The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1908-09-25

/ IOuT uOuStS
sir" and Oscar swung himself down at
the steps Of broad veranda. He led
the horses away to a barn beyond the
house, while Armitage surveyed the
landscape. The bungalow stood on q
rough knoll and was so placed as to
afford splendid view of a wide re-
gion. Armitage traversed the long YER
anda, studying the landscape and de-
lighting in the far stretching pine COW
cred barricade of hills. He was arous-
ed by Oscar, who appeared carrying
the suit cases.
There shall be breakfast" said the
man.
| He threw open the doors, and they
entered a wide, bare hall, with fire.
place, into which Oscar dropped a
match.
| "All one floor-plenty Of sleeping
rooms, SRA place to eat here-a kitchs
EN- beyond-a fair barracks for a COM
mon soldier; that is ALL"
! TT is enough. Throw these bags
into the nearest bedroom, If there is
no choice, and camp will be estab-
L
This is yours. The baggage that
came by express Is there. A wagon
goes with the place, and brought the
things up yesterday. There is a show
er bath beyond the rear veranda. The
mountain water is off the ice, but
you will require hot water for shaving
is it not so?"
"You Cypress me with luxuries, Os-
car. Wind up the clock, and nothing
will be wanting"
Oscar unstraped the trunks and then
stood at attention In the door, He had
expected Armitage to condemn the
place in bitter language, but the pro-
prietor of the abandoned hunting pre-
serve was in excellent spirits and
| whistled blithely as he drew out his
keys. ~'r''-'+-A-.
"The place was built by FOOLS" de-
clared Oscar gloomily.
Undoubtedly! There is a saying
| that fools build houses and wise men
| live In them. You see where that
leaves us, Oscar. Let us be cheerful
He tried the shower and changed his
raiment, while Oscar prepared coffee
and laid cloth on the long table be-
fore the fire. When Armitage appeared
coffee steamed in the tin pot in which
1t had been made. Bacon, eggs and
| toast were further offered.
"You have done excellently well, o.
car. Go get your own breakfast" Ar
| mitage dropped a lump of sugar into
his coffee cup and surveyed the room.
A large map Of Virginia and a series
Of hunting prints hung on the unlimited
walls, and there were racks for guns,
| and work bench at one end of the
| room where guns might be taken apart
| and cleaned. A few novels, several
three-yearold magazines and variety
of pipes remained on the shelf above
the fireplace. The house offered posi-
bilities of meager comfort, and that
was about all. Armitage remembered
| what the agent through whom he had
made the purchase had said-that the
place had proved too isolated for even
hunting preserve and that its only
value was in the timber. He was salts
fed with his bargain and would not
set up lumber mill yet awhile. He
lighted a cigar and settled himself in
an easy chair before the fire, glad Of
the luxury of peace and quiet after his
circuitous journey and the tumult of
doubt and question that had shaken
him.
He slit the wrapper of the Washing
ton newspaper that Oscar had brought
from the mountain postoffice and scan
ned the headlines. He read with care
a dispatch from London that purported
to reflect the sentiment of the CONT
mental capitals toward Charles Louis,
the new emperor-king of Austria-H Hun
gary, and the paper dropped upon his
knees, and he stared into the fire. Then
he picked up paper Of earlier date
and read all the foreign dispatches and
the news of Washington. He was
about to toss the paper aside when his
eyes fell upon boldly headlined arti-
Gle that cause his heart to throb fierce
~. 1t recited the sudden reappear-
ance Of the fraudulent Baron Won Kis-
sell in Washington and described in de-