Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1903-11-19
CHAPTER XIV.

They went slowly back up the ave
nue. down which they had come SO
blithely a short time before. But there
was no merry jesting, no Ginning OF
young laughter.
is she dead? oh. Mr.. Warren, is
she dead?"
And Baby's gay voice was almost
unacceptable in it's terrified solemni-
ty.
Il think not--I hope not!"
With strong and kindly hands, which
grasped each other beneath their I'M
conscious burden, they bore her on
that awfully rigid. quiet. corpselike
figure.
watt" Cynthia Lennox cried. i'm
~periously.
In a moment she had torn of her
long, satin-lined sealskin cloak.
Wrap her in this. 1t Is cold!"
And when 1t was done the little cor
tege moved on again.
And now the moon was high In the
heavens, and its flooding light fell in q
rain of silver over beautiful slack
~castle-over the wide demesne-over
the grald old house-over that
strange. ~slow-moying group on the ave
uncover the eastern tower!
"Ah!" and this time Paby Earle did
not cry out in reckless and joyous de-
iance. She only crouched a little
nearer Will Warren with that quick
word of fear.
For before them, at their very feet,
stretched a broad patch of shadow.
dense and black and ominous-the
shadow flung by tie eastern tower.
They passed into 1t, bearing their life
less load. Beyond CLEANED the lights
of Blackcastle. A little way more.
and
Mercy! What was that?"
A laugh!-the widest, maddest.
most demoniac peal that ever rang
from lips infernal--a laugh that froze
the warm blood in their veins, and
sent 1t surging back to their hearts In
icy torrents!
They glanced up, but the place was
in shadow. For a few moments they
stood, like a group cut from stone
just as still, as ~motionless, as breath
less.
The story they had so lately heard
required to their minds with startling
horror. Swift as lightning before
them that terrible scene loomed up
the ~frenzied lover below. the blood
stained face above, the woman they
both loved madly dead, by her own
hand, at their feet. And over all, that
mad laugh ringing In wild, defiant de-
spair.
And now-pitiful 'heaven!-was not
it's echo ever now %throbbing in their
ears? What was it that Cynthia had
said?
"It is an omen of evil. OF death. per-
haps Of both-that fearful laugh! 1t
presages evil and misfortune to the
house of Carrington!"
Miss Lennox was ~shGddering from
head to foot.
go on!" she commanded. her usual
cold, ~self-contained voice grown =
rapid, husky whisper. "Oh, 60 on!
60 oni"
In trembling silence they hurried
u of the uncanny shadow into the
bright moonlight beyond.
And then for the first time they all
broke into nervous and excited speech.
"Oh, what was it?"
AN omen of evil to BlackcastleI"
at was a voice from the gravel"
$50 unnatural!"
"Oh, to me it sounded humani"
"Impossible!"
And so they talked on, In quick,
terrified, tremulous fashion, till they
came into the rudy disk where the
streaming lights from the windows OF
Blackcastle flushed the snow.
All except Cynthia Lennox. She
walked on among them. deaf to their
chatter. Her bosom was rising and
falling In deep pulsations. She was
chilled with an undefinable fear. a SUI
perstitious dread.
She seemed to awaken with a start
as they came to the shallow stone
steps, and the men In advance began
to ascend them with their strange bur.
den.
Gently, there! Knock, VIII. Gen.
tly!"
VIII Warren ran before them and
ssnt an imperious summons sounding
through the house.
A moment more the great doors
were flung wide, and a billow OF light
flooded the crowd beyond.
In perfect silence they went In
those gay young people who had surg.
ed forth less than an hour before with
song and laughter.
The hall of Blaekcastle was a sub
iect for a painter. A grand. wide. old
place, with its dusky, stout-ribbed
rafters. its polished oaken floor, black
and slippery with age. It's carven seats.
It's armored knights. its rugs OF shaggy
bearskin, it's antlered heads, its tro
phies OF field sports and martial war
fare.