Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1905-03-01
% -
The Hermit
n A Story of the Wilderness
u BY CHARLES CLARK MUM II
Author Of Pocket Island. ""Uncle Terry"
ard" Rockhaven.'
CHAPTER NZXIII.
Copyright, AoOS, by Leo aud ShspArd.)

VI OcaI race le1nalueO mystery IN
Greenvale.
Its effect on the shost-tainted mind
OF David, combined with the snawins
conscience. the daily fear that legal
proceedings would be taken against
him, aud nightly dread OF another
spectral visitation. became more and
moro apparent. He had-thanks to
Aunt Comforts nursing-recovered
from the first shock and brain fever.
Aunt Lorey and the wife OF one OF his
workmen now kept house for him, for
he was willing to pay any price for
company. but for all that he failed
rapidly. Old age was also against him.
He could not eat or sleep, and long
hours OF each night We're passed in
nervous dread Of something The
srist-mill was closed and had remained
SO since that fatal night, for every
one considered it haunted: but the
force OF long habit kept David pot
tering about the sawmill each day. and
would as long as sufficient strength
lasted
Meier also renewed his prosecutions
after recovering from the fright occa-
stoned by his ghostly Indian masuue-
rade. and though intermittent. they
aided in the merciless retributiOn now
pursuing David. These acts We're all
peculiar and mysterious. and quite like
Meier. With a strain of Indian blood
in him. perhaps. he had never forgot
ten or forgiven that moment of agony
when he leaped into a network OF
barbed wire. and. with diabolical cum
ming, meant to obtain ample revenge.
Once or twice week he visited David's
premises by night and added one more
mite to it. Tools were again taken
from the sawmill and thrown into the
tlume or transferred to the unused
Srist-mill. Pieces Of belts. bags, meas
ures. and other fittings from there
were hung on trees about the house.
On two occasions the grist-mill gate
was raised and millstones set rumbling,
while David listened with fearsome
dread and then. to crown ALL Meier
rugged tick-tack over the house. He
used long tish-line for that, one end
secured to a bush back of the house,
With lead sinker tied on at suitable
location, another larger one fastened
TO the other end of the line, enabling
Meier to throw it over the house and
secure it again, hide himself behind
a fence, and dangle the mid-line plum
met against the roof
What the effect of such regular
tick-tack sound heard by one in Dayid's
state of mind at the midnight hour
would be, can hardly be imagined.
For the first two or three times he
aroused and sent his hired man out
with lantern, but naturally that
availed not except to stimulate Meier
to longer enjoyment Of his trick
when the foolish search ended. Time
and again did Meier perpetrate this
weird trick, always on dark nights, and
after an hour of fun, secure his rigging
for use again and sneak away. He was
like an Indian in his methods, select.
ing nights just right and not too
dark, stealing on to Dayid's premises
behind bush-choked fences and keeping
out Of possible sight, listening with
keen ears and eyes until sure no one
was watching, and making his visits
with foXlfke cunning.
David Curtis had lived his life of
misery pinching and sharp scheming,
forgetting every law of justice and
honor in his erasping greed, had come
to be despised by even his fellow
church members and hated by many
others, and now, pursued by an I'M
canny fear, growing weaker day by
day, was fast nearing insanity. What
it was that haunted his premises he
knew not. He crept to his work, a
physical and mental wreck, dared not
go into his own cellar or the dark base
ment of his mill, even in the daytime,
and required his hired man to sleep in
his room at night.
When the last of October and Hal
lowe'en came, he was little better than
doddering idiot from fear, and, sit
ting in his mill all day, watched his
man at work, too weak to aid him.
And now came the climax of his
punishment.
Halloween had always been observed
by the young folks of Greenvale with
the usual and time-honored ceremo-
MES. Several parties were usually
held, where apples, floating in tubs
of water and secured if possible with
teeth and lips of maid or swain, formed
one amusement. If one was thus fished
for and obtained, it was carefully pared
by It's proud owner, and it's perfect
peel, twirled three times around the
head and dropped, must inevitably
form the first initial of his or her fu-
ture mate. kissing games to accel-
crate these results usually followed,
and later the parties broke up for other
and more ghostly amusements.
Small boys carried jack-o'- lanterns
through the village, or held them in
front Of windows; older couples or
email parties made late tour, hang
Ing cabbages or paper bags contain
ing onions or potatoes on door-knobs,
and then, changing the iron knockers,
-: scampered away. Now and then some
bolder lad, wrapped in a sheet, stalked
through the quiet streets that night,
and all manner OF spookish pranks
were INDUCED in. Meier, as might be
expected, had always been an active
participant in these observances, and
now, when the famous night drew
near, he resolved to Guido himself.
He had kept his "Scar Face" disguise
In safe hiding, and had in some way
obtained a bit of phosphorus to rub
on the mask around eyes and mouth.
His plan, we'll matured, was first, and
most imDOrtant of all. to trv his