The Tupelo journal., 1909-05-28

lection, it seemed unSubstantial, hard
ly more of reality than the giant shadow
it cast upon the hillside. Electric
lights 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 81
lence, it's determined isolation 1t re
newed, but with a greater force, the
first sinister thrill which the sight Of
it had given the man who came tC
rifle it of its secrets.
"Lonesome-looking old shanty, ISM
it," said the Harvard boy; seems al
most indecorous to speak out loud
Here's where We cache the car and
make a gentle detour by aid of the
shrubbery 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
an adobe hut. Jumping out, Tracy I'M
locked the door of this tiny building
so that the colonel could run the cal
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 retieent garage.
From this point he took the lead.
Neither spoke. They toiled up the hill,
nature of a hill than of an arroyo or
ravine through which rocks had thrust
their rugged sides and ove which
spiked semi-tropical cacti had
sprawled, and purple and white flow
cred vines had made their own IN.
tended tangle. Before they reached
the level the colonel was breathing
hard, every breath a stab. Tracy, a
famous track man who had won his
H in a wonderful ~cross-country run,
felt no distress-until he heard his
companion gasp.
"Jove, But that hills fierce!" he
breathed, explosively. do you mind
resting a minute?"
Hardly the colonel was just able
to hold his voice steady-'I have a
Filipino bullet in my leg somewhere
which the X-ray has never been able
to account for; and I'm not exactly a
mountain goat"
why, of course, I'm a brute not to
let you run up the drive in the ma
chine. Not a rat watching us tonight,
either; but / wanted you to see the
place; and you 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
az 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 a witness
approaching a tragedy; there was a
smile on his lips when the two of them
passed into the patio. 1t fingered there
as he stood in the f~iower-scented
gloom. 1t was there as Tracy STUN
bled to a aforementioned push-button,
wondering aloud what had become of
Cary and Kito that they shouldn't have
answered his whistle; it was there,
still, when Tracy slipped, and grum-
bled: What sticky stuff has Kito
spilled on this 1oor?"-and instantly
flooded the court with light. Then he
saw the black, Shiny pool and the
long slide of Tracy's nailed sole in it.;
and just to n side, almost pressing
against his own foot, he saw a man
in a gray suit huddled into the shape
of a crooked U, with his arms limp at
his side and his head of iron-gray
fallen back askew. The light shone
on the broad dome Of the fore
head. He had been stabbed between
the shoulders, in the back; and one
side of the gray coat was ugly to see
Good God!" whispered Tracy,
growing white. Its Keatcham!
they've killed him! Oh, why didn't
l come back before!"