Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-06-23

village and Enderby Manor House.
Before luncheon was finished a mes
senger was ON his way to the village to
summon Dr. Porter. He came into the
grave old library at the Manor looking
more serious than was his wont, perhaps
in sympathy with George Greswold's anx-
ious face turned toward the door as the
footman opened it.
well. Porter, what does it all mean.
this feyer? asked GreswoId abruptly.
II have tested the water in all the
well-perfectly pure. There can be
nothing amiss with the milk. for all nv
patients are ON Mrs. Greswold's list. and
are getting their milk from your own
dairy. The drainage is perfection-vet
here we have an outbreak Of fever which
looks remarkably like typhoid
why not say at once that it is ty
phoid?'
THE symptoms all point that way"
You ought to have analysed the milk.
all the same, said Greswold thought
fully. '1The strength of chain is its
weakest link. There may be some weak
link here, though we cannot put our fin
gers upon it--yet. Let us act, if we can.
OOAAc anu AOOh db cuc Wall
The chief dairy woman lived at an
old-fashioned cottage on the premises
with her husband, the cow-keeper: and
their garden, which lay at the back of the
cow-houses and airy, was the ideal old
English garden, in which flowers and
fruit strive for the mastery. In a corner
of this garden, close to the outer Offices
of the cottage, among rows Of peas and
summer cabbages, and great, overgrown
lavender bushes and moss roses. stood
the old WE'LL with its crumbling brick
border and ancient spindle, we'll that
had been dug when the old manor house
was new.
Mr.. Porter looked at reeking heap
of stable manure that sprawled within
twenty feet of the old we'll with sus-
picion in his eye, and from the manure
heap he looked at the back premises of
the cob-walled cottage.
Pm afraid there might have been
soakage from that manure heap into the
WE'LL" he said; ''and if your dairy yes
sells are washed in that water"
But they never are" interrupted Mr..
Greswold; that water is used only for
the garden-eh, Mrs. Wadman"
The dairy woman was standing on the
threshold of her neat little kitchen, cure
seying to her master, Respondent in her
Sunday gown of bright blue merino, and
her Sunday brooch, containing her hus-
band's photograph, colored out of knowl-
edge.
mo, of course not, sir; leastways,
never except when there was something
wrong with the pipes from the artesian."
Something wrong? When was that?
/ never heard of anything wrong"
well, sir, my husband didn't want
to be troublesome, and Mr.. Thomas he
gave the order for the men from Rom
sey that was on the Saturday after work
ing hours, and they was to come as it
might be on the Monday morning, and
they never come near and Mr.. Thomas he
wrote and wrote, and my husband he
says it amt no use writing, and he takes
the pony and rides over to Romsey in his
overtime and he complains about the
men not coming, and they tells him there's
big job on at Broadlands and not
plumber to be had for love or money; but
the pipes is all right now, SIR"
Now? Since when have they been in
working order?"
"Since yesterday, sir. Mr. Thomas was
determined he'd have everything right be-
fore you came back"
And how long have you been using
that wateri' pointing to the we'll, with
its moss grown brickwork and Haunting
margin of yellow stonecrop, ''for dairy
purposes|
81 1Il -
use water &C some kind; and there amt
purer or better water than that for TWEEN
ty mile around. l always use it for my
kettle every time l make tea for me
or my master, and never found no harm
from it in the last fifteen years."
How long have you used it for tie
dairyT' repeated George Greswold, al
grily; cant you give straight answer,
woman?"
Mrs. Wadman could not; had never
achieved direct reply to plain question
within the memory of man.
'sThe men was to have come on the
Monday morning, first thing" she said,
"and they didn't come till the Tuesday
week after that, and then they was that
sloy--"
George Greswold walked up and down
the garden path, raging.
"She won't answer ~ he CRIED "Was
it a week-a fortnight-three weeks ago
that you began to- use that water for
your dairy?" he asked, sternly; and grad
ually he and the doctor induced her to
acknowledge that the garden well had
been in use for the dairy nearly three
weeks before yesterday.
Then that Is enough to account for
everything" said DR.. Porter. First
there is filtration of manure through
graveyard Observation-Disclosures next there
is something worse. She had her sister
here from Salisbury-six weeks ago
down with typhoid fever three days after
she came-brought it from Salisbury"
Yes, yes-I remember. You told me
there vas no danger Of infection,.,
There need have oeeD hone. l made
her use ali precautions possible in an old
fashioned cottage; but however careful
she might be, there would be always the
risk of well---ciose at hand like that
one-getting tainted l asked her If she
ever used that water for anything but
the garden, and she said no, the artesian
we'll supplied every want. And now she
talks about her kettle. and tells US coolly
that she has been using that polluted
water for the last three weeks-and poi-
soning a whole village"
me poisoning the VILLAGE Oh, DR..
Porter, how can you say such cruel
thingl Ne. that wouldn't hurt q iy If
kpsg IT,
perhaps not. Mira wadman; but I'm
afraid you've hurt a good many OF your
neighbors without knowing II"
George Greswold stood In the pathway
silent and deadly pale. he had been 50
happy for the last thirteen years--a sky
without q closs-and now In a moment
the clouds we're chasing round him. and
again all might be darkness, as It had
been once before in his life Calamity
for which he felt himself unaccountaole
had come upon him before-swit as an
arrow from the bow-and now again he