Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-12-09
CHAPTER ri.

4 \ '.There amt no use your set
tin here waitin'. She's went of buggy
ridin' with our Abe. Him and hers
wonderful took with each other, and
neither of ems got eyes fur no other
ones.'
81 seen Abe's buggy ahead Of me
when l was drivin' over here" Hen
answered, his tone expressing timfd
doubt OF the truth Of Mr.. Morning
stars assertion, land I didn't take
notice to no lady settin' alongside OF
him. He rode clean down the pike
ahead Of me. Our buggies was SO
close apart could see right into his'n.
And till I got here already Eunice she
was here"
"She knowed better'n to git In with
him near here. She likely walked over
the schoolhouse and behind Zoar's
church up and then got in his buggy
above the town out, SOS us we
wouldn't see her"
Very low In his mind and looking
abjectly disappointed and discouraged,
Henry on receiving this information
rose to so home.
Kinross unused on the situation as
for an hour longer he wandered up
and down the garden in the gathering
night. His promenade brought him
every now and then to corner OF
the house from which he could see In
an unoccupied and reputedly haunt
ed" part of the building faint flicker
ing. light In one Of the windows.
He had been told of the tradition con-
corning the ghost who visited this
wing Of the old house. The Morning
stars were very proud Of the distinc-
ton of living with the only ghost Of
the township, and strangers to the
neighborhood were never left long In
ignorance of 1t. Kinross felt sure, from
what he had seen Of the family, that
none Of them could possibly be in
duced to go near that haunted quarter
Of the house after dark and he was
naturally puzzled. therefore, to account
for the light he saw In the window
just now. He thought he would ask
Mrs. Morningstar to let him sleep In
the haunted room some night and see
whether he could not meet and lay
the spirit that troubled it. 1t did not
occur to him to associate the light with
the absence of Eunice. He accepted,
as unquestioningly as did Hen Muckle-
benny, Mr.. Morningstar's story of her
drive with Abe. Indeed,
the family's agitation over the fact
was keeping them up long after their
usual early bedtime. as he knew from
the lamp light in the kitchen to which
the circuit Of his stroll periodically
brought him.
His Impressions Of Eunice were In
dire confusion and refused to lend
themselves to readjustment. That
girl capable of even accidentally read
ing 1.-THE Compleat Angler" and dis
cussing it as she had done should
''take up" with Abe Morningstar was
singular, to say the least The flower
like beauty Of her face the peculiarly
thrilling quality of her voice, her grace
and, in some respects. exquisiteness
made it seem incongruous that she
should, as Mr.. Morningstar had ex-
pressed it, be wonderful took with
our Abe" And then the intelligence
she had revealed this eyening-what
was It she had said about ''The Com
pleat Angler?"-it was not "for Its
didactic instructions about fishing
that she cared for it. but ''for the
anecdotes scattered through it, the
quotations and songs and poems"
Good Lord! Should he presently dis
cover that Abe was familiar with
Chaucer and Spenser and that Ollie
was student Of Shakespeare and
Milton? He couldn't have been more
il he had found Mrs. Morn
ingstar quoting Henry James or come
across Mr. Morningstar intelligently
reading George Meredith. AS psy-
biologist he could not reconcile the
fact of the girls having left school at
the age Of twelve, according to her
foster mothers own ACKNOWLEDGMENT
with her capacity for assimilating
Izaak Walton's little classic. He re-
called that Mrs. Morningstar had told
him of the childs grief at being taken
from school, ''She cried wonderful"
the woman had said in the unsympa-
thetic tone with which she always
spoke of the girl
ut would take a Sherlock Holmes
to ferret out this mystery" he said to
himself
AS he came to this conclusion turn
In his walk brought him in sight again
Of the haunted back building, and he
saw that the lighted window had be-
come dark 1.-THE ghost has gone to
roost," he decided.
A moment later as he came around
to the front of the house the light of
4 lamp illumined one of the upstairs
bedroom windows. the room in which,
as he knew, Ollie and Eunice slept
But q moment before he had passed
the kitchen in which he had seen Ollie
and her parents sitting about the table.
Who, then, was in that upstairs room?
No member of the Morningstar house
hold would commit the extravaganza
If leaving lamp burning In an empty
.oom. Had the ghost wandered from
he back room to the front one? But
ghosts did not move by the light of
kerosene lamps.
Presently in his circuit about the
rouse he found that the trio In the !
kitchen had at last taken their lamps |
Ind gone upstairs, leaving the kitchen
loor unlatched for him and for the
ruaDt lovers