Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-09-26

lutSo eilc olu pIito lcN upildIS, CS'
pecially as | mean to live and die in it
so look out, you three women folks, and
work lively as you can on the inside of
the old rOolery or the sickness of the
outside will put you to open shame,
and that would never please Loreen,
nor, as l take it, Miss Butterworth
either. -
1t was a challenge we We're glad to
/ accept, especially as from the number
of persons we now saw come tioclling
into the lane it was very apparent that
we should experience no further diff
Guilty i'll obtaining any help we might
need to carry out our undertakings.
Meantime my thoughts were not alto
gether concentrated even upon these
pleasing plans for Lucctta's benefit.
There We're certain points yet to be made
clear IN the matter whose termination
still lay heavy on my heart, and there
was Il confession for me to make, with
out which | could not face Mr.. t;ryce
with all that unwavering compusurc
which our peculiar relations seemed to
demand.
The explanations came first. They
We're volunteered by Mr.. Gryce, whom
| met in the course Of the morning at
Mother James cottage. She had been
perfectly happy all night, sleeping with
the coin in her hand and waking to
again devour it with her greedy but
loving eyes. As we We're looking at her
and Mr. Gryce directing with his hand
the movements of the men who had
come to smooth down her garden and
make it prescntublo again the detective
spoke.
Il suppose You have been wondering
how this Cd woman came to have those
memcnt0s Of the crimes which took
place up thcre. Well, we have figured
it out thus The trinll from the ped.
dlcr's pack she probably stole from that
pack before it was found 10y the villagers
and given up t. the proper authorities
The other, the ring has Il different his
tory, and the finding Of it III Mother
James poss. ssion can only be cyplain5d
by series Of causes 50 bizarre that
they must ever rank rs among the most
remarkable that have ever adorned the
annals of our police register. Shuuld |
give it out Us Il puzzle you could never
answer it. How could ring which was
on the finger of Mr.. - five minutes
before he vanished from the light of the
sun forever pass from the mouth Of
that old well into Mother James hand .
a half mile away without compromis- /
ing Mr.. TrolMl Ill the eyes of mortal .
man, or even Mother Jane, who was rs
innocent 1t wrong in this as we are:
You cannot tell. You miSntQuotc scrip T.
turc and SAY, ! bird Of the air carried .
it,. But, Miss BUttcIW orth, you would .
never Ltlicy" the truth If your own .
words, and yet that Was the very way
it was dol,c--a bird Of the air carried .
it. In those Gays--it j. three months .
ago nGW--Auihor Jane Kept TWO tame
pigeons. They Slept on her house top,
they ate frUlI her hand and they flew
sometimes as Tar away as Mr., Trohn's .
garden. enc Gay Il young man, equipped
for travelling, paused for il glass of wa
ter at the famous well there while .
these pigeons We're picking up corn
which Mr.. Truhm had scattered for
them, for his taStes are confined to tho
of fruits and flowers, but
extend to dumb animals, to whom he
is UNIFORMLY kind. Theyoung man Wore
a ring, and being nervous was iiddling
with it us he talked TO the pleasant old
who was lowering the bucket
for him. AS he flddlod with it the
earth fell from under him, and as the
DAYLIGHT vanished above him the ring
few out of his up thrown hand and lay,
the only token of his now blutted ont
existence, upon the emerald sward he
had but IA moment before pressed with
mis- unsuspicious feet. 1t burned-this
ruby burned like "a drop of blood III
The grass when that demon came again
20 his senses, and being IA telltale evil
lence of crime to him who had allowed
nothing to ever speak against him of
;hese matters, he stared at it as ut
leadly thing directed against himself
md to be got rid of at once and by
means which by no possibility could
,ecoil back upon himself as its author.
"Thc pigeons stalking near offered to
lis abnormally acute understanding the
,nly solution which would leave him
devoid of fear He might
,ut this meant an aftermath of cxpe- t
fence from which even he shrank VINO {
lT In cod "a