of the papers spread on the table. and
he wondered where that musty old
document beneath Purcell's hand had
come from.
His sharp. quick eyes had seen the
writing on 1.-THE peculiar. grabbed
hand that would be remembered If ev.
er seen, and, forgetting that he could
have no right To read IL, he bent over
and mastered the lines in half the time
that IL had taken Purcell to read them.
AS he drew back from the perusal
his face was very white. and the hand
that still held the cigar trembled so
that the ashes fell To the floor
Reused now, Purcell hastily huddled
the papers together and exclaimed, an.
grily:
How came you here?"
Ii was an instant of perceptible hest
tation before Caryl replied. Then he
said, in nearly his usual voice:
Il beg your pardon. | was smoking
cigar on the beach here, and, seeing
light, | took the liberty of entering.
! am sorry to have disturbed you"
All the while that Caryl was speak
ing his glance kept wandering towards
she manuscript, which was halfcon
cealed by Purcells hand. He longed
TO snatch it away and examine IL at
his leisure: but he dared not do it.
you did rather startle me, to tell
the truth" replied Purcell, with a
forced smile. II was amusing myself
with these papers, instead of going TO
bed, as ! ought"
i should imagine you were studying
geometry" went on Caryl, determined
not 10 appear to notice that the old
man did not wish to be asked about
the papers. There seems to be
lot of diagrams and figures among
them. | wonder IL you could explain
this to me, now" putting his finger OIL
one of the papers.
Purcell, alarmed. snatched the pa
pers away, and then proceeded to gath
er them up, thus preventing Caryl
from saying anything more concerning
the one paper in which he was inter
ested.
Excuse me-" said Purcell, hurried
ly, but | cannot endure to have my
papers touched"
And in another moment they were
all locked up in the oak chest.
Caryl had no pretext for lingering,
and soon left, walking rapidly to his
lodgings, his face set, his eyes filed
with look of horror and amazement,
mingled with incredulity.
When he reached his own room he
did not go to bed. He quickly found
Boston paper Of that date, and ran his
finger down the list of times when the
trains left the Worcester depot for a
town In Western Massachusetts,.
There's no way of starting to-
night" he whispered. II can go to
Boston in the o'clock train in the
morning and catch the o'clock train
for Springfield. It's the best / can do,
and why need l be in such q hurry?
I'm fool! But that handwriting could
not be mistaken; there's no other like
it. And yet horrible to think of such
a thing! I'm not an innocent lamb
myself--but that sort of thing is be-
yond mel"
With these words on his lips, he had
taken up volume of Yoltaire in the
original, and turned to the fly-leRf on
which his name was written, together
with few lines of quotations from the
author.
1t was in precisely the same hand
writing as that on the paper so
strangely come into Charles Purcell's
possession.
IF / could only have asked him
where he found 1t" murmured Caryl,
as ne tore the lear from the book and
held 1t in the flame of natch until it
was ashes. But the old fellow acted
so oddly that couldn't do it--and he
wouldn't have told me il / had"
Caryl drank large glass of whisky
and then went to bed. But he was so
accustomed to the potation that it did
not induce slumber, and he had only
just fallen asleep when the newly-risen
sun, sending its rays across his bed,
awakened him.
He dressed quickly, went down
stairs and announced that business
called him away for a few days,
gulped down the coffee they gave him,
and started for the railroad station,
about mile away.
CHAPTER VIII.