St. Tammany farmer., 1906-12-22
MURDER WILL OUT
BY Edith Austin
Copyright, 1906. by Joseph B. Bowles1

l
was youth of II when my grand
father died. hence my recollections o
him are quite distinct and mature.
| / was orphaned in my infancy ant
| from my earliest recollection m.
grandfather had made me his con
slant companion. He was an timer
ant preacher of western England-hi!
circuit calling him from walled Ches
ter on the west to the novels of thu
charcoal burners in mid-England
and during the years of his itineranc,
followed him in the pursuance O.
his duties through sun and rain ant
winter gale.
I repeat this in order to explain
Just how regarded my grandfather
in the light of certain hereditamen'
he left to me, his diary, but which
he expressly forbade me opening
until I had passed my twenty fifth
birthday.
There were many things l witnessed
and heard in my boyhood for which
I could find no explanation until
broke the seal of this book wherein
the magnitude of my grandfathers
very soul stands revealed. The first
entry in the diary is as follows:
My beloved grandson, in this
diary are recorded events writ down
for thy especial edification. Without
comment I leave it with thee to judge
whether I have been the victim of a
terrible mind disorder, or whether l
am gifted with perceptions beyond
the usual ken of man.
It was in the first years of my
study of the occult, long before thou
hadst come to gladden. thy grand.
sire's heart, that l was journeying to
Blore Health. When night came down
fate led me to the door of desolate
inn slowly dropping to ruin in the
perpetual shadow of a grove of oak.
The aged host greeted me most
cordially, for at his inn guests were
not frequent and therefore the more
welcome. In the parlor back of the
denuded bar found his old wife and
his daughter, the only other persons
about the place, moving silently here
and there preparing the evening meal
The daughter was young and tall and
straight and strong and her hands
we're coarsened with outdoor work
for, 1t appeared, she was now the
burden-bearer of the family.
After the supper was cleared away,
the aged parents entertained me with
"reminiscences of a past glory, OF
when the inn was new and the great
tide of travel used to pass its door.
Then in saddened tones they told of
how the opening of a new thorough.
fare had diverted custom to other hos
telries. So when the daughter was
to well-to-do young farmer
they closed the inn, perforce. and
went and made their home with her.
But one ill-fated day the newly
welded husband rode away to a
market town and never
returned.
After due time the farm and tene-
ments passed into the possession of
the next heirat-law, cousin of the
husband; and the old couple with
their dowerless daughter returned to
the deserted inn, now racked and
with storm and long neglect.
Thou canst see the gables of the
farm over yon above the trees" said
the mother, "and we might be living
there now mid comfort and plenty If
Lisbeth would only hearken to us and
wed with Carver Hallard, the cousin
who succeeded to the estate.
Then Lisbeth, lifting her sorrow
laden eyes to portrait of her hus-
band on the wall, said: Mother,
thou need'st not grieve for the rich
living at the farm beyond Whitsun-
tide. That day I promise to give my
hand to Carver Hallard an he still de-
Dires It,"
Then a gloomy silence fell like a
'uneral pail over us, and we sat about
he fire absorbed in our own thoughts
Until there came the sound of quick
,tep up the pathway and an i'm
,erative knock at the door, and Gar
7er Hallard entered. He was a dark,
lard-featured, harsh-spoken man
whom any tender young woman might
veil have stunned.
I could not understand it then but
intuitively felt that he was man
With a guilty conscience. And in the
light of the recent narration, fell
o comparing his features with those
# the picture hanging above his head.
Is my gaze wandered from one to
he other there came to me sense of
presence in the room, conviction /
ould neither define nor evade: and
While strove to analyze critically
his impression strange metamor.
hosts seemed to come over my senses
nd felt myself drifting, as it were.
nto state of double consciousness.
Still with that sense of a divided
go, with the voices about me echoing
aguely through my brain, I thought
myself riding along a country road,
unken and SCARED deep with old
art ruts, road had never travelled
efore. Under the influence OF this
nseen force, appeared to come to
vhere the crumbling shell of an an
lent oak spanned the path. Ireached
nto the hollow trunk and drew forth
spade corroded with rust, and roll
az the log away began to dig into
he damp, soft earth. In my trance /
ontinued to throw the dirt to the
lght and to the left until from out the
rown loan appeared the face in the
icture. Then the feverish vision
roke, and emerged as from an hyp-