Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-01-27

rain.
SO long as they could follow the broad
and generally unfenced course of the
OyercOat road there was little or no diff
Guilty in picking their way in reasonable
security from little stumps of black-jacks
that had been cut down in some emer
gcncy of transferring the roadbed few
rods to this side or to that, to avoid a
newly formed mud hole, or fallen tree,
or some other Of the numerous obstacles
that beSet new roads in new country.
Nor did the long, arching black rasp-
| berry vines and blackberry stems, with
sharp and tenacious therns, lay hold up
on the wooden fibers of the shawls, and
insist upon tariff levied upon the spot,
and only to be measured by the points of
contact
But when, after awhile Mrs Redden,
coming upon plain wagon road that
came into the highway Of Overcoat road
out of an unprOmising shadow of the
great forest, turned unhesitatingly into it
and to the northward, all the circum~
stances seemed to be suddenly changed
for the worse
1t was no longer possible to see one
yard of the suddenly narrowed road, and
their senses of alertness in their feet,
that now cautiously, but quickly and I'M
hesitatingly, felt the way.
Lizzy here implicitly followed her agile
and fearless leader, lodging with her
head this way and that, throwing her
left arm up here and her right arm up
there, in anticipation of some imaginary
slender and dropping branch.
'HnrniDp Of tbn cI, nd
| almost semi-circular curves in this I'M
trammeled woods-road, they came sud-
denly within the broad glare of light
which they had seen for brief moments,
and at irregular intervals during the lat
ter portion Of their long and rapid walk
| The light appearing to come out of
a small round rent in the very curtain
Of the night itself, moved and oscillated
across their path, while a low hum of
voices could be distinctly heard only
| little way from them.
| The two women continued to advance
slowly and wonderingly, hearing the hum
of voices interrupted by a short laugh,
and then totally suppressed by a per-
emptory ejaculation in voice that one
of the adventurous Hoosier women was
familiar with.
"CooRod, Is that you? Coonrod
Redeem" said Mrs. Redden. raising her
voice 50 as to be distinctly heard above
the wind, and all its woodland reso-
| nances.
| One man stepped out of the black
| shadow and came forward. Lizzy had
ample time to observe him narrowly, and
to see him perfectly. For the strong cone
of yellow light, wavering a little from
side to side, centered upon them, and in
| cIuded him within it's glow.
| From the first step that he took for
ward out of the darkness, Lizzy Wickly,
with a sudden leap of her heart, recog-
nized him. 1t was Mr.. Mason, certain
! ly. But what a change in him! And to
what was due the change?
His ordinary dark, plain and unpreten-
tious dress had become totally supplant-
ed He wore high. black, rimless cap
such as men of that day sometimes wore
in the later autumn. A short, black,
gum-enameled cloak was fastened about
his shoulders and thrown slightly back
from the close-ftting and broad belted
| blouse.
| Long leather boots covered his legs
! above the knees, giving him jaunty,
| dashing, cavalier air so totally new and
| strange and foreign to him, as she had
| heretofore known him, that she was I'M
movable from sheer astonishment and
| growing wonder.
| The metallic CLEAN of weapons in the
broad leather belt, and the glistening bar
rel of one of those wonderful new, many
shotted carbines protruding from under
the cloak and lying easily across his right
forearm, brought her back to look more
closely at his face as he came rapidly
| forward.
Then she saw that his long and some
| what faded brown hair had a sappeared
and a rather close cropped coat of black
hair came down to his temples under the
| cap; and she remembered like a flash
what Coonrod Redden had said about it.
Yes, he had worn a wig. Beyond a
doubt he had worn wig! He had
played a part! He had been a cunning
and skilled dissimulator.
! His bold, jaunty manner, his changed
dress, his easy and assured smile, and
above all, the youthfulness of his always
| fresh, rudy face, now framed in the
| close black hair and the brigandsh cap,
were in their totality as we'll as in their
particularly, irrefragibe proof. of the
fact that he was q skilled dissimulator.
Along with this sudden conclusion, ar
rived at within three ample seconds of
time, covering perhaps, ten thousand evo-
buttons of thought, memory and COM
parison. there was sharply defined re-
currence of that sense of loss that she
had felt when she had looked at this
man and perceived some alteration in him
while he had driven past her on yester-
day in the streets of Sandtown
He is about to speak. And she feels
that she must not lose his smallest word;
his least gesture; his most fieeting glance.
For upon these depend something. Some
thing of greatly supreme moment to her.
She feels and knows.
CHAPTER XIV.
"Mr. Redeem | am sorry to say, is not
| lla., "A &nl-