Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-02-01
ward the haunted house.

up and got furious stating for doins
1t; but he said there wasn't a watch
dog in sight; and the old man had sur
rendered. He was going to let hin
into the library on parole"
you need guardian" growled the
colonel; where did you telephone
Not in the drug store?"
ooh. dear, no, not in such q public
place; I've shrinking nature thai
never did intrude its private, persona
affairs on the curious world. uset
| the phone Of that nice quiet little res
taurant where they gave me lovely
meal but were SO long preparing 1t
used up all the literature In sight
which was the Ladies' Home journal
and tract on the virtues OF Knox's
gelatine. When | couldn't think Of
anything else to do routed out Cary
Id smoked all my cigarettes and all
my cigars but one which | was keep
ing for after dinner And Cary rowed
me good and plenty. There wasn't Z
soul in the room"
HAS any one followed you?"
Not man, woman Or child, not oven
yellow dog. l kept looking round
too"
1T was dreadfully risky thing to
do; you don't deserve to escape; but
perhaps you did Atkins may have
come to the Palace for some other
purpose and never have noticed you. u
my own father wouldn't have got
on to me in that dinky RE"
Winter was not 60 easy in his mind.
But he hoped for the best. since there
was nothing else for him to do. They
were in sight Of the house now, which
doomed against the dim horizon. dark
er, grimmer than ever. Where the
upper stories were pierced with semi
circular arches, the star-sown sky
shone through with an extraordinary
effect Of depth and mystery. All the
lighter features of the architecture,
carving on pediment or Intel or Archi-
volt, delicate iron tracery OF rejas, re-
lief of arcature and colonnade-all
these the dusk blurred II It did not
obliterate; the great dark balk Of the
house with its massive buttresses, its
pyramidal copings and receding upper
stories, was the more boldly sill.
houetted on the violet sky; yet be-
cause of the very fairness of the pic
ture, the very lack of shadow and pro
lection, 1t seemed unsubstantial, hard
ly more of reality than tie giant shadow
1t cast upon tfo hi'-'"r r'or."ir
nights wavered and bristled dazzling
beams on either side of the street;
not a CLEAN, red, white or yellow,
leaked through the suffered windows
of the house. In it's blackness, its ST.
lence, it's determined isolation 1t re-
newed, but with greater force, the
It had given the man who came to
rife it of its secrets.
"Lonesome-looking old shanty, isn't
it," said the Harvard boy; seems al
most INDIGENOUS to speak out loud.
Here's where we cache the car and
make gentle de.our by aid of the
shrnbbery up to the arroyo to the
north side of the patio. See?"
He directed the colonel's course
through an almost imperceptible open
ing in the hedge along sharp turns and
oblique and narrow ways into a small
vacant space where the vines covered
as adobe hut. Jumping out. Tracy I'M
locked the door Of this tiny building
so that the colonel could run the car
inside: and after Winter had emerged
again, he re-locked the door AS there
was no window. the purpose of the hut
was effectually concealed.
Very neat" the colonel approved;
whereat Tracy flashed his smile at
him in the moonlight and owned with
ingenious pride that he himself was
the contriver of this reticent garage.
From this point he took the lead.
Neither spoke. They toiled up the hill,
in this part of the grounds less Of the
nature of hill than of an arroyo or
ravine through which rocks had thrust
their rugged sides and over which
spiked semi-tropical cacti had
sprawled, and purple and white flow
cred vines had made their own I'M
tended tangle. Before they reached
the level the colonel was breathing
famous track man who had won his
H in wonderful cross-country run,
felt no distress-until he heard his
companion gasp.
Glove! But that hills ferce!" he
breathed, explosively. do you mind
resting minute?"
"Hardly,"-the colonel was just able
to hold his voice steady-T have
Filipino bullet in my leg somewhere
which the X-ray has never been able
to account for; and I'm not exactly a
goat"
"Why, of course I'm brute not to
let you run up the drive in the ma
chine. Not a rat watching us tonight,
either; but l wanted you to see the
place; and you seem SO fit"
"You oughtn't to give away your
secrets to me, an outsider"
You're no outsider; l consider you
the treasurer of the band" laughed
Tracy. They had somehow come to
an unexpressed but perfectly under
stood footing of sympathy. The colo
mel even let the younger man help
him up the last stiff Chamber of the path.
He forgot his first chill, as of witness
a tragedy; there was a
smile on his lips when the two of them
passed into the patio. It fingered there
as he stood in the f1ower-scented
p1oom II was thare as Tracy st,1r.